Bye Bye Betsy:Myer recalls anal bottle opener doll

Company responds to criticism in 24 hours

On Monday I wrote this piece calling on Myer to get rid of Betsy the ‘sexy’ and ‘hilarious’ bottle opening doll. Betsy obligingly screws open bottle tops – with her backside.

Twenty-four hours later Myer told complainants the product was being recalled.

Here’s one response forwarded to me.

 

Subject: Reference No: 3608150

Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2010 14:39:18 +1100

From: myer.csc@myer.com.au

To: [GC]

Dear Geraldine,

Thank you for writing to us regarding ‘Betsy the Bottle Opener’ available from Myer. We appreciate the time you have taken to share your concerns. At Myer we value customer feedback as it helps us improve both the services and products that we offer our customers.

We wish to assure you that it was not our intention to offend anyone by offering this item for sale in our stores. We are pleased to advise that Myer is currently taking steps to withdraw this item from sale.

Once again, thank you for contacting us and giving us the opportunity to respond to you. 

Yours sincerely

Carolyn White | Customer Service Centre Representative

MYER

Level 10, 800 Collins Street, Docklands Melbourne VIC 3008

T 1800 811 611

F 03 8667 6091

E myer.csc@myer.com.au

See also the explanation given by Ben from Myer’s merchandising department to Jacqui, in blog comments at the end of Monday’s blog post,  about how the wrong product was supplied. Nicole responds:

I would like to ask Ben if it is standard Myer practice to sell mistakenly delivered stock? When you think about that process, an awful lot of decisions had to be made in order for 400 bottle openers to be sold – first, the warehouse manager didn’t bring to anyone’s attention that these products hadn’t been ordered, or attempt to return them. Then, somebody entered them into the system – they got bar codes, price tags, etc. Then, a visual merchandiser made sure there was space for them on the shelves. And a few hundred sales assistants didn’t say anything about any of it. That’s one shaky system for a major retailer!!

It’s certainly good to raise questions about how a major department store allowed a product like this to make it to the shelves. Having said that, I congratulate Myer for responding so quickly to complaints.

 This is another great example of how we can remind companies of the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility. Myer’s action has meant its name is now off the ‘Cross ‘em off your Christmas List’  roll of companies engaging in sexploitation practices.