guitarman001 Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Summary: Opened a tin of tune and found a large (half the size of a thumb) plastic component inside whilst preparing a sandwhich (I said for my little sister but hey). If I'd have swallowed it I would have had some serious problems...!! Anyway, I sent a letter off to the company and attached the component. Got a letter back with them admitting these things sometimes happen, with a £10 voucher to spend on their brand of tuna. I'm not trying to get a king's ransom here... but TEN POUNDS!? My initial reaction is just take it and be done with it all; what do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stay Beautiful Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 An initial reaction is quite often the correct one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patfig Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Summary: Opened a tin of tune and found a large (half the size of a thumb) plastic component inside whilst preparing a sandwhich (I said for my little sister but hey). If I'd have swallowed it I would have had some serious problems...!! Anyway, I sent a letter off to the company and attached the component. Got a letter back with them admitting these things sometimes happen, with a £10 voucher to spend on their brand of tuna. I'm not trying to get a king's ransom here... but TEN POUNDS!? My initial reaction is just take it and be done with it all; what do you think? try it again next week too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ungeared Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I would have been more pi$$ed off if they'd asked for the plastic component back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken_ichikawa Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Silly boy, you should have taken a picture of it, still in the tin and then threatened to sell it to the press unless you get a big wad of hush hush money. Reputation damage can be immense, i.e. a ratner moment. 5 years ago I had a pork pie. It contained a complete ball joint from a femur , I nearly broke my teeth on it. My GF at the time kicked up a massive massive fuss about it (we were outside the supermarket in question). She was initially fobbed off by the customer care guys. But the manager was smart enough to bung her a fair chunk of change to get her to shut up she spent it. I no longer eat pies of any sort. 17 years ago a security guard at xxxxxxxxxxxx accused me of being a thief I hadn't even gone in the store yet having just gotten off the bus he took me to one side and told me a bunch of chinks had come in to steal stuff. He was watching me, the manager happened to be somebody I knew and saw in horror what was going on as the guard was holding me by the cuff. I immediately went to the manager and complained. The guard was sacked there and then and I was given some 'it didn't happen kid' money. You gotta kick up a fuss and threaten them somehow, these are the only things companies respond to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spot Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Summary: Opened a tin of tune and found a large (half the size of a thumb) plastic component inside whilst preparing a sandwhich (I said for my little sister but hey). If I'd have swallowed it I would have had some serious problems...!! Anyway, I sent a letter off to the company and attached the component. Got a letter back with them admitting these things sometimes happen, with a £10 voucher to spend on their brand of tuna. I'm not trying to get a king's ransom here... but TEN POUNDS!? My initial reaction is just take it and be done with it all; what do you think? I had a similar experience, I found a small piece of glass in a tin of heinz baked beans. From what people had told me I was expecting trucks to pull up outside my house full of heinz products, but no all I got was a corporate bull5h1t letter and a £10 voucher. And yes I went through the same thought process but then decided there was little to be gained from taking it any further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken_ichikawa Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I had a similar experience, I found a small piece of glass in a tin of heinz baked beans. From what people had told me I was expecting trucks to pull up outside my house full of heinz products, but no all I got was a corporate bull5h1t letter and a £10 voucher. And yes I went through the same thought process but then decided there was little to be gained from taking it any further. As said its because you didn't kick up a fuss, kicking up a fuss is what gets things done and changes occurring. Those Yanks kicked up a fuss about 227 years ago. Look at this woman in HKIA It is painful to watch..... even more painful when you understand what she is saying.... but guess what? She got 3 employees fired from the company. Cathay gave her a large number of Free first class Cathay Flights AND bunged her about £30 grand so she wouldn't go on TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spot Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I'm too old for this but I'm lead to believe if you are tech savvy and put your story on facebook out on social websites and your complaint goes viral then the above you were expecting may well of happened. This was a few years ago so pre FB. But yes I should've done more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarman001 Posted