Congratulations Jess Fountain!

Jess Fountain of Procter and Gamble is this month's winner of an Auckland Awesome Service Award.  

She was nominated by Paula Kelly:  

”For ten years now I have suffered from a health condition known as ulcerative colitis, I am on daily medication - with some good days and some bad. 

But a few years ago someone suggested a product to me that should help with my condition. 

Having tried everything I was a bit sceptical.  But low and behold it helped, and not only did it help - but my colonscopy last year confirmed my condition was in remission.   

But over the past 6-12 months I have started to see the product disappear from shelves.  None of the pharmacies or supermarkets have been able to tell me why. 

Although on a recent trip to Australia I noticed they still had some so I stocked up on a few months supply then. 

But recently that supply ran out, and after searching high and low here in Auckland (every pharmacy, every supermarket) it seems all stock here has now gone. 

I'd been out of the product for a month and already noticed my condition deteriorate which caused me grave concern as my wedding is only 7 weeks away and I just cannot afford a flare up right now as it makes me really unwell and impacts significantly on my daily life.  

So in a desperate plea I researched who the supplier was (Procter & Gamble) and contacted them in Australia.  All they could tell me was the product had been deleted – and deleted some good 12 months ago so I would be hard pressed to find any now. 

Still being desperate enough to try and get at least one more bottle of the product to at least get me through to the wedding in good health, I then contacted Proctor & Gamble here in New Zealand. 

I got put onto one of the reps here, and told her of my problem. I explained that the item had been deleted but asked if she know of any stockists who might still happen to have any, or could she source any from Australia. 

She told me to leave it with her.  To be fair I wasn’t expecting a lot in the way of help, I felt like I was fighting a lost battle.  BUT… I got a voice message from her later that day, saying she’s been on the phone and email ALL day, talking to all of her suppliers and even trying to source more product from England, whilst she couldn’t source any internationally she said she had managed to track down just one very last bottle – and it was in Takapuna.   

She said she knew how important it was to me and she didn’t want me to miss out on it, so she said she would drive out there right away and buy it for me and we could then arrange delivery. 

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, not only did she source a bottle of it for me, she then drove to the pharmacy and purchased it with her own money so I wouldn’t miss out.   

She then delivered it to me in person the next day!  I can honestly say I have never come across anyone so helpful, so caring and so willing to go out of their way to help. 

Added to that, what she has done for me has made the most significant difference to my health, and will see me through to my wedding day without the risk of a major flare up. 

She was just incredible, and so genuine in her desire to help.   

Whilst I bought her some flowers to say thank you, I really think this girl is one of a kind when it comes to customer service and I would LOVE to see her rewarded for it.”