Unhappy Shopper

Quorn: Roma vine tomato fillets

2008-09-18T20:56:00.006+01:00

Roma vine?

How come their sauce is more saucey?

Quorn: Deep filled mince and onion pies

2008-08-06T19:44:00.002+01:00

Does exactly what it says...

... on the box

Lidl: Honey roasted peanuts

2008-07-29T21:21:00.005+01:00

Nuts

Hard to compare reality with a drawing

Tesco: Lincolnshire sausages

2008-07-20T18:09:00.004+01:00

Boring packaging...

... but at least it matches real life

Sainsbury's: Mozzarella, tomato & pine nuts in a tomato & rosemary topped foccacia

2008-07-17T20:13:00.008+01:00

[No picture]

Bought Sainsbury's "Mozzarella, tomato & pine nuts in a tomato & rosemary topped foccacia" (aka a roll) and found the total sum of one pine nut.

Sainsbury's responds...

"Thank you for contacting us. I am concerned to hear of your disappointment with the filling of the roll you bought in our Tunbridge Wells store. I can appreciate how annoying it must have been for you that it was not up to our usual standard. I am sorry we let you down.

I assure you that we take our commitment to quality very seriously. We check our suppliers are meeting our standards by visiting them regularly. We also use the feedback we get from our customers to continually improve our products. I am sorry that the mozzarella, tomato and pine nut roll had only one pine nut in it.

I have noted your comments on to our system. This will enable our quality managers, buyers and suppliers to take any necessary action.

Please accept the 1,000 points I have added to your Nectar card as a refund, along with my apologies. They are worth £5 and will show on your balance within 72 hours. I do hope that you will use them to buy something you particularly enjoy with my compliments.

Thank you once again for your email. We are always grateful to receive feedback from our customers and your comments are valuable to us."

Update
I wanted to know how many pine nuts should be in Sainsbury's mozzarella, tomato & pine nuts in a tomato & rosemary topped foccacia, so I asked them:

"Thank you for contacting us again. I understand that you would like information on the amount of pine nuts our mozzarella, tomato and pine nut rolls are meant to contain.

All our sandwiches have fillings which are prepared with set amounts of each ingredient. I can advise you that pine nuts should have made up 2% of the filling in the sandwich you bought in our store. I am sorry that this was not the case.

Your comments have now been entered onto our system. Our quality managers, buyers and suppliers can view them and take any necessary action.

Thank you once again for your email. I do hope that everything you buy from us in the future will be to your satisfaction."

I then decided to buy the same roll last Friday. I had to write another email:

"FYI, I bought the same roll on Friday from Tunbridge Wells. This time there was 0% pine nuts."

The reply:

"Thank you for contacting us again. I am sorry that the mozzarella, tomato and pine nut roll you bought in our Tunbridge Wells store had no pine nuts. I can appreciate how disappointing this is, especially as you had this issue with a previous roll of this type. I am sorry for this mistake.

Our sandwiches come to us from reputable suppliers and we insist on high quality standards. We expect our strict guidelines for ingredients to be adhered to. I am sorry that this was not the case recently.

The comments we receive from our customers help us to maintain our high quality standards. I know that it is time consuming and inconvenient to have to go back to store to return items. However, it would help us to have any future items you are unhappy with, along with the packaging. My colleagues at the store can then enter the full details onto our system. Our quality manager can raise the matter direct with our supplier.

Without having the opportunity to examine a sample of the sandwich, we are unable to explain the reason for the problems you experienced. However, I would like to assure you that we will still take positive action as a result of your complaint. I have noted our system with your comments. This will enable our buyers, suppliers and quality managers to do their best to prevent the problem happening again.

Please accept the 1,000 points I have added to your Nectar card as a refund, along with my apologies. They are worth £5 and will be credited within three working days. I hope that you will use them to buy something you particularly enjoy.

Thank you once again for taking the time to write to us. We will be working hard to ensure that everything you buy from us in the future is of the high standard you rightly expect."

Link

Channel Four website: Sandwiches Unwrapped

Chicago Town: The deep dish four cheese pizza

2008-07-14T21:38:00.005+01:00

Should've gone for the pacman shot

Could not replicate stringy cheese ties

Tesco: Vegetarian 2 mushroom burgers

2008-07-09T18:19:00.004+01:00

Appetizing

Burnt

Tesco: Maple & pecan crisp

2008-07-07T21:00:00.002+01:00

Their nuts are bigger than mine

Note the scum line

Del Monte: Refreshing raspberry iced smoothie

2008-07-03T20:34:00.006+01:00

Turn the colour up

Must have a special teeth-chomping clamp

Goodlife: 2 Mediterranean bakes

2008-07-02T22:19:00.004+01:00

One bake on a plate

More greasey in real life

Morrisons: Right balance

2008-07-01T20:34:00.004+01:00

Tea towel not included

More beige than red

Aunt Bessie's: Homestyle chips

2008-06-30T06:14:00.005+01:00

Chippie chips

Does exactly what it says on the plastic

Morrisons: Baby corn cobs

2008-06-28T21:06:00.007+01:00

Eleven cobs

Strange brown stains and pieces of carrot

Nice packet

Stated weight: 420g | Reality: 500g

Tesco: Light choices salmon & broccoli pie

2008-06-26T17:27:00.010+01:00

Tasty

Close-up
(Thanks to anonymous. Send in your own findings for inclusion on the site.)

Morrisons: Roasted & salted peanuts

2008-06-25T17:57:00.008+01:00

May contain nuts

Somehow, the salt doesn't get represented on the packaging

Stated weight: 500g | Reality: 500g

Morrisons: 4 vegetable spring rolls

2008-06-24T22:53:00.008+01:00

How do they get their sweetcorn so yellow, their carrot so orange...?

Close-up

Lidl: Halva

2008-06-23T20:43:00.009+01:00

I need to buy a new chopping board

Close-up

Nice box

Stated weight: 400g | Reality: 350g

Introduction

2008-06-21T17:16:00.002+01:00

A blog that looks at packaged foods and the reality once you get them home. There's no image trickery (~~Photoshopping~~), and wherever possible, the original packaging is photographed next to the actual product.

Send in your own findings for inclusion on the site.