24 hours til end of Reclaimed Reusable Bag contest!

Enter today, because there is only one day left!

Woohoo! That means only one day until my birthday too!

Upcycle your Wetsuit!

Just got a tweet from Green Guru Gear. They are looking for wetsuits and will send back a free gift if you send yours in!

Mail to:

2500 47th st Suite 12
Boulder CO 80301

I'm putting mine in the mail today. It's been sitting in our donate pile for a long time and never fit well in the first place.

My Day with USPS, or the things I do for customers

Mail delivery came around 10 AM. Our faithful carrier Maria had an Express package to return to me. It had a note on it (not official form, just handwritten) and she explained that the regional post office could not ship express to the APO address of our customer. Maria told me I could go in to the post office for a refund and ship priority.

I attempted a refund online through the usps.com service we had used to print the label. Because it was beyond 48 hours after shipment (it's Monday, we shipped early Saturday), no refund was available automatically.

So, I load up our daughter, the package, and my wallet in the bike trailer and ride 4 miles to the post office. I get there and there is no bike rack. Plenty of security pylons, but those are easy to slip our lock right off. Bugger. Thank goodness for the newspaper machine that had a relatively secure loop I could lock through.

Bike secured, I walked into the post office with daughter, package, and wallet. I wait in line 20 minutes. When the postal worker calls me up, I explain that I need a refund because the postal service cannot fulfill my shipment needs and he gives me a blank stare. I ask for the manager Maria told me could help. More blank stare and then some mumbling.

The next associate over says, "You can't do that." I ask for clarification and he rudely tells me they can't do anything about packages shipped online. I request the manager Maria told me about. "Well, he's higher than her," my blank stare associate says. And the next one over says "Carriers don't know anything about this."

I eventually leave with my daughter, package, and wallet because I am getting no help. I know from experience that this post office and staff is often like this - no attempt at customer satisfaction and no flexible solutions.

Tonight, I will again pack up daughter, package, and wallet and drive to the airport 24 hour post office because the staff at that office has always been competent, kind and helpful. I am confident they will find a way to get my customer his Ibex gear quickly.

As soon as I get a moment (I've already spent over an hour on this today, not including writing this post) I will find a way to contact the local post office, speak to a manager, and let them know how disappointed I was with the service. Of course, I'll also need to leave feedback with the online system because if the service told when I input the address that express was not possible, I might have avoided all this trouble. Whew!

Win a Reclaimed Reusable Bag!

It’s Rachel’s birthday on October 9!

To celebrate, we are giving away a Reclaimed Reusable Bag. We’ll mail a Green Guru Gear Utility Tote or OLovesM Eco Clutch (winner’s choice) to a randomly selected entrant.

Simply leave a comment to enter the contest!

Employees and immediate family members may not enter. Contest closes at midnight October 8, 2008.

More houshold toxins news

Newsweek online has an article about household toxins up right now. One of the main toxins of concern right now is BPA in food/beverage containers. It is nice to see this issue getting exposure in the media as we feel it is an important issue people need to be aware of.

I was especially pleased to see mention of canned foods in the article. We've been especially concerned about this issue for some time as foods stay in contact wit the BPA-containing material for extended periods of time in cans. Also, many foods are acidic in nature (tomatoes, any fruit, etc…) which will only serve to increase the leaching potential from the plastic liner. As a solution, we can a lot of our own food in the home. Rachel had a marathon session last month and canned a huge amount of tomato sauce and apple sauce for use over the winter. We also make extensive use of vacuum sealing and our deep freezer for food storage/preservation.

So what do you all think? How concerned are you about BPA? What do you do to prevent this chemical from entering your food supply?