Wire found in Morrisons Cheesecake

System

bad experience, nobody likes it when you find something like that in a product you've bought! I suppose things like this must happen every now and again but still its unacceptable!
I might be missing something here but what i don't though understand is why you had to phone and send registered letters to Morrissons? Surely once you had raised the matter with morrisions instore and I assumed they refunded you that was all you needed? They've sent you a tenner which i agree is a bit stingy but how much did you actually want back? Perhaps you should in future specify in your letters how much you want as compensation? That would probably make things easier!
Anyway good luck with the complaint, hope you get some more money back!

DaisyFlower

I think £10 is perfectly fair given you have had a refund for the item as well, the £10 would cover the petrol and the letter cost.

You cant claim compensation for something that "may have happened" and if not having a cheesecake caused "distress" then words fail me.

barrymung

loisa wrote: »

£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..

When I was little (Some ~35 years ago) my Mum bought some polony sausage as it was one of my favourite foods.

Within the sausage was one of the little metal clips which they use to secure the ends of the plastic tube (If you are familiar with polony you'll know what I mean!!)

Anyway, my Mum wrote a letter to the company (No email or faxes in those days!!) and a couple of weeks later a passing sales rep from the company turned up with a box containing samples of the companies products and apologised.

Excellent customer service and probably the right level of recompense given the problem.

£10 from Morrissons is stingy, what is worse is the way the in-store staff treated the complaint.

As others have said a grovelling apology, good service and maybe a £30 gift card would have seen you happy?

barrymung

A380Heavy wrote: »

...they tested the wire and passed it throught their metal detectors - which failed to pick it up again, saying it was too small

Did they give any indication where the wire came from?

To my mind, the precautions they have in place for detecting metal objects is obviously insufficient-the alarm was not set off by the piece of wire.

Question is did the wire fall from their machine? Did it come from a cleaning brush? Maybe the maintenance electrician dropped it there? Whatever the reason their detection system is obviously inadequate.

Just thinking aloud here: If your prime objective is to ensure that the same mistake isn't made again and prevent others from suffering, you could always bring the subject up with your local enviromnental health department? If they believed there was a fundamental flaw in the procedures that the manufacturer follows or an inadequate detection system in place then I'm sure they'd act.

If your objectives are in another direction then maybe a letter to your local paper would be more appropriate?

A380Heavy

DaisyFlower wrote: »

I think £10 is perfectly fair given you have had a refund for the item as well, the £10 would cover the petrol and the letter cost.

You cant claim compensation for something that "may have happened" and if not having a cheesecake caused "distress" then words fail me.

DaisyFlower,

Firstly, at no point did I mention a refund for the cheesecake.

Secondly, to trivialize this situation as you have by saying it was not having a cheesecake caused the distress, is in very poor taste.

Several things have caused distress/upset/annoyance - finding wire in a cheesecake, poor service when the initial complaint was made, no apology, two weeks to acknowledge a complaint - to mention just a few things.

It is easy not to be empathic when you're not involved. I always try, when looking at threads like this, to put myself in the complainant's position. I would never seek to try and get a cheap laugh at someone elses expense.

If you had just said that you think the £10 is sufficient compensation then that is fine and I would value your opinion amongst all the others I receive.

A380Heavy

barrymung wrote: »

Did they give any indication where the wire came from?

To my mind, the precautions they have in place for detecting metal objects is obviously insufficient-the alarm was not set off by the piece of wire.

Question is did the wire fall from their machine? Did it come from a cleaning brush? Maybe the maintenance electrician dropped it there? Whatever the reason their detection system is obviously inadequate.

Barrymung, thank you for your comments.

They have not given any indication as to where the wire came from but it does look like a strand from a wire brush.

I think if it was small particles of metal then there could be some excuses with regards to picking it up on a metal detector but when it cannot pick up a strand which is almost one and a half inches long then this is not acceptable.

My objective here is on several levels - yes, it would be nice to be appropriately recompensed and that is one aim, but improved customer service would be a good result of our complaint, together with much improved safety standards to prevent this from happening again.

What particularly defies belief is that Morrison's didn't see fit to remove all similar cheesecakes from their shelves. Had it been some glass in baby food all jars would have been removed in an instant and a major investigation would have taken place, not to mention a recall.

System

A380Heavy wrote: »

DaisyFlower,

Firstly, at no point did I mention a refund for the cheesecake.

Secondly, to trivialize this situation as you have by saying it was not having a cheesecake caused the distress, is in very poor taste.

Several things have caused distress/upset/annoyance - finding wire in a cheesecake, poor service when the initial complaint was made, no apology, two weeks to acknowledge a complaint - to mention just a few things.

It is easy not to be empathic when you're not involved. I always try, when looking at threads like this, to put myself in the complainant's position. I would never seek to try and get a cheap laugh at someone elses expense.

If you had just said that you think the £10 is sufficient compensation then that is fine and I would value your opinion amongst all the others I receive.

So they didn't refund you for the cheesecake? Thats just terrible. You took a cheesecake back to morrisons as it was contaminated and they didn't refund you for the item! Thats ridiculous customer service!

WhiteHorse

In the circumstances, Morrisons response is very poor, even though they appear to have made enquiries with their suppliers.

That said, I find it hard to believe that a wire of that size remained undetected, although it is possible.

I would suggest taking the matter further with their head office, detailing the tardy response and generally crummy attitude. Perhaps the threat of publicity would serve to focus their minds (had you reported them to the authorities, that would probably have resulted in a prosecution).

Slinky

I do think supermarkets have got wise to the overgenerous response to complaints that happened in the past.

We had a jar of pesto that when I opened it, the cardboard insert from the lid exploded off the top of the jar hitting me in the eye, and the kitchen got well and truly splattered, including quite a lot on a rough paint effect ceiling. It must have fermented. Was not fun trying to get pesto off the ceiling. Tesco fobbed us off with a refund for the pesto and about £2 in vouchers, despite my complaint in writing.

My neighbour complained vigorously about one of the Tesco home delivery drivers damaging his lawn reversing their van onto his drive after delivering to another house. Tesco wanted him to get 2 quotes for repairs before they would pay anything! In the end they sent him £50 of vouchers to spend in Tesco. He went ballistic at customer services and got £50 in cash in the end.

Fuzzy_Duck

I think the best thing you can do is write another letter outlining what you would like to receive- in this case some more money to cover a replacement cheesecake, associated costs for travel and postage and a bit extra for the inconvenience caused. I would also highlight your concerns about staff disinterest and ask how it is being looked into.

I must admit I'd have probably just sent the cheesecake and wire back to Morrisons for them to look into and wouldn't have expected anything, but if you don't ask you don't get.