I saw on Pink Poogle Toy the message about the smoothie promotion starting 9/16. Luckily, that was my day off. I went to Jamba on Thursday morning and ask the lady behind the counter for a “Tigerfruit Smoothie”. She looked at me like I was crazy. She asked what it was and I told her that I saw on a website that there was going to be a Neopets/Jamba Juice promotion starting that day. She told me that she had no idea what I was talking about.
My brother also plays Neopets. I had called him several days prior to the 16th to tell him about the promotion. I called him after I left Jamba and told him they had no idea. He went later that day and asked for one as well. The lady told him he was the second person to ask for 1 that day! The lady went and asked the manager. The manager said that the “promotion” would start the next day, Friday the 17th. I was okay with this because we have been hammered with hurricanes and I figured they pushed it back.
My brother went back to Jamba on Friday. He went in and asked for the smoothie. There was a different woman behind the counter and she said that the promotion had been pushed back till the 30th! That was the final straw. I got home and called Jamba Juice corp. office in California.
I spoke to Alex. She was wonderful. I told her the whole story and she got my name, address (to send me free smoothie coupons for my troubles!) and phone number. She apologized like crazy. She said she would call the location I went to to see what was going on.
I didn’t hear from her till Monday. She called my home and left a message on the answering machine. She said that the manager wasn’t even aware of what was going on, but now the manager knew and the employees should know. She said they had another promotion starting on the 17th as well but that had gotten pushed back to the 30th. She said the manager was probably confused.
Right after I heard the message, I went to Jamba. I walked in and asked for the Tigerfruit smoothie. I asked her to mix in the crystals for me. I sat down and waited for my Tigerfruit smoothie. I couldn’t believe I had finally got it! She came over to my table with the smoothie and said “Here’s your Strawberry Smoothie.” I said “Wait. This is suppose to be ‘Tigerfruit’.” She said “Uh, right…Tigerfruit” and handed it to me. I was mad to find out from HER LIPS it was Strawberry and not find out by tasting it!
As she walked away I asked her for the button and sticker because I had forgotten earlier to ask for it. She said she would be right back. She came back a few minutes later and gave me just the sticker. She said they had run out of buttons. I told her that I didn’t think that was possible because I was sure between 5pm on Friday when I called Alex to 5pm that day, Monday, NO ONE ELSE in Tampa Florida would have come in asking for it! I told her my brother and I are probably the only ones in the city that knew of the promotion. She told me that she had not worked the weekend, so couldn’t vouch for how many people actually came in and asked for one.
I’m sure what happened was that after Alex talked to the manager about the promotion he figured that the buttons were a limited edition thing and so were probably “worth something”. I wouldn’t be surprised if the manager took all the buttons!
So, here’s my experience. I think Neopets did the promotion well, but I really think Jamba messed it up with poor communication to the stores. I mean, you’re the manager of a store and you get a box of stuff from your corp. office and you have no idea what’s going on? I mean, I would have called and asked why I got all the stuff, you know? – by Amanda L Knoll