send back your Sigg

sigg.com/liner
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When you call the customer service department of an international company, you don't expect the chief executive to be returning your call or answering your e-mail.

But that's exactly what Steve Wasik's been doing for weeks now in a massive damage control exercise aimed at placating fuming owners of the Sigg water bottle.

"In the last few weeks, we heard from thousands of people, probably approaching 10,000," said Wasik in an interview this week from Las Vegas, where he's supposed to be vacationing with his family.

Instead, he's been handling most media inquiries and responding to hundreds of customer complaints, writing e-mails himself and offering to replace old bottles for free.

This was not what the CEO had in mind when late last month he posted a letter to customers boasting that all Sigg aluminum water bottles now on the market were "certified to be 100 per cent free of BPA," a controversial chemical used to harden plastic, but suspected to pose potential health hazards.

(In Canada, the federal government last year banned BPA in baby bottles and several U.S. states are considering similar legislation.)

But Wasik's letter also mentioned how Sigg bottles manufactured before August 2008 contained "trace amounts of BPA."

Needless to say, Wasik's letter did not have the desired effect.

Instead of its customers applauding Sigg's million-dollar initiative in developing its "ECO-Care" liner, they were stunned to learn that older bottles were made with any BPA at all.

Sigg has never claimed its bottles were BPA-free. When asked about the chemical last year in an interview with the popular environmental website Treehugger.com, Wasik said that scientific testing consistently showed no BPA leaching from Sigg bottles into water.

But many Sigg customers purchased the expensive bottles -- they retail for as much as $30 -- specifically because of concerns over chemicals found in plastic bottles, chemicals like BPA.

In fact, the 100-year-old Swiss company cashed in on consumer fears over BPA. When the company that makes the Nalgene water bottle pulled the popular product off store shelves amidst growing concern over the chemical, people flocked to Sigg.

Don Smith, co-owner of health-food store Foodsmiths in Perth, said that during that time, his store sold "thousands of bottles a month," peaking in the spring or summer of 2008 -- before the new BPA-free liner was introduced.

"Our trust in the company has diminished," said Smith. "They could have and should have been more forthright in their disclosure. This BPA issue has blindsided everyone."

That includes Donna Davis. Extremely health conscious, Davis tries to be as green as possible, in her personal life as well as in her business, the Movement to Health yoga studio. She even sold the bottles to her students. "Now I feel like a loser," Davis said. "I feel deceived and I feel like the middleman in deceiving other consumers."

She said claims by the company that the old lining didn't leach BPA weren't enough -- they should have disclosed that the lining contained trace amounts of chemical "and then consumers can make up their own minds."

Davis is far from alone in feeling duped by the company, which portrays itself as environmentally responsible.

"I'm new in the environmental business," said Wasik, whose background has been in the beverage and fashion industries.

"What I'm learning is that our consumers hold us to a higher standard and expect more transparency."

Earlier this week, Wasik formally apologized to Sigg customers and offered to exchange any older bottles for new ones, a move that will certainly cost the privately held company hundreds of thousands -- if not millions -- of dollars. He has also tried to personally respond to as many customer complaints as possible.

"I'd say 80 per cent of my conversations have been cordial," said Wasik. "About another 10 per cent people were angry, but most of them still want to do business with us. And about 10 per cent of people say they'll never buy our product again.

"I understand that."

Smith of Foodsmiths falls under the angry-but-still-will-sell-Siggs category. He said that even though his trust in the company has fallen, at least it is trying to make amends.

Davis isn't quite so forgiving. "I probably wouldn't stock Sigg again; I'd probably stock a nice-looking stainless steel one."

Like many other retailers who sell Siggs, Foodsmiths will exchange any bottles with the old liner that were purchased at the store, saving the customer the cost of shipping the bottles.

It's too early to tell whether customers will forgive Sigg. And retailers won't cut the company any slack.

"We do sell stainless bottles as well, and we will be promoting those a little more heavily," said Smith. "We're not loyal to the company necessarily. We'll let customers dictate. Some may choose to accept Sigg's apology and some may not."

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How to return your old Sigg bottle

Since August 2008, Sigg bottles have been manufactured with the new BPA-free lining. But even if you purchased yours after that date, it may still have the old liner. Look inside your bottle: the liner with trace amounts of BPA will be a shiny copper colour, while the new "EcoCare" one is a matte yellow.

- Check with the store where you purchased your bottles -- many retailers are exchanging the old Siggs for new ones (and absorbing the shipping fees as a service for their customers).

- If you're sending your old Siggs in yourself, go online to www.mysigg.com/liner. On the left-hand side, click on menu item "Exchange Program."

- Near the bottom of the page are downloadable forms specifically for Canadian customers. You'll need two: one is a shipping label, so that your bottles will get to the right part of the Sigg Canada warehouse. The second one is a return form for Canadian customers. Make sure you fill this out in full so that the company knows where to send your new bottles.

- This is not a recall, but a voluntary replacement program. The company is not offering refunds. And you'll have to pay the postage for sending the old Siggs back to the company.

- The exchange program ends Oct. 31, 2009.

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