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Soda Disasters: Coke, Pepsi Customers Share Complaints on Twitter

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Soda Disasters: Coke, Pepsi Customers Share Complaints on Twitter
Cans of Pepsi and Coke are shown in a news stand refrigerator display rack in New York on April 22, 2005. Mark Lennihan/AP Photo
Petr Svab
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Has a can of soda ever exploded in your car? Fridge? Purse? Have you ever ordered a 12-pack of soda and received some dented, flat, or outright empty cans? You’re not alone.

Soda companies handle a plethora of complaints, and thanks to social media, we can now peek into the minefield that is customer relations.

We’ve looked through the PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Twitter feeds and picked the most common and the most egregious problems customers complained about in the month of June.

Here they are:

“So these exploded in my cabinet and are growing something green inside. That can’t be good,” posted user William W.

User Lucy, It’s Whatever opened “a new 6-pack today and found an empty, sealed can.”

User David Yañez found something strange at the bottom of a coke bottle and we don’t want to know what it is.

“A can just #exploded in my car!” shared user Mirjam de Groof. “Car a #mess, clothes a mess and I’m still thirsty!”

User WOLFPACK1 apparently obtained a flat bottle of Coke from a vending machine.

And user james shaw found a rather unusual variety of Fanta.

User Leisa Ashton wrote she bought this rather underwhelming Coke Zero from a vending machine. Can one perhaps look at the bottle as half full?

 And just for a good measure, let’s throw in a couple more can explosions.

And this is how harsh the market can be for a soda company.

After user Mike Hudoba couldn’t resolve an issue with a Coke machine, he let the company know just how the free market works.

Of course, we looked at Pepsi too. Here are some of their June mishaps:

“Pulled a can out of the cherry Pepsi case and it’s sealed but 75% empty,” wrote user Ly.

And how about this Pepsi truck leaving unsolicited soda on the street?

Sometimes people received too little in the package, other times they received more then they expected.

Like user Power_upo’s aunt, who found something resembling a caramelized clump of sugar in her can of Pepsi.

And Pepsi can explode too.

More dangerously, this customer’s can of Pepsi shot up a piece of metal during opening. This can’t be good for marketing.

And speaking of marketing roadblocks, user Genesis wrote she found a roach in her bottle of Pepsi.

To be sure, the companies sell billions of gallons of soda every year, so it makes sense, here and there, there will be some bugs---hopefully, mostly figurative ones.

We’ve reached out to user Genesis as well as to The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo. We will update the story if we receive a response.

Update: Twitter user Genesis responded on June 29, saying she hadn’t yet contacted Pepsi’s customer service, but planned to do so.

Petr Svab
Petr Svab
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Petr Svab is a reporter covering New York. Previously, he covered national topics including politics, economy, education, and law enforcement.
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