Sainsbury's kitchen appliances

dwhl

hi everyone,

am fuming!! Just wanted your advice on this letter I am about to send off: who should I address it to?


I am writing out of sheer frustration at the lack of communication and the incompetence that I have received from your staff.

I ordered a Hoover frost free freezer on 04/10/05 and was informed by your website that delivery would normally take place in 3-7 days. This was also confirmed to me by your sales team.

However, after numerous telephone calls and false reassurances that the freezer would be delivered soon I was finally given a delivery date of 24/10/05. I was even given a time of 1pm-5pm. I duly took a day off work to facilitate this process and in fact purchased some perishable goods in preparation of the delivery. However, no delivery arrived and when I telephoned Sainsbury’s I was informed that the problem lay not with them but the delivery company. I telephoned the delivery company myself and was given another story different to that told by Sainsbury’s.

I was promised a telephone call by Sainsbury’s customer service on the 25/10/05 but it took me to prompt your staff for this call to emerge. I was guaranteed a delivery date of 27/10/05 and was informed that no further mistakes would be made. I telephoned Sainsbury’s again on the 26/10/05 to confirm delivery and was told that the date would indeed be the 27/10/05 and that the time of delivery would be between 3pm and 7pm.

Again I took leave from work and awaited for the delivery. I decided to telephone the delivery company to again confirm the delivery time and, to my disbelief, was told that they would not be delivering the freezer on 27/10/05. I immediately telephoned Sainsbury’s and after being placed on hold for 15minutes was informed that regrettably a mistake had been made and that delivery would not occur. Your team were also unable to guarantee another date and hence I cancelled the order. I asked for a refund and was told that this would take place within 30 days. I understand that you follow distance selling regulations but this appears preposterous especially as you were extremely quick in taking the money from my account! I asked to speak to a customer service manager and was informed that none were available but that I would receive a phone call from them later that morning. Unsurprisingly, this did not materialise.

I am extremely disappointed in the service I have received from Sainsbury’s.
Firstly, you on several occasions have made false promises about delivery times, presumably to entice new customers. Secondly, no-one appears to take responsibility for any mistakes and you appear to want to backtrack and blame other parties. Thirdly, there appears to be a lack of communication between customer and Sainsbury’s. It would have been courteous of your staff to have informed me that delivery would not be taking place when you were aware of this. I have lost two days work and have made countless prolonged telephone calls to your 0870 number incurring great expense on both accounts. I have also lost my perishable goods which I purchased on 24/10/05.

It appears that there is an air of complacency amongst your staff and a “don’t care” attitude. I hope that this is not indicative of your general practice as Sainsbury’s has for a long time had an upstanding reputation.
I certainly hope that this event is not commonplace amongst your customers and that you are able to refund me my money more speedily and that you feel that an apology and some form of monetary recompense is appropriate.

Yours sincerely,

Please offer any comments before I send it off

Thanks

David

mike_the_bike_2

Attn: Justin King, Chief Executive
Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd
33 Holborn
London
EC1N 2HT

As regard your letter..clearly the frustration you have encountered comes across but I would personally make it far shorter and to the point e.g Two failed appointments and two wasted days off work as a result...

He won't read it of course and his dept will pass it over to the relevant department but because you have written to him personally you WILL get a quick response

webmasterpolo

To the MD is always best, like mike said you'll be lucky to get a response direct form the MD (I got one hand signed by Tesco CEO Terry Leahy once..).

Reducing the length of the letter would be a good start, you could even spilt it if you still want to include full details with a bullet pointed summary at the top and then the full explaination below. Facts like c/s manager did not call back when promised is a big deal and should be one of the bullet points, it's outrageous they fob you off with such lies.

Include in your letter the cost of the perishable goods and the value of your time off. Ask for suitable compensation for these. In addtion since they have breached the contract of sale any additional charges you incurr for seeking the same item form an alternative supplier is legally boudn to be covered by them. Draw their attention to this, and make enquiries with other suppliers for prices inc rapid delivery charges. State these in your letter.

Give them a deadline to respond, 14 working days, and state the date itself so they have no trouble working it out. This will encourage them to get on and deal with it. If they fail to respond within this time span, write to them again enclosing a copy of your original letter, send it recorded delivery and give them 7 working days.

If this fails then start making phone calls, 0800 636262 option 0 for customer services accoridng to saynoto0870.com.

Hopefully with Sainsburys reasonably good reputation they should act sooner rather than later.


Good luck.