St. Albans Price Chopper & My Pie Complaint

Hi All,

Back in early March, Price Chopper ran an add for a Pineapple Upside Down Pie, so since I like Pineapple Pie, decided I would pick one up. It was on a Sunday, the first day of the sale and I had to go to St. Albans and dropped into the Price Chopper Store there, but no Pineapple Upside Down Pie. Asked the lady in the Deli, who didn't seem to know what I was talking about, so she checked the flier and said "Yes, you are right, we don't have the ingredients here to make them today." I thought, well, this is the first day, most likely they will have them later on.

On Wednesday, made a trip down to Essex Center and stopped in at the Price Chopper Store there and checked their Deli. They had some, so picked one up. Absolutely Delicious. Decided I would pick another one up so when I went to St. Albans on Friday, I stopped in at the St. Albans Store, talked with the same young lady in the Deli, because they still had no Pineapple Upside Down Pie out on the tables and she told me they didn't have any in the freezer. I was more than a bit upset as I live in Fairfax and try to help St. Albans by shopping there if I can, even though they have a tendency to be a little anti business, but thats a whole other story. I could have driven 11 miles to Essex Center and gotten my Pineapple Upside Down Pie without a problem.

When I got home, still steaming a bit, I logged on to www.pricechopper.com and sent them a complaint letter about their St. Albans Store not carrying an advertised special.

Several weeks later checked my e-mail and found I had received the following note from the Corporate Price Chopper Customer Service:

March 22, 2007

Dear Mr. Raymond,

Thank you for your recent email. It is always helpful to hear our customers' concerns, and to be given a chance to respond to them.

Our store managers are responsible for making sure their stores are fully stocked at all times. Unfortunately, sometimes we are unable to anticipate the tremendous demand for certain items, which would cause the product to sell out quickly. In these instances, rainchecks are available at the service desk. It is our intent to be able to meet the product demands of our customers to the best of our ability at all times. We have asked the store manager to contact you regarding this matter. If you haven't already heard from him, he will be in touch soon. We certainly apologize for any inconvenience you have been caused.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to address your concerns. It is our intent to provide excellence in all areas of service to our customers. Your patronage and your comments are very important to us. Please feel free to contact us anytime at 1-800-666-7667 (option 3) or on our website at www.pricechopper.com.

Sincerely,

Maureen E. Murphy
Manager of Consumer Services
Price Chopper Supermarkets

Lld

Well, that answer really threw me for a loop and I whisked out another response immediately to Ms Maureen E. Murphy:

Hi,
This is obviously a canned response to my complaint. Your St. Albans store did not run out of the special, they never had it. It is quite obvious you never even looked into the matter otherwise you would not have sent me the ridiculous response that you did.

Now what I didn't know was that while I was having my nap, Dick Ravelin, Co-Manager of the St. Albans Price Chopper had called my house. My wife answered the phone and he explained who he was and that he was apologizing for the store and their not carrying the advertised special. My wife told him I was sleeping, but he told her that the Deli Manager had not ordered the special and the girl I spoke with at the Deli remembered me since I came in twice for the Pineapple Upside Down Pie and was actually quite embarrassed they didn't have it. The Store manager told my wife to have me stop down and see him. She told him she didn't know when I would be down, so he said he would send me something in the mail. Well, a few days later, sure enough, in the mail I received $20 in Gift Cards from him.

Happened to go to St. Albans yesterday, so stopped in and asked for the Store Manager. Local Customer Service wanted to know my name which I gave her, but told her, you better tell him it is the Pineapple Upside Down Pie Man -- That she did and he knew right away who I was.

Wasn't long before this smiling very pleasant gentleman came down the aisle -- Very pleasant, had a great conversation and no hard feelings at all -- What a nice way to handle a situation -- I of course am just a wee bit upset with Ms Maureen E. Murphy from the Corporate Customer Service for the Canned Response -- She would have been better to just say we have contacted the store manager who will be contacting you than to give an unfounded reason.