So-so Service but EXCELLENT Product at Soda-Club USA
Written: Aug 25 '08
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We're trying to "green-up" around the office and so we've stopped buying bottled water and switched to a Britta pitcher and filter. We use all-new packing materials in our shipments, but we try to buy those made from recycled materials whenever possible. We also shred our documents and then send them out to recycle as well as sort our trash.
We do a lot, but one area we are really terrible on was soda cans. Yep, we have a huge soda drinking habit here in the office and it's quite normal for us to go through a 24-pack a day. That's a lot of cans! We do send them out for recycling, but it just didn't seem enough. We wanted to do more.
We researched soda machines because giving up our habit wasn't an option. We quickly ruled out the soda guns, the cost was staggering and the technical knowledge needed to install and maintain them, was more than we could manage. We looked at "home" versions selling in the $600 range - still too pricey, although they seemed manageable. We figured there had to be another way, or we'd wait it out until home soda was more popular and thus it would bring down the prices.
Imagine our surprise when one day while hanging out on Twitter, someone mentioned they owned a home soda machine! We were thrilled at the prospect but also knew that our hopes had been dashed several times. We were given the link to Soda-Club USA and was pleasantly surprised to find they had a home machine for under $100! Granted, it wasn't the same instant tap machine as the others, this one required you to make a liter of soda water and then add flavored syrup to it to make your drink, but it was promising.
After checking out the how-to videos and reading about the different models and options (a great guide to help you choose the right model is provided), we decided to purchase the less expensive of the two models, the Fountain Jet. The more expensive model is more streamline and self-contained - perfect for someone with a fabulous kitchen.
There are lots of options to choose from - starter packs, singles, etc. We purchased a starter package which included our choice of 3 flavor syrups, and extra carbonation cartridge, and extra lids for the bottle.
There are tons of flavors to choose from but we only drink Diet here so we chose from that realm. There were still many options. We chose Caffeine-Free Diet Cola, Diet Lemon-Lime (their version of 7UP/Sprite), and Diet Grapefruit (their version of Squirt/Fresca). There are many more we'll try in the future, but you can also make your drink with tea, fruit juice, and other natural foods. I did like that they use Splenda in their syrups which I think just tastes better than the commercial sweeteners used in others and they're certified Kosher. They claim that each bottle of concentrated sodamix contains enough syrup to make about 12 liters of fresh soda and that each bottle will retain it's fizziness for up to 1 week.
Order was easy, payment was by credit card, and we recieved an email stating the our order had been received. Unfortunately, that was the last communication we recieved. A shipping notice with tracking would have been nice.
We received our soda machine today and let me tell you there was a buzz in the air. We've been waiting over a week. Strange when I read the packing slip it's been mailed from the same city we're in. In fact, they're about 7 miles away. That's a long time for an order so close in our opinions.
Still, we were excited to finally be able to ditch the can habit so we ripped into the box. We opened the large outer carton to find another smaller box, with no packing material to keep the smaller box from banging around inside. We're professional packers - this was a poor packing job. We also found an invoice noting that everything else was on backorder. WHAT? A soda machine with no soda syrups? Yes, that deflated the mood quickly.
We called the 1-800 number from the packing slip and found that the person answering the phone wasn't able to help. Seems he can only pass on the information to his supervisor who will then call us back with the ETA of our syrups. Wow, that's a crazy way to run a business. We empower every employee to help our customers when they call so they're never passed around or kept waiting for 24 hours for a simple question.
So, so far we're not impressed. We haven't even tried the soda and it's already gone flat. Slow and poor shipping, backorder of important products without any notice, and no customer service. Luckily the machine has a 30-day money-back guarantee. If it doesn't work or taste as good as our regular drinks it's going back and we'll search again.
UPDATE 8/16: The day we inquired about our backordered items we received an email stating they'd been mailed the day before. No promised phone call and now we have another 6 days before we can try out the machine. Blah!
UPDATE 8/17: Ok, so I just received the following UNSIGNED email (sorry, that's a personal peeve of mine, especially coming from someone representing a business), "The backordered portion of your order is being processed now and will ship shortly via UPS. Tracking will be sent to your email when the order leaves our warehous." The spelling error is hers (I know it's a female by the email address. Ok, so which is it. Did it leave Friday or am I still waiting? This company needs to do some improvement on their delivery skills. I'm hoping the wait will be worth it, if not, I'm going to be very annoyed.
UPDATE: We received the machine and LOVE IT! We'll be posting a review soon.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Soda Machine & Flavored Syrups
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Epinions.com ID:
briandalsmom
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Member: Mom
Location: USA
Reviews written: 250
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