I don't know about you, but I had trouble sleeping last week.  Too much anticipation.  Who else has been counting the days until the start of the NBA playoffs?  Nobody?  Yeah, maybe that was indigestion keeping me up.  But how about those NHL playoffs?  What could be more compelling than watching a bunch of guys skate around on ice in April?  Just feels right, doesn't it? 

Maybe the NBA and NHL playoffs don't provide much reason for celebration, but it doesn't matter, because The SportDork has another reason to celebrate.  Are you ready for a SportDork update?  I am. 

Some of you may remember that back in October, shortly after moving to England, The SportDorks discovered that we were the victims of shoddy manufacturing practices when we opened a new box of re-sealable plastic bags.  Our plastic bag issues were detailed in the following SportDork.com entry, Consumer Activism 101: http://sportdork.com/2007/10/11/consumer-activism-101.aspx

For those of you who are link-averse, here are a few pictures from that entry that demonstrate the afore-mentioned manufacturing flaws:

Never one to sit back and suffer injustice at the hands of a multi-national conglomerate, The SportDork immediately penned the following letter to ZipLoc:

I recently purchased a box of 17 defective gallon ZipLoc bags - the upper plastic edge had not been attached to the zipper portion of the bag.  I was extremely disappointed, as I took the box to England with me since they don't have good plastic bags here and I have been a loyal ZipLoc user for many years.  The UPC code is 137008888.  I can send it and a few of the bags to you if necessary. I am not in a position to return the box to the store where I bought it, as I am in England for the next year.  I am requesting that ZipLoc remedy this situation by either refunding my purchase price or providing replacement product (sent to my home address as shown in the form I filled out).  I am very disappointed by this experience and hope you will restore my faith in the ZipLoc brand by taking appropriate action.  Otherwise I will have to find another supplier.  Thank you.

Unfortunately, the bags we purchased were Hefty One-Zip Bags, not ZipLoc, rendering my letter to ZipLoc useless, and somewhat embarrassing.  After quickly sending ZipLoc a second letter asking them to ignore my first letter, I decided to send the letter shown above to Hefty (after replacing all instances of "ZipLoc" with "Hefty").  I had some concern that the folks at ZipLoc might contact the people at Hefty and tell them to be on the lookout for some guy trying to scam plastic bag companies by claiming to have purchased defective product and requesting a refund, but Mrs. SportDork assured me that they probably have other things keeping them busy.  I wasn't convinced, but then she reminded me that even if they were to come after me, extradition from England would be a bitch, and I was sold. 

So why am I spending today's entry writing about a box of defective Hefty bags from last October?  Because now that The SportDorks have been back in the U.S. for a few weeks, I've had time to open all of our mail, and I am happy to report that victory is mine!

I think this is pretty conclusive evidence of the power of a well-written letter.  Two dollars and eighty cents off one package of Hefty or Kordite product.  Score!  Notice the verbiage.  Hefty OR Kordite product.  First, I'm not even locked into another box of Hefty One-Zips.  Look at all those products in the picture on the left!  I can go with a cake pan, plastic plates, garbage bags - the possibilities are endless.  And second, I don't even have to stay with Hefty.  If the moment moves me, Kordite is there for the taking.  Never mind the fact that I've never even heard of Kordite, and have no idea what they make.  If I want Kordite, I can have Kordite.  I'm just glad the coupon doesn't expire until December 31, 2008, because I may need that much time to figure out what I'm going to do with my $2.80.

Obviously, there was a lot of excitement around SportDork Headquarters when I came across this coupon, but Mrs. SportDork and I weren't the only ones that were fired up to know that we had been vindicated.  Even the squirrel that is living in our attic came out to offer his congratulations:

Meet the new SportDork.com intern!!  I provide housing, and in exchange, he monitors the news wires for stories of interest.  I sent him on the road last week for his first assignment:

A shot from the Eli Manning wedding reception.  I still can't figure out how the little guy got through security.  Or how he manages to hold the camera steady.  Nice work, Eli!  Looks like he's scored two trophies this year.