Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Union Market chicken follow up

My January 31st post on the post-dated chicken at Union Market on Court Street received this response from Union Market yesterday:

"It’s never easy for a retailer to hear of a customer experience such as yours, much less read about it on the web. We can promise you that it’s contrary to all Union Market policy to deliberately mislead a customer, or even to fake information if you don’t know the answer to a question. Beyond that, it’s a clear violation of the law to willfully mislabel fresh product on the stand, and in the Internet era it’s suicidal to intentionally embark on such a practice.

"The Murray’s Chicken that you found on the stand at Court Street had been labeled by a relatively new employee, who used the wrong scale labels (they were labeled as Smart Chicken) and then placed the labels incorrectly, and inappropriately, on the packages, as you’ve described. We regard this less as the employee’s fault and more a failure of management to properly explain the task at hand, and to follow-up on how the job was done. The staffer has been shown the right way, and the department head has been spoken to, and the butcher on duty has been reprimanded for his attitude and actions. We apologize for the poor treatment you received.

"Our store manager’s response to you, about how this was an “accident,” may have been impulsive, but it was not disingenuous, for the reasons stated above: misrepresentation of product in any way is the polar opposite of Union Market’s policies and practices.

"We will contact you directly so that we can speak personally about this, if you’d like, in hopes of answering any further questions and addressing any other concerns or observations that you have.

"Again, our regrets that this happened, and our thanks for bringing it to our attention."


15 comments:

  1. I thought this was a thoughful response to a customer's poor experience at their establishment. It would win me back over.

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    1. Certainly it's the best response that could be given. 10/10 for the correct approach.

      Our problems with service have gone back a couple of years. Under the circumstances I would return, but I am not holding my breath.

      Delete
  2. While I like to give people the benefit of the doubt . . . considering this was not your first unpleasant experience at the market, my guess is they are more sorry that the incident was posted for all to see vs the actual incident itself. We can only hope it will put them on notice!

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  3. Did they offer you a freebie of any sort?? thats the real apology!

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  4. "And we'd like to offer you a $50.00 gift certificate in apology for our poor handling of your unfortunate experience."

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    1. Or a free bagel after the guy in the bakery shouted at Vincent, who was leaning over the glass partition...:-)

      You should be an agent, Betsy.

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. I was struck by that, too. One sees so much sloppy writing all around, so it is good to see that, regardless of any operational problems Union Market may have, someone in the organization cares about and can produce a clean and well-constructed piece of writing.

      Delete
  6. Sorry, not impressed with this "dog ate my homework" excuse. Someone did poor training, someone stuck stickers in the wrong place and oops, we're sorry ... that the world knows now.

    No acknowlegment ofthe butcher's incredible rudeness. No " we are appalled at your poortreatment " and on and on.

    Wish you had another source, but would certainly leave it as your last choice to shop. Definitely not on my "must see" list for our next excursion inthe Big Apple!

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  7. That damn world wide internet messing with regular business practices all over the world.

    Transparency. That's for the president!

    xo jane

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  8. This mail is one of the reason that why America works...

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  9. I'm with "webb" on this one. What I seem to notice is that it comes from the top down. The management sets the tone. If the employee's are treated well the customers are usually happy too. I wish more people would speak up as you have Marie, and perhaps it would make a differenc in quality and service for all.

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  10. Good on you for calling them out.

    It needed to be done.

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