That's ASDA Price

TheImportanceOfBeingIdle

DMass wrote: »

You could have check to see if it was water tight if it was for aqautic use, eg rubber seals, etc.

Regardless your best bet is to go to the top

How would I check it for rubber seals? Dismantle it in the middle of ASDA?

You're clutching at straws here.

TheImportanceOfBeingIdle

Morty_007 wrote: »

Whilst I don't agree with everything you have said OP, I like that you have kept your sense of humor at this stage.

Your frustration is tangible and I'm not surprised. Regardless of how expensive/cheap the toy was, it was advertised as a bath toy. Why should you have to check if there is a seal? It has a CE stamp...isn't it the job of those who apply CE stamps to check safety and suitability of an item not the consumer? If not...whats the point?
We are told to check for the CE quality mark and we learn to trust it.

If I had been faced with a completely unempathic sales person, i'd have been furious too and probably asked to speak to a senior member of staff until I had been able to find someone who understood, I didn't want a good will gesture, or a refund. I wanted my concerns to be taken seriously. I wanted my concerns to be validated. I wanted to hear that someone understood where I was coming from.

JMHO

MSE does have reasonable, rational people after all.

reehsetin

DMass wrote: »

Have you ever worked in CS?

If you imagine 5 people being rude to you a day thats fine, 10 fine, 20 starting to get annoying now, but when you think on average how many people are rude to someone working a 8 hour shift, I dont think £4 a hour is enough, that's why I left, Im not sure where the call centre is based but be greatfull you didnt get someone who couldn't understand a thing you was sayng because the call centre was in baghdad. Is it not worth spending a little more on a toy to know that it would cause a threat to your son/daughter?

Btw, Ive never had anyone ring CS to compliment any company...

Edit: Btw, did you not check that the toy was safe to be used?

yes its a low wage but thats not an excuse for poor customer service, guess what customer service is your job if you cant do it, get another job! if you cant cope with it thats your issue not the customers.

the safety of a child should be of the highest priority, regardless of if your paid £5ph or £15ph
i've worked it retail for 4/5 years and yes you get customers complaining about things that you have no control over but guess what its the nature of you job, your job is to help them maintain their belief in the company and help the customer fix the problem (and yes before i was paid minimum wage and still did the same! its no excuse)

its not the customers job to see if its safe, sales of goods act says it should be fit for purpose! ie, going in blumin water

DMass

Okay maybe i went a bit OTT, but having worked in Retail and CS for years, I cannot understand why people get mad at, hang on let me rephrase that, why people hold the person on the other end of the phone responsible, If you were to get emotionally invloved with every complaint you wouldn't sleep at night.

I sympathise that your concerned with what has/could have happened to your child but you cannot blame the person at the other end of phone, it was/is not their duty to check every product.

I would suggest talking to higher up the chain than the idividual you spoke to before, and yes they should show some concern, thats one of the first rules of CS but I dont feel that it is acceptable to rant at someone down the phone. Perhaps your best bet would be to ring back and ask for the Manager/Supervisor or better put your complaint in letter format.

Appologies for any offence

Regards

firespire

TheImportanceOfBeingIdle wrote: »

'I'll pass it onto my manager and report it to the store'
'How about you tell your suppliers in the far east to stop making shoddy goods for pittence? What good is reporting it to a manager going to do? Would it not be wise to recall these and tell the buyers that you made a mistake? Because if my son develops anything as a result of this then I'm going to be more than happy to shaft ASDA in the courts'
'Well there's nothing more I can do apart from report it to the management and send you the good will gesture'

I don't get what extra you want the lady will report the toy to management so it can be looked at / recalled, all supermarkets have a policy for recalls. I would expect the operator to pass this on to the manager. You seem to want her to do more like go get a product, test it, order a recall, talk with the far east etc. there will people to do this not the phone operator all she can do is report it higher and quickly offer you good will to refund and fix any problem with bath. I think it is refreshing they immediately take your word for it and offer to fix things rather than the majority of companies will do everything to pass the buck and put blame on the user. You watch BBC Watchdog and people have the car bonnet flipping up and smashing the windscreen causing severe accidents and the car company put the blame on the drivers for not checking the boot properly no refunds no money towards windscreens or injuries. They must have tons of people phoning up ASDA trying it on getting refunds for things damaged through their own miss use and they don't waste weeks investigating and trying to discredit your claim they are simply happy to refund if anyone has problems.

