Organic food in supermarkets

Kirri

You need to wean her off that habit!

Pigs' present arrived, not organic but cream sherpa lined sleepy santa hat bed, spoilt you say?

http://www.hammockyhammocks.co.uk/store_xmas.htm

They approve of the A&C dill which they have been munching tonight.

The OrganicHead volume lift root spray by Galvin & Galvin I won arrived, some of the ingredients look a bit iffy and it smells headache inducing.. need to study list further.

Edwardia

OMG Kirri yep darned spoiled piggies but that's cute though

Last year bought the Lab tinned Christmas dinner dog food but this is our first Christmas without him

The Norwegian spruce is already moulting and yet we turned off the rad and turned the TVR down on the other one. It's drinking approx half litre pf water a day too. If I have to order a Nordmann next year in advance, gonna do it. Spruce sucks

Organic nut roast stashed i freezer for my mother so that's good.

rufydoofyM

Hi,

Hope everyone is not too stressed outorganising stuff for Christmas.

I'm avoiding the crowds and the shops this year and between Ocado, A & C and Riverford most is covered A & C delivery is coming on Christmas eve so I've added a few extras and treats.

Today our Riverford order was deliveredand we will have to wait till the 5th January for the nextone ! Gave our delivery guy a box of brandy butter choccies which he said would be eaten before he got home. Everything was great apart from one thing. Within the order were chipolatas which I normally separate andfreeze to use as and when. Today though they arrived pre frozen andhad defrosted on route, I was not a happy bunny and rang customerservices. I was told it was stated as pre frozen on their website(but this was only under storage details on the product page and noton the products list from which I placed my order). CS were neitherhelpful or sympathetic and I called back and spoke to another CS whobegrudgingly gave a refund but I was made to feel it was my fault fornot seeing it and accepting the situation. My reasoning was thatsince I buy the same chipolatas regularly why would I go into theproduct page and look at storage info to see that between 15thand 24th December they would be pre frozen.

Each CS asked me when I intended to usethem and for what etc I had not expected the spanish inquisitionfollowed by the suggestion that I cook them and then refreeze them.This was unacceptable since my intention was to use some for sausagerolls for new year. Now I was polite and reasonable throughout butmade to feel unreasonable and an inconvenience. I stated thatalthough they had now given me a refund I was unhappy with the way inwhich my complaint had been dealt with and how I was made to feel andthat I had expected better service. On the rare occasion I have hadto call Ocado or A & C both have immediately given a refund andappologised and I explained this to CS at Riverford. The CS said he'dget the Mgr to call me, but after waiting almost an hour I called himand was met with little understanding and more condesending. He didoffer a credit of £10 for the inconvenience, but I was still leftfeeling that I was in the wrong and a PITA. I would have prefered tohave felt like a valued customer than be offered a token gesture.

Now I'm sure I am not their onlycustomer to be caught out by this even though I was told I was. Ispoke to my local franchise owner because I feel that central CSissues could affect his business and he was most understanding andconcerned and will be taking it further. We spend on average £100+ amonth with Riverford and was it not for the fact we feel loyal to ourlocal franchisee I would have no hesitation in leaving them totally(although we may do yet). I'm not easily upset by situations butfeel I am not valued as a customer and should therefore withdraw mycustom.

So the hunt is on for anothersupplier/online shop. We have spent the evening looking online andhave looked at Eversfield and also Woodlands amongst others. It seemswe may have to make up a minimum order of £50 for meat to get freedelivery. Does anyone have any experience with the aforementionedcompanies or any reccommendations. We need a good supplier withreasonable prices for bacon, sausages, beef steak mince and chickenmainly and it must be organic.

We shall still use A & C for milkand a few bits but prices seem to be creeping up too much and I'm not100% happy about the company ownership etc. Their meat has been abit hit and miss and we aren't keen on Laverstoke. Ocado organic meatis ok but again hit and miss and we don't like the Duchy meat much.

So roll on 2014 and our search willbegin, I'll let you know how we get on.

OverRated

Tesco at 6am this morning. Rather busy.

The Tesco organic brand seems to be growing again. Picked up some wholewheat organic spaghetti for £1.05 - might have been around for ages but starting to look closer now.

Kirri

^ Rufy - I would feel the same after that! I don't feel, however much these companies try and justify things, that the customer should be made to feel in the wrong AT ALL. I had a minor experience with A&C earlier in the year over a pot of very short dated 69p cream - their response that 'I was lucky the cream even had x amount of days left' was the last time I ordered any chilled dairy from them and then went back to Ocado. Farmaround - although ethically good for me, put me off with their absolutely constant amount of errors - and the fact they deleted my polite complaint off their facebook wall and promptly ignored the issue. When will companies learn?

I'd also noticed A&C prices have gone up a LOT - they were always few pence cheaper than Riverford which prob worked out about equal given the 99p delivery charge but on the xmas order the total amount was £'s more expensive for the same items. I'm all for paying a reasonable price for a product but I don't now see why A&C prices should have increased that much suddenly in comparison especially given they have a wider network of suppliers than Riverford. I'll still continue to get veg to supplement the allotment from one of the two in 2014 though but am prob still sticking to Ocado for most other bits.

