Sainsbury's: eggs-cruciating experience!

[buddug]

Forgive me for venting, but earlier today I really felt like an avocado and cottage cheese sandwich, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. I popped to Sainsbury's to buy the avocado and cottage cheese only to find the avocado pear was rotten when I got home. So I took it back - car like an oven - and asked for a replacement plus ?3 for inconvenience and petrol (I live about 7 minutes away).

A lovely manager came over and gave me a gift card worth ?5 as well as the replacement, which I thought was jolly decent of him, and said so, to which he added: 'we wouldn't want to lose your custom.'

I bought a few things with the gift card - including some posh eggs, the blue ones - but on my return noticed the expiry date on the eggs was 20 July - tomorrow, and then saw that it had the display by date as 14 July!!!

So, despite being desperate for my sandwich, I returned in sweltering car only to have a very different experience. Lovely manager was on break and another manager, who'd heard about the previous experience, gave me replacement eggs plus ?2.15 in cash - the cost of the eggs. I told her that I didn't think that really reflected the severity of selling out of date eggs, the mounting inconvenience and petrol costs and the fact that I was still hungry.

But, wearing an expression akin to a bulldog chewing a wasp throughout this exchange, she snapped: 'you're not having another gift token for ?5' and marched off! I was left there feeling as if I'd done something wrong, and not the store.

Am I being unreasonable?

(By the way, the sandwich I finally ate more than an hour later was delicious. I had planned to take a picture and post it on the site, but I'm afraid I couldn't wait. Sorry.)

[edcam]

You sound like a bundle of laughs.

[buddug]

I was after I'd had my sandwich...

[Jeremy]

Jesus... you got over ?7 out of them, and still you tried to get more? And then you write on here to complain about it?!!

You've got time on your hands to make a journey for the specific sandwich filling you fancy, but a seven minute journey is an inconvenience worthy of financial compensation?

Surely this has to be a joke...

[KalamityKel]

Which bit are you annoyed at?

[sweet megan]

"Am I being unreasonable?"

Short answer-totally!!

Twice they compensated you & yet you were still after more. I would have thought they wouldn't want to keep customers like you.

[showboat]

They weren't selling out of date eggs.

The use-by date is tomorrow - therefore the eggs were not legally out of date, and you are incorrect in stating that they were.

The display-by date is for the supermarket - it is not an indicator of when the eggs will suddenly become diseased.

Egg use by dates are always massively on the cautious side anyway - sellers are aware that many people will keep them for several days before consuming them, therefore they leave a lot of leeway. The same is true of meat and veg (not of fish, of course).

Yes, massive over reaction by you. 'Mounting inconvenience'? 'Petrol costs'? These are your issues, not the shops.

That said, it sounds like the second manager should get a refresher course in how to deal with awkward customers.

And may I recommend SMBS for avocado? They usually check them at the till before ringing them up.

[buddug]

Don't worry Jeremy, I'm a bit mathematically challenged too! But here goes:

1. Buy purchases, go home. Great. Looking forward to sandwich.

2. Find avocado rotten - 7 minutes back, 7 minutes home = 14 minutes

3. Find eggs past display by date by 5 days (and you mustn't mess with eggs) - 7 minutes back, 7 minutes home = 28 minutes in total.

So nearly half an hour plus say 15 minutes on top of that around customer service place = 45 minutes of my life I'll never get back. And despite my extreme courtesy, as I was brought up well, being treated like I'd done something wrong by second manager. Fair do's to the first manager though. My hero!

[edcam]

I'm on Team Second Manager....

[buddug]

Can I ask a question?

[StraferJack]

If anyone finds themselves asking "am I being unreasonable" then most probably that person is

Where do you live buddug? Why drive 7 minutes to sainsburys for some avocado in first place? Surely somewhere nearer? When it was off,petrol alone would make buying a replacement elsewhere more economical and less hassle

Sledgehammer. Nut

[Jeremy]

To be honest buddug, a part of me admires your top-notch blagging ability. I've never even heard of a customer being compensated for the time taken to return faulty goods, so good on you! But surely you can't be surprised that you were given short shrift when you pushed them for even more money!

