I'll just let you read the letter to their main customer service contact. It pretty much says it all:
Hello.
I'm not sure if this is the right point of contact, but I need to report an incident with the Save-A-Lot in XXXXXX, Kentucky, and inform you that I will NEVER, under ANY circumstance shop at that branch of Save-A-Lot again. I would rather drive twice the distance to the one in XXXXXX or XXXXXX than ever deal with that store again, and I've shopped there for 6 years, on a weekly basis.
The account below contains some harsh language, because, even though I started out very professional and polite, I took offense to the tone and attitude of the meat manager in that store. I didn't ask for another pack of meat, and I didn't ask for a refund, I just wanted to insure that, for whatever reason, I never bought another pack of meat like the one I was complaining about. I've bought meat for years. I've worked in grocery stores, and I know what meat looks like. It shouldn't look like a ball of nearly rotten, dark grey hamburger, with 1/2" of new meat packed around it like Play-Doh. That being said, here's what happened.
My wife and I went into the store early last week, and we bought a family pack of hamburger, about 3.6 lbs., because I was going to make hamburgers that night. I got home, and even though the outside meat was light pink and fresh looking, when I broke it open, it was dark, solid grey inside, and I could tell someone had packed the new meat around it.
The store is a 22 mile round trip for me, so I decided to wait until I had to go back to say something about it. I went into the store today, bought a few groceries, and after I paid for them, I asked the checkout girl who I might speak to about filing a complaint. She told me I could talk to the manager, I forget her name, and she called her on the intercom. I waited by the office, quietly, until she came up.
So, she asks if she can help me. I tell her I came in early last week, and I bought a family pack of hamburger meat, about 3.6lbs. When I broke it open, there was about 1/2" of new pink meat packed around a ball of dark, grey, almost rotten meat. I told her I had a hard time believing that was sanctioned, but I don't know why anyone would do it on their own, either. I told her I tried cooking it up anyway (I cooked it really well, just to be safe), but it didn't taste good, and I threw part of it out. I'm very calm and polite about this.
She tells me I should talk to the meat manager, so she goes in the back and gets him. He comes out and asks me what the problem is. I showed him what I bought, pointed out the family packs, and I told him the same thing I told her.
He tells me that he gets that all the time, and it's perfectly natural for meat to do that, because oxygen gets trapped inside, just like the underside of steak turn grey, and that it just happens, he get that all the time, especially when the packs are stacked like that, but it's nothing to be worried about. I tell him I'm not an idiot, and not to treat me like one. I tell him that meat doesn't stay pink to a uniform depth of 1/2", and turn dark, rotten grey on the inside from oxidation. At this point he tells me I can think what I want, he hears this all the time, and he tears open a cube steak to show me how it's a little grey on the inside. I tell him that's normal, but my meat was twice as dark as that, and I know what old hamburger meat looks like. He tells me if it happens again, I'm welcome to bring it back.
It's hard to convey this in print, but he gets a really condescending tone at this point, which really starts to aggravate me. I hate being talked to like an idiot, because I'm not. I've worked in retail for years, managed people myself, and at this point, I would have apologized, offered the customer some new meat, or asked them to bring in their receipt on their next trip, and we'd refund them for the inconvenience. Anything but talk to them like a child, and treat them with an attitude. I've shopped there for years, never complained about anything, and never asked for a refund.
At this point, he pretty much tells me I can think what I want, he couldn't care less, but he's worked at Kroger, IGA, and a lot of other stores, and he knows what he's talking about. I tell him not to talk to me like I'm an asshole. I tell him I've worked in grocery stores myself, bought hamburger meat for years, and it just doesn't happen. Not unless someone packs new meat around old hamburger. I tell him I'm not an idiot., I'm not stupid, and if it happens again, I'm calling the health department. He tells me to go right ahead and call the health department, if that'll make me feel better, he doesn't care what I do, and if I wasn't acting like an idiot and acting stupid, he wouldn't have to talk to me like one.
I get really irritated at this point. I ask him if he really just called me stupid? I tell him I've worked retail half my life, and I never worked anywhere that an employee could call a paying customer stupid and get away with it. That it was the worst customer service I'd ever seen. I ask him where his boss is, who his manager is, because I'm going to file a complaint against him. He tells me to go ahead, and I turn and the manager is pretending to look at the packaged meat section.
I ask her if she heard what he had just said, and I ask her if she's really going to stand there and let an employee call one of her paying customers stupid, after they'd already sold me bad meat. He says that I called him an asshole, so how can I complain about him calling me stupid? I told him, no, I said you were talking to ME like I'M an asshole, then you proceeded to call me an idiot and call me stupid. At this point she comes over and tells me she's going to have to ask me to leave, or she's calling the police. I look her in the eye, and I say really? I shop in here all the time, you sell me bad product, your employee calls me names, and you're going to call the cops on me? She says fine, she's calling the police.
So I tell her I'm leaving, but I'm calling their corporate office, and I'm reporting both of them. She asks me if I want the number, and I tell her yes, yes I do. We get to the office, and now she doesn't want to give it to me. She tells me I should come back tomorrow and talk to Tim, the store manager. I tell her I have never worked for any retail business where a customer can be treated the way they just treated me, that it's bad business, it's bad customer service, and as soon as I get home, I'm reporting them. She tells me fine, but the people that own the store only own about 6 stores total, so it's not like they're a chain or something. I tell her that's fine, give me the owner's number, and I'll call them. She tells me again, that it'd be best if I come back tomorrow, and I talk to Tim, because he's the store manager, she just works nights, but if I don't leave the store right now, she's going to call the police on me.
I took my groceries at that point, and I left the premises. I won't be back in that store, ever. And tomorrow, just as soon as I can get in touch with them, I'm filing a complaint with the local health department, the Better Business Bureau, and the local Chamber of Commerce.
What I would like to know is this: Is this type of behavior toward a customer with a valid complaint tolerated by Save-A-Lot policy in general? Is this sort of thing allowed to happen? I have never heard of a retail company that allows an employee to call a customer stupid or call them an idiot, then threatens to have them arrested for getting angry about it, and insisting something be done.
If this is allowed to stand, without some sort of disciplinary action and an apology to myself, I will never shop another Save-A-Lot store again. I'm sure Wal-Mart, IGA or Kroger would be more than happy to accept my business without calling me names and threatening to call law enforcement on me afterward.
Sincerely,
(Me)
(I don't hold out much hope of anything being done about it, but if I file enough complaints with people like the Health Dept. and BBB, maybe they'll think twice about pulling this crap with the meat and the shitty customer service next time.)
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