Edwardia - I still miss my xmas morning walk with the dog even after 10+ years, it's never the same again I would love to go and walk dogs for a rescue home but there are none nearby.

smallblueplanet

Hi rufydoofy, agree with your views on CS, hope you find a solution. Get fed up with spending hard-earned money and being treated like an inconvenience!


Had a blue organic Daylesford cheese delivered by Ocado, rang them to ask where the use by date was - on cheese it just said 'see pack' - 'what pack' I asked?! Anyway I made my point that as it was already mouldy I was uncertain of it's shelf-life - the woman was very understanding and apologised and issued a refund, NO problem. That is how I like my CS and I will pay more if necessary for it. Tend to use T's & S's when they send money-off a shop coupon, but otherwise would prefer Ocado or Waitrose.

Edwardia

My worst ever customer service experience was with Tesco, who took my name and address and asked me if I had complained to them previously, before they even took details of my complaint.

Ocado is the gold standard for customer services IME. Unfailingly polite, warm and unflappable. Abel & Cole and Waitrose dead-heat in second. Think I've had product queries with Riverford but no actual complaints that I can remember.

Abel & Cole and Riverford both use small producers and it must be difficult for them to adjust output for seasonal demand.

For example: your Great-Aunt Agatha is coming on Christmas Day and she's a complete teapot so you order extra milk. Multiply that by a few thousand Great-Aunts and that's a sudden spike in milk demand over a week. No idea how dairy farmers deal with that because cows in barns probably produce less milk in winter.

Even if A&C, Riverford etc buys in extra organic milk, ultimately dairy farmers somewhere, are having to produce more milk.

If you produce sausages and suddenly everyone wants more sausages for cooked breakfasts they wouldn't normally eat, and you're a small producer without a huge herd of porkers that's a problem. Maybe you have to rear more pigs in the autumn and freeze some sausages ?

rufy, I think ultimately you do have cause for complaint, because incorrect storage by Riverford caused the sausages to defrost. But probably customer services in businesses everywhere are in meltdown right now

I lurve Daylesford stuff especially the poultry.

Overrated - 6am wow that's dedication to shopping right there. I'm getting up early to go to ASDA and Sainsbury's on Tuesday but not quite that early :eek:

Do you have a Lidl nearby ? Mine does organic spaghetti, fusilli and lasagne sheets. Another cheaper store is ASDA.

Kirri that's a lovely idea, pity you can't do it.

rufydoofyM

Kirri, smallblueplanet and EdwardiaThanks for the support.

I went from being annoyed to incensed to upset and disappointed and then angry again. It went from being about the sausages to being more about the way I was spoken to and how my issue was dealt with and their attitude. I kind of expect Tosco or Asda customer service to disappoint but not the likes of Riverford. Christmas or not the pre frozen info should have been under the item on the product list as it is when ordering poultry. Their boxes only keep things cool and don't claim to keep stuff frozen. Anyway I shall use them only when I can't source what I need elsewhere now but it's such a shame as we thought we'd found the perfect shopping combination. I'll add that in the 10 months we have been using Riverford we haven't been able to fault them other than 1 pack of bacon that was half fat, half bacon but it was promptly refunded with a verbal appology. It felt good to support a caring ethical company but now I begrudge them my business.
I totally understand the pressures at this time of year having spent many years working in retail, tele sales and customer services at various levels but the time of year is no excuse IMO, if anything it's more important as we look towards next year.

On another note I popped into Sainsburys on Wedsnesday and noticed some suits with badges so took the opportunity to ask why organic items were dissappearing from their shelves such as pasta and long grain rice and why some things were so hard to find like organic pork. It turned out I was speaking to Diane Carter, zone managing director for the east. (I asked her position out of curiosity) learning who she was I seized the moment and asked why Sainsburys were reducing the number of organic items and expressed my concerns at the lack of availability and choice etc.I explained my concerns about gm and trying to avoid it. Although unable to give answers there and then she instructed a member of staff to call me and let me know what had happened to the missing organic lines. No call as yet but will let you know if I hear.

This year we have cut back on chocolate and sweet stuff now that we try to eat organic. I find it difficult to justify so I will be baking my own if we feel like cake and I have bought a couple of G&B bars for OH. The only non organic chocolate will be M&S choccie raisins.

Edwardia

rufy big hug firstly ((((((rufy)))))) you need G&B chocolate

Kirri

My HFW book order from the Book People turned up yesterday while I was out, luckily the courier got it through the letterbox! Very quick given I'd missed the last delivery slot Absolute bargain given what it costs elsewhere, thanks again Edwardia, really pleased with this :T May have a quick read before wrapping!

RMail have also just delivered some gpig food - middle of the day on a Sunday, I wasn't even dressed, wasn't expecting that!


Rufy, with me it's also the way they deal with me rather than the initial problem. My most hated retailer for all round atrocious customer service is Morrisons and my custom finally ended after an incident in store with what turned out to be a known-to-them aggressive customer and the store manager/security guard/cashier would not help and Head Office didn't even offer an apology, their written response left me more annoyed - I have since only stepped foot in the store when it's been a dire emergency. I'd also reported out of date produce to the manager and he didn't want to know or apologise or even look sorry. The customer service lady in store was miserable/non apologetic even when being presented with a mouldy in date item on more than one occasion. It is all down to the staff they employ but some shops manage to get it right so those will get my custom. If a retailer handles a complaint well I will stick with them.