MikeLB

I am going to approach this from a different angle -

From the picture, it looks as though the battery has leaked. What caused this to leak is anyones guess. However, I would suggest that the fact the toy was submeresed was not the primary cause of the battery leak. If it was, then both batteries would have ruptured at the same time. (or did they, I cant tell from the picture). So, the toy itself is not to blame per say.

The issues of protection against water ingression into products is a different area of legislation altogether. It is called the IP rating system but really only applies to mains powered or higher voltage items. IIRC, low voltage DC items do not get included as the legislation is to protect against electric shocks for example.

Now, as has happeend, you can debate all day about how the lid should have been sealed to prevent any possible battery leakage escaping. But, and here is the crux IMO, that arguement would also apply to any handheld battery powered device such as a remote controls, mobile phones, battery operated fans, torches, the list goes on and on. After all, there is a chance that leaking battery fluid may go directly onto my hand if i hold something with a battery in it. But looking around the office just now, I dont see seals on the hand held items battery compartments. Balancing the likelihood of what may happen against how often it does actually happen is probably the main point.

Did the batteries come from Asda as well? Does the toy still work with new batteries? Was the inside of the battery compartment flooded with water when you opened it?

I do sympathise, where children are concerned we all get protective. But I do tend to agree with a few of the posters. The CS person probably did all she could to deal with the problem.

Raise the concern directly with ASDA by letter or the battery manafacturer, and raise a legitmate concern according to what is faulty.

firespire

You don't say if the battery has leaked because water got in or simply the battery was faulty and the acid leaked out and you think the toy should have contained this which happened similarly to my remote control the other day. From the picture I'm having trouble working out if it is just the one battery that had been effected or both.

TheImportanceOfBeingIdle

The batteries were from ASDA. A pack of 4, the other two are in another of his bath toys which has had no problems. Both batteries have leaked. The inside of the compartment had been flooded with water but it wasn't when I opened the compartment. It had dripped out.

dazco

Zinc-Carbon (Z-C)
Zinc-carbon cells, also known as "Leclanché cells" are widely used because of their relatively low cost. The equation below shows the chemical reaction in a Leclanché cell.
Zn + 2MnO2 + 2NH4Cl —> Zn(NH3)2Cl2 + 2MnOOH
They were the first widely available household batteries. Zinc-carbon cells are composed of a manganese-dioxide-and-carbon cathode, a zinc anode, and zinc chloride (or ammonium chloride) as the electrolyte. Generally, zinc-carbon cells are not rechargeable and they have a sloping discharge curve (i.e., the voltage level decreases relative to the amount of discharge). Zinc-carbon cells will produce 1.5 V, and they are mostly used for non-critical uses such as small household devices like flashlights and portable personal radios. One notable drawback to these kind of batteries is that the outer, protective casing of the battery is made of zinc. The casing serves as the anode for the cell and, in some cases, if the anode does not oxidize evenly, the casing can develop holes that allow leakage of the mildly acidic electrolyte, which can damage the device being powered.
Taken from here

http://www.pc-control.co.uk/battery_types.htm

How you can expect a battery to oxidise correctly whilst submerged is beyond me.

A little research ( you seem very concerned about your child ) would have pointed you in the direction of alkaline batteries. A little more expensive, but cost does seem to be a massive factor of your purchases.

Do you drive a Kia? Or is it just toys and batteries you scrimp with?

uktim29

TheImportanceOfBeingIdle wrote: »

Silly me. I ought to tell the missus to start buying expensive toys that are gonna get wrecked by a 2 year old. If £4 after tax isn't enough to put up with rude customers then get another job where you don't have to interact with them. Not everybody is going to ring up customer services to compliment them.

So everyone who buys a jobs paper tomorrow no matter what qualifications they have will have their dream job staring them in the face and is gaurenteed to get it?

Come on. It doesn't take much brain to work out that not everyone can get the job that is perfectly suited for them just like that.

How do you know it wasn't her last day anyway? Why do people who say 'if they don't like it why don't they get another job' seem to assume that person has chosen that job as their life long job? Perhaps a person working in customer service might only get a rude person once every 4 months therefore why would it justify getting another job and how would they know that there won't be some similar situation there?