Readers of Breaking Law will know of my price label experiences with supermarkets and how the consumer stands legally. Peel away with my latest little battle.
From: STEPHEN GOLD
Sent: 04/12/2016 19:29
Subject: Grapes (not sour)
As your records may disclose, I have felt it neccessary in the recent past to make several complaints to you regarding pricing issues at your Richmond-upon-Thames store. I regret it is a case of ‘here we go again’.
Below you will see a snap of yesterday’s grape display at the store. On the upper shelf, three kinds of grapes are displayed - sable, sapphire and cotton candy. There are price notices for the sable and cotton candy but not for the sapphire. The absence of a sapphire notice creates a misleading situation as customers would be forgiven when they select what are sapphire grapes for believing they are sable or cotton candy. This would probably result not only in them getting the wrong kind of grape but paying more than they intended as I gather that you intend charging £3.29 per carton for the sapphires as against the cheaper £2.99 or £2.50 (as the case may be).
The display depicted by the snap has been the state of the grape display at the store for about three weeks!
Would it help if I made a sapphire price notice for you and came and affixed it at what would be the correct position?
Yours sincerely
Stephen Gold
From Waitrose
Thank you for your patience while I looked into this Stephen.
I have a had a response from the branch regarding the ticketing on our grapes in our Richmond branch.
The duty manager has assured me he has spot checked the fixture and can confirm there is a ticket for each product. He has advised that the sweet sapphire ticket that was missing has a date for 5/12/16 on, so was printed the following day.
The duty manager would like to apologies for any confusion and disappointment caused and is more than happy to discuss this with you when you are next in branch.
I hope my response has been helpful today and if you’d like to provide feedback, please click on the link below.
Kind regards
Kelsey
Waitrose Customer Care
Dear Kelsey
Thank you for your message. I think that what you are saying is that, after a period of about three weeks with no price ticket for the sapphire grapes, one was printed out the day after and as a result of my communication to you. Is that correct and do you accept that this latest lapse is very serious? Further, are you prepared to bring the lapse to the attention of your customers in an appropriate way and inform that, if they have been misled into paying more than they intended for the sapphire grapes, you will make reimbursement to them? Surely this is the very minimum action you should take?
I will not trouble the duty manager when next in the store in case he feels constrained to project a large grapefruit in my direction!
Kind regards
Stephen Gold
Thanks for getting back in touch Stephen.
Unfortunately I'm unable to comment about the last few weeks, however I can confirm that the branch periodically check our products to ensure the correct ticket is being displayed. Sometimes mistakes do happen which appears to have been the case on this occasion.
The branch do always welcome any comments or feedback from our customers, if you have any problems in the future please do speak to a Partner at the time and they'll be pleased to resolve this for you.
I hope my response has been helpful today and if you’d like to provide feedback, please click on the link below.
Kind regards
Kelsey
Waitrose Customer Care
From: STEPHEN GOLD
Sent: 09/12/2016 12:48
Dear Kelsey
Thank you but, if I may dare to suggest it, you are avoiding giving me any specific answers to the specific questions I posed. Given that I appear to have been responsible for bringing an end to a misleading state of affairs, I think you should at least favour me with those answers.
Kind regards
Stephen Gold
On 13 Dec 2016, at 08:26, Waitrose Customer Service <customerserviceteam@waitrose.co.uk> wrote:
Dear Stephen
Thanks for your return email, although I'm sorry you remain unhappy with Kelsey's response.
We do everything we can to make sure all our prices are clear on shelf edge tickets and have rigorous procedures for checking that our prices are correct. We certainly don’t intend to mislead our customers in any way. In this instance it would seem to be a case of human error on this occasion for which we apologise.
I'm sorry you had a disappointing experience at Waitrose. To say sorry, I'd like to send you a gift card. Please could you reply to confirm your full postal address and I'll arrange this for you.
I hope we can look forward to seeing you again soon.
Kind regards
Mel
Waitrose Customer Care Team
From: STEPHEN GOLD
Sent: 14/12/2016 11:15
Dear Mel
Thank you for your message. Let me make it clear. I am not saying I was deceived and, save to the extent that I have suffered the frustration of not getting you to give straightforward (or any) answers to straightforward questions, I have not suffered on this occasion anything that could be categorised as a loss. However, if you remain insistent on sending me a gift card, I will not look a gift horse (or card) in the mouth and provide my address below but you may wish to reconsider.
My concern is for those who have been deceived. What are you going to do about it? I have already made a suggestion. Come on, answer that please and no more evasion.
Kind regards
Stephen Gold
Dear Mr Gold
I'm sorry you feel that I have evaded your query that was certainly not my intention.
If any of our customers come forward and make a complaint of a similar ilk then we would of course compensate them for that.
I have arranged for the gift card to be sent to you. You should receive this within the next couple of days.
I hope my response has been helpful today and if you’d like to provide feedback, please click on the link below.
Kind regards
Waitrose Customer Care
I will let you known when the gift card arrives. I may be able to buy a couple of bunches of grapes with it, at least. Yes, I still shop at Waitrose. That free newspaper deal on a £10 spend is a good one!
