They say we should all be drinking more water. And personally I’ve been feeling sort of dehydrated of late.
So, with Johnny’s support, I said “hey, let’s get a water cooler at the office.”
As my friends upstairs are patrons of Prince Edward Springs, the water arm of the company formerly known as Seaman’s Beverages, I called there first. And I immediately got trapped in the spider’s web of interactive telephone menus that kept leading me to the “general mailbox for the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Group.” I didn’t want to leave a message, I wanted to order some water. So I hung up. I tried three of four more times over the afternoon, and always ended up at the same place. If they can’t answer their phone, I reason, perhaps they will forget to bring the water too.
Next.
Things looked more promising at Sparkling Springs: they have a website, and that website has an order form. I dutifully filled this out, and was assured by the response that they check their email every day, and that I would hear back shortly. That was 48 hours ago. I have yet to hear back. If they can’t answer their email, I reason, perhaps they will forget to bring the water too.
My third option is Culligan. However I have latent fears about Culligan, for I associate their brand with “water treatment.” Which implies that the water in question was originally in need of treatment. And the last thing I want is fetid water that’s been made better by technology.
Perhaps I should simply turn to the tap.
Comments
One of my favourite Lewis Black quotes from his lates show is: “anyone else notice that they only started telling us we’re not drinking enough water when they started SELLING IT IN BOTTLES?”
From experience I would recommend Culligan. We were with another company and experienced very poor service (office & delivery). Culligan has great office staff when you call and have always been prompt with deliveries. Also when our cooler was broken they were out ASAP to look into it and fix it.
I am not an expert, but I’ve read and been told that water that sits around in a bottle can sometimes not any better for you then the stuff that comes out of the tap.
My boss recently invested in one of those filter systems for the office kitchen -there is a separate tap for it in the sink. While some have complained that the water isn’t as cold as the water cooler water, I really like it and there aren’t piles of bottles crowding the space or bottles to be changed.
Good quote Al — I like that other one that seems to crop up when gas prices go over $1/litre — “well you pay more for a litre of water!…”
Nothing wrong with Charlottetown’s water. Our office owned a water cooler and we bought a jug at the same time (Cdn. Tire IIRC) which we filled with tap water.
You save a lot of money that way and it’s 99.9999% the same thing as what you get from Prince Edward, Superstore (Ch’town reverse osmosis, Big8/Sobeys, Sparkling Springs/Valley N.S., Culligan (Ch’town reverse osmosis).
Charlottetown has excellent water (Winter River basin) compared to many places in the world. The water dept. does a good job.
I have to agree with Heather that Culligan is an excellent service oriented company. AnytimeI phone a business to buy something from them I am instantly put off by the automated answering service. It may be old fashioned of me, but I still like to hear a human voice on the phone now and then. At Culligan you not only get a human voice, you can almost hear her smiling when she speaks to you. What’s more, when she says “thanks for your order”, she says it like she really means it.