July 12, 2011 Author Share Posted July 12, 2011 Do you wish you HAD kicked up a fuss now? My mistake was probably sending them the component. I still have a (poor) picture of it, though. And yes, I was expecting free tuna for a year!! I'm usually a pretty decent guy, but sometimes when you hear what other people get in these sorts of cases... Saying that, my girlfriend had a similar experience years ago and also got a £10 voucher, so this seems par for the course... £10 is pittance, mind you! I think you're right - you have to be a complete @rse and kick up a serious fuss to get anything. Unfortunately I'm not that sort of person and tend to go red-faced instead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Banner Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 A favourite trick when I was at school was to buy a pack of 20 cigarettes, smoke 19 and send the last one to the manufacturer with a note saying how disappointed we were with the cigarettes in that pack. A carton of 200 usually arrived by return post to the school. Come to think of it, it was a good sales technique to send plenty of samples to a school . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bossybabe Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 You should have kept the piece of plastic, sent them the photo and asked for reciprocity for not publicising their enormous error. My brother in law was once charged £60 for a £6 pack of chicken breast by Sainsbury. It was part of a big shop, and wasn't discovered till he got home and looked at the till receipt. He immediately went back to the offending store - it was on a Saturday afternoon - and threatened to spill the beans about overcharging unless there was an immediate refund with reciprocity. He got a free £6 pack of chicken breast and £££ to keep his mouth shut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarman001 Posted July 12, 2011 Author Share Posted July 12, 2011 Seriously, how much £££ are you talking...!?!? OK so just home and read the letter... they say it was a piece of BONE!! You never would have believed it looking at the thing.... Still disappointed with the £10 lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilf Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Seriously, how much £££ are you talking...!?!? OK so just home and read the letter... they say it was a piece of BONE!! You never would have believed it looking at the thing.... Still disappointed with the £10 lol. Your big mistake was sending it back, you should have taken detailed pictures and sent them instead. Then worded the letter in such a way which suggest you don't how to deal with the issue and give them a first chance to deal with the situation before taking it further with trading standards (or what ever the relevant body was). You also need to ham it up a bit and say you are very concerned about it and will be investigating in to what it is and the potential harm it could have caused. I would imagine the standard response to any foreign body in food is that it is bone, given they now have it you have no proof one way or the other. Having said all this, I don't really go for the whole holding a company to ransom, if you have eaten a razor blade and cut yourself then yes you deserve compensation, other than that I'm not sure what people are expecting. The whole thing is generally self policing i.e. When I found a massive lump of gristle in a Peters Sausage role I stopped buying them and it put me off their products for ever. They sent me a voucher for £10 but I wasn't keen to repeat the experience so never used it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patfig Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 I found a vein in my hotdog once, do I win a fiver? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longtomsilver Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Last year I opened a packet of snacks - horrified by what I saw I wrote a nice letter to the manufacturer enclosing the spoiled snack and got a years supply of same(two huge parcels - worth £6-700 in fact so much there was no space in the house and most of it filled the car boot) and a letter from the CEO apologising quite profusely. 10 poxy devalued pounds, grhhh! Edit: gilf pretty much described my route.. softly, softly not knowing what to do and putting the ball in the manufacturers court so to speak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarman001 Posted July 13, 2011 Author Share Posted July 13, 2011 I found a vein in my hotdog once, do I win a fiver? Eeeewww, a friend had the same, but the vein was drawn out between a mince pie and his two front teeth.... a big bulgy blue vein.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pent Up Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 I found a piece of wood in a pack of co op crisps. Got £15 co op voucher. I bought £15 more crisps hoping to to multiply my winnings. It didn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken_ichikawa Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 I found a piece of wood in a pack of co op crisps. Got £15 co op voucher. I bought £15 more crisps hoping to to multiply my winnings. It didn't work. I had a freakish spate of luck in the 1990s, I bought a twix and won another twix with the wrapper. I won 5 more then an icecream then one more twix... Best streak of luck I ever had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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