Day 084 - 07 Feb 95 - Page 42
1
2 MS. STEEL: You would not necessarily know that it had not been
3 properly cooked, would you? It could be either that the
4 customer left it for a while or that the store was not
5 quite warm enough, or that it was not cooked properly in
6 the first place?
7 A. I think a customer normally makes a point if it is
8 under-cooked, they are probably more concerned about it,
9 but the incidents are quite small in the company.
10
11 Q. But the burgers would not be checked to see whether they
12 were under-cooked? Do they get opened up and you do an
13 analysis of them?
14 A. If a customer said a product was under-cooked, the
15 manager would check it there and then. There may be a
16 simple explanation for what a customer thought was
17 under-cooked and was not. In a hamburger there is the
18 veterinary stamp that is on some of the meat which is
19 blue. Occasionally that comes back and the customer is
20 concerned about what that is, that it may be under-cooked
21 or something wrong with the product, and we can explain
22 that there and then and they are very happy with that as an
23 explanation.
24
25 Q. But if a burger was brought back because the customer said
26 "This is not warm enough"?
27 A. My interpretation of that would be that for some reason
28 from the time it had been produced to the time they started
29 eating it the temperature had fallen and their product just
30 needed replacing.
31
32 Q. But what I am saying is, is there a set procedure where
33 they have to take a look at the burger and examine it, or
34 do they just throw it in the waste bin and provide a
35 replacement?
36 A. If a customer said it was under-cooked then they would
37 take that seriously and look at it.
38
39 Q. Yes, but if the customer just said "This is not warm
40 enough", what would happen then?
41 A. If the complaint is that the sandwich is not warm
42 enough they would give them a hot one.
43
44 Q. They would not analyse it to see whether it had been
45 under-cooked?
46 A. As I said, we try to resolve the customer's complaint
47 right there and then. If the complaint was that the
48 sandwich was not hot enough, we would give them a hot
49 sandwich. If their complaint was that the sandwich was
50 under-cooked, then we would look at that.
51
52 Q. So you do not actually check unless the customer actually
53 says, "I think this is under-cooked"?
54 A. No, that would be true.
55
56 MR. MORRIS: Do all the customer complaints that are logged in a
57 store other than the ones that are dealt with on the spot,
58 which presumably are not logged -- the ones dealt with on
59 the spot are not logged, is that correct?
60 A. Yes.
