Colgate leaps into action -- but secretly
Within a day of my call to Colgate Canada about the tube of toothpaste I picked up at the local dollar store, all the tubes have disappeared.
In the United States, Colgate is picking up tubes of counterfeit toothpaste wherever it is found. Of course, Americans have been kept abreast of developments by way of announcements from Colgate-Palmolive and the Food and Drug Administration.
We've heard precious little from Colgate Canada or from Health Canada, yet Colgate seems to be taking similar actions here.
When I spoke to the Customer Service Representative at Colgate Canada, I provide the location of the dollar store at which I purchased the suspicious tube of toothpaste. The discussion took place on Thursday. I dropped by the dollar store this morning, Saturday, and I noticed a big blank space where I estimated twenty tubes of this "Colgate" toothpaste were on display.
On the one hand, I congratulate Colgate on taking proactive action to remove the fraudulently labelled product, assuming it was Colgate who took this action. I strongly suspect it was.
On the other hand, I would like more transparency. If Colgate is removing these products, there really ought to be a better effort made to make Canadian consumers aware of what is happening. It will help educate them on what to look for when making their purchases, and to warn them to review what they have in their homes right now, in case they've already purchased the faux toothpaste.
Right now there are only bloggers talking about this north of the border (a nod to Wolfvillewatch for checking out the local dollar stores in that particularly nice part of Nova Scotia).
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Comments
Good for you. You may have saved some lives.
But, as you say....Colgate needs to do more. I haven't checked the shelves where I am, but I will.
If a company puts human welfare before revenue, they get my respect big-time.
Posted by: anonymous at June 16, 2007 07:37 PM
*
Another wonderful product from The People's Republic of "I don't give a shit".
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Posted by: neo at June 16, 2007 08:45 PM
Notice, Canuckians, that this problem was detected by independent, non-government agents, and that once the problem was identified it was quickly and effectively fixed by independent, non-government agents, namely the private enterprises whose reputations, profits and livelihoods would be endangered by selling shoddy, dangerous or fraudulent goods.
Another slam-dunk argument for not imitating the Chinese by expanding your Canadian government even more, by giving more money and more power to the very same useless governmental parasites who were supposed to protect us (they claimed) from dangerous goods.
To fight foreign commies with domestic communist policies would ultimately expose Canadians to far more dangerous goods by stifling businesses and taxpayers more and more, which would leave people with less and less money in their pockets and fewer and fewer legitimate places to spend it, thus driving them to purchase more and more goods in grey markets and black markets.
Posted by: at June 16, 2007 08:57 PM
You may have saved some lives.
Oh, I doubt that. We don't even know if the toothpaste was tainted. Anyone in or around Kitchener-Waterloo willing to run a GC or GLC on a sample?
Posted by: Steve Janke at June 16, 2007 09:19 PM
Oh, I doubt that. We don't even know if the toothpaste was tainted. Anyone in or around Kitchener-Waterloo willing to run a GC or GLC on a sample?
....that's why I used the word "may". :-)
Any action anyone takes that is essentially good has to have good consequences somewhere, even if we don't know what they are. That's just a personal philosophy I have.
Posted by: anonymous at June 16, 2007 10:24 PM
We've heard precious little from Colgate Canada or from Health Canada, yet Colgate seems to be taking similar actions here.
As I have said before where are the overpaid idiots in health Canada who we pay to find these thing.
Reminds me of when Health Canada and Quebec health people where saying the new desease in Asia was nothing to worry about. That was SARS and people in Asia were dyeing. Is it any surprise that Canada was the only Western country to have deaths from SARS.
Posted by: at June 16, 2007 11:39 PM
Looking at my tube of Crest toothpaste I notice the following:
Distr. by/par PROCTER & GAMBLE INC., TORONTO, ONTARIO M5W 1C5
Questions? 1 800 668 0152
P&G don't say they manufactured the toothpaste, only distributed it. That worries me. Who made the stuff and what control and inspection was performed on the Crest ???
Since you have the hammer now Steve, perhaps you could call P&G and find out what they are doing with Crest toothpaste.
Posted by: Thomas at June 16, 2007 11:50 PM
...went down to the local Loonie store and bought all the Colgate tubes to use them in my radiator.
I tell ya it sure did plug up any dang leaks and the car is running cooler, and has a fresh, new, clean, mint aroma when driving down the road.
Don't need dat 6 year old pine cone air fresher hanging from my rear view mirror nomore, just haveta crank up the ol' A/C...
Cool!
;-)
Posted by: tomax7 at June 17, 2007 06:17 AM
"Anyone in or around Kitchener-Waterloo willing to run a GC or GLC on a sample?"
I wonder if Dr. Joe, chemistry maven, would be interested in doing some tests. The only thing is, he's not in your area. He's in Montreal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_A._Schwarcz
http://oss.mcgill.ca/schwarcz.php
Posted by: Gabby in QC at June 17, 2007 01:10 PM
...guess should have posted in the blogstream, did it on the next one.
Went to Dollar store here in Calgary, and no Colgate on the shelves now. Same with Scope mouthwash, different companies, but noticeably missing from the shelves.
Posted by: tomax7 at June 17, 2007 09:46 PM
Hey, Steve. You made the front page of the Globe!
Posted by: WW at June 19, 2007 11:05 AM
Hey Steve, saw you on the telly today re the toothpaste thing.....good on you....
Posted by: argee at June 19, 2007 09:41 PM
 
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