So there’s a lot in the news right now about traces of horse meat being found in food advertised as beef. Not only has this made me want to man up and give up processed foods, it has also amplified the little voice in my head that tells me to become a Vegetarian. Especially when I see images like this floating around the web.
Back to the reason I’m writing this post…
I really love the way Waitrose has handled this situation. Earlier today I received an email from Waitrose which basically said,
‘Hey,
We’ve got some good and some bad news. We’ll start with the good.
We tested our meat products and found no traces of horse meat. Yey.
The bad news is that we actually found some pork in what was meant to be 100% beef meatballs. And because we didn’t expect anything other than beef to be in them, we didn’t list pork as an ingredient in the meatballs.
The date codes affected are Best Before End June 2013 and Best Before End August 2013. No other dates are affected.
We will refund and give you a suitable replacement if you have any products with those date codes.
Thought we’d let you know in advance.
You know much we love our animals,our farmers and most importantly our Customers.
Love you lots,
Waitrose.’
I like it because how can I possibly be angry at them when they went out of their way to tell me something wasn’t right. I love their transparency.
As a business you should always face up to your mistakes. Don’t keep your customers in the dark. Tell them you’ve messed up. Provide a solution and then make sure you never make the same mistake again. Your customers may be a little angry about it but as long as you fix the problem they wont be angry for too long.
Below is the exact email I got from Waitrose.
What do you think? Are they just doing this to save face?