While this is not related to personal finance and this happened weeks ago I think that it is still worthy of a blog post.
We regularly buy Gardenia branded wheat bread. From late July to early August, we experienced two or three times wherein the bread formed molds even though the expiration date was still days away. The first time we attributed it to weather. However, the second time it happened, we began to speculate.
My mother wanted to switch brands already but I told her to give it one last chance. She did. And quite unfortunately, during one breakfast, I accidentally ate a Gardenia wheat bread with molds. Partly due to my sleepiness and partly due to inactive taste buds, I realized it too late.
I was down to the last bite already.
I informed my mother about it and I informed myself via the internet for possible consequences of eating bread with a topping of molds. I realized that it wasn't going to be as bad as I feared it would. Obviously I had a visit to the dumpster to return to nature what it had created.
I'm quite fine now so I guess it's okay. For some reason, I'm quite lucky with food. Fruit fly on my soup. Hair underneath the garlic rice. When I was younger, we found a fly tucked neatly underneath our Domino pizza order. Yum yum. Some people have all the luck.
So anyway, when I ate the bread with the mold, that was the last straw. We didn't switch brands immediately. My mother called up the customer service hotline and we got the biggest surprise of all. It was a hotline that made sure they delivered customer service. You see other companies have hotlines that serve as mere repositories of complaints. But for Gardenia, it wasn't.
They informed my mom that they would visit us at home and retrieve the bread for investigation. And when they did, they replaced our bread and gave two more yummy flavored breads. I wasn't at home when that happened because if I did I would have taken a picture (them willing). They also sent a letter to us informing of what they have done and thanking us for informing them of their quality.
I visited their website today and the last paragraph on the page about their company states,
"By delivering uncompromising excellence in product quality and service, we consistently drive the market forward, setting standards for the industry to follow. At Gardenia, we make the science of baking an art."
Their customer service is truly a standard their industry peers (and other industries particularly telecoms, hello!) can emulate. So Gardenia, a big thank you and kudos!
P.S. Picture courtesy of their website.
1 comment:
It's good that you're fine now. I sometimes buy their wheat bread as well, but so far no moldy experiences pa naman. :) BTW, could it be caused by the handling and storage of the supermarket where you bought the bread?
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