Food*****s Randpark Ridge. I am so disappointed.

Food*****s Randpark Ridge. I am so disappointed. I visited there last weekend for the first time and was absolutely delighted to see the the variety of hot food / ready made meals.

I was excited and sure that my meals for part of this week is were going to be purchased from there as they seemed to have a good variety of veggies in each meal and very affordable at that.

I got home this afternoon around 3pm after visiting the store, hungry as I hadn't had much of a breakfast. Dished a little of the few types of pastas/ spaghetti I purchased. To my surprise, they were all bland. And I mean this in no harsh way, but purely for feedback to improve the department and store, but it was honestly incredibly bland. Tasteless. Seems the pastas and spaghetti are not boiled with salt firstly. I added salt, black pepper, fresh chilli and ****** and garlic. Still struggled to get decent flavour out of the meal. I contacted the store and a lady kindly assisted and provided a whatsapp number to chat to me and for me to provide pictures of the food and slips.

I gladly sent all the required information and offered to assist in any way I could as I said I'm passionate about food. The feedback I got back after being asked if I ate the food was that due to store policy, a refund cannot be issued due to "bias remorse" 🤣 and that the recipes are generic and cannot be changed. I never asked for the recipes to be changed 🤷♀️, I sent feedback about how bland the food is. I then go on to ask if the institution is not open to feedback from branches or direct customers. No response to that directly. Why was I asked if I ate the food? How would I know what the food tasted like if I had not tried a s****ful to understand it was substandard? Being dissatisfied with the whatsapp conversation and conclusion, I called the store again. Had to explain my story to the 2nd lady who was polite. She then put me through to a gentleman who asked how he can help. Sigh, I then said okay I will explain the story for the 3rd time. He then said he knows. I said okay, so you are aware of the background story/ context, he says yes and then remains silent. Why not speak up? I go on to mention the mistake made via text about "bias remorse" so that he is aware that the staff refer to buyers as bias. He then explains it to me as if I'm a little child and firmly restates that due to buyers remorse, and the stores policy, there is nothing they can do.

My understanding of the consumer protection act was that consumers had some protection from the 7 day return policy? And although it is not entirely about the money, the fact is I spent R229 on food to get me through the next few days, and I am not satisfied with it at all. I would have just accepted it had I been able to pick up the flavors by adding all that I did, but that didn't even work. I spoke so calmly and politely giving all needed details and said I will help with feedback where I can. Really unhappy. I work with clients myself and this is not the way to deal with customers, woth no passion or compassion. Why not try to win back the customer? Not necessarily a full refund, provide some other way? Or communicate better. It felt like dealing with an institution where anything and everything is done to push it against the customer.

I have other service providers who gladly take my feedback on food. I have great respect for them.

Oh well, Food*****s Randpark Ridge has lost me as a customer. Hope other customers don't experience this.