Complaint letter help

kuohu

I am minded to agree with the above poster. You received double your money back, plus £10 voucher as compensation, plus the customer services person said that they would check the other stock, and filled in a complaint form for you. It sounds like their commuication skills left a little to be desired, but on the other hand you said that you were fuming so maybe this had an effect on the conversation.

Just what is the level of compensation for a smelly steak? You have received over £15, what should it be? £20? £50? £100?

Pelican_2

ekkygirl wrote:

I am an expert complainer but find it difficult to find a reason for you to complain except the girl interupting you.

The customer service girl offered a replacement or double refund, she gave you a £10 gift voucher FREE I cant seen what else you think a bit of smelly steak warrants. If she wasnt sorry enough maybe she was having a bad day

Nobody died nobody was ill nobody even ate the steak. If you had eaten it and were ill that would be a different ball game, Id say take em to court

I completely agree as well!

I honesty don't know why you're moaning, OP. Yes, I know how frustrating it is, but let's be honest: would you be complaining if the woman who served you had been sympathetic and very polite? I think you were compensated fairly and are miffed at being interrupted and not apologised to.

jobbingmusician

I agree with the posters above - you are potentially complaining about 2 separate things but don't make this clear. If you want to complain about both of them, how about the following (my comments in red, with a bit of restructuring to sort out that apostrophe sentence!)

mrsyorkie wrote:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a regular Asda customer and last night (20th September 2006), my husband and I decided on visiting your Asda store on the Middlebrook Retail Park, Horwich, Lancashire, as he wanted to cook me a nice meal for a special occasion and we bought amongst other things, your pork fillet steak.

We arrived home and my husband took the fillet steak out of the packaging to cook and although it looked ok, it smelt rancid. I looked on the packaging and the sell by date was that day, but this smelt as if it was at least a week out of date. It put us off eating, which upset us because as mentioned above, it was for a special occasion. I proceeded to take the meat all the way back to your store, the journey for which is approximately 10 miles for a round trip and I had to open the car windows because the smell was that bad.

I went to the customer service desk and whilst I was explaining the situation to the assistant, another member of staff forgot her manners and just came up and interrupted me in mid-flow, without an “excuse me” or anything and began talking to the same assistant I was trying to talk to. Eventually she went away without apologising for interrupting me and I had to repeat my complaint.

The assistant offered me either a replacement pork fillet steak or a refund. I opted for a refund as by that time I was beginning to feel ill with the smell of the meat and it put my off taking a replacement one and also from ever buying any meat produce, or in fact any supposedly fresh produce, from your store ever again. The assistant also gave me a £10 gift card for my efforts.

When I tried to explain to Cheryl that we would have been violently ill if we had eaten it, she again gave the impression that she didn’t care. I suggested to her that it was at least a week out of date and the labelling must be wrong and I also suggested that they need to check all the other pork fillet steak’s on the shelves in case of the same problem. Again, the assistant didn't look as if she cared and although she did say that she would ask someone to check them, she did not do so whilst I was present.

Due to the seriousness of my concerns, I informed the assistant that I wished to take my complaint further and she then filled in a complaint form, but I felt her words minimised my concerns. Although I told her this, she did not offer to re-write the form. I feel that if an elderly person or a young child had eaten the meat they would have been admitted to hospital with severe food poisoning and I suggest that if you haven’t already checked your traceability records, you do so before this happens as the sell by date on your product was definitely wrong and I fear that the date on the other pork fillet steaks will be as well.


I therefore have 2 separate issues to bring to your attention.

1. I was refunded double the cost of the steaks plus £10. This does not cover my costs in returning to the store, deferring my evening meal and dealing with the situation. I do not believe this is sufficient recompense for the situation. I tried to explain this to Cheryl (note: I assume you did?) but she did not appear to be listening.

2. I received unbelievably poor customer service from your staff member Cheryl and the staff member who interrupted me to talk to her. I returned to the store IMMEDIATELY I identified the fault with the item - I would have hoped that Asda would have been pleased to have damaged food poitned out to them so promptly, as it enables you to address the issue and ensure that no other customers are affected. Cheryl offered no apology and she didn't look as if she cared...


Can I suggest that you work to improve the standard of customer service skills of not only your customer service assistants, but also other members of staff as well, as I feel that the staff member who interrupted my conversation was ill mannered, rude and showed a blatant lack of respect. As a company as renowned and as big as yourselves, I really did expect better.

I trust you will investigate this matter and I have enclosed my till receipt for your information.


Yours Sincerely,

Hope these amendments help!