Complaint to Sainso's

Dear Sainso's,

I hope this email finds you in good spirits; I imagine you to be sat snugly at your desk, surrounded by reasonably priced meal deals, prawn and rocket sandwiches in abundance and whole hams lining the walls, just waiting to be hocked. I can just see you all grinning as you enter the office, content that you work, by far, for the greatest supermarket in the land. Don't you let those nasty fascists from tesco bother you (I feel I should explain my grammatical error here, I do not believe that tesco deserve a capital letter), who cares if they are in the top 3 biggest supermarkets in the world?! At least you don?t lure people in with petty PR stunts like advertising Ipad 3s for £49.99 then claiming it was all a big 'mistake'. Probably some sort of uneducated cretin, just graduated from 'University'. Polytechnic more like!

There are two types of supermarkets in this world Sainso's, those that will do anything to achieve the top spot, open 'metros' left right and centre, put the everyman out of business and create annoyingly patronising advertising campaigns ('Every little helps'. Indeed, thanks for taking a direct interest in my finances tesco, I'll decide how much money I have to splash on my weekly shop thanks) and those that care and look after their customers. I know which one you are.

Where else would I find such a generous lunch time meal deal alternative? M&S? A possible contender, but I want a Coca Cola with my meal deal, not a homemade blasphemous bastardised version. Waitrose? please. tescos? Laughable. In short, I think your supermarket is by far the greatest in the land, I once lamented from a roof top championing an offer you once did on a chocolate pudding, I thought so much of your desserts section.

It is for this reason I felt I must write to you Sainso's, because you see, today I was stunned - nae - shocked, when I experienced something truly terrifying: an end to the myth, a blemish on your excellence.

Distraught, I asked myself, What am I to do?? I cannot go to another supermarket, they are not worthy of supplying food to a gutter rat, let alone my own catering needs. I shall write to them , I thought. Everybody makes mistakes. I decided that you must be told of your error and be given a chance to rectify your mistake in kind, build upon that mistake and make your supermarket even better than it already is. Impossible! I hear you cry.

Believe me, it can be done.

Here is what happened:

It was 1330, slightly later than my usual excited jaunt to my local Sainso's (Tottenham Court Road, London). What would I pick today? The hock? The prawn? The lemon chicken ? hmm tempting. Or would I stray from the norm? Summer's coming up, maybe I should venture towards the ever lush fruit and veg section to sample the exotic delights from around the globe? Maybe I'll do both.

Both I did. Glancing over the enormous selection, numerous culinary treats caught my eye, massive mangoes, gargantuan Granny Smiths, plump plumbs and beautiful bananas, to name but a few. Eventually my eyes came to rest on the rosiest box of cherries I think I've ever seen. 'oop,' I thought to myself, Sainso's does it again. A wide grin spreading across my chops, a large rumble emanating from my stomach

I could barely contain myself on the walk back to the office; what a treat lay in store for me, what a feast! And for only £7 (I went for the Hock). Some people may argue £4 is a little pricey for a punnet of cherries, not me, I know their worth. You cannot put a price on perfection.

Once back at my desk, tucked in I did and wondrous it was! The hock salted to perfection, the cheddar perfectly mature. The cherries, oh the cherries, delightful!

And then it happened, disaster struck.

I happened to glance down, inspecting the punnetry perfection before me, I noticed something odd, something demonising my experience.

A hair or fibre stuck to one of the cherries, white in colour, squat in stature. Initially I refused to believe it. Then I began to wonder what would have happened if I'd missed it?! Would I have choked and collapsed, been rushed to A&E? No one likes to die from choking especially not from a fibre on a cherry! Then I began to think of the other poor souls out there who may have endured and suffered a similar fate. If it could happen to me, it could happen to ANYONE.

So I am writing to you now Sainso's, pleading you to heed my plea. Help me to restore my confidence in you, I don't know how long I can go without hock, or at least prawn sandwiches in my life.

I think given my near death experience and the trauma it has caused, not to mention (and let's be honest here) a pretty careless mistake on your part, some shopping vouchers (online or otherwise) would do wonders to placate my angst and restore my faith. The value of those vouchers I leave in your hands, but hear this: don't be tescos, don't be stingy.

Yours, in a bit of state,

Ollie Scarth

Sainsbury's devotee S.d
tesco's sceptic T.scpt
Hock Consumer H.Cs

REPLY:

Dear Ollie Scarth

Thanks for your email.

This has now been assigned to a dedicated Customer Manager who will respond in full shortly.

We appreciate your patience.


Kind regards

| Customer Manager

Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd | 33 Holborn, London | EC1N 2HT
customer.service@sainsburys.co.uk | 0800 636 262
twitter.com/sainsburys | facebook.com/sainsburys

I REPLIED:

customerservice@sainsburys.co.uk	Apr 26
to me

Dear Mr Scarth

Thanks for your email.  I’m so sorry about the traumatic experience you’ve recently been through which has tarnished your view of our perfection as a supermarket.  I can fully appreciate your disappointment in the events you’ve described, as if this could happen to you, someone who’s been devoted to our brand to such an extent, it could happen to anyone.

All of our products come from reputable suppliers and go through stringent quality controls to ensure that our customer receive nothing but the best.  The reason we test our products so extensively is so that you can enjoy our grapes, chickens, ham and the rest without a doubt in your mind about the blood, sweat and tears (no hair though) that’s gone into making them available for you to buy.  I can appreciate, however, this doesn’t reflect on your experience on this occasion.

Your comments have been logged and will be taken into account during future reviews held at our suppliers’.  Our suppliers, being just as dedicated as ourselves, will be saddened to hear you horrific tale and will surely takes steps to prevent anyone from going through what you have.  It’s important to us that our customers have every bit of confidence in our goods, and that we keep true to those expectations no matter what you buy.

I’ve arranged for a £10 gift card to be sent to your address which I hope you can use to buy quite a few prawn sandwiches.  The card should be with you within 10 working days and needs 48 hours to activate after receipt.  Please allow for this time to pass before using it.

We’re eternally grateful to you for taking the time to contact us, not only because you’ve helped us prevent similar incidents in future, but also because it pleases us to know that we have such dedicated customers.  We hope that we’ll see you in store soon, and that you’ll, in the end, forgive us for the hair clinging to your cherry.


Kind regards

Henrik Thornqvist | Customer Manager
Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd | 33 Holborn, London | EC1N 2HT
customer.service@sainsburys.co.uk | 0800 636 262
twitter.com/sainsburys | facebook.com/sainsburys

 

SUCCESS!!