Approved food discussion thread

chalkysoil

Raksha wrote: »

There's somebody out there who needs training in packing

exactly. I can see by the packing notes that they gather & pack in 5 minutes flat but a bit more care by the worst packers would save us a load of grief. Time for Approved Foods to reply I think.

katholicos

chalkysoil, thanks for letting me know what it said on the AF website about leaky goods. Perhaps they should inform DPD?

Andrea has replied to my complaint: In response to my complaint for the £1.22 refund i received this email (this is an excerpt of her short response....

"If you could let me know what sort of refund you felt was more appropriate to the circumstances."

What do you think folks? I don't like the idea of me having to propose renumeration, any ideas what my response should be? TIA

hermum

The whole box should be refunded in my opinion. Maybe a few like that & the packers will be taught how to pack, if it isn't pure common sense.
Has she seen the picture of how the box arrived to you?
As they are an online trading company they should ensure that every care is taken to make sure that it all gets to you intact.

katholicos

hermum wrote: »

The whole box should be refunded in my opinion. Maybe a few like that & the packers will be taught how to pack, if it isn't pure common sense.
Has she seen the picture of how the box arrived to you?
As they are an online trading company they should ensure that every care is taken to make sure that it all gets to you intact.

I emailed andrea the photo and i as offered/paid a total of only £1.22 for the cartons of juice that were split/affected.

katylou6180

had my delivery today, ordered bottles of 7up and cola as well as cereal, oreos etc etc, the way the packing is done was a bit er.....random...i thought as I ordered a case of 7up(as the advertisement was case of 24) it would stay in a case like normal, and cola too but they were put in random boxes in my order, all on the one side of the small boxes inside the big box. I am very lucky to have a good carrier round here that doesn't "boot the box" or anything on its way to me and they are aware of where it's coming from and what's heavy and what's not and stack accordingly..leaving it to stand on the heavier side! .I have had mishaps before, but since DPD have taken over it's been lovely down here in suffolk and my drivers wife has now caught the AF bug

chalkysoil

katholicos wrote: »

"If you could let me know what sort of refund you felt was more appropriate to the circumstances."

What do you think folks? I don't like the idea of me having to propose renumeration, any ideas what my response should be? TIA

The value of the goods; they would have been unsaleable if they'd been returned. No one at A F would have cleaned and dried them, assuming they'd have survived at all in that box in the state it was in.
If it was my company I'd also offer at least a voucher as a sorry - Tesco etc give double the difference on mistakes in store, various food companies have sent me vouchers when I've raised issues with them. Being mean on things like this doesn't create goodwill, we all feel for you too.

Actually I was thinking about your parcel on & off during the political debate thingy tonight, and thinking about my crushed biscuits, broken open cous cous, dented tins, missing 59p last time, and so on and wondering if I should have raised them as an issue at the time. Along with having to clean up after my broken orange juices. Hmmm

Furthermore we should name & shame the packer!

katholicos

chalkysoil wrote: »

The value of the goods; they would have been unsaleable if they'd been returned. No one at A F would have cleaned and dried them, assuming they'd have survived at all in that box in the state it was in.
If it was my company I'd also offer at least a voucher as a sorry - Tesco etc give double the difference on mistakes in store, various food companies have sent me vouchers when I've raised issues with them. Being mean on things like this doesn't create goodwill, we all feel for you too.

Actually I was thinking about your parcel on & off during the political debate thingy tonight, and thinking about my crushed biscuits, broken open cous cous, dented tins, missing 59p last time, and so on and wondering if I should have raised them as an issue at the time. Along with having to clean up after my broken orange juices. Hmmm

Furthermore we should name & shame the packer!

I don;t even know who the packer is, there was no invoice thingy in any of the boxes!

I have sent them a reply to the email aking what i think i should be refunded. I included in it that bit from their forum about someones order leaking. I appreciate your help in pointing it out to me, thank you.

I will let you know what response i get.

This is an earlier email I wrote this afternoon:

Andrea,

I appreciate that Approved Foods is escalating and that you are a very busy person, but i must express my disatisfaction with the way that you have handled this complaint and the lack of understanding to the severity of the appalling delivery status of this order.

Refunding me £1.22 is hardly sufficient to cover the cleaning product it took to mop up and wipe down the mess of the juice all over the floor/table etc. I feel that as your company grows you are in danger of alienating those who would purchase regularly from you and may have helped you grow.

I am going to give it some careful thought as to whether or not i will place future orders with AF. It is a dangerous thing for a company to feel that they no longer have to listen to the people who buy from them, or fail to judge fairly how best to keep business 'goodwill' at the forefront of their dealings with the customer.

I must also say that as a professional company, i find it highly irregular and discourteous that you do not even refer by name to the customer, in your interactions any more . If we were personally acquainted, this would not perhaps be necessary, but you are the employee and i am the customer, and customer liasons should be dealt with in a far more professional way in my opinion.

Please make your superiors aware of this email (and the initial email i sent) and show them the photos of my delivered parcel, which i emailed you yesterday, and ask them to make a fair assesment of whether or not £1.22 covers the damage, the mess, the dissatisfaction and the reticence i now feel about placing future orders with AF...in addition to the lack of faith in getting complaints dealt with adequately when i make them. I honestly wish i had refused delivery of the entire order.

