So, Monday morning, after dropping my daughter off at the transit center, I stopped in to Fred Meyer to pick up an essential. I always make the rounds of the markdown spots (but you knew that already). In the produce department, I found some more boxes of leafy greens. Perfect! I'll buy 2 boxes. We'll have salads again for a couple of days. The sell-by date was still a a day away, so the greens should be decent quality still. Or so I thought.
Imagine my disappointment when I opened the first box to find the lettuce laced with slimy brown leaves. No, I don't mean one or two bad leaves. I mean loads of bad leaves. I washed and sorted both boxes of leaves, picking out all of the decomposing ones, then repacked the boxes, lining with a tea towel to absorb any excess moisture. I composted 3 heaping cups of bad leaves.
I was thinking I should take these back. But it would have cost me more in gas to make that return than I would receive in a refund.
So, what's a consumer to do when they buy a product and discover it falls way below their standards? (And you know that I can be rather unfussy about some purchases, right?)
I went online and filled out a customer comment form. I made the comment as informative as possible, giving product codes, dates of purchase, sell-by dates, the amount of wasted, edible product, and I emphasized that this product should have never been made available to the consumer, and I'm informing them so that they can continue to work towards their goal of providing excellent groceries at a decent price.
I was nice, but to the point. I gave as many details as I could about the product, so that they could follow up on this item. And of course, I gave them 3 ways to contact me, a phone number, a street address, and an email address. So now, I await a response from them and will give you the info on how they handle my comment.
And just why am I telling you all of this? Because I want you to feel empowered to contact product manufacturers when you find something to be inferior to your expectations. There was a part of me that wanted to say, "oh well, live and learn" and just not do anything about it. After all, it was only $1.98 that I spent.
But I remembered another blogger's tale of contacting a manufacturer about a frozen turkey purchased a couple of years ago. Her turkey came missing a wing. This isn't something that you can see through the opaque wrapping. She felt it her duty and right to bring this to the attention of the company.
That incident stuck with me, and gave me the push that I needed to do something about this past-its-prime lettuce that I purchased. I hope to do the same for you. Give you that little nudge to make your concerns known.
And now here it is, about day after emailing my comment, and I have indeed heard from the customer service department. They thanked me for informing them of the problem and have snail-mailed me a coupon for use in the store. I have no idea what the value of that coupon is, but that wasn't my point.
When I have to make a complaint about a product or service, I don't really count on "getting" anything in return. The thing that I look for in a manufacturer or retail establishment is courtesy and promptness in addressing my concerns. I want to feel like my concerns matter to them.
I'll continue shopping at Fred Meyer, and enjoying good deals. But I will look more closely at all marked down items that I buy in the future.
Have you ever had to make a customer complaint? How did you handle it? Did you feel you were taken seriously?
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