Town & Country Foods Inc: A Heads Up

Optimism staged a successful coup over instinct at a festival this month. Quickly... Town & Country Foods (townandcountryfoods.com) had the only food booth that was not pandering sugar-glazed substances. When I approached, I learned that the petite steak sandwiches were not for sale but for giveaway. If I entered my name and number, a sales person would deliver a no-obligation presentation along with a complimentary assortment of quality meats. I ignored the blinking "Yea Right" sign.

When the sales person called, I had the distinct feeling that I was not talking to an adult or perhaps the adult was mentally impaired to some degree. The opener is, "we forgot to give you your free meat." Next, in the prequalifying "grille-down," I was asked whether I had a credit card. Up went another blinking sign. It did not seem reasonable to blast the messenger, so I simply challenged the relevance of the question. "Well, I'm just supposed to ask you that", I prepared to hang up the phone. Before hanging up, the lad asked if I would wait while he confirmed the schedule with his supervisor. I'm curious now, so I listen in since their phone was not equipped with a hold button. In the background, I could hear him nagging the supervisor to come to the phone. Ultimately, she told him to put me on hold, but he wouldn't. I put myself on hold. After about two days, they called again...and again. Finally, I answered, and the same lad is present, seemingly without memory of our last conversation. "We forgot to give you your free meat," he says. Well...what would you say to that?

Needless to say, I did not want any Town & Country Foods. The business seemed more like a sham. I felt they were looking for prey, not customers. Moreover, employing the equivalent of a juvenile as the lead sales rep tells its own story. It seemed useless to lay all this on that young man, so I simply conveyed that I was not interested. The first time I said I was not interested, he countered, "No, ma'am, you don't understand." The second time I said it, his phone must have already been on its way to the carriage, because there wasn't a nanosecond between the "not interested" and the disconnect.

All sorts of characters do business in this economy. Some are serious, some are devious, and there are many in between. The jury is out on Town & Country Foods. I only know of one other dissatisfied customer, and BBB online reports that the company resolved the 16 complaints lodged this period. The Town & Country Foods website suggests they are based in Colorado, but they have a very Orem, Utah-ish* feel about them. Why are so many trying to bleed the public? The saddest part is that there is enough of an unsuspecting public to make it profitable. A good food delivery service would really be grand! But get real, stop attaching all the gimmicks and lures. It's only food, not a Senate Appropriations Bill. Note: if anyone wants groceries delivered, checkout Safeway Online. It's fabulous and gimmick-free.
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*No doubt there are fine businesses in Orem, but there are so many shams/scams based there, the town might consider a name change soon. I've attended at least one Orem-sponsored "seminar." Now, I get offers in the mail from Utah regularly, they are mostly from Orem and they use the same tactic: a free waste-your-day-get-rich-now-athon leading up to an outrageously expensive hook only available then and there.