Turkey horribly off - advice for takign back please

Norfolk_Jim

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

OP don't blow the situation out of all proportion.

If you go in there screaming for compensation or making wil accusations about unfit meat and trading standards etc, then you're unlikely to get even a refund.

No one is suggesting blowing anything out of proportion Brooker Dave - No one is suggesting anyone goes screaming anywhere or making accusations about unfit meat - where do you get this from?

1) Complain about your bad bird and expect a refund. Theres no need to make any kind of threat and no one, Not even I, have suggested to do that.
2) The person at the store isnt likely to be able to do anything about your ruined day. I think (even if some others dont) that you deserve a little bit of goodwill compensation for that and the only person who could really address that properly is someone in head office.
3) Trading Standards dont just exist to be used as a threat - they are there to help protect consumers from bad practice and harm. You can refer to them legitimately out of concern.

I'm assuming that by posting here the OP is bothered about their experience sufficiently to post about it on a consumer board.

Norfolk_Jim

Blacksheep1979 wrote: »

Why does everyone think that they have to get CEO's MD's etc involved - if a manager can't deal with the complaint then they're not fulfilling part of their job. A director isn't even going to look at a letter/email from a customer let alone reply to it.

Get your knickers untwisted, blimey! What is with people on Boxing day? No one said to contact the CEO or the MD, just send a letter to a director - they get paid enough and should be interested in their customers.
The person at the shop is limited in what they can do about the complaint. If all the OP wants is another bird or a refund then fine, I'm sure they'll be okay about that. But they mentioned the impact it had on their day and the only person who might reasonably address that is head office.
Regardless of if directors do or dont read their mail ( Some mail is) letters to directors do get results even when the mail room staff pass it on to the customer relations person. I would have thought a sorry and a few vouchers wouldn't be too much to ask.

Blacksheep1979

Norfolk_Jim wrote: »

Get your knickers untwisted, blimey! What is with people on Boxing day? No one said to contact the CEO or the MD, just send a letter to a director - they get paid enough and should be interested in their customers.
The person at the shop is limited in what they can do about the complaint. If all the OP wants is another bird or a refund then fine, I'm sure they'll be okay about that. But they mentioned the impact it had on their day and the only person who might reasonably address that is head office.
Regardless of if directors do or dont read their mail ( Some mail is) letters to directors do get results even when the mail room staff pass it on to the customer relations person. I would have thought a sorry and a few vouchers wouldn't be too much to ask.

The manager (proper manager not assistant) of any proper supermarket will have it well within their power to refund and offer a goodwill gesture - I also think it was you that mentioned directors and seeing as MD stands for managing director (the one most people boastfully claim to complain to) it was a fair chance that you meant him or the op would read MD into it.

Brooker_Dave

Norfolk_Jim wrote: »

No one is suggesting anyone goes screaming anywhere or making accusations about unfit meat - where do you get this from?

Your post.

"You deserve more compensation"

"speak to trading standards"

"unfit birds smuggled back into the human food chain"

HTH.

Norfolk_Jim

Well the first port of call is obviously the place you bought it and if the manager deals well with the problem the OP has no need to write. Sorry if that was unclear - I thought it would be self evident but with hindsight I can see that someone might read to write as well as give manager a chance to act regardless of their actions.
Perhaps I could have written Junior Director in order that the OP and anyone else would not think that I mean Managing Director. I thought it was plain enough.

Lets review what I actually wrote;

"And perhaps a reasoned letter to a director of the supermarket explaining how it ruined your Christmas would not go amis."

If I had written THE Director, I'd accept your criticism, but I don't think it a fair one.

I've wrritten to directors a few times and always had a reply from someone, including the director in question - but I wouldn't suggest the Managing Director of a large concern.
I dont get the tone of your words in brackets "(the one most people boastfully claim to complain to)". People share their experience but few of them boast about it.
By the way, I also write letters praising managers and staff to directors and owners (especially of small concerns) and I would hope it works in their favour. Are you perhaps a manager or in retail for this suggestion to be so much a sore point for you?

Norfolk_Jim

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Your post.

"You deserve more compensation"

"speak to trading standards"

"unfit birds smuggled back into the human food chain"

HTH.

Yes, the OP deserves something for the nature of the problem. A special event purchase that can not be replicated. Some vouchers perhaps or a discount - something for goodwill - hardly the stuff that ClaimsRus are going to be interested in, neither do I think my post was suggesting such or would be taken that way.

Speak to trading standards - Yes, because the OP may not be alone. Birds dont get into the state described overnight. The impression I got from the OP is that care was taken to ensure the bird was refrigerated adequately so why had it become in the state described and was it a one off.

Unfit birds - There was a huge, huge, scandal some time back where rejected for human consumption birds were being fraudulently fed back into the human food system - it included catering packs and other portion packs and was a vast operation. It took a big operation to bust it and the brains behind it fled the country and is, I think, still at liberty.
Trading standards cant do their job and scams like that one go undetected unless the public bring things to their attention.
Trading Standards are there to help, that why we pay to have them there.

Some time ago I found some very sharp splinters of wood in a well known brand of gravy granule. There were several and very sharp, which worried me. I wrote to the manufacturer with the offending splinters. Eventually I recieved a stock letter (no pun intended) and a £5 voucher - Which isn't what I'd wanted, I wasn't looking for compensation or angling for vouchers, I was worried about peoples safety. They said it was from a pallett. Just how much pallet was out there for people to choke on. I wish then that I had gone to trading standards about it.

I wonder what the OP thinks of our tiff, amazed I'm sure. But it would be interesting to know how they read the well intended suggestions

Just reviewed my original posting - Lets put your examples in context shall we?

"You will be making a complaint though I hope - Putrid Turkeys are bad for everyone. And perhaps a reasoned letter to a director of the supermarket explaining how it ruined your Christmas would not go amis. You deserve more compensation than the cost price of the bird. You could also speak to trading standards at your local council in case the supplier has been scammed by having unfit birds smuggled back into the human food chain as happened with chicken a year or two ago."

I think it reads quite differently in context, dont you?

Freddie_Snowbits

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

I trust you already have a team compensation lawyers at the ready for the forthcoming claim from the theives who sold you the now usless dead turkey?

There, that told me. Mind you, you should see my cat now!

custardy wrote: »

fair enough.i'll let my 15 years chef'ing around the world in various fine dining kiitchens bow to your knowledge

Aye, and about that parcel that came from the ...

custardy

you should worry about those perfectly good turkey left overs you binned
nice turkey ala king is great for boxing day

noonesperfect

Well I wouldn't chance it, not with poultry that was already in a dodgy state. I would be more circumspect with red meat though.

You might be ok if you've got your full quota of stomach acid, but if you're on medication to switch it off you're open to all the bugs and nasties.

custardy

noonesperfect wrote: »

Well I wouldn't chance it, not with poultry that was already in a dodgy state. I would be more circumspect with red meat though.

You might be ok if you've got your full quota of stomach acid, but if you're on medication to switch it off you're open to all the bugs and nasties.

risk what?using cooked turkey the day after its cooked?
or for the pedants that will say they only cooked part of the bird and some was left raw
if the use by was the 26th then that would be perfectly fine too