The reporter also alerted me to the fact that Sigg CEO issued an apology letter on the Sigg site. After much digging around, I found it.
Here it is, in its entirety (linked here):
"Dear SIGG Customer,
(STAMFORD CT) – Last month, I wrote a letter to try and provide you with as much factual and historical information as I could in regards to the evolution of the SIGG bottle liner. I also suggested that people could email me if they had any questions and comments.
After reading and responding to hundreds of emails and viewing nearly as many blog & Twitter posts, I realize that my first letter may have missed the mark. What I should have said simply and loudly to all of our loyal SIGG fans is: I am sorry that we did not make our communications on the original SIGG liner more clear from the very beginning.
I have learned much over the past 2 weeks. I learned that many of you purchased SIGG bottles - not just because they were free from leaching and safe - but because you believed that SIGGs contained no BPA. I learned that, although SIGG never marketed the former liner as “BPA Free” we should have done a better job of both clearly communicating about our liner as well as policing others who may have misunderstood the SIGG message.
For over 100 years, SIGG has earned a reputation for quality products and service – and we do not take that for granted. From the day we made our announcement last month, we made a commitment consistent with SIGG values that we would offer anyone who is concerned about BPA an opportunity to swap their old SIGGs for new SIGGs with the new EcoCare liner. Today, I am announcing that this voluntary Exchange Program will be in place until October 31, 2009 to ensure that our customers have ample time to send their former liner bottles back to us should they choose to do so.
Once again, I truly apologize for the lack of clarity in our previous communications. All of us at SIGG hope that we will have an opportunity to regain your confidence and trust.
Sincerely,
Steve Wasik
CEO, SIGG Switzerland"
I am happy to see Mr. Wasik apologize for not being straightforward with customers in both the recent confessional (that sounded very political and guilt averting), and for not disclosing their product contains BPA.
This doesn't mean the company will ever win back my trust. But it does mean that there is some acknowledgment of wrong doing, and that is step in the right direction.
What do you think, readers? Will you ever buy a Sigg water bottle again?
4 comments:
Thanks for being the voice for so many mothers on this issue. BPA is a scary thing, and should worry any parent that has done their due diligence!
trace amounts of BPA is probably a scary thing - i dunno. Here is what I do know: A thousand years ago Ms. Farber, you would have used a goat skin to tote your unpurified creek water with you to your son's soccer game (huh?). 100 years ago you may have had a tin canteen laced with . . . . well tin and lead and anything else they decided to smelt into that bad boy. 50 years ago it might have been tupperware . . . . plastic is the future. Today, you are toting your charcoal purified water from from your chlorinated fluorinated water source into one of the most hygenically safe containers ever made (short of one of those pee containers at the doctors?) - Here's an idea - just take a long drink before you leave the house. problem solved! And without turning a hundred year old Swiss company upside down! You probably won't publish this because I see that you get to choose all the ones you like and disgard the ones you don't (how green is that?) but I hope you have the spunk to let this one fly. Cheers - MH.
Thanks for your comments, MH. You are probably not a regular reader of this blog, or you would know that I publish all comments, if they are respectful. I work full time, and approve comments before they are published so no awful or wacky comments are posted while I am away at work, or parenting my two girls.
For an example of divergent viewpoints shared on this blog, you need only to look at a few comments from my recent post on the healthcare town meetings (page down on the homepage to find it: It's called My Mom, the Terrorist).
And as for your tracing of history, you are right! We have come a long way in some cases in product safety. But that's really not the point. I'm not trying to bring anybody down. I am just looking for transparency and honesty from companies. And for legislation that protects consumers from poisons in everyday products.
For a great example of how this company's behavior was questionable, you only need to read a recent post on Zrecs.
Thanks for tracking down and posting this apology. As far as I'm concerned (and I am concerned, as the owner of 5 SIGG bottles - some old, some new) it's still not enough. What will be enough is when they actually disclose the ingredients (all of them, not just what's not in them) of the new liners. It has actually been a great lesson in trust and accountability. Non-disclosure of ingredients in any product - food, cosmetic, household or otherwise means I'm not using it. I've been let down one too many times, and I would like to thank SIGG for teaching me this valuable lesson. And I won't be exchanging my bottles, unless they tell me what's in the new liners.
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