Frenchclick.co.uk

thelawnet

Quite disappointed with these people, I ordered a poulet de bresse and some foie gras from them.

These were described as:

Lobe De Foie Gras Cru De Canard 1er Choix ~500-700g
and
Poulet de Bresse 1.3-1.6kg


There is a drop down to select the preferred size, 500, 600 or 700 for foie gras, and 1.3, 1.4, or 1.5 for the chicken.


They have a weird pricing system where you are charged in advance for the maximum weight (I paid by paypal), and then when the actual item is selected and shipped they will (maybe) refund you.


I selected 1.5kg for the chicken, and 0.5kg for the foie gras.


The foie gras page is here:


http://www.frenchclick.co.uk/p-1330-lobe-de-foie-gras-cru-de-canard-1er-choix-500-700g.aspx


and they say that you will be charged for the actual weight received.



Here it http://www.frenchclick.co.uk/c-67-foie-gras.aspx


shows £4.50/100g is the price. The price quoted, £29.75 is equivalent to 700 grams at £4.25/100g, so I think they must have increased the price per 100g but not updated the price charged to the customer.


Anyway, basically having ordered 500 grams, they charge me for 700 grams, and if they deliver 500 grams, as requested they are supposed to refund me for 200 grams.


Fair enough.


However on the chicken page, it said


Poulet de Bresse 1.3-1.6kg~
(VIAN) Poulet de Bresse 1.3-1.6kg~

(£16.24 /Kg)

Poulet de Bresse is a breed of chicken originating from the Bresse area of the Rhône-Alpes region of France. The birds are highly valued for their rich, gamey depth of flavour, yet with fine, tender flesh and delicious, clean-flowing fat The chickens have a clear reddish-pink tone to the flesh and pronounced yellowish fat. Bones are surprisingly light for sturdy, outdoor-raised birds. Poulet de Bresse are reared to exacting standards by small farms in a small designated area around the city, protected under French and European law (Appellation d’origine contrôl!e) since 1957 - the first livestock to be granted such protection. AOC status was granted based on the unique characteristics of flavour given by local soil and grain, as well as the dedication of the local farmer's association to protecting quality. For example, stocks are limited by the size of the farm - with a minimum allocation of ten square meters for each bird. Diet and slaughter times are also strictly controlled.

The weight of these chickens is variable. You will be charged for the actual weight you receive. The price indicated is the price for the maximum weight of 2Kg.
Note: The Chickens may occasionally come unprepared; they can include the head, legs, gizzards etc.

Price: £ 25.99 inc VAT

(£25.99 is btw equivalent to 1.6kg (the maximum) at £16.24/kg)
I selected 1.5kg, and placed the order, along with the foie gras.
I received it on the appointed day and had received the requested 500 grams of foie gras, but a large, 1945 gramme, chicken.
So anyway, I reckoned having only received £22.50 worth of foie gras, that they owed me £7.25, given that I'd been charged £29.75 for it.

So I emailed them and they sent me back a refund of 76p.
I queried this, and they said

You should will be charged per Kg for the items you bought up to a maximum of the original transaction value, this pricing only applies to items with variable weight. This works out to £22.50 for the 500g foie gras lobe and £32.48 for the 2Kg Poulet de bresse.

I pointed out that their website said that they would charge a maximum of £25.99 for a 2kg chicken, that I had no intention of ever spending £32.48 on a chicken (I have four to feed, the chicken is one meal only), that it was described as 1.3-1.6kg, and that in any case the chicken did not even weigh 2kg, and they replied back offering me free delivery on a future order.
To which I replied saying that I had no intention of placing a future order when they had overcharged me on this one.
The price indicated is the price for the maximum weight of 2Kg.'-style wording, and also renamed it to '1.0-2.0kg chicken', but that doesn't help me....

I found this page on their website: http://www.frenchclick.co.uk/p-3846-poulet-de-bresse-2kg.aspx which shows that a 2kg bird is actually discounted anyway (to £14/kg), presumably nobody wants that much expensive chicken....
They seem a very slapdash firm - if I hadn't ordered the foie gras they wouldn't have been able to charge me any more for my oversized chicken, and then where would they be? Or maybe they did it deliberately, to try and avoid having to issue the refund as a consequence of their very weird pricing system.

MattFrenchClick

We are very sorry you were not happy with the service provided. Fresh products with variable weight are priced per kg. The prices are updated on your final invoice depending on the product weight actually receive.

We considered it to be fair that we priced both items per kg, charging you less for the 500g (charged for 700g originally) foie gras and more for the 450g overweight chicken.

The maximum weight of the poulet de bresse was capped at 1.6Kg as previously outside of the Christmas period the birds were never bigger than this. The description of the product had not been updated from Christmas which seems to have caused the confusion.

The product has now been updated with a far wider range of weight options to prevent confusion in the future and the maximum prices is now set for a 2Kg bird, just in case. As a goodwill gesture will refund the 450g extra poulet de bresse delivered back to your account.

pmduk

Mattfrenchclick you are required to obtain permission before posting on behalf of a company.