WM
Winnie M

1 reviews | Active since Apr 2021

19 Apr 2021, 01:36

Woolies allegedly boozy smoothie almost cost me my job

I telephonically indicated back then to woