"Select your own" hamper not what we selected!

lateandlive

I agree that sending emails with the order on - but without any of the amendments is a pain, but I don't think you can criticise them for the selections they made for those substitutions.

I very much doubt the person who picked the order was aware of your parents dislike for cranberry sauce and ginger. If the list you give is all of the substitutions then I'd actually say that all but 1 WERE quite close. Strawberry jam substituted for blackcurrant...how much closer would you like it to be? Don't forget that regardless of what celebration YOU were ordering for, it was also during what's probably their biggest month of the year for orders, and strawberry jam and lemon biscuits were probably quite high on most peoples lists!

goodej49

Yes, thanks for the advice to send an email - it's more or less what we're going to do although it's not clear whether or not the value of the hamper was different to what we paid.

It was a 'pick each item individually' hamper, with no job lots or mixed packages. However, we tried to find the substitute items on the create your own hamper site, but in the case of the two packs of substitute biscuits they're not even listed as an option. We couldn't find the ginger preserve (actually called Christmas Preserve), and the cranberry sauce today on the pick your own options - I'm not sure if they were available as individual picks as we didn't even look at the Christmas products so have no idea how much they cost. The only verifiable product is the strawberry jam, which is the same price as the blackcurrant. With regard to post 12 that says the items were 'close enough' - for a start, blackcurrant and strawberry tastes quite different, and some people hate strawberries (myself for one!) and I find it reprehensible that anyone should substitute a nut product for a non-nut product, given how many people are allergic to nuts. Once again, I have to say that I wouldn't have minded some of the substitutions if I'd been informed they were being made. There were items there that my inlaws do not like, and surely the whole point of a 'pick your own' option is to make sure that that doesn't happen! An email or a telephone call from the company where we could have said yes or no to the substitutions would have been quite acceptable, and would have saved a lot of disappointment all round.

An email has been sent to the company specifying all the problems, and asking for some sort of percentage refund as the hamper was not as requested with 5 out of 14 products missing, and was delivered a full week after ordered (and 5 days after the anniversary), and not within the 1-2 days specified on the website.

Thanks to everyone for the help, it certainly helped clarify the mind.

Makeandsave

Took a look at the site and it is very much overpriced, Next time try making your own you will be able to go to store pick the items much cheaper and get more for your money. I like it when people put time and effort into the present makes it more personal. Hope they reply to your email. Let us know the outcome.

lateandlive

Strawberry and blackcurrant do taste different - but to my mind the only thing that would have tasted the same would be strawberry jam, which we've already established they had none of! Unfortunately, that's the nature of substituting one product for another - the substitute won't be the same as the original choice!

On the front of sending nuts instead of the original selection, I'm with you on that. They should definitely have let you know and you should definitely be taking it up with the company. I would have thought a request that you returned the substitutions and had a part refund for them is about right.

goodej49

Agree that the prices were high - but we live in the Republic of Ireland and making our own hamper and sending it over would have been prohibitive - postage rates here make the UK look cheap! Anyway, thanks again for the interest. Will let you know how we get on with the company.

squeaky

Too late now, but for quality hampers delivered on time I can highly recommend https://www.finefoodstore.co.uk