Follow up on my letter to Torrid

Some folks have asked if Torrid ever contacted me about the open letter I posted a few weeks back. They contacted me the very next day, so that part was good. The bad part was the reply itself.

Hello Pretty Pear,

It's (name redacted) at Torrid. Saw the open letter to Torrid on the pretty pear site. Thanks so much for the shout out. We would love to give you a proper introduction to the Torrid brand by offering you a tour of our headquarter offices, a sneak preview of our upcoming collection and meet/greet with Chris Daniel (Torrid President). Please let me know if you are interested in getting to know this very special brand.

Best- (name redacted)
PR Manager

Right. So, I took some time to process the email in my mind and replied a few days later.

Thank you for taking the time to reach out to me.

As a blogger, I appreciate your offer and thank you for wanting to give me a sneak preview, etc. The gesture is appreciated but I'll have to decline.

As a customer, I'm a little disappointed in your response. I put a lot of time and thought into writing that post and while I really wasn't expecting anyone from Torrid to contact me, I would've assumed that anyone who did would at least address the points I made.

I am very familiar with the Torrid brand. As I said in my post, I've been shopping in Torrid stores and from the website since its inception. Being unfamiliar with the brand isn't an issue and I'm not sure where you picked up that it was.

I'm not a professional blogger and I wasn't trying to just get the attention of Torrid's PR people. I really want Torrid to know what I think of their brand and how it could be improved.  I got comments on that post, as well as messages on Twitter and Facebook, from my readers letting me know that they agree with what I said 100%. This isn't just my own opinion, a LOT of people agree with me.

I really hope that the powers that be at Torrid have read my post and the thread at the Fatshionista LiveJournal community and taken it all seriously. I appreciate you contacting me but from your email, I don't feel like Torrid is really listening to what I've said.

I sent that reply on May 19th and haven’t heard anything back from their PR manager or anyone else at Torrid. I honestly wasn’t expecting them to make a big deal out of my letter to begin with, especially since I posted it on my blog instead of sending it to them directly. However, no response would’ve been better than what I got. I guess that’s how the cookie crumbles?

Comments

[M]

So you were offered the chance to tell the president of the company in person what you thought of the product, and you turned it down? I know this is a very PR-y response, but it provided a very real and valuable chance to take feedback directly to the top, and turning it down seems to me quite shortsighted.

[Colleen]

M, I know it seems like I turned down a good opportunity but in all honesty, I can't justify taking time off of my day job and flying out there at my own expense to meet the president of the company. The email gave no indication that the PR manager had actually read my post so it felt like she was trying to wow me with the offer, without actually reading what I wrote and passing it along to the right person. All I wanted was for them to hear my feedback and I don't feel like that happened.

[Eli]

This response showcases the way they "hear" and take on board what someone has written, something that they had time to read, peruse, and think about and act on at their leisure, and yet didn't.

I find it easy to believe such a response would meet the same fate when spoken to someone's face.

[HazelStone]

If these "business" people had any sense, they'd spend the $400 to fly you to HQ. Marketing people spend millions to influence opinion-makers like you.

Feh.

[Elle]

Good for you for standing up for your reasoning, and not succumbing to the ever-attractive PR offer. Most people would get that email and instantly become a brand ambassador. =\

Much love!

[DeDe]

It's really sad that they glossed over every point you made (so eloquently I might add). I guess they figured you would jump at the chance to meet the prez and such. I love your reply though. I'm sure it was unexpected, hence the lack of one from them.

[C]

I totally agree with M. You passed up on a good opportunity to meet the President of Torrid. You could of made a bigger impact than just complaining about what YOU want on your blog.