Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Not every company is a greedy bastard

With the exploits of Bernie Madoff in the news daily and in the wake of the sup-prime mortgage implosion, one starts to feel like every corporate entity is a greedy bastard. That everyone is out only for themselves and the customer, consumer, person, human being be dammed.

In the past 2 days I have been pleasantly surprised at two companies here in my own community that are disproving that stereotype.

This past summer, during the $4 gas crunch, my garbage company, Choice One Disposal, instituted a $6 fuel fee. It irked me but was understandable. As gas prices have come down the fee was still there. When I paid my last bill, with gas less than half of what it had been, I wrote a little note on the bill saying that I trusted I would not see the charge next month. Part of me was serious. Part of me was feeling snotty because we all know that once a company charges for something, you'll never stop paying for it.

Wasn't I surprised when yesterday the company CALLED me. Called me to tell me that, I would not be seeing it again because they are taking that fee off. Seriously, when has that ever happened. What company calls you to tell you good news???

In even bigger news today I heard that the (BEST IN THE WORLD) local Grocery Store where I live, Wegman's , is giving out FREE ANTIBIOTICS to anyone who needs them from now until March 31st.

Free, as in, no cost to you. TO ANYONE.... That is what I thought was so awesome. Everyone qualifies. We actually have great insurance so perscriptions are not a worry to us, however, there are a lot of people who don't qualify for any kind of assistance that feel the crunch when they need a perscription. This is great for them. What a nice move by Wegman's

I think my cynical side has softened a little today!

4 comments:

Krista said...

When I was picking up a prescription and grumbling about the $30 (for this particular prescription) co-pay I overheard the conversation between the woman in the line next to me and the pharmacy tech.

Turns out, the woman's insurance was Medicaid, and they impose limits. Here in Mississippi, you are allowed 4 generic and 2 name brand prescriptions a month. Anything more than that you have to pay for. She didn't have the $4 to pay for the prescription, so had to wait the 6 days until the first of the month.

I stopped grumbling about my co-pay.

The Fine Art of Motherhood said...

It's so funny, when I started reading this, I thought, "I wonder if she's talking about the Wegman's prescription thing!" I know, isn't that great? I saw in an article somewhere that they said they anticipate it will save their customers about $1 million! That's really something!

Karley Ziegler Mott said...

I agree. I think this is SO wonderful, particularly for people without prescription coverage.

I am so thankful that when I get one of my frequent UTIs that it's only $5 for my Cipro. When I was out of college and awaiting coverage to begin on my own, I had to pay $140 for a ten day supply.

That was a long time ago! I think Wegmans is a great company because they've shown they care about their customers--from not selling cigarettes to the free meds.

Leila said...

Christine, thanks for the visit today! I hug you right back! Keep up the good work!