Would this be OK with you? False Advertising??
Hi everyone – I really need your input.
I have been creating some signature blends at Adagio Tea. This past week I ordered four 3 oz blends. One is a black blend, one is a green blend, one is a white blend and one is a green and white blend.
As soon as they came, I opened them up to smell each one. And I brewed a cup of the black right away. Then I noticed that the white tea package seemed so much lighter and less full than the other three. So I got out my kitchen scale. Sure enough, they all weighted 3 oz like they were supposed to EXCEPT the white tea! It was only 2 oz and I had not used any yet!!
I thought “ooops… someone made a little mistake when filling this one”. So I contacted Adagio, expecting they would also say “ooops” and send me another ounce.
Instead, I got this message:
“Thank you for your message. We apologize for the delay in response. Although, the weight isn’t exact, our signature blends containing white tea are typically slightly lighter because white tea leaves are lighter and more airy. We hope this clears up any misunderstanding.”
I don’t understand. It says I am ordering 3 oz of tea. So… because it’s white tea I only get 2/3 of the amount they said they are selling me? It sure seems like false advertising to me.
Do you think this is normal for white tea? I’ve never had another company give me less weight than they advertised and claim it was because the leaves were more airy. What do you think?
I wrote back and said “No, that does not clear up this misunderstanding. This is false advertising. Your website says I am getting 3 oz of tea. I ordered 3 oz of tea, I expect to receive 3 oz of tea!” but I have not heard back from them. I’ll let you know if I do. But in the meantime, please let me know if I’m off base or if you think this is wrong! I’m trying to decide if I’m going to make a big stink about this with Adagio or not.
An ounce off in weight on a product priced by the ounce is deceptive in my opinion.
I"ll bet what is happening though is that the custom blends are packed to specific size containers — and that volume wise, 3oz of the white tea blend doesn’t fit in their designated container.
I’d be pretty ticked off as well. 3oz typically means the weight of the tea…not “we fill a 3oz container with whatever amount of tea will fit in there…”
Thank you Sil! I am… but I was wondering if I was overreacting. Thanks for your support.
Ditto with Sil, 3oz is 3oz in terms of weight, not size. They are probably using a white peony base? True that it’s a lot lighter than most other teas, but not an excuse. Let us know what comes out of this, good luck :-)
Okay, bingo. It took a few minutes to hunt it up, but there is a post on Adagio’s teaChat about this — the blends are blended based on volume, not on weight. So it’s really inaccurate marketing for them to use the weight descriptor. Definitely worth complaining about, so they know it is an issue, and hopefully change their marketing language.
sigh I will always have a soft spot for Adagio, since I’ve been a customer since they were still a garage outfit and my orders had had written thank you notes in them, but they really have gotten quite commercial and I"m afraid the quality of their service has suffered.
Thank you Anna. I thought this was quite a canned response, like they had dealt with it before. Still…. a customer purchasing tea does not know this. They see the options for a 3oz pouch or a 6oz tin. You expect to get the amount you ordered.
Absolutely. They’re not nearly upfront enough about it. They do subtly point it out by specifically stating 3oz pouch on the blends, where the regular teas are listed as just ‘3oz’, but it’s still bullshit that they don’t openly tell you the blends are packed by volume and not weight.
Here’s a link to the post discussing this — Ilya says “the percentages are added by volume, so if you make a blend with with 50% gumpowder (heavy tea) and 50% white peach (light tea), the tin will be filled halfway with one and halfway with the other.”
Certainly not okay. I don’t see why, if they have to fit a lighter tea into the same size bag, they would need to list it as 3 ounces. I can understand selling a different set of standard amounts, but no need to say otherwise! Call it what it is, Adagio.
You have every right to be upset. 3 ounces is 3 ounces, that’s weight not volume. You ordered 3 ounces of tea leaves, you should get 3 ounces of tea leaves, that’s 85 grams, period, end of discussion. Ounce is used as a measure of volume when it comes to liquids, not solids.
Well… I am really encouraged that everyone feels how I do about this. Thank you. I don’t often complain and don’t get mad very easily. I don’t really know what else I can/will do about it. I’ve registered for the Adagio forums so I can post my “concern” there. If there is any other answer from them, or if they try to make it right, I will let you all know. But otherwise… beware if ordering signature blends! :-(
Thank you Anna!! I had to sign up for the forum and am still waiting for it to be approved before I can post. Thank you so much for posting too!
Just ask if they are comfortable with 2/3 of the payment since you only received 2/3 of the product. :)
Do they have a Facebook page or other social media where you could share your concerns with their other customers? I’m not saying you should burn the company to the ground, but sometimes it takes a bit of public hubbub to get big companies to pay attention to their customer’s concerns.
Haha! Good one Uniquity! ;-) Yep… they have FB and Twitter. It’s too bad they’ve lost their hand written note outlook that Anna talked about. :-( I was planning on sharing this on FB because I’ve been encouraging my friends to try my blends. So I feel like I need to warn them too. I could also leave a comment on their FB page.
No… I would NOT want to burn them… I would want them to take notice of their customers and treat them well. I’ve been doing all kinds of advertising FOR them… on FB and Twitter… and now I feel cheated. I don’t feel they owe me something special for doing that – I just feel like a company I was talking up turned around and screwed me over :-(
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