Thank you for your letter dated 24 March regarding Healthy Eating Creme Fraiche and please let me apologise for the delay in responding.
With regards your query, I contacted our technologist who explained that the Healthy Eating range is designed around a number of things: For example, most are half the fat, lower in sodium salt or lower in sugar than the normal products. Thus they are aimed at customers who want to reduce their intake of certain substances. This is not to say that the normal products are 'unhealthy' just that Healthy Eating products are a healthier option.
I hope this goes some way to answering your question and allays your fears about our non-Healthy Eating products. I hope you continue to enjoy our Creme Fraiche (with oven chips – may have to try that one!) Should you have any further queries do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you for taking the time and trouble to write to us.
Yours sincerely
For and on behalf of Tesco Stores Ltd
Marc Turnbull
Customer Services Manager
****
17 Lingland Road
New Mills
CHESHIRE
1st May
Your ref 453269
Marc Turnbull
Tesco
PO Box 73
Dundee
Dear Marc Turnbull
Thank you for your letter of 29th April.
I would suggest to you that your technologist is wasting his time at Tesco, for a successful career in politics as a spin doctor surely awaits him. If you are taking out quantities of fat, salt and sugar in order to make a product healthy then it follows that fat, salt and sugar are bad for our health; therefore his sentence 'This is not to say that the normal products are unhealthy, just that Healthy Eating products are a healthier option' is not only double-speak, but one of the finest examples of double-speak I have seen for ages, and worthy of Tony Blair himself. In truth it would make more sense to call your two varieties of crème fraiche 'Unhealthy Eating' and' Very Unhealthy Eating', but when was the last time a supermarket chain let the truth get in the way of a sale?
Yours faithfully
T Ravenscroft (Mr)
****
TESCO
Our Ref: 453269
7 May
Mr T Ravenscroft
17 Lingland Road
New Mills
CHESHIRE
Dear Mr Ravenscroft
Thank you for your letter dated 1 May.
As far as our technologist is concerned I'm sure he did in fact used to write in fact rite Tony Blair's speeches!!
I think that the wording 'Healthy Eating' is a little misleading as all food is healthy as it provides essential fuel for our bodies, to keep us going throughout the day. We all need certain amounts of fat, sugar, salt etc. to keep us fit and healthy. Obviously different foods contain differing amounts of each. So, this dispels the fact theory that non-healthy eating products are by definition unhealthy.
The healthy eating label helps to provide people with a choice and serves to make their shopping trips easier. For example, people who suffer from high cholesterol, heart disease, or diabetes, may wish to reduce their intake of fat, sugar or salt. By highlighting our products which have reduced levels of these this makes their shopping and perhaps their lives easier.
Conversely, what may be a healthy diet for a person suffering one of the above mentioned problems may not be suitable for someone else. This has been highlighted in the news recently, where some parents have been feeding their children low fat diets which are unsuitable for a child's health and growth. Hence it has resulted in children who are malnourished or who have stunted growth. So, in this case the so-called normal products would have been the healthy option.
With regard to your closing comment we are not totally sale oriented and, has been illustrated, more customer focused by endeavouring to meet our customers’ needs, we are not lying to make a quick sale!
I hope this clears this up a little better. Thank you for taking the time and trouble to write to us.
Yours sincerely
For and on behalf of Tesco Stores Ltd
Marc Turnbull
Customer Services Manager
****
17 Lingland Road
New Mills
CHESHIRE
12th May
Marc Turnbull
Tesco
PO Box 73
Dundee
Dear Marc Turnbull
Well you've certainly put me in my place, and no mistake! Not to say enlightened me. Particularly so with regard to children's' low fat diets that are unsuitable for children's growth. This probably explains why my wife and myself, each brought up on roast and three veg, are both six footers, whilst our three children are of below average height. In fact our eldest, fifteen -year- old Marcus, is only four feet three. I can see now that I shall have to get them all off Heinz Weight Watcher Soups and Ambrosia Low Fat Rice Pudding and get them on to Big Macs and Syrup Pudding, before I do any permanent damage to them!
