Thursday, 30 August 2007

Answer from Nestle!!!! More Freebies!!!!

Dear Ms Forder (Friend who I wrote this for)

We are concerned to learn of your experience with your recent purchase of one of our products, ALLENS Party Jumbo Pack 570g.

Prior to packing, the sweets are jumble sorted and generally speaking the balance of sweets is fairly even. However, it would appear that the balance of assortments in the packet which was purchased was caused by a failure in the product blending system.

We would hasten to assure you that failures of this nature are rare and are usually detected and rectified by our machine operators prior to final packing.

Thankyou for reporting this matter as it allows us to investigate and take steps to prevent such occurrences happening in the future.

Please accept a cheque as reimbursement for replacement product.

Yours Sincerely,
NESTLE AUSTRALIA LTD.

H Kennedy
FOOD ADVISER

Encl. Cheque $20.00

Thursday, 16 August 2007

Nestle Complaint

I was asked to write this for a friend. Passive I know but hey, how upset can you get about this?


To whom it may concern,

For many years now I have had much personal enjoyment from many of the fine products that your company distributes. This is due to the wide variety that Nestle produces and the exceptional quality standard that you maintain. Unfortunately this has come to a grinding halt and left me somewhat disenchanted with a particular product of yours.

For several weeks now I have been purchasing the Neslte Allens 570g “Party Mix” from the Safeway store at Roxburgh Park. I have chosen to do this for one reason specifically. That reason is because I am particularly fond of the “Bananas” that you make. This would be a most auspicious situation except for one thing. There doesn’t seem to be any more than one or two “Bananas” in the entire pack. I have not purely based this on buying one or two packets of your product either. For over 4 weeks now I have purchased no less than 16 packets of your “Party Mix” and have found that the situation continues to reoccur.

The most accurate definition of “Mix” in relation to this situation in the dictionary states: “A commercially prepared mixture of dry ingredients”. Now, having done my homework, I find it hard to believe that there are on average; 12 snakes, 6 black cats, 8 jelly babies, 5 strawberry creams and 5 pink things for whom the name escapes me, in every pack. Yet, only 1 or 2 bananas ever make it! Correct me if I am wrong, but this does seem a little out of balance to say the very least. There are only three reasons I can think of that would cause this. Either 1: The “mixing” machine you use performs extremely poorly. 2: Somehow the QLD banana crisis has affected how many lolly bananas go into your packets or 3: It simply costs you more to produce these bananas and therefore you purposely restrict the amount that ends up in your packets.

Obviously in anyone’s right mind it will be the third reason which leaves me most disheartened with Nestle. As I stated earlier, up until now I have always had the reassurance when buying a Nestle product that I would be satisfied with the quality, but unfortunately here, it seems that you have dropped the ball and put yourselves in the same category as three quarters of the rest of the sub-standard products and companies in the market.

Having tried to locate an Allens packet of just bananas alone to fix this problem for myself has thus far not been fruitful (pardon the pun) and seeing your bananas are the only ones that I like, puts me in a most unfavourable position. I would ideally like to continue purchasing your products but at this stage, if this type of “skimming” or “cost cutting” continues I will be forced to select another inferior product from one of your competitors because I would rather do that than be seemingly ripped off each time. I realise that this is only a minute problem in your grand company but one that could spill over into further products in the future. This, I would be most upset to see which is why I am bringing it to your attention now.

In any event, I, as a consumer of several of your products, would love to see an improvement in this area and restore my faith in the Nestle brand which I have spent a lifetime getting to know and feel safe with.

Any action or response to this feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely

Wednesday, 15 August 2007

Optus = Twat, Loser, Inbred

Dear Whoever,

Congratulations on breaking your own world record of 3 complaints in 3 months. You’ve surpassed all expectations by moving to 4 complaints in 3 months. This being the 4th complaint, about….you guessed it my non existent phone line.

Once again a technician was sent out fix our phone line, and once again they exclaimed that the line wasn’t connected at HQ so they couldn’t do anything. Once again I was put through the agony of calling through to Optus customer service, and then being transferred to every person in the entire building, explaining my circumstances over, and over again. The reason I get to speak to so many call centre operators? Well it’s not because I have a craving to socialise with your staff, it’s in fact about two little words, “call stats”. PAINFULL!!!!!

