Spoiled Ham and a Voucher

@porwest - I agree, it depends on the product and the store. It happened that I noticed spoiled ham at Aldi, I informed the manager who immediately removed the package. Some employees are so rude moving the stuff around, if a small hole let air penetrate in the package, the ham spoils.

@LadyDuck I think part of it is the inconvenience factor. If I have to drive to the store to return something are they going to also compensate me for my gas or my time? And why should I have to keep spoiled food in my refrigerator until I go to return it? Everyone has a website and as a customer I should be able to do what I need to online, and they can always send me a digital coupon, or like they did here, a voucher in the mail.

I usually like to contact the main company since it gets to the right people who may be able to better look into deeper problems within the store itself. But it definitely depends on the product and store.

Depending on the store I will go back. This one just made it pretty easy to complain online so I figured I'd save some time and gas in the process.

@porwest Walmart doesn't like me to bring spoiled food back to them. They just ask if I've still got the receipt.

@DaddyEvil Walmart, in my experience, has always been pretty good about their return policies overall. Very rarely do they give me a hard time. Granted, it is rare I return something and 99% of the time if I am at the customer service counter it's because something got double rung.

@porwest Get some eggs .

No, the voucher is an in-store voucher and can be used on whatever lands on the register belt.

@much2say Well, I have them now. lol. But I only paid 99 cents for a dozen.

@porwest I've seen the Kroger brand there.

Me too. By the way, did you know Kroger owns Pick 'N Save?

@porwest That's what confuses me lol. There is expiration date, sell-by date, and best-by date. What's the main difference between them. I always thought expiration date meant the items are no longer good for consumption after that date. Now I know I was wrong lol.

@lovebuglena The difference is mostly wording. One guy says potato. The other says potahtoe. But they all mean essentially the same thing. "After this date you can't sell it anymore." But yes, the expiration date has nothing to do with it. And I say this partly as one who worked in food manufacturing for many years in a previous life having worked for Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola, and Nestlé.

No. Didn't ask for a pic or to bring it back to the store. They did ask for a UPC code, but I told them I threw the package away and did not have it and they had no problem with that. Nonetheless, I sent them three pictures on my own anyway. One of them was the one shown here. The other two were of the package to show it was sealed, and the other was of the stamped code on the package that included the facility number where it was produced and the expiration date. As for your last statement, that is entirely true. MOST of the time many products are good for two weeks or more after the expiration date. And MOST things I find are good WELL past the expiration date. Most people don't realize that the "expiration date" is REALLY just the last date a store can sell the product and has little to do with freshness or quality.

@porwest Yes. I remember when a rep would come to the house and bring you a whole bunch of free products if you had a complaint. I sent a letter to a soup company complaining about a kind of soup. They wrote back saying that it must be my taste because the soup was fine. Can you imagine?!!!

It's not commonplace when it happens these days, so when it does, you ALMOST have to start looking for a defibrilator.

Yes, and I was quite impressed with their quick response and told them so in my last email back to them.

Go get 'em and let 'em have it. I know you will. lol Just don't make too much of a scene that winds up as a new Karen installment on Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts or any of those places. lol

It was. And considering the state of customer service these days, I have to admit I was a bit shocked.