Customer Service

Last Friday afternoon I wandered into the Sainsbury's store near my office looking for a chocolate bar to eat with my lunch. I'd already bought some authentic, handmade by Italians and artisan mushroom pasta from Scarpetta and was in the mood for something sweet to accompany it.

I walked into the store intending to buy a chocolate bar at their standard price of 65p - most likely a Wispa Gold - when my eye was drawn by the bakery. Or maybe it was my nose. However it was, I noticed a basket full of individual sugared ring doughnuts gloriously covered in sugar and priced at 30p each. I quickly did the mental calculation and worked out I could have two and still be within budget! My senses were tingling with anticipation but relying on the retail experience I gained while working at Tesco HQ I looked around for a multipack which would offer better value. 

I hurriedly scanned the rest of the shelves and there it was, nestled in with the bags of chocolate covered mini doughnuts: a pack of 5 Sugared Ring Doughnuts. I nervously looked at the price label and was astonished to see it was only 70p! Bargain! Slightly outside of my intended budget but with 5 doughnuts I could eat a few and share the rest with my colleagues and earn brownie points. The possibilities seemed to extend infinitely ahead of me so before my excitement got the better of me I grabbed the box and rushed to the checkout. 

I already had a bag courtesy of my authentic, handmade by Italians and artisan mushroom pasta so I skipped past the "How many bags have you taken?" screen on the self-checkout and placing my trophy carefully into my Italian bag I walked out of the store and began the two minute walk back to my office.

Halfway there, my eagerness got the better of me and I opened the pack of doughnuts so I could begin my feast. I reached into the bag and, carefully exercising restraint, I delicately took out just a single doughnut. Just before it reached my mouth though, I glanced at it and stopped in my tracks.

The doughnut I had taken out was not sugared. I checked the box and confirmed it read "Sugared Ring Doughnuts". These were just "Ring Doughnuts"! 

I now had a dilemma: continue on to the office or return to the store and query the situation with Customer Services? However, the store was busy and so was I. I valiantly chose to proceed on my way back to work and make do with the doughnuts as they were.

On the way though, a thought occurred to me. In recent times, I'd read numerous stories of how regular, everyday people had registered their complaints on supermarket social media accounts and resolved their situations that way. 

I thought it worth a shot and so, once I was back at my desk and had explained the situation to my colleagues, I took photos of the offending doughnuts, reactivated my Twitter account and posted a photo tagging Sainsburys:

I waited half an hour without reply so I posted on the Sainsbury's Facebook page:

Soon afterward, Debs responded on Facebook with a rather well thought out reply:

As did Brad on Twitter - though with a less well thought out reply:

I decided to hedge my bets and pursue the issue on both platforms:

But they caught on and closed me down on Twitter. Maybe they talked to each other:

The Facebook conversation continued though:

But I don't have a Nectar card so this wouldn't do. I wondered what to say and then decided to come clean:

My honesty paid off:

Success!

I sent a private message with my home address and then embarked upon a discussion with my colleagues wondering just how much the gift card would be worth. We were of the opinion it would be almost definitely be more than 70p and that if I was really, really lucky it might be up to £5! 

In the end, £2 was offered and I graciously accepted. By this time I had also eaten three of the doughnuts and given one away so everybody came out ahead.

What started out as a terrible and ruinous catastrophe ended up with quite a tidy conclusion due to some excellent and responsive customer service and, to my mind at least, social media serving as a direct conduit between customer and retailer. They weren't able to replace my doughnuts with sugared ones but I think they did the next best thing!


Previous article: Under the Knife - Laser Eye Surgery - part 3
Next article: Wedding Speech