Milliliters....Teaspoons...Vicks, Help Me Out!

Could she have looked it up elsewhere or called someone? yuppers.

However, folks, this is CHILDRENS MEDICATION. No parent should have
to try to decipher dosages due to poor common sense on the part of the
manufacturer.

Its not like she asked for a damn thing other than for the company to
use common sense.

I dont understand why so many people have attacked this poor woman for
asking for consistency.

Its MEDICATION for goodness sake, there is no excuse for inaccurate
info from the manufacturer and there is no excuse for berating the
woman for asking for accurate info.

My goodness, I understand people get off on slamming letter writers,
but this really is inexcusable.

You should've just looked it up on the internet...

The poster has a perfectly valid complaint, and brava for not asking
for compensation! I appreciate just writing a kind letter for good
service or just a heads-up letter (as opposed to a "gimme" letter) for
bad service.

It's amazing that the CS rep seemed to think that the poster was going
to request compensation! It's almost like she didn't know how to
handle just a simple suggestion that they put the measuring cup in
non-metric terms.

I was surprised, though, that I had an issue with a Bayer product (a
specific vitamin), so I called them, and they were super helpful! I
just called to let them know, and they sent me a coupon, which
basically recouped my money, as well as a ton of other coupons. I
really didn't ask for it, but the lady on the phone was great and
pleasantly surprised me :)

I just measured, and they hold exactly the same amount of liquid.

Not a big deal, just thought I'd do my part to keep this in the top
10, since we've been flogging a dead horse. I have my riding crop
out...

I think the company would be interested to know that both conversions
are not on there. Maybe they are purchasing them from somewhere else
and need to go back to their previous manufacturor or maybe they are
mixed up with those to be shipped elsewhere.

I think this whole thing is a big to-do over nothing! Having spent
many years in the plastics industry, I know how those dosage cups are
made. They are churned out by the billions using the blow-molding
process. Each cavity of probably a 20, 40, or 60-cavity mold (always
an equal number) makes one dosage cup. Liquid plastic is poured
through a nozzle and blown (thus the process name) into the mold.
Ordinarily, you'll have the U.S. measurements on one side and the
metric measurements on the opposite side. At the time your particular
dosage cup was formed, the pressure probably failed at one of the end
cavities. Not an uncommon occurrence. Most likely that was the one
that was placed on your particular bottle. In losing pressure, that
cup wasn't completely formed, thus the U.S. measurements were not
shown.

These cups are Quality Control spot-checked. To inspect each cup for
accuracy would be cost prohibitive and could not be offered as an
add-on to a bottle of medication. It would probably cost about $3/cup
if they were individually checked and I'm certain no one would be
willing to pay that price.

I agree the rep should not have been sarcastic, if indeed she was and
not merely using 'and' as a way to offer you the opportunity to
continue speaking. Giving her the batch number helps if there is
something wrong with the medication but would do no good in trying to
determine where/when the cup was made. It's done by two separate
companies. The medication is one batch number (Vicks), the cups
another (molding company).

Incidentally, depending upon how many cups are produced on one mold
which erodes the cavities in the mold, dosages shown lose their
accuracy. Glass is the only way to be certain the measurements are
correct. But not if dosages are painted on the surface. Those are
off at least 10% of the time simply due to operator error.

Save yourself an ulcer--put it to bed already!

Jill,
Just for clarification...do you still have your bottle? Okay, where it
says "Directions," after "Use dose cup or tablespoon(TBSP)" and "do
not exceed 4 doses per 24 hours," does yours not say "adults and
children 12 years and over....2TBSP(30ml)every 6 hours" and beneath
that "children 6 to 11 years........1TBSP(15Ml)every 6 hours"? If not,
what does it say?

I agree completely with the OP. She found a problem with a product,
she called the company. The company rep did not seem to understand the
problem. So, she wrote through Planetfeedback.

Yes, it probably was a mistake. One the company can only correct if
they know about it, and this was her way of making sure they knew.

The whole point of Planetfeedback

I don't really see any problem with this letter. I feel that she just
wants to inform them that there may be a problem at their plant with
the cups being swapped. She didn't ask for anything free, and she
didn't say I'm never buying your stuff again.

