Following my previous post, here is the response from the biowashball distributor.
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Fw: Unfair public statements
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:50:02 +0200
From: Marietjie Lacomme
To:
CC:
Ian,
For the record, I never said we didn’t mention the Soapnut, and we persist that we did not and in no cicumstance ever discriminated against the product “Soapnut” and that nowhere was there ever referred to this product and deforestation other than “Nepal & India” of which you are indeed not related I’m sure. And yes I did remove this sentence from all our marketing material in SA when Eli phoned me for the following reasons,
1. With the highest regard & consideration for all selling this product, as I did not want to offend any one or have a negative effect on their involvement with Soapnuts & their businesses as financial times are difficult enough for all of us. We at Health Technology Products have a believe system that there is enough for ever one and rule number 1 is never to critizise another product.
2. For the spesific reason of wanted to verify this fact with the manufacturer and why they use this on their marketing material, and which I did.
3. We do not need this to sell our product as the majority of our sales are on a referral basis from satisfied consumers.
I should think that did you in the first place phoned me and consulted with me on this before making such a rediculous public statement which has indeed left a very bad reflection on you as a person and Ethical Co-op, then you would have realised that this was unintentional, I trust that you will now again find a reason to justify your priggishness.
As for the laundry balls and washing balls you mentioned, these have been proven as fake and at this very moment we are well aware of serious lawsuites worldwide against these manufacturers and distribution channels as these products have caused major damage to washing machines and laundry.
It is not my Intention to change your opinion about BIOWASHBALL® as you are but a drop in a bucket, but should you wish to get enlightened about a superior product which is indeed in high demand (which you admitted to yourself) and for a very good reason as in 3, see for yourself the specs herewith below which has been acknowledged worldwide and with very high ratings.
You will also notice that there are other similar products on the market today in liquid form with the same technology using micro organisms (Probac being just one of them). Some of our agents are working hand in hand with this product, do you have a problem with them as well?
1. BIOWASHBALL® has an ISO/IEC 17025 rating. Certificate no: ROK0802C
2. Patent Protection on BIOWASHBALL®
The ceramic of detergent free BIOWASHBALL® is made using various types of natural soil and rock (mineral) and processing TM microorganism such as lactobacillus, yeast, photosynthetic bacteria under our patent technology.
BiowashballⓇ technology protected under one or more of the following patents : 0409672; 0409340; 0384519; 0348214; 0337503; 0326896; 0326122; 0325294; 0323866; 0313633; 0313135; 0277576; 0269460; 0263102; 10-0651014; 10-0616200; 0384519
3. The BIOWASHBALL® is composed uniquely of natural ceramics contained in a plastic non-toxic sphere with only natural pigment, which makes the BIOWASHBALL®, 100% recyclable after the three year period.
4. Registered as a Medical product in Switzerland “BIOWASHBALL® is labeled Swiss Pharmacode 3769669”
5. BIOWASHBALL® carries the CE marking – This certifies that the product and company(manufacturer), comply with the European Community regulations for Eco-Friendly and Green products.
6. Listed in the Green Product directory in France.
7. Safe for Biolytix and Grey water systems.
8. Waiting for the EUR 1 classification, which means that we can now import a green product into SA as to pay less import duties which will be more economical for us as importers and for our consumers who is currently doing their laundry at only R14.00 a month, saves water and electricity.
I still feel you owe us a public apology but quite frankly would not expect this from a person or entity like yours. We therefore trust that you will not comply to our demands and that you will stay uninformed and unenlightened about our products and therefor wish you not to respond to this e-mail.
Yours truly,
Marietjie Lacomme – representing all BIOWASHBALL® agents & retail outlets.
PS. Limit others and you limit yourself.
I must be honest. That has to be one of the worst ‘formal’ public relations replies I have been exposed to.
Not only is the response littered with semantic and spelling errors, but it also suffers from the use of nonsensical and often verbose contradictory statements. However, the most disturbing aspect of ‘the response’ has to be the ill informed and libellous assaults on you, Ian Gilfillan, and the organisations that you represent. The response is simply unnacceptable.
In essence this ‘public relations’ response will no doubt cause more harm to BIOWASHBALL® agents and retailers, than any of your previous publications could have. Consequently, Ms Lacomme can only fault herself and, in my opinion, her obviously unsatisfactory public relation skills, for any further backlash towards herself and the company she represents.
Hmmm, I must admit I don’t know the whole stroy, but I found their reply quite decent. Sure, there are some mistakes, possible advertising misstatements, and a harsh ending, but I suppose it was building for some time.
And besides, given that the washball works, who really cares? 🙂
Hans – you obviously have nothing better to do with your time than ‘wax lyrical’ and throw in a lot of meaningless jargon in response to a letter that you had no place in finding fault with. I would much rather pay R480 for a product that very obviously does work and have no proper PR team (which should not be necessary when selling jolly washing balls!!!!!) than pay R580 because an extra R100 of the product had to go to salaries for these people to think of nice ways in which to respond to pathetic complaints. I take my hat off to her for bothering to respond!
GO BIOWASHBALL!!!!
S
I can’t believe that people can be so gullible and oblivious to the fact that these washing balls are just a scam. If it sounds too good to be true, well, then it is. They even state that these balls will save electricity and water. Go figure that one out, it doesn’t make any sense. Cheers Ian for exposing this.
Pierre, I guess they say it saves water cos with a biowashball you don’t need to run a rinse cycle? Hence your washing machine is not running the water and electricity it would have been running with the rinse cycle on.
Too good to be true? Or maybe that somebody has just been advancing in science and technology. I’m still doing my own research on this product, so I have yet to find out if its for me or not.
For anyone interested have a look here the same ball same marking but the site has a lot more info on it.
http://www.washingball.com
I have been using the Biowasball for 10 months using rain water and washing at 30 degrees C. I regret to say that I am unhappy with the results. My kitchen towels have a stale smell after washing them and storing them in a drawer. Grease spots on the kitchen towels, marks on clothing and my grand children’s clothing are not washed out.
Here in the tourism village where I live, a guest house owner used one of these balls for a while on the bed linen and has reverted to using washing powder, because she says she has no time to pre-treat marks on the sheets.
I am going to experiment by pre-treating my laundry with Clean Green and then wash without the Biowasball and any other detergent.