My Suggestion Could Have Saved PepsiCo Thousands

And this is what they did for me

Photo by Zoshua Colah on Unsplash

I desperately wanted to lead a healthy life. I was eating a pretty good diet, exercising and didn’t ever schedule any activity that required me to lose sleep. All my plumbing still worked acceptably. My eyesight and hearing were going, but a little of that should be expected at my age.

Taking inventory of the remaining self-destructive indulgences, I kicked to the curb drinking copious amounts of Diet Coke and coffee.

My mother was a strong proponent of breaking a habit by creating another habit. That philosophy has served me well in the past.

After a small amount of research, I made the decision to substitute drinking Gatorade Zero in lieu of coffee and Diet Coke.

I found I enjoyed sugarless lemon and cherry 12-ounce plastic bottles held together by those ring harnesses. The kind of packaging that animal activists are always complaining about as being detrimental to wildlife if not snipped apart.

What I found objectionable, however, was the orange twist tops that seemed almost impossible to remove. It actually hurt my hands to attempt to twist them off in order to drink the bottle’s content.

I thought that if I had trouble with those orange caps, others would too.

I called PepsiCo, the corporate owner of Gatorade. The number was listed in minuscule writing on the Gatorade Zero label.

A pleasant female-voiced robot answered the phone and offered me a list of extensions to choose from. I pushed the one for customer service. After a brief hold a welcome human answered.

I never waged a complaint about a defect in the packaging of a product to any large company before this. My attitude was: I’d simply make another choice of product.

With Pepsi’s Gatorade orange twist top, I felt strangely altruistic. Like I was reporting it for America. Almost like I was a whistle-blower.

“Ma’am, my name is Brian Barrabee,” introducing myself.

“I love your products,” knowing action is usually more likely when a complaint is spiced with a little honey, rather than doused with vinegar.

“I suspect you’ve been getting calls from quite a number of your customers. I’m sure you’re aware that the orange caps on your 12-ounce bottles of sugarless Gatorade are almost impossible to twist off.” I said with confidence.

“Why no , Mr Barrabee, we haven't!” she claimed.

“What’s your address and phone number?” she asked almost immediately.

I sensed what she was driving at and quickly disabused her of any thought I was reporting this defect for personal gain, “Oh, no Ma’am, I’m not looking for anything myself. I just wanted Gatorade to know about this problem. I’m sure kids would have lots of trouble if an adult like me can’t do it without a tremendous amount of effort.

“Mr. Barrabee, PepsiCo and Gatorade want to express our appreciation for you taking the time to call in and inform us how we can improve our customer connection. It’s always of utmost importance for us, as a corporate entity, to maintain an awareness of our customers’ needs. It’s people like you who help us in that endeavor.” she assured me of the importance to mankind of my recent mission.

“You can expect a package in the mail within a week,” she said with assuredness.

“Thank you but no need,” I said before I pushed the disconnect button.

I’ll admit I was super curious about whether PepsiCo would change their bottling methods to make opening the orange tops easier because of my call.

After a couple of days I started to think about what in holy hell would be in the “package” of appreciation the woman said she would send on behalf of the company?

Epilogue

The promised reward did come when the customer service woman said it would, within the week.

It came in an envelope and not a package. The envelope had PepsiCo’s corporate headquarters in Purchase, New York as a return address.

I was incredibly excited about actually receiving a reward.

IF IT WAS A CHECK — HOW MUCH?

I anxiously tore open the envelope and read the customer appreciation form letter.

Included in the envelope was a one-inch by six-inch orange discount coupon in the amount of $3.00 for:

ANY GATORADE OR G ENDURANCE PRODUCT OR MULTI-PACK

I waited for over a month to make sure PepsiCO would not change their method of bottling their 12-ounce sugar free plastic bottles of Gatorade.

The orange caps were still almost impossible to twist off.

So — I bought a pair of pliers at the hardware store.

I still have my $3.00 discount coupon.

It’s good until 12/5/26.