[compost_tea] Re: brewing native microbes - reply to Elaine INgham's Comments on MA

From: chriscreid <reidchris_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 11:54:46 -0000

Elaine Ingham wrote:

The Australia company selling the "grown in" Australia mycorrhizal
inoculum works in conjunction with Mycorrhizal Applications. My
personal opinion is that Dr. Mike feels that the distributor in
Australia should handle questions from clients in Australia.

Chris Reid's experience suggests that the distributor in Australia
doesn't have the knowledge base that Dr. Mike has, and has
> answered with less than useful information. Unhappiness about
poor service and poor answers should be addressed to Dr. Mike.
>
Chris Reid replies:

I live in Connecticut, not Australia. Please note that I first
wrote a complaint a month ago to this list without mentioning MA's
name. Why didn't I write to Dr. Mike as Elaine suggested? Why
would I got to the sad and sorry state of complaining to an email
list?

Well, I am a believer in trying to work things out directly, so I
wrote to the Dr. Mike line to ask the question again. I hoped I
would get his ear and be able to voice my concerns to him directly.
But when I wrote to Dr. Mike using his Dr. Mike email promotion on
the web, no Dr. Mike reply came. Instead, the SAME person replied
to my mail to Dr. Mike as I had the complaint about! I had already
complained directly to him about his reply, so there was nowhere to
go with this. I considered it a personal lesson in how this company
does business.

What's conspicuously missing in the exchange here about this problem
is any communication from MA, but it is interesting to notice that
others feel the need to construct explanations as to what is
happening that are not based on the facts. Tom Jaszewski has
suggested that the problem is that I am too small a business. While
he may intend to be defending MA, he is in fact convincing small
businesses not to bother with them by such unfounded suggestions. I
got a LONG reply from MA -- but not one that would win a customer
over. No attempt was made to determine my company size before they
replied.
 
Also, since writing this message publicly, I have heard privately
from others -- not in Australia -- both who have had great success
with MA's tech information and who are having trouble getting good
information from MA. If this public complaint helps MA get its
information act together, then something constructive has come of it.
I hate writing this kind of note.

I have no agenda to bash them or promote anyone else. If I want to
promote anything, it is that people have the information to do their
jobs and use these options effectively. Without such clear, well
documented information, "it doesn't work" is the reputation that tea
and myco spores will have.

So a final constructive suggestion: what if members were to stop
making blanket positive or negative statements about companies, and
report your personal or factual experience only. "It's a great
company" can only lead to disappointment and confusion if others
don't have the same experience, and "it's a lousy company" because
your or I had a bad experience may unfairly penalize a company that
has learned from its mistakes. This is in keeping with this list's
attempt to be accurate and scientific and not base things on
anecdotal evidence.

Chris Reid


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Received on Tue Sep 30 2003 - 09:11:27 EDT

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