Happy to Help?

Plus, why is there no distinction made between nuts and sesame seeds when many people with nut allergy are not allergic to sesame?'

The story so far:

An e-mail enquiry to Customer Services drew an irrelevant response as follows:

'Thank you for your request for information about the nutritional content of ASDA products The most up to date 'Free From' information can be found on both ASDA.com website, specifically in the 'Healthy Living' section of the website (Please follow the link provided below to access the lists).

Unfortunately this is the only information I could find

http://193.201.200.191/foodlists/foodlist.html

We would be happy to help further if this information does not meet your needs, in this case please access the Customer Service Section of the ASDA.com website and 'Contact Us'.'

I e-mailed this particular customer service assistant back to ask him to deal with my enquiry properly or pass it on to somebody who could. I heard nothing.

So I rang ASDA Customer Service department. A battle of wills ensued:

Me: 'You're not answering my question.'
Her: 'Well, I am answering it, just not how you want me to...'
Me: But you're not answering it. Please can you pass me on to somebody who can answer it.'
Her: 'I can't pass you on to anybody else'

So ASDA Customer Service had informed me that the warning 'May contain traces of nuts and/or seeds' actually means all the products displaying this warning may actually contain nuts. I was persistent, 'but that's not what the warning says. It says 'or'.'

'Well that's what it means' came the reply. I remain sceptical.

I'm sending this to the CEO at ASDA...well you never know... I thought I might also pass on my comments to ASDA magazine letters page, although I can't see it being printed amongst the sycophantic 'ASDA is great because...' nonsense they usually publish.

Incompetent staff are not however confined to ASDA Customer Services. I have also made telephone enquiries to Sainsbury's and Marks and Spencer to clarify their labelling policies. Both advisors I spoke to had no clear idea how products that may contain nuts were labelled and gave me incorrect information. As I waited for an answer I could hear their brains ticking...urging them to make something up (this happens to me a lot in restaurants too). So that's what they did, they made something up that sounded plausible. If I believed what they told me I could have been putting a nut-allergic child at risk. Neither operator would pass my query on although I did get the food technology number from Sainsbury's, left a message and guess what? Nobody returned my call.

So to all Customer Service personnel:

Please get a grip. This is such bad customer care. I used to work in customer service and I know it's a bit of a thankless, mind-numbing job. I know Average Handling Time and Statistics matter to you, I know you see passing on an enquiry as some sort of failure to do your job, but please make the effort to find out the answers to our questions and don't fob us off. You could be risking somebody's life.