M&S vent.

renegade

Bought some of their Bread oFriday, I was in a rush , shelf was full, just grabbed one. Use it that night and Sat am, but realised it was going off, blue bits on the crusts, I was not happy.
Monday I took the receipt and sticker from the bread, I complained to the Manager who told me, 'It was your fault, your should have checked the sell by date,we have done nothing wrong,bread goes off you know, we usually remove old bread in the afternoon and sell it at a reduced price'. I was gobsmacked! Yes, I should have checked the sell by date, which was by the way - sell by use by 30th Sept! but as I said the shelf was full so I assumed it was all fresh that day- my mistake and not one I will make again.In future I will stick with Hovis Soft bread from Mr T.

Meepster

And this is M&S's fault how exactly?

sharronej

hmm not a very sympathetic or caring manager then? I'm sure Mr T or the others would have been more helpful, perhaps it was just an off day for the manager?

Pollycat

renegade wrote: »

Bought some of their Bread oFriday, I was in a rush , shelf was full, just grabbed one. Use it that night and Sat am, but realised it was going off, blue bits on the crusts, I was not happy.
Monday I took the receipt and sticker from the bread, I complained to the Manager who told me, 'It was your fault, your should have checked the sell by date,we have done nothing wrong,bread goes off you know, we usually remove old bread in the afternoon and sell it at a reduced price'. I was gobsmacked! Yes, I should have checked the sell by date, which was by the way - sell by use by 30th Sept! but as I said the shelf was full so I assumed it was all fresh that day- my mistake and not one I will make again.In future I will stick with Hovis Soft bread from Mr T.

Do you mean that the Sell by (or Display by) date and the 'Use by' date were the same?

You say you bought it on Friday - that was the 1st October so it should not have been on the shelf at all if the 'Sell by' date was 30/9.

According to what the manager said, it should have been taken off the shelf and reduced the day before you bought it.

I think, apart from the fact that the manager was wrong and the bread shouldn't even have been on sale (assuming you have your dates right), he/she had a pretty poor attitude.

trumpton

Did you pay a reduced price? If so, I can see his point - it was being sold off as OOD, so customers should know to use it immediately. If it wasn't reduced in price, then you should get a refund and his attitude stinks.

Freddie_Snowbits

In the old days I could be sure that everything on the shelves of M&S would have a decent sell by period left.

I have to agree with OP, nowadays, the sell by dates are rather shorter than tehy used to be. Some would call this progress, me personally, I find it dificult to find items in M&S today that I can justify paying a premium for.

As for the attitude of the manager, in days of old, the compliant would not have occurred as the staff would have been on their feet doing their job, checking shelves, and serving customers.

loracan1

Meepster wrote: »

And this is M&S's fault how exactly?

Because they apparently think the op should have done stock rotation and date checking instead of their staff? It might be me being naive, but I don't think it's a customer's job to do that.

Should have been a full refund, replacement and apology.

pimento

Meepster wrote: »

And this is M&S's fault how exactly?

Er, the date the OP purchased the bread was October 1st. The sell by date on the bread was September 30th.

bubblegumcola

If the bread was dated sell/use by 30th September when it was purchased on 1st October then yes M&S are at fault. In the food halls the food going out of date is usually pulled off the shelf later on iin the day and sometimes marked down for a quick sale or taken off and recorded as waste. All bakery, food in fridges etc should be checked to ensure nothing is left. At the end of the night once the store is closed if there is still any food left which is going out of date then it is sold to staff at a reduced rate.
The shelves should then be double checked in the morning before filling, the stock should be date rotated with the newest to the front. occasionally a shelf filler will find items that have been missed from the night before and they are removed and recorded.

There are usually strict procedures in place. Everything going out of date is recorded. Unfortunately there are oversights, and occasionally items get missed, we are all human beings after all.

The food hall manager should have refunded you, replaced the item and apologised. It is not the usual M&S standards. If you are still unhappy complain to the store manager or head office that the standard of service you received was not what you expect. I have worked for M&S in the past and for the sake of a loaf of bread I would have happily refunded you to keep a customer happy.

BillTrac

I ALWAYS check the best before/sell by date as I like to get bread with as long a life as possible.

I think the OP should start doing the same...:rotfl:

jazzyjustlaw

Although I always check bread as well as other products I buy are the longer available on the shelf etc, I think the attitude of the manager is not good. I am really anal about the dates in fact I hate if a loaf has just one or two days on it. Bread goes off really easy I find too.