Thank you for your valuable advice. When I return from holiday next week I shall be writing a strong letter to Heinz and Ambrosia telling me that you have informed me that their Weight Watcher Soup and Low Fat Rice Pudding products are unhealthy for children, and that they should point this out on their Labels.
****
17 Lingland Road
New Mills
CHESHIRE
27th March
McCain Foods (GB) Ltd
Scarborough
North Yorkshire
Dear McCain Foods
I feel that the time is long overdue when I should write to you in praise of your McCain's Oven Chips. I honestly don't know what I would do without them. Well I do, but as it involves the mind-numbing task of peeling potatoes I would rather not think about it. The fact is that your oven chips are quite the best chips it has ever been my pleasure to eat, and as a Northerner know my chips. However I can't say that I think much of your cooking instructions, so rather than cook them in the oven or under the grill as you suggest, which tends to make them rather dry, I cook them in the good old fashioned way in a chip pan. This has the effect of making them much more succulent, believe me, especially when using good beef dripping as the frying medium. The only thing that worries me about doing this is that there may be a possibility that the chip pan method of cooking oven chips uses more fat. Have my worries any foundation in fact or am I being over-cautious?
Yours faithfully
T Ravenscroft (Mr)
****
McCain
AC/SY 4 April
Mr T Ravenscroft
17 Lingland Road
New Mills
CHESHIRE
Dear Mr Ravenscroft
Thank you for your letter letting us know how you cook McCain Oven Chips.
As our Oven chips are fried in Sunflower Oil, and then you are frying them in dripping, you are nearly doubling the amount of fat on the chips. If you wish to fry your chips, me we recommend that you try some of our fry chips and we have enclosed a £1.00 McCain voucher to enable you to do so.
Yours sincerely
Ann Charlton (Mrs)
CONSUMER SERVICES MANAGER
Enc
****
17 Lingland Road
New Mills
CHESHIRE
9th April
Your ref AC/SY
Ann Charlton
Consumer Services Manager
McCain Foods (GB) Ltd
Scarborough
Dear Ann Charlton
Thank you for your letter of 4th April and the voucher.
I tried some of your fry chips but quite frankly found them to be a bit of a disappointment when compared with your oven chips. If I were you I would discontinue them and just sell oven chips, with something like 'Even Better Fried In Beef Dripping!' emblazoned on the packaging.
Incidentally, and with reference to the final sentence of your letter, when wishing to indicate that both yourself a
nd your compatriots recommend something, it is only necessary to say 'we' and not 'me we', as you appear to think. Or is this an example of the Yorkshire dialect?
Yours faithfully
T Ravenscroft (Mr)
NO REPLY!
****
17 Lingland Road
New Mills
CHESHIRE
29th April
Kwik Save Stores Ltd
Warren Drive
Prestatyn
Dear Kwik Save
I have just had a can of you No Frills Baked Beans. Unfortunately, as well as having No Frills, the beans had No Taste either. Could it be possible, in an admittedly laudable attempt to force down prices, that by getting rid of the frills you have also got rid of the taste at the same time? I realise of course that No Frills is an 'own brand' product, and as such is probably made for you by one of the major food manufacturers and therefore somewhat out of your control, but it seems to me that they might be putting all the good beans into their own cans and sticking the inferior ones in your No Frills cans. If I were you I would have a word with them about it as they aren't doing your reputation any good at all.
Do you happen to do a No Frills Lobster Bisque?
Yours faithfully
T Ravenscroft (Mr)
****
KWIK SAVE
Ref: 2999
9th May
Mr Ravenscroft
17 Lingland Road
New Mills
Cheshire
Dear Mr Ravenscroft
I was most concerned to learn of a complaint concerning a product purchased at one of our stores, and would like to offer my apologies on behalf of the Company.
