Wire found in Morrisons Cheesecake

A380Heavy

My partner found a piece of fine wire in a Morrisons Best Madagascan Vanilla Cheesecake when she bit on to the wire. The wire itself is approximately 1 - 1 1/2 inches long and is about the same thickness as a strand of cotton.

She returned to the store the next day and complained at the customer service desk, asking to speak to a manager.

The duty manager came and didn't even offer an apology - he just said (about the girl behind the customer services counter) "She'll look after you" before he just walked off.

A fortnight passed and my partner never heard anything. She phone the head office but after being kept waiting on the phone for 7 minutes she decided to ring the store to ask what was happening with her complaint.

The girl at the store took details of the complaint and agreed to ring my partner back which she did.

She said that a letter was on its way - a couple of days latera letter arrived just acknowledging the complaint saying they were treating the complaint with urgency - it didn't seem so havin taken 2 weeks to provide the first acknowledgement!!

We sent a letter to Morrisons head office again asking them to treat this matter with the seriousness it deserves. The cheesecake purchased was supposed to be for the family including our 5 year old and 19 month old grand daughters.

We have today received a letter from Morrisons including a copy of a letter they had back from their suppliers stating the piece of wire had failed to set off their metal detectors.

As a gesture of goodwill and for the inconvenience caused, Morrisons included a £10 voucher. This barely covers the cost to return to the store and the cost of postage for the complaint.

Can I have some opinions please?

rsykes2000

What would you like them to do ? Give you a couple of thousand quid and a quick fondle from Sir Ken ?

williham

Return the voucher stating that it is not enough for the reasons you say and then they'll probably send you some more vouchers?

A380Heavy

rsykes2000 wrote: »

What would you like them to do ? Give you a couple of thousand quid and a quick fondle from Sir Ken ?

Is this kind of comment really necessary? Especially to somebody new of the forum.

We are not after blood but the offer of £10 seems very derisory given that we have had at least 24 miles of travelling, have sent letters recorded - not to mention the time, upset and inconvenience.

Surely the outcome should at least cover costs plus compensation, not just a trivial amount that barely covers the costs of complaining alone.

I agree with people of here that things are getting all 'American' and we are heading for a litigation culture, however, in the UK we are also very guilty of letting things go - probably the very reason we have problems in the first place.

How many times have we had a mediocre meal and when the waiter has come round to ask if everything is ok, we've just answered "yes, fine thanks." - even worse we probably left a tip as well!!!

I would ask rsykes2000 what would have happened if he/she had bitten on this wire, or even worse, a young member of his/her family choked on the wire causing severe injury or worse. Just because there was no injury in this instance does it mean that it didn't cause much upset and inconvenience - not to mention cost.

rsykes2000

A380Heavy wrote: »

Is this kind of comment really necessary? Especially to somebody new of the forum.

We are not after blood but the offer of £10 seems very derisory given that we have had at least 24 miles of travelling, have sent letters recorded - not to mention the time, upset and inconvenience.

Surely the outcome should at least cover costs plus compensation, not just a trivial amount that barely covers the costs of complaining alone.

I agree with people of here that things are getting all 'American' and we are heading for a litigation culture, however, in the UK we are also very guilty of letting things go - probably the very reason we have problems in the first place.

How many times have we had a mediocre meal and when the waiter has come round to ask if everything is ok, we've just answered "yes, fine thanks." - even worse we probably left a tip as well!!!

I would ask rsykes2000 what would have happened if he/she had bitten on this wire, or even worse, a young member of his/her family choked on the wire causing severe injury or worse. Just because there was no injury in this instance does it mean that it didn't cause much upset and inconvenience - not to mention cost.

Personally, I would have either taken it back to the store and complained (as you did) or more likely I would have just chucked it away (which I've done in the past). If someone had bitten it, I would have been a bit miffed, but I wasn't brought up with a compensation culture and if no-one was hurt, as in your case, my attitude would have likely been 'oh well, things happen'.

And why did it cause 'much upset' ? Yes it's a minor inconvenience not having a cheesecake, but it's really not the end of the world...

rl290

rsykes, simply throwing the cake away would have been irresponsible. The responsible thing to do (which the OP did) was to notify the store that there was something wrong, thus allowing them to then remove that batch from sale and investigate whether quality checks needed to change to prevent this from happening again. In this case it is quick apt: the company has said that a piece of metal did not trigger their metal detector... hopefully the OPs complaint has allowed them to rectify the problem.