[StraferJack]

And as for the pun in the thread title....

[edhistory]

Seven miles from East Dulwich Sainsbury's?

That's somewhere South of Penge.

John K

[showboat]

Right - PAY ATTENTION Buddug...

" Find eggs past display by date by 5 days (and you mustn't mess with eggs)"

DISPLAY-BY DATE AND USE-BY DATE ARE NOT THE SAME THING.

Do you understand that? A Use-By date is legally required, as part of Environmental Health legislation. The Display-By date is the shops own choice. It's them deciding when to keep stock on the shelf till. As you can see, Sainsbury's operate a SIX DAY GAP between the two.

Now, that they've left them on the shelf past their own removal date is a problem for them. BUT...

It does NOT mean they have broken any laws or put any customers at risk. Because they haven't. So stop implying that they have.

[buddug]

John K - 7 minutes, not 7 miles.

My question is this. Are you all Sainsbury's shareholders? You all seem very, well, angry. Even to the point where capital letters are now appearing! If you can bear to read my post again, I'm not. Just eggs-asperated, baffled, hot and hungry. A fatal combination.

I think I was genuinely just very unlucky this morning - buying one rotten item, and then on returning it, being sold six eggs I'd have had to eat all in one day to feel safe. And even then, six in one go would have played havoc with my cholesterol.

Ninety nine per cent of the time, Sainsbury's produce is top notch. (Does that help?)

[Sue]

Eggs are fine past their use-by date provided they are fully cooked.

I looked it up only recently because I had some eggs in the fridge which were past the use-by date.

I boiled them and they (and I) were fine.

I think it was very nice of Sainsbury's to give you any compensation at all on top of replacing an item you took back. I certainly wouldn't have expected it.

I thought your post was someone trolling at first, to be honest.

Edited because I thought I'd had the eggs longer than I had, but I've just looked it up again and I wouldn't have eaten them if it was a fortnight past :)

[showboat]

I used capitals because you plainly didn't read my first post properly, so I wanted get your attention.

I've never worked for them, hardly even shop there. But you asked if others thought you've over reacted, and almost everyone has said they think you did.

So it seems to me you don't like the answers you got.

Nothing wrong with returning product for a refund, but yes, people seem to think you're making too much of this.

[buddug]

I suppose I did ask if I was being unreasonable. But reading all this, I can't for the life of me see how I over-reacted in the store from what I said in my first post. Was I screaming at the second manager? Did I rent my clothes asunder or call the police?

It's very likely true about the eggs, but I'm a rural girl by upbringing, and my grandparents kept hens - and I wouldn't risk it.

[showboat]

Didn't say you over reacted in the store. I'm saying you're over reacting in general, by thinking that...oh I can't be bothered.

You're not worth it. Wait till Waitrose take over the old police station, maybe they'll treat you the way you expect.

[speedbird]

Buddug, in my opinion you would try the patience of a saint. You seem to believe you are completely in the right here. They are eggs! An avocado! Time to get over whatever it is that is truly troubling you.

I'm with Team second manager too. Time to take a look at yourself.

[Sue]

buddug Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

>

> It's very likely true about the eggs, but I'm a

> rural girl by upbringing, and my grandparents kept

> hens - and I wouldn't risk it.

xxxxxx

Both my sets of grandparents kept hens - not sure what that's got to do with it?

[Jeremy]

Wouldn't want this to turn into a ganging-up-on-buddug thing...

[Jessie]

Lesson in this is to check the use by/display by date before you buy. Obvs not for the avocado. Hope you're not hungry still.

[Peckhampam]

I eat eggs weeks past their sell by date-as long as they look OK and smell OK they are fine