Well the buck stops here! I have now had 3….count them 3, technicians at my house now. All of them have said the same thing “we can’t help”, and yet when I called today I was asked if I wanted ANOTHER one to be sent out. SURE, why don’t you send 50 out, and we can have a “I can’t do jack sh*t party” where once again I end up being shafted!

Seriously, I’m not asking you to perform brain surgery, or map the solar system, and surely there is a logical reason why our phone doesn’t work, that doesn’t involve sending out another useless technician?! Either sort it out or be declared the most useless company in the world. The Telco that couldn’t connect a phone line. Wow, it doesn’t get much lower.

Thursday, 9 August 2007

I can't believe they would question my integrity! - Spud reply

Dear Clay,

As stated in my first email, the situation was not one of apology, but one of solving the situation with haste so no other customers were aware of the situation. I can say with complete confidence that my friend was not offered an apology, she was however offered another spud, for which she declined. She then had to ask for a refund, which I thought was ludicrous in the fact that it should have been the first thing offered. When I eat out at a restaurant and I receive something I didn’t order, the restaurants first step after an apology would be to offer the meal for free. Just because you have an “outlet” doesn’t excuse you from becoming a hot dog stand.

I can imagine that when faced with any issue one becomes defensive, so I can understand the franchisees response to the complaint. Regardless of how busy the store was, customers once again should be the number 1 priority, not just money. I can say however that I’m not out to “get” anyone and have certainly been truthful in my account of the events. The only reason I have complained on my friend’s behalf is that she simply said she would never use Spudbar again, and I mentioned that if no one makes them aware of their mistakes then they will never be able to rectify the situation for the benefit of all their other customers.

I am certainly open to helping you resolve this matter and am available for further comment if needed.

Regards,

Cameron.

Spud response # 2

Dear Cameron,

Thank you for your email.

To ensure this doesn’t happen again the Franchisee and Staff will be required to attend additional training and satisfy the assessment criteria for Module 24 of the Spudbar Franchisee Induction Program ( Customer Service ).

Please note that I have phoned the Franchisee who was in the store at the time of the incident. She has advised that the store was busy and she couldn’t spend the time with the customer that she would have liked to. She has however confirmed that an apology was offered and a refund given.

Can you please double check with your friend her version of events before I take this matter further.

Kind regards,

Clay Thompson
National Support Center
Spudbar Franchising Pty Ltd

My Follow up to the Epic that is SPUD

Dear Clay,

Thank you for your prompt response. I can appreciate that it is not easy to run a large organisation, and I am pleased to hear your dedication in creating a consistent brand. I am happy to accept your sign of goodwill, and continue to use Spudbar in future, but would like to know what process or action you intend put in place that will give me confidence in using the same outlet again. Though Telstra Dome is a potential resolution it unfortunately is too far for me to commute in my lunch period.

My address is:

Cameron Davidson
C/- Robert Walters
Level 29
360 Collins St
Melbourne 3000

Regards,

Cameron

Spudbar reply - Quick and now I owe you a drink!

Dear Cameron,

Thank you for taking the time to compose the email and bring to my attention the situation at our Collins Street store.

Your associate’s treatment by our staff member is inexcusable and deplorable.

I have committed the last 7 years of my life to developing the Spudbar concept and building a brand with substance, integrity and decency.

The difficulties with building a business that is reliant on its people is that from time to time an employee with no respect for the customer or his / her self slips through the cracks.

I can assure you that I will give this issue my immediate attention.

In an attempt to compensate you and your friend for the inconvenience caused I’d like to offer you 6 Free Spud vouchers. This gesture is not intended to mitigate what happened but does go towards apologising for the behaviour of our staff member.

If you could please provide your postal address I’ll arrange for the vouchers to be sent to you.

If the damage done is to great then we invite you to visit another one of our locations ( Spudbar Telstra Dome is the next closest one to you ).

I’m sorry and hope to see you and your friend at a Spudbar outlet soon.

Sincerely,

Clay Thompson
Chief Executive Officer
National Support Center
Spudbar Franchising Pty Ltd