AP380Heavy, good on you for following up your complaint. Given the hassle that you have gone through, the poor way in which the company has dealt with your complaint and the potential seriousness of the issue, I would expect something more than a £10 voucher. As someone has said, return it with them saying it is derogatory, explaining the lengths you have gone to. A more appropriate amount would be the cost of going back to the store (£10), a gesture to replace the cake (£10) and compensation for the dire service received in light of you wanting to help them (£10). Totalling £30.

R

nuttyp

my OH works for a company related to morrisons and they have metal detectors that run over every item as it leaves the production line. He said they have procedures that they follow if they receive a complaint, and it does take time. They have to search the batch number to find out production date and the other sodes would be from a specific line and then a time in another format.

Checks are done each day, and saples are taken to check production quality is adhered too.

I appreciate that it is dissapointing when thinks are wrong, but to be fair morrissons are doing things via there instore policy and it sounds like the manufacturer is taking the complaint seriously but is following its protocol too. And everything takes time..........

Kaleidoscope27

£10?! Is that it?! Y'know what, seriously, I would complain further. I got more than that from Asda when I complained that their service in the photo department was a joke. (£25.) And I didn't lose out on anything then except an hour of my time. What if one of the children had bitten into it? What if it had pierced their palate, or worse, if they'd managed to swallow part of it?

I'd pursue it if you can. £10 is nothing considering what you've done just to get that far.

Lokolo

Kaleidoscope27 wrote: »

£10?! Is that it?! Y'know what, seriously, I would complain further. I got more than that from Asda when I complained that their service in the photo department was a joke. (£25.) And I didn't lose out on anything then except an hour of my time. What if one of the children had bitten into it? What if it had pierced their palate, or worse, if they'd managed to swallow part of it?

I'd pursue it if you can. £10 is nothing considering what you've done just to get that far.

And that is what is wrong with the world today.

loisa

£10 does seem a bit stingy. When I was a kid I once found a piece of plastic in a Sainsbury's easter egg. My parents sent a strongly worded (and possibly exaggerated) letter straight to the head office along with the piece of plastic. The received £50 in vouchers and this must have been at least 15 years ago.

I don't think it will hurt to complain again, stating your reasons very carefully. I would have thought that the complaint is not 'resolved' until the customer is happy.

When I (briefly) worked in customer services it was very much a case of 'don't ask, don't get'. People who shouted the loudest always got the most. It's sad that it has to be like this but it often is the case.

A380Heavy

nuttyp wrote: »

my OH works for a company related to morrisons and they have metal detectors that run over every item as it leaves the production line. He said they have procedures that they follow if they receive a complaint, and it does take time. They have to search the batch number to find out production date and the other sodes would be from a specific line and then a time in another format.

Checks are done each day, and saples are taken to check production quality is adhered too.

I appreciate that it is dissapointing when thinks are wrong, but to be fair morrissons are doing things via there instore policy and it sounds like the manufacturer is taking the complaint seriously but is following its protocol too. And everything takes time..........

As I mentioned previously the letter from Morrisons has a copy of the letter from the supplier which states they tested the wire and passed it throught their metal detectors - which failed to pick it up again, saying it was too small - bearing in mind the size of the wire I mentioned in my original post.

The protocol has been followed, and yes, it has taken time. The letter from Morrisons is the culmination of their investigation.

It is somewhat worrying that a piece of wire which is 1 to 1 1/2 inches long doesn't get picked up.

The distress that comes from all of this is (1) The time, (2) the inconvenience, (3) the what if factor i.e. the potential consequences had it caused injury to one of us, (4) the lack of interest/apology from the duty manager, (5) the derisory offer after the investigation.

Although we are not after blood surely it cannot be right that the result of a serious complaint barely covers the monetary cost of making the complaint. It does not take in to account the cost of time, inconvenience, distress and the cost of the cheesecake itself!!!!

It is worth noting that similar cheesecakes were all left on the shelves for sale and were still on sale the following day - what if all of these were contaminated in a similar way, and then what if it wasn't just this store?