I must say, shopping with AF is very hit and miss, by which I mean that it is unreliable...since when did purchasing food, whether clearance or not, mean that a customer should be prepared to recieve substandard goods or customer service?

I'm very disappointed and must say that were i to continue shopping with your company each order would be a risk because you just never know what goods or service to expect.

I look forward to hearing from you.




p.s. Incidentally, there was not even a packing note in any of the boxes so i don't know who packed my order, but frankly i am more concerned with your feeling that a minor refund of £1.22 is sufficient to cover the state of my order.

and here is the response i just sent, in reply to the AF one asking me what i think they should do...

Hi Andrea,

thank you for getting back to me.

I found the following on your forum, which refers to a similar situation having happened with someone elses order, and the response from AF staff:

Re: parcel held, damaged parcel
« Reply #6 on: April 26, 2010, 01:12:41 PM »
Hiya,

If something has leaked there maybe a chance that it has ruined the rest of your items.

I have given your order to the warehouse supervisor and he is going to re-pick your order and send it out to you.

Apologies

Kelly
=====================
Oh, thank you. Does that mean I shouldn't accept the damaged parcel from DPD?
=======================================
They shouldn't bring the damaged parcel out to you. thanks, perry.

In all my years of grocery shopping online i have never had something delivered in such a poor state (except for the the order i placed with you for 15 bottles of olive oil a while back, which were smashed when they were delivered) and I have to say, you dealt with that complaint in my view, adequately, both communicatively and renumeratively.

You ask what would be a suitable refund...well I don't actually believe it is up to me to suggest what would be a suitable refund, i only know that if my Tesco shopping were delivered in such a state, i would get double the difference back (I am not suggesting this, merely highlighting how other companies might work in - the food trade).

I shall leave it up to yourselves to conclude how best to go forward with this complaint, in the meantime, the fact that we are having to discuss why i am disatisfied with the outcome thus far, is enough for me to know that I will likely not see fit to place a further order.

I know i am only one person and that you have a growing army of customers, but if you really are a family business with family values, you will appreciate that good customer liasons/rapport, listening to the customer, not cutting corners, heeding the concerns of the consumer, dealing with complaiints in a renumeratively beneficial way etc... ensures a great many more orders are placed by the individual, because such companies are those we consumers will keep going back to again and again. My advice, unsolicited though it may be, is yes, be known for selling inexpensive/discounted/clearance food and products, but don;t compromise on customer service, become just as well talked about for that too (for the right reasons).

Put another way, I want to buy from you, i really like the idea promoted by AF, that BBE dates can, on many items, be overlooked or even ignored....but i don;t want to compromise on the service i expect to receive just because i am paying less for the goods i am ordering.

It's still hard earned money i'm spending, yes i will get less for my money if i place an order with an online supermarket, but on balance, if i know the goods will not be damaged when they arrive and that i would be sufficiently renumerated in event of problems arising with my order, then i know which i would prefer. But why can;t i expect it all from AF? For products to reach me in a fit state and for problems to be dealt with adequately to compensate the consumer for inconvenience, damaged goods, a gesture of goodwill etc?

The point is, as i have said, i want to shop with AF and indeed, I want to place regular orders with your company, but i don't want an unreliable service or for complaints about damaged goods to be turned into this long drawn out affair.

Thanks

Kimitatsu

vampire-girl wrote: »

Apologies if this is in the wrong place but have never ordered from approvedfoods and ws wonderin do u guys order the best b4 dates or items that are still in date, its just I was looking at their pop but the date is dec 09 so wouldn't it be flat. Also do u buy most of your food from there or is 2 top up your cupboards, thanks

It depends really to be honest, IMO if it is tins or stuff then the best before date is arbitrary, things like jellies I tend to buy in date, otherwise they can be a bit yuck, but biscuits I tend to buy if they are out of date )they still disappear in our house anyway!) and nuts are still good whatever the date.

I tend to use AF to top up my cupboards but I have a large storage space so I bulk buy drinks, biscuits, tins that sort of stuff and then meal plan and buy what else I need to. I couldnt use AF as my main shop as the stock changes so rapidly!

cheerfulness4

katholicos - I was shocked to see the state of your parcel and I shall be watching with interest to see how AP deal with this complaint.

I too just got a refund for the actual items damaged and felt that it was easy for them to subtley suggest it might not be the packing but dpd at fault.
Absolutely not in my case because the packing was pathetic.

Some are excellent packers, many actually, but other packers are so shoddy they need sent packing themselves. How hard is it for them to pad boxes out with bubble wrap or cardboard to stop stuff rolling round and smashing?!:mad:

It certainly affects what I might order from them now.

chalkysoil

I don;t even know who the packer is, there was no invoice thingy in any of the boxes!

That's another mistake then. It's difficult to check off the items/number without it, especially when they've made substitutions. Andrea told me that the system had been changed so that the slip went in the box before it was sealed or something, when I mentioned it was missing on a box with problems.