{"id":478,"date":"2011-02-04T21:51:30","date_gmt":"2011-02-05T02:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/?p=478"},"modified":"2022-08-01T07:43:24","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T11:43:24","slug":"cascade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/2011\/02\/cascade\/","title":{"rendered":"Cascade"},"content":{"rendered":"

About two-thirds of households<\/a> in the USA have automatic dishwashers.\u00a0 We have one.\u00a0 Dishwashers save time compared to hand-washing — they say dishwashers also save water and energy, but I can’t say.\u00a0 I do know that manufacturers of dishwasher detergent have removed phosphates<\/a> from their formulas to comply with state regulations.\u00a0 I also know that our dishes do not get as clean as before.<\/p>\n

But this is not about phosphates, or the environment, or the ills of government regulation or the good-old-days when people hand-washed their dishes, by gum.\u00a0 This is about the behavior of one corporation, Procter and Gamble, the people who bring Cascade<\/a><\/em> to your supermarket shelves (as well as Pringles<\/em>, Crest<\/em>, Prilosec <\/em>and Charmin<\/em>).\u00a0 P&G products cover the food chain, from one end of you to the other.<\/p>\n

A few months back, we bought some bottles of Cascade Gel (with the grease-fighting power of Dawn<\/em>) at our local Sam’s.\u00a0 When it came time to use them, we found a mass of crystals rattling around the bottom.\u00a0 The contents had separated; the product was useless.\u00a0 At first, I took this as a stuff-happens moment.\u00a0 We took the bottles back to Sam’s for a refund.<\/p>\n

A few weeks later, we cracked open a new bottle of Cascade Gel.\u00a0 No crystals in this one, but this time it was a very thin concoction, about the consistency of anti-freeze.\u00a0 We got another refund from Sam’s and went back to buying powdered detergent.<\/p>\n

Now had I not visited the Cascade website the other day, the issue would have ended right there (instead of right here).\u00a0 Instead, I decided to read some user reviews.\u00a0 Here is one:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
“I have used Cascade products for years. Started to see a problem when the Cascade with Dawn left a film on everything. I tried dishwasher cleaning products, vinegar, and finally tried Cascade Complete. It removed the film on everything, but then there was another problem. I had to start soaking cups and some dishes with bleach because they didn’t come clean the first time they were washed. My dishwasher has a temp booster, so i know the water temperature and pressure isn’t a problem. Having to soak before washing is not acceptable.”<\/em><\/div>\n

\n<\/em><\/div>\n

And here was the telling response from the P&G representative:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Response from Cascade:\u00a0 By\u00a0Monika,\u00a0Cascade Team,\u00a0January 7, 2011<\/em><\/div>\n
While our products did recently undergo a formulation change to comply with state and local legislations that require that automatic dishwasher detergents contain no phosphate. Our Cascade products are formulated to deliver the excellent performance that you have come to expect of Cascade, water hardness and other factors may sometimes have an effect on cleaning. From what you are describing, we recommend that you try our Cascade Action Pacs with Extra Bleach Action. This product is specially formulated to help remove tough stains. I hope you’ll give them a try. I think they will do the trick for stains and filming, they work great for me, a big time tea drinker!<\/em><\/div>\n

\n<\/em><\/div>\n

As you can see, the big time tea-drinking representative (from India?) carefully avoids dealing with the customer’s issue.\u00a0 Instead, this “Cascade Team” member decides that the customer’s hard water is the problem.\u00a0 Other customer information is ignored (after all, what do customers know?)\u00a0 If only the customer had selected one of our other fine products (“Action Pacs with Extra Bleach Action”), we wouldn’t be having this little chat!<\/p>\n

My bullshit detector was pointing in the red by the second sentence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Cascade website gets better and better.\u00a0 One of the “Frequently Asked Questions”\u00a0 just happens to be “Why is my gel product frozen?<\/a>”\u00a0 Hm, that sounds familiar.\u00a0 Below that we see “How can I de-crystallize my Cascade gel product?<\/a>”\u00a0 Their answer is so good, I just have to share it:<\/p>\n

For bigger bottles (155 oz.) say:<\/em><\/h5>\n
Fill \u00bd the kitchen sink with hot water (not boiling), but just the hottest water to come out of your tap.<\/em><\/h5>\n
Make sure the cap is on and keep the bottle in there for one hour.<\/em><\/h5>\n
Then empty your sink. Repeat step 1 and 2 for at least 3 more times (total is 4 hours).<\/em><\/h5>\n
At no time, should the product be heated by any other means.<\/span><\/em><\/h5>\n

All this, for a bottle of dishwasher detergent.\u00a0 Dishwasher detergent!\u00a0 You would think it was nuclear waste.<\/p>\n

What does this tell you?\u00a0 It tells me several things.\u00a0 First, the product development process at P&G is from the Stone Age (it reminds me of Kodak in the 1980s).\u00a0 How a manufacturer could bring a product to market today that is not robust to usual transportation conditions is astounding.\u00a0 This isn’t a case of one person at P&G not doing his or her homework — this is a corporation that doesn’t have the right process in place to prevent mistakes.<\/p>\n

This also says something about quality control at P&G.\u00a0 Even without crystals, how is it that I could buy Cascade “gel” that drains out of the dispenser as soon as I close the door?\u00a0 I assume Cascade is made by the batch, maybe 1000 to 2000 gallons at a time.\u00a0 Does P&G not have a batch testing plan?\u00a0 At Kodak, we tested samples of each batch before coating the chemical on film or paper.\u00a0 Does anyone check batches of Cascade before they go into bottles and out the door?<\/p>\n

But what is really disturbing is how P&G tries to cover its manufacturing shortcomings with marketing and public relations.\u00a0 (In 2007, P&G spent more on advertising<\/a> than any other U.S. company — well over $2 billion.)\u00a0 As evident by their website, they won’t admit quality problems — they spin facts and deflect blame.\u00a0 How can you trust a company that doesn’t listen to its customers?\u00a0 People know when they’re getting the run-around.<\/p>\n

When I was a senior chemical-engineering student, I recall that Procter & Gamble was a well-respected company and a choice interview.\u00a0 I think a number of my classmates went to work for them.\u00a0 But P&G still looks very much like a 1970’s company<\/a> to me.\u00a0 It may have a long history, but it won’t survive to 2020 unless it makes fundamental changes.<\/p>\n

This is a shame, because P&G has some 35,000 US employees (twice that number abroad<\/a>) and no one wants to see another US manufacturing-related job disappear.\u00a0 But really, P&G, this is the 21st Century, for like the last eleven years.\u00a0 Search for tomorrow<\/a> already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About two-thirds of households in the USA have automatic dishwashers.\u00a0 We have one.\u00a0 Dishwashers save time compared to hand-washing — they say dishwashers also save water and energy, but I can’t say.\u00a0 I do know that manufacturers of dishwasher detergent … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2770,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions\/2770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}