Chipped My Tooth on Asda Peanut

MagicPie

Hello i was wondering if anyone could help. A few months back i bought a packet of Asda's own brand chocolate peanuts. When i bit into one, i found it to be a small stone that was covered in chocolate, instead of a peanut. This resulted in me chipping one of my two front teeth. To be fair it was a very minor chip to my tooth, and i have not been to see a dentist to have it looked at.
Anyway i wrote a letter to Asda's head office and explained what had happend. They asked me to keep the original packaging and the stone and post it into them recorded delivery. I did this and waited for months for a response. I have since written two letters in to them which they did not reply to for weeks on end. Finally a couple od days ago they repled to me with an explanation from the supplier.
Basicall they wrote apologising saying

"We have been able to identify the foreign body as a piece of stone. We have no similar material in our factory so it is probable that this orignated with the peanut raw materials which we purchase to manufacture this product. Our peanuts are supplied by an approved supplier that has been audited by us. Foreign material is removed in the country of origin but further cleaning and inspection is carried out by our supplier. They use several methods of foregin body removal:-
-Sieving to remove large foreign bodies
-Gravity Separation
-Stone seperator
-Permanent magnet
-Visual inspection
-Metal detection
Unfortuanately on this occasion despite the best efforts of us and our supplier the piece of stone remained undetected"

To be honest i wasn't really happy with this explanation of how i ended up chipping my tooth and thought it was wishy washy at best. Then the best part was after having spent £4.60 on sending the item in recorded delivery and using several 1st class stamps to write to them with, they also gave me a £5 gift card which was very kind of them.
Anybody have any advice on what i should do next? Is it a suitable matter for trading standards and if so how do i go about getting them involved? Do i let Asda know that i would like to take the matter further as i am not happy with ther explanation and resolution?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Fire_Fox

I think the explanation is quite detailed, and shows that Asda have made an effort to investigate. I think the real question here is what result are you looking for? You haven't been to the dentist so you can't seek a specific amount of compensation for repair of the tooth.

montyrebel

that would be the end of it for me,you got some compensation,its better than most do off them

msmoose

I'd expected a bit more than a £5 gift card... I'd write back and complain a bit more! £5 is a bit stingy for a company the size of ASDA. I once found some string in some bread made in the ADSA store, it had come from the flour bag, this was years back and I complained in the store and was given a £20 gift voucher from the store manager there and then! In the days before gift cards came out!

Ivory_Tinkler

You should have gone to see the dentist as soon as the tooth was chipped. Then, if you do need to have dental work done at a later date as a result of the chip then you would have maybe been able to make a claim as it would have been on record that you visited the dentist after biting on the stone. As it stands, I don't really see what else you can claim from Asda as they have given you the results of their investigation and a gift card. You could write and say that you expected more and then see if they send you a further gift card?

Rikki

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I think the explanation is quite detailed, and shows that Asda have made an effort to investigate. I think the real question here is what result are you looking for? You haven't been to the dentist so you can't seek a specific amount of compensation for repair of the tooth.

I agree. I think they have been fair in their investigations and taken your complaint seriously. They have compensated you for your time and trouble in bringing this incident to their attention.

I'm not quite sure what else you were expecting. You were not concerned enough to rush off to a dentist at the time and seem happy to live with the chipped tooth as it is now. Why would you like to take the action further?

kriss_boy

Its unfortunate but if everyone sued the supermarket for freak incidents like this then food would be even more expensive...

Its just s*ds law... nobodys fault.

freakyogre

Personally i'd be happy with their response, they have apologised and given a good explanation. It's one of those things...maybe i'm too laid back!

gemmacarolyn

I think the explanation was a good one-afterall, lots of our food comes out of the ground, or from plants, so it's reasonable to expect the occasional stone, or piece of grit. If it was me, I'd write back thanking them for their explanation and asking for the money back that you spent on sending in the stone to them-I do think they should have paid for this. Other than that, I don't think there's much more you can do.

amersall

i once bought a jar of haywards mixed pickles and there was a centipede in it (dead of course!) i sent the whole jar back to haywards and they sent me an apology and a book of six first class stamps!! i wrote back and told them i was disgusted with this, as any one of us could have eaten this insect and i could have gone to trading standards with this. a week later i recieved a parcel with 12 jars of beetroot and pickles, i know this is off topic but it sometimes pays to persevere

Bowling_4_Gold

To be honest, I think it's a bit over the top to be expecting them to be compensating you for this; if you went to a dentist and was quoted £300 to repair, then yes I would agree Asda are in the wrong, but seeing as you are obviously not drastically effected by the whole situation, I would let it slip... Maybe treat yourelf to some chocolate covered peanuts with the gift card?