The thing is when I asked people I know and respect today about this situation the common theme is: "you've spent hundreds of dollars with this company in the past year, and are planning on spending much much more in the coming years, why not give you the card and keep you comin back." It is a drop in the bucket for them. And I was advertising their business to all of my family trough a wishlist created. I could have chosen AHS or some other vendor but I chose NB. My buying clearly was not important enough for them. So I vented, and have decided to move on to other companies.
Blichman products never go on sale or at least from what I have seen they don't. That is why I decided not to wait to buy. Sure enough, one week later NB offers them with a gift card. I would have used the gift card to buy much more stuff with them. Seems like a small price to keep my business. This is just me though, clearly others disagree. Clearly, others are huge fans of NB and don't want someone complaining about a frivolous $20 gift card. I must go back and rethink my whole life, all the decisions I ever made cause I am such a horrible person to think a company would want to keep a customer coming back to buy more. My buying power was not considered enough of a loss for them so they said no. And yeah I'm pissed. So be it!! I'll move on to other companies.
This whole thing has taken on a life of its own, jeesh!
I wanted to point out that by making a wish list and passing it on to friends and relatives, you aren't really advertising NB to your friends and family. That is because you are still the target market of the wish list. Yes, if your family purchases an item, the economic value is coming from them, but it's still related to things you want. That won't keep your family coming back to buy brewing equipment, unless of course they brew and haven't ever heard or used Northern Brewer.
Look, you are probably a great person. I have no way of knowing any differently. Frankly, the way you are discussing this situation reminds me of a lot of people I know (my mom, girlfriend, my best friend's dad, etc). These people tend to try to get things free and cheap whenever they are available, sometimes out of the time they are offered. It's all fine and good, but it tends to annoy me when they do this if I am with them. Why? Because I can sense the hostility from the customer service person and it wastes my time.
I have a really hard time letting things go, as well. As an example, I parked at a meter at 5:15PM one day in the city I live in where meters are only enforced until 5:00, and had been that way since 1997. Well, apparently 2 months ago they changed the enforcement to 6:00PM. I didn't get anything about it in the mail, no warning, just a $20 ticket. Was it my fault? Some would say it was, because there was a sticker on the meter saying it changed (a sticker about 1/2" x 3" explaining 6:00PM enforcement), and some would say it wasn't, as I was operating under the assumption that a 15-year old policy wouldn't change randomly. Anyhow, I called, asked if I could have my ticket voided, and was told that it was in the newspaper (I don't get the newspaper) and they put warnings on cars for 3 weeks after the active date. Moral of the story, I paid the ticket and let it go. But not after venting to everyone in my office.
This reminds me of the guy who posted yesterday about the tap list having craft beers that were local under the "import" section. Yes, the list is completely wrong, but he walked out of the bar because of it. I get his point, but was it worth walking out for? Probably not.
Sorry to beat a dead horse, again. I don't mean to pile on, and understand your point of view, but I think you need to just let it go and move on. It's probably not worth it to never use NB again and to smear their name to people you know and on the internet.
Enjoy your burner!
