The BIG Kahuna

It stinks to be ripped off but when someone rips you off and does so promoting honor and trust it makes it even worse.

Meet Two Marines And A Truck: www.twomarinesandatruck.com. When you think Marines you envision strength but more importantly honor. Honor is everything to a Marine. Here’s the Marines pledge to honor:

Honor requires each Marine to exemplify the ultimate standard in ethical and moral conduct.  Honor is many things; honor requires many things.  A U.S. Marine must never lie, never cheat, never steal, but that is not enough.  Much more is required.  Each Marine must cling to an uncompromising code of personal integrity, accountable for his actions and holding others accountable for theirs.  And, above all, honor mandates that a Marine never sully the reputation of his Corps (see it here).

So why am I writing about Two Marines And A Truck? Because this company that represents itself as Marines miserably failed at the honor code. Two Marines And A Truck strangely have  the same copy that WE wrote for our client Humboldt Storage and Moving. Honor? You make the call.

Here is the copy we were hired to write for our client:

At Humboldt we understand that moving can be a stressful and unsettling experience. We look at every aspect of the moving process from your point of view and tirelessly work to make you feel comfortable and relaxed. We pledge our commitment to this promise, and that assurance extends to every level of our company, and every employee.

We believe that the first 100 years of our reputable history was only a beginning. What we see now is a great opportunity to reach new heights in our business and in our own lives, by making you, our most important asset, feel at ease throughout the entire moving process. This is our goal for the next 100 years.

You have my word on it.

Jim Sullivan
President

Now check out Two Marines And a Trucks “copy”:

At Two Marines and a Truck we understand that moving can be a stressful and unsettling experience.  We look at every aspect of the moving process from your point of view and tirelessly work to make you feel comfortable and relaxed. We pledge our commitment to this promise, and that assurance extends to every level of our company, and every employee. 

We believe that the first 234 years of our reputable Marine Corps history was only a beginning. What we see now is a great opportunity to extend our service to our country, to our community by employing motivated veterans to make you, our most important asset, feel at ease throughout the entire moving process. This is our goal for the next 100 years. 

You have my word on it.

Nick Baucom

We have your “word” on it Nick? Honor…seems you have little of that. But wait there’s more they then go on to more copy.

Here’s the copy we wrote for our client:

1. We promise to work diligently to add trust, not stress, to the moving process.

2. Your belongings are safe and secure for the entire moving and storage process.

3. You can always expect us to be efficient, professional and service-oriented.

4. We will handle every one of your belongings as if it were our own.

5. You will have all of the information that you need from us up front to successfully budget your move.

6. We will quickly address any and all issues that occur during the moving process.

This is what they are calling their copy:

Two Marines and a Truck Pledge
1.    We promise to work diligently to add trust, not stress, to the move.
4.   Your belongings are safe and protected during the entire move.
5.   You can always expect us to be efficient, professional and proficient.
6.   We will handle every one of your belongings as if it were our own.
7.  You will have all of the information that you need from us up front to budget your move.
8.  We will quickly address any and all issues that occur during the moving process.

Our client then contacts them to let them know that their Marine honor system has gone askew, here is their response via email:

Dan-

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.  Without admitting any wrong-doing, I am working on changes now.

Semper Fi

Nick E. Baucom
703-623-5288 office

www.twomarinesandatruck.com

Wow Nick Baucom even in defeat you are unhonorable. These guys did go on to change the copy but it’s still like our client’s (see it here on copyscape). They just tweaked what our client so honestly paid for. If they had any real honor they’d write it themselves, how about it Marines?

But thanks to the Internet we are able to expose Two Marines And A Truck and soon this article will appear in a Google search for that company for all to see. So think twice about trusting a company that has this kind of honor, you really want them in your house?

What say you kahunas, honor or not?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 9:27 am and is filed under Branding Blunders, Branding News, Just When You Think You've Seen Everything, The Brand Crap List, What an Ass. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.