10 Months Later: The Story of My Pogo Water Bottle

All the way back in March of 2014 my wife bought me a Pogo water bottle from Target. Unfortunately this water bottle from Pogo was defective and the water spout that pops up would separate from the straw down in the bottle, rendering the water bottle useless.

We had lost the receipt for it so I contacted Pogo directly about my concerns. That was many emails and 10 months ago.  Below is a transcript of those emails. I left out my mailing address and the auto-responses that annoyingly arrived in my inbox every time I replied to an email from Pogo. It all starts out pretty normal but as the amount of time became more absurd, so did some of my emails.

03/26/2014
To whom it may concern:

A couple weeks ago I purchased one of your 24 oz Pogo drink bottles. Unfortunately, it has been nothing but trouble since the second day. The part of the cap that pops up to drink out of pulls up a little bit when you open it which creates a gap that lets air through and not water.

Consequently every time I open it I have to push it back down if I want to get any water out. Last night was the worst. As I tried to push it back down it flew off the top entirely and nearly hit me in the eye.

I can’t imagine that all of your products behave like this but this particular bottle has been completely useless for me. I would appreciate a response and replacement or a refund.

Thank you,
Tim Yordy

Pogo’s Response on 03/30/2014:

Greetings from Pogo!

Thanks very much for your purchase and for contacting us! I’m sorry you are having trouble with the flip straw. Let me see if I can help. Is the straw fully and firmly attached pressed into the lid? Sometimes if the straw is not fully engaged the suction is weak.

If this does not help let me know and I can send you a replacement.

Best regards,

Jordan

My Reply on 03/30/2014:

That is the problem. Every time I open the bottle it comes up a little bit and I have to force it back down to be able to get any water at all out. So yes, if you could replace it, I would really appreciate it.

Thank you,
Tim Yordy

Pogo’s Response on 04/02/2014:

I’m sorry to hear you’re having problems with your straw. I’d love to replace it, and I’ll be sure to notify our engineering team of this issue so we can get it resolved right away.

Please let me know what color you need, your full name and address.

Thanks so much,
Jordan

My Reply on 04/04/2014:

I don’t care what color it is.

Thank you.

I allowed several weeks to go by before contacting them again on 05/01/2014:

Hello, it has been nearly a month and I still have not received my replacement water bottle. Can you tell me when this item was shipped?

Thank you,
Tim Yordy

Pogo’s Response on 05/01/2014:

Hi there – Thanks for checking in! Sorry for the delay – we are waiting for replacement parts to arrive at our office. Once they do, I’ll make sure yours is shipped.

Thanks for your patience,
Jordan

My Reply on 06/22/2014:

Hi there,

It has literally been 3 months now since I originally contacted you about the problem with my water bottle. Seeing as we are in the heart of summer right now, I am getting rather thirsty and fear that I might be suffering from dehydration soon since to this day you have done nothing to remedy the problem with your product.

When can I expect a resolution to this?

Pogo’s Response on 06/22/2014:

Hi Tim –

Please accept my apology for the delay on this. I will make sure to put you on the list for a replacement lid this week. We send it via U.S. mail and it can take up to 5 days to ship.

Thanks so much for your patience,
Jordan

And then my response TODAY:

Dear Jordan,

I finally received my replacement water bottle today and I really appreciate it. You may remember from our last email exchange back in June of 2014 that I had begun to suffer the affects of dehydration due to my lack of a functioning water bottle. As you can tell from my emailing you right now, that I managed to survive the Summer. Squeezing sweat out of my socks to drink might not have been the most tasty, but it got the job done.

Once Fall arrived I survived off of the juice inside some crab apples that were scattered around on the ground. Winter in some ways has been easier as I’ve been able to stay hydrated by eating snow. You do have to eat a lot of the stuff though, what with the way water expands when it freezes. Not much water content in each snowflake.

Anyway, just wanted to thank you again for getting this sent out. I look forward to using my new Pogo water bottle.

When I got home from work today I could see the mailman’s footprints in the snow leading away from our mailbox and up onto our porch. I got a little excited knowing that this meant some kind of package had been delivered. When I saw the box said “Pogo” on it, I thought to myself, “Why does that company sound familiar?” Yep, it had been that long that I couldn’t even remember who they were anymore. Imagine my surprise when I opened the box to find my shiny new Pogo water bottle. I can only hope that they have been using the last 10 months to improve the design. Hopefully I won’t nearly put my eye out again.