Perhaps you’ve heard that Nalgene Outdoor is discontinuing some of their outdoor bottle lines. Seems that the plastic those bottles are made with isn’t so good for you. Okay, probably not good at all for anyone or they wouldn’t be trashing all that R&D and production and the resulting sales gravy train.
You can read more about plastic watter bottles here and some more about what Nalgene’s up to here.
Here’s what blows my mind. We have a pretty good supply of Nalgene bottles here that we use on a regular basis. We have four of the OTG bottles that we’ve been using since they first came out which seems to me was maybe 3-4 years ago.
Well guess what? It appears that those original OTG bottles are on the extinction list. It seems the original OTG polycarbonate bottles are being replaced with the new bottle made from Eastman Tritan (TM) copolyester that is manufactured without Bisphenol A (BPA).
From their recent press release:
ROCHESTER, N.Y. ( April 18, 2008 ) – In response to consumer demand, Nalgene® will phase out production of its Outdoor line of polycarbonate containers that include the chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA) over the next several months, it announced today. Nalgene’s existing product mix, including the recently launched Everyday line, already features a number of containers made from materials that do not contain BPA.
”We have always been focused on responding to the needs and concerns of our customers,” said Steven Silverman, general manager of the Nalgene business.
“With 10 different product lines in several different materials, we have the largest bottle offering on the market today. By eliminating containers containing BPA from our consumer product mix, our customers can have confidence that their needs are being met.”
Gives ya a warm and fuzzy doesn’t it? C’mon, doesn’t it?
Yeah right.
I’m cruising around the Web looking for good information that people need to know or might want to know about so they can cut back on snoozin’ and losin’ and I stumble across this juicy information.
Cool and groovy!
So I send Nalgene an email through their Web site to find out what we should do with the four OTG bottles, with Bisphenol-A (BPA), we have been using for 3-4 years. Can we keep using them? We don’t put them in the dishwasher – we hand wash only – is that really okay? Is that better – even though it says the dishwasher, away from the heating element, is okay? If we keep using these bottles laced with this funky chemical are we going to wake up one morning with fingers growing out of our ears? Or maybe end up with mouth cancer? Especially since we basically use these bottles only when we’re working out so our bodies are in hyper absorption mode.
Yee-haw baby!! Just rode a Century now gimme more of that yummy, good for ya – whats it called — oh yeah — Bisphenol-A (BPA)!@$#%^$##
Mmmm, mmmm good!
Here’s the kick in the customer teeth. When you’re done completing the Contact Us form at the Nalgene site – it says thanks for sending your message (or whatever) – we’ll get back to you in 5-10 business days. Yes, you are reading that right…5-10 BUSINESS DAYS!
Huh? Really?
Is Nalgene working out of one of their employee’s basements? All working on one computer? At the same time? Do they have 3 employees making all these bottles that are no good for you so there’s no time for email? Especially email relating to a product they are discontinuing because it’s bad for you?
Huh? I mean lots of companies take that long to respond, if they ever respond at all, but that’s what Nalgene is actually saying on their site?
I sent that email through their Web site back on May 12th. So, as I write this, we are now skipping through the 11th business day (scratching Memorial Day) and still nothing. Not a peep from Nalgene. So, not only do they say it will take that long but then they can’t make good on their ludicrous promise. And, since the message is sent through a web based form – they can’t even claim my message was gobbled up by a spam filter!
I’m done with these folks and I think you and everyone you know should think twice, or maybe think for 5-10 business days, before giving Nalgene Outdoor another dime. I know, I know they make great products and they make LOTS of products. And most of them are NOW…BPA free. Yippy. Skippy.
They also have made and sold gazillions of products that have now been determined to contain a chemical that is bad for…humans. They’ve done nothing, that I’m aware of, to notify me that my bottles may be harmful to me if I continue to use them. (I know registering your water bottles seems a bit over the top but when it comes to situations like these it’s not really so over the top. Is it? I’d register mine in a bad chemical from my tainted Nalgene water bottle heartbeat…)
And when I take the initiative to contact them – they say it’ll be 5-10 business days. And now after 11 business days I have yet to hear from them.
What that says to me is while they may have the largest bottle offering on the market today – they don’t give a rat’s patootie about me as their customer. And most likely they don’t care about you either.
Here’s the bottom line friends: It should not take any company 5-10 business days to respond to customer email. Ever. Period. If it takes that long they have a busted system and it needs to be fixed. NOW.
A simple email that would take a monkey about 18 seconds to type saying no worries – my OTG bottles with BPA are fine - is all it would take. Heck, that could be a form email that a really good monkey would only have to type once!
There are plenty of other bottle manufacturers and I will now explore them all. I’m done with Nalgene and I pray to the Lord of Water Bottles every day that creepy fingers don’t sprout from my ear canals in this lifetime.
How about you? Knowing what you now, does Nalgene r-e-a-l-l-y deserve your business?
~ Rick Zwetsch ~
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