Monday, October 20, 2008

Social Media wins the battle!

Victory! Social media wins!

If you aren't familiar with my plight, please refer back to My Land Rover Battle

So a few days ago, my wife received a call from Mr Fields directly. She explained the situation, noting the poor customer service we suffered through. From what she tells me, Mr Fields was not too happy with his staff. In fact, he couldn't believe some of the things that we were told.

Thankfully his disgust translated into action. He told us to bring our car back and that his staff would diagnose the problem at no charge. We did just that this morning.

Good news, the issue apparently was very minor and Land Rover fixed on the spot at no charge.

The problem was fixed by simply resetting something, which I'm sure amounted to about 30 minutes of work. If only his staff hadn't have been so short-sighted and just taken 30 minutes out of their day.

30 minutes that would have made us happy.
30 minutes that would have prevented my social media campaign.
30 minutes to prevent a decent amount of negative chatter about his brand.
30 minutes to have possibly made a sale.

That's right. Made a sale.

You see, my wife and I went out and purchased a new SUV that week and Land Rover would have been an option. I liked our car and had been eyeing the LR2 for some time. But no, two knuckleheads at Fields killed any brand loyalty because they just didn't care enough to spend 30 minutes on us.

Thank you to everyone who twittered, blogged and called on my behalf. Without you, I don't think this would have been a success.

BTW - Tina wouldn't even talk to us.

RECIPE: Pan seared salmon with ginger jus

Salmon

4 6 oz salmon fillets, skin removed. Season fillets with salt and pepper. Saute salmon fillets in grapeseed oil over medium high heat in a heavy bottomed non-stick pan. Cook for 3-5 minutes on one side. 2 minutes on the next. Well cooked salmon with still be a little pink inside.

Ginger Jus
  • 4 tbsp finely sliced ginger
  • 1 tbsp thinly sliced garlic
  • 3 tbsp thinly sliced spring onions, white part only
  • 250ml Sake
  • 600 ml Chicken Stock, reduced to 300ml
  • 2 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 2 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
  • 3 tbsp spring onions, green part only, cut on an extreme bias
Take three tablespoons of olive oil and put in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the ginger and fry (you need to hear the ginger sizzling) for one minute - the ginger should not become coloured at all. Add sliced garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Add the white spring onions and fry for 30 seconds.
Add Sake and reduce its volume over heat by two-thirds. Add the chicken stock, bring to the boil and whisk in the oyster and soy sauces. Add fennel to the sauce and serve immediately, pouring over the salmon. Garnish with the bias cut spring onions.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Disney bans foie gras!

Blaspheme!

An organization that for years has been known for promoting culinary excellence in Orlando has done the unthinkable - placed a ban on foie gras in all Disney dining establishments.

Read more about this on Scott Joseph's blog

Disney World Bans Foie Gras

Monday, October 6, 2008

Really into duck and money?

If you know me, you know that I'm REALLY into duck. In my opinion, there just isn't a tastier creature alive.

What alot of people don't know, is that I spent a few years cooking in kitchens ranging from one man hole-in-the-wall bar kitchens to upscale operations where I reported to an executive chef. Despite their perceived differences, they had one thing in common - some asshole yelling at me about food cost. That yelling really sunk in. At home, I scrape mixing bowls with a rubber spatula to make sure nothing gets wasted.

Along the same lines of making more money with less ingredients is this 3 part video. It shows easy tricks on how to turn a single duck into over $200 cash by being creative with every part of that tasty little beast.

http://ahungerartist.bobdelgrosso.com/2008/09/hunger-arttotal-utilization-of-duck.html

Related video on breaking down a chicken.

http://ahungerartist.bobdelgrosso.com/2008/10/breaking-down-bird-101-by-mike-pardus.html

Why buy already quartered bird parts? Quarter yourself and save money plus end up with parts for stock!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

My Land Rover Battle

Twitter friends! Please help me to demonstrate the power of social media in my fight against Land Rover and Fields BMW. This could be a really cool social media experiment!

Here is the background on my battle.

My wife and I dropped our 2002 Freelander off to diagnose a "check engine" light warning. When we picked up the car, my wife noticed the following new issues.

* The locks on all the doors no longer work
* The back window won't go down
* The built-in security system no longer functions.

When we informed Land Rover about this situation, they had the following response

* These types of things happen to cars
* Nothing they did would have caused this
* That it is possible the problem existed when we brought it in (not true)
* That it is just bad luck on our part

Their service manage refuses to help and let us know that we'll need to pay them to get it fixed.

My wife is in tears over this customer service nightmare.

Some people say I should call the local news channel. I say no. I say use Social Media to spark action!

Please help me in my fight by doing the following few things

* Posting a link to my blog post somewhere
* Retweeting my call to action
* Talking or leaving a message for the Fields BMW service manager. Let them know that consumers have power and they should take care of their customers. Let her know that this is a campaign on the behalf of Jeremy Hilton. Please be polite when you call.
* Twitter me with a list of the actions you took @jeremyhilton

Fields BMW customer service manager - Tina / 407.695.xxxx

Thank you so much!

UPDATE - We won our battle!

Social Media Wins!
 
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