doc-alert

Anne LandmanPosting Date:  Tuesday, October 18, 2005
      Driving while Smoking (consumer letter)

      Company/Source:   R.J. Reynolds
      Document Date: 20010216
      Length: 1 page
      Bates No.  525460335  
      Document Images: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/zko20d00 
      URL of this Summary:
http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/525460335-0335.html  

          A customer writes to R.J. Reynolds in 2001 to follow up on a complaint
he had sent the company regarding a problem he had started experiencing with
Winston cigarettes around 1998 (the time RJR started marketing Winstons as "100%
natural no additives").  The lit heads of his cigarettes had started coming off,
frequently while he was driving.  The lit heads would blow back into the car and
burn his shirt, pants, upholstery, etc.

      The letter reads,   
           
              Please review the following correspondence dating back to January
1998.  

              I responded to your letter of February 18,1999 twice via fax, on
June 12, 2000, and again November 21, 2000, without a reply from RJR.

              This was not a pressing matter and as I stated previously that I
am not a letter writer by nature, to this was not aggressively persued (sic).
However I am still experiencing the same problem with lit heads falling
off--last week while driving a lit head flew back into my car and landed between
me and the seat back burning yet another shirt, which is prompting me to write
again.

              It is possible that both faxes were misdirected, but please note
there are no contact numbers on your letterhead.

              Thanks.
              Tom Voelker

              P 631-752-0140
              F 631-752-0298 

            --------------------------------------------------------------
            RJR's response can be seen here: 

            URL:  http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/jzt82a0

            Further searches on the name of this customer reveal the rest of his
correspondence with RJR.  In the first letter he wrote to RJR in 1998, the
customer said he had smoked Winston cigarettes for 20 years and recently had
noticed a change in how they tasted and  burned.  He told RJR that a lack of
smoking areas had led him to smoke in his car, where a lit cigarette heads had
fallen off and burned his pants, the sleeve of a nylon jacket and his car seat. 
He wrote RJR asking for compensation.  RJR had asked him to mail in the
cigarette(s) that had done the damage, plus the package(s) they had come in and
"any small items" that had been damaged for which the customer sought repair or
replacement.  The customer sent RJR an estimate for repair of the car seat.  It
was for $613.00 (http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/dlo20d00).  He had also
mailed RJR his burned shirt, which had cost $45.00
(http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/alo20d00).   There were no documents
indicating whether RJR ever compensated the customer for his losses due to their
defective products, after asking him to supply all this documentation and after
working with this customer over  three years.  It sounded from the
correspondence as though they were seriously considering it, however.  If RJR
did actually reimburse this customer, the fact that they took responsibility for
damage done due to a defective product would be interesting from a legal
standpoint. 

            RJR's responses are on letterhead that says, "We work for smokers." 
The question remains: did they in fact "work" for Mr. Voelker, who sustained
around $700 in property damage due to their products?

            This whole series of correspondence also raises serious questions
about the safety of smoking while driving.  What processes are in place during
the manufacture of cigarettes to guarantee that lit heads of cigarettes won't
come off and burn the driver while driving? Or the passengers?  Or items sitting
in the car (papers on the seat or floor, for example)?  What is the extent of
this problem now, as "Marlboro country" is increasingly located in people's
cars? 
                 
             ----------------------------------------------------
           
            Named Organization: R.J. Reynolds  
            Named Person: Voelker, Tom  
            Type: Consumer letter  
            Litigation:  
            Subject: Fires, liability  

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Anne Landman 

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