Cranky Complaints-Lady Eats General Mills for Breakfast!

So we bought & ate a box of Reese Puffs that came with a General Mills "everyday celebrations" (ha!) incentive code that you're supposed to redeem at their website for a kids' book or magazine mini-subscription (3 issues). And I promised Naomi Rivka that we'd get Chirp magazine... I figure she loves magazines, what could be cuter?

Ha. And ha again.

Sent at General Mills' website last week:

I finally managed - despite lengthy delays during the registration and logon process - to access your Everyday Celebrations site to enter a code from our cereal box. Now when I enter the code, the site is telling me "An unexpected error occured." (by the way, the word "occurred" is properly spelled with TWO r's.) In any event, I would like to redeem this Reese Puffs code for a subscription to Chirp for my daughter. Please help.

To which they responded:

Thank you for contacting General Mills with your inquiry.

Register your name and mailing address on our website, www.everydaycelebrations.ca\promotions. Enter the code printed inside your specially-marked package.

Select the publication you wish to receive.

You will immediately receive a confirmation of your order by E-mail. Please retain this E-mail until you receive your book or magazine.

You will receive your selection within 6 to 8 weeks.

We hope you find this information helpful. Please let us know if we can help you again.

Sincerely,

To which useless response, I immediately replied:

No, Maria, it was not helpful. But thank you for your reply; you certainly can help me again.

As mentioned, when I enter the code, it says "An Unexpected Error has Occured." (spelled wrong, just like that, in red letters)

Here is the code: [code typed here]. It's from a box of Reese Puffs that we just finished, so it is legitimately ours and never used before. There shouldn't be an error when I enter it.

I'd appreciate it if you could enter it for me somehow; your help would be much appreciated in ordering a mini-subscription to Chirp magazine for my 4-year-old daughter (who has been very disappointed that we couldn't get your AWFUL website to work). I will not deal with this website again if I can help it. It is way too slow, with 2-3 minute delays waiting for each page to load (I have a fast internet connection and every site but yours works fine).

If you have any questions, please email or phone.

Thank you!

So far, I have not received a reply to this email...par for the course when replying to a "customer support" email. I don't think anybody really reads the incoming mail, even though they don't go so far as to pay you the actual courtesy of advising you of that.

So on Friday, I phoned to see what was up - and was told that the website was having problems (duh) and to try again in a few days. No, there was no way she could just order the thing for me over the phone. You have to do it through their stupid website, and I should try again this week.

Well, I did, just now. And duh, it's still broken.

Am I the only person phoning in with problems? Is this the only defective code? So here we go again:

Further to my TWO emails last week, the code we received in a box of Reese Puffs cereal is STILL not working.

Here is the code: [code here]. Please request a "mini-subscription" to Chirp on my behalf. Feel free to email me for my address or any further clarification.

I have to say that while your company's reputation is based on family-friendly and kid-oriented products, this particular website has been a TERRIBLE disappointment.

Based on your promotion, I promised my 4-year-old daughter this magazine, and it has been over one week since I first tried to redeem the code (an eternity to a 4-year-old).

Please let me know when we can expect our magazines. Yours truly,
[moi]
p.s. Why does your awful "contact" form require my EXACT age every single time I email you? Over 18 would suffice - you don't need to know if I'm 18-25, 25-35 or whatever.
p.p.s. Why does your awful "contact" form ask me to check here if I'm outside the US (which I am) and then take away the listing of Canadian provinces if I check the box? We are not part of the US yet that I am aware of.

By the way, when you click Submit to submit the filled-in contact form, an annoying window pops up that shrieks at you in big burgundy letters:

Please wait while your data is entered into the database.

In order to insure your information is completely recorded,

do not use your browser buttons until the form page is removed.

Boy, do I hate General Mills this week!

January 2010 postscript: nope, it's still not here... and I hate 'em more than ever! Read on for the exciting continuation of the Saga.