To enable us to proceed with the investigation into this complaint, please return the product label and/or the foreign body using the packaging supplied, to this office at your earliest convenience. We take all complaints very seriously and a full investigation will commence as soon as we can forward the product/foreign body to the supplier. This may take several weeks as we will not only try to identify how the fault has arisen but also to help prevent a recurrence in the future.
We will be in touch with you again as soon as this process in complete, but should you like to contact us before then, please quote the above reference number. In the meantime, thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.
Yours sincerely
G H Williams (Mrs)
Customer Services Manager
****
17 Lingland Road
New Mills
CHESHIRE
15th May
G H Williams (Mrs)
Kwik Save Stores Ltd
Prestatyn
Dear Mrs Williams
I'm afraid I can't return the product to you as what I didn't eat I threw in the bin. However, since writing to you I have opened another can of your No Frills Baked Beans and can report that they were exactly the same as the others, i.e. poor, so this quality would appear to be the norm.
It seems to me that you have sent me a standard reply, since I made no reference in my letter to having found a foreign body in the beans. In fact I would have welcomed a foreign body in them as then they might have tasted of something.
I reiterate that my complaint is that your No Frills Baked Beans have No Taste. I also suggested that the reason for this might be that your manufacturers are using all the good beans for their own brand baked beans. I think it would serve your interests well if you challenged them on this.
In the meantime what about my enquiry about No Frills Lobster Bisque?
Yours faithfully
T Ravenscroft (Mr)
****
KWIK SAVE
Ref: 2999
21st May
Mr Ravenscroft
17 Lingland Road
New Mills
Cheshire
Dear Mr Ravenscroft
I was most concerned to learn of a complaint concerning a product purchased at one of our stores, and would like to offer my apologies on behalf of the Company.
To enable us to proceed with the investigation into this complaint, please return the product label. This information is vital as we have more than one supplier and can not identify the can you have purchased. We take all complaints very seriously and a full investigation will commence as soon as we can identify the supplier forward on your comments. This may take several weeks as we will not only try to identify how the fault has arisen but also to help prevent a recurrence in the future.
We will be in touch with you again as soon as this process in complete, but should you like to contact us before then, please quote the above reference number. In the meantime, thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.
Yours sincerely
G H Williams (Mrs)
Customer Services Manager
****
17 Lingland Road
New Mills
CHESHIRE
27th May
G H Williams (Mrs)
Kwik Save Stores Ltd
Prestatyn
Dear Mrs Williams
Thank you for your letter of 21st May, which was a complete waste of time, as you only reiterated what you said in your letter of 9th May, which itself was a complete waste of time.
I suggest that you read both my previous letters carefully. Having done so you should realise that I do not have any of your No Frills Baked Beans left. And I most certainly won't be buying any more! Nor do I have the product label to return to you.
Is there any point in my asking, for the third time, if you do a No Frills Lobster Bisque? Or do you automatically ignore all enquiries as a matter of course?
Yours faithfully
T Ravenscroft (Mr)
****
KWIK SAVE
Our Ref: GHW/MW/2999
20th June
Mr Ravenscroft
17 Lingland Road
New Mills
Cheshire
Dear Mr Ravenscroft
We write further to our recent letters regarding your complaint with No Frills Baked Beans being tasteless.
We were extremely concerned to learn that you had found no taste to the beans, and would have liked to have informed the manufacturer so that they could investigate further. Unfortunately, without codes from the packaging we are unable to identify which one of our four suppliers actually made the product.
However we can reassure you that the factories concerned have been thoroughly inspected for all aspects of manufacture and sampling checks are made on the product at regular intervals. We will nevertheless, keep details of your complaint on file should any other incidents of this nature arise.
Please accept our sincere apologies for this problem, and for disregarding your request for No Frills Lobster Bisque. This will be brought to the attention of the review committee who will consider this at the next range review meeting.
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention, we appreciate the time and trouble you have taken to do this. We have pleasure in enclosing a £5.00 Kwik Save voucher to enable you to purchase replacement products, and hope that Kwik Save can continue to rely on your valued custom.
Yours sincerely
Dear Coca-Cola Page 5