After last Friday’s events and my letter of complaint on Sunday the wait for a response ended this morning. Here goes…

Dear Mr Handy

Thank you for contacting us regarding your visit to one of our restaurants. I am very sorry to learn of your disappointment on this occasion.

In order for us to carry out a full investigation, I would be very grateful if you could clarify what item was given to you instead of a Toasted Spicy Veggie Deli and whether it was packaged in a Toasted Spicy Veggie Deli wrapper.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards etc.

So it’s the wrapper that’s important then, not the customer service? I replied thus:

Hello,

I am not sure exactly what type of Deli it was, but it was a chicken one. The wrapper was not, I observed afterwards, a Veggie Deli wrapper but did not say ‘chicken’, just 6 letters which unfortunately I can not remember at this time. I acknowledge that had I not been sat in a dark car I probably would have seen that it didn’t say ‘veggie’ on the wrapper and checked carefully before eating, but I tend to trust that I’ll be given what I ask for.

The main point of my complaint however is that when I was given the wrong item no one seemed to be bothered about this and no apology was offered. What would have happened if I had been allergic to an item in the chicken deli? Do your staff randomly hand out pork products to Muslims? I doubt it – so why do they hand out meat products to vegetarians? I have been vegetarian for over 20 years and to have found myself with a mouthful of chicken was extremely distressing – and the staff I dealt with on Friday night just did not care.

Regards, etc.

An hour later this arrives in my inbox:

Dear Mr Handy

Thank you for contacting us about the Swavesey restaurant. I was sorry to learn of your disappointment.

The Swavesey restaurant is franchised to Mark Richards.   As the owner, he is responsible for any customer feedback relating to his business.   I will therefore forward your contact details to Mark Richards who will ensure your comments are responded to.

Again, thank you for taking the time and trouble to contact us.

Regards, etc.

And so it would appear that if the issue was chicken put in a veggie wrapper it’s a matter for McDonalds, but if it’s just the wrong item handed out and rubbish customer service it’s nothing to do with them. It’ll be interesting to hear what Mark Richards has to say on the matter but I fear (perhaps wrongly) that now it’s no longer a McDonald’s central office issue that it’ll end with silence. If I’m wrong, and I hope I shall be, I’ll let you know…

As copied from a letter of complaint I have just sent:

26/3/2009 – McDonalds @ Cambridge A14 Services.

At the above McDonalds I requested a large Toasted Deli Spicy Veggie Sandwich meal. I was asked to wait for 3-4 minutes for the Spicy Veggie Sandwich to be prepared. I waited and was handed my meal in a bag. I returned to my car and started to eat my meal. Due to the time of day it was dark and I could not see what I was eating – I trusted that the staff at McDonalds had provided me with what I had requested. On biting into the ‘Spicy Veggie Sandwich’ I was horrified to find that it was in fact a Chicken Deli Sandwich. I have been a vegetarian for over 20 years and on having a mouthful of chicken I felt both emotionally upset and physically sick. I immediately returned the Chicken Deli Sandwich to the restaurant to be greeted with a shrug and a query as to whether I had actually ordered a Spicy Veggie Sandwich. (As a vegetarian for over half my life I don’t ever find myself saying ‘chicken’ when I mean ‘veggie’!) There was no apology at all. Just that shrug followed by an indication that they would make me a Spicy Veggie Sandwich and that I would, as usual, have to wait another 3-4 minutes. 5 minutes later my Spicy Veggie Sandwich arrived with a mumbled and, frankly, insincere sounding “sorry about the wait” which was anyway more of a sigh than a sentence. Still, importantly, no apology for providing a vegetarian who had requested a Spicy Veggie Sandwich with a chicken one though – I don’t think they cared. Having had a mouthful of chicken for the first time since 1989 I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to pursue the matter further at the time but I was, and am, furious that McDonalds served me chicken when I am a vegetarian buying (the only) vegetarian option and none of its staff seemed in any way bothered enough to offer even a basic apology. It’s not the customer service I expect from a dodgy mobile fry-up trailer, let alone from a company who trumpets their supposedly excellent customer service.

I shall publish any response I receive from them here.

The Premiership Position Predictor 09-10 Rolling Score Chart has been updated and largely thanks to West Ham’s rise up the table we have a new leader!

1st – Karl (0.965)
2nd – Steve (0.947)
3rd – Tom (0.935)
4th – Colin (0.932)
5th – Carmine (0.904)

When you update the table positions you realise how little the teams move month on month but they still make a big difference. Big gains this month for Steve & Carmine, with Tom slipping and Murph dropping out of the Top 5.

Special mention must go to Mark whose score of 0.011 is as near to perfectly inaccurate as you can get! That’ll teach him to discriminate against the south.

There’s not long to go now – just 11 games left for that £20 Cambridge United Club Shop Voucher prize to be won or lost…