Of course she could use a spoon or a measuring spoon, but that is
inconvenient. What if she was on the road when her child got sick? I
don't carry a set of measuring spoons on me and like somebody else
mentioned table spoons are not accurate all of the time.

Again, I don't think she was complaining, just letting them know of a
possible issue.

Sava, if you are not mature enough to understand that not everyone
will agree with you then simply DO NOT share your lettter. From the
tone of your letter and some of your responses I would not be
surprised if YOU were RUDE on the phone.

Just so I don't have to re-type it another dozen times:

Look, to many my complaint seems petty, and perhaps it is. That
doesn't make it any less legitimate. First off, Vicks included a
useless dosing cup with their product - sure, I found a substitute for
it, but why is Vicks putting these cups in their product if they can't
be used by non-metric-minded folks (and using a spoon to pour into the
cup is a waste of time too - why use 2 things when one TSP-labelled
would suffice on its own)> Secondly, the rep was sarcastic and abrupt
with me. Regardless of how petty you think a customer's complaint is,
as a service rep, you need to listen to the customer and document
their complaint. The rep I spoke to was reluctant to even take down
batch info from my bottle of Vicks - how do I know, maybe the one I
got was a mistake, and others are not like that, in which case I'd
think Vicks would want to know.

Fact is, I have plenty of common sense, and also I am sticking to my
guns on this. It's great to see so many other opinions on this
thread, but honestly, no one is going to change my mind or get me to
"take back" what I said. I maintain that for the cost of a bottle of
Vicks, the cup should have TSP labelled on it, or the dosing
instructions on the bottle should have mL listed on it - is that such
a bad request?

Certainly anyone with sick, cranky kids would appreciate having
everything they need on hand, rather than having to root around in
their cupboards/drawers for alternate dosing methods.

You don't own a teaspoon?

Two teaspoons is equal to a dessert spoon. You know you have two
sizes of spoons one is smaller (tsp) one is bigger (tbsp) well the
smaller one holds 1 teaspoon. Surely you have regular spoons in the
house.

GREAT letter! "Please fix the problem" No Gimmes. I hope they are
listening!!!

Certainly a valid issue that they should fix, but seeing as how you
have Internet access to post this, I must ask:

Is your Google hand broken?

I typed in "how many teaspoons in a milliliter" and a result popped
up.

How long ago did this happen? I ask because on my bottle of Nyquil it
says 2 Tsp (30ml) and the Vick's website has directions listed the
same way.

Customer service can be a difficult place to work, but one would think
that a medicinal company would ensure that the employees who man it's
phone lines were at least professional and respectful.

It is so much more difficult to actually address a problem than it is
to just send discounts and coupons and hope the consumer will forget
about their issue. Clearly, you have not forgotten how serious this
issue could have been.

Thank you for sharing this feedback.

I keep some dosing spoons on hand for the older kids and a couple of
syringes for the baby. I am very carefull when using the spoons. I
wish you would have had a better rep. I bet she doesn't have any kids
herself, so she wouldn't understand that even a little over could
cause an overdose, especially when the child ends up alergic to the
meds.

Hope this helps...
5ml (or cc. it's the same)=1 tsp
15ml=1 tbsp
30ml=1 oz
120ml=4oz=1/2cup

I really hated metric when starting in pharmacy, but you get use to
it, and eventually the USA will go that way.

Sorcha

This might be a valid complaint but I am shaking my head.

Why couldnt you use a measuring spoon?

If you could use the computer to find a website to send a complaint
letter then why couldnt you look up the conversions online?

I understand it was a hassle but was it really such a big problem as
to call them to complain AND send a letter?

This is an extremely valid complaint. It has nothing to do with being
metrically challenged. The point is that the dosage and the dosage cup
should be in the same unit of measurement, whether British or metric.
This is a recipe for dosage error, and it's a shame you got a phone
rep who obviously was too ignorant to even understand what you were
saying, because I can guarantee that her management would take this
problem very, very seriously.

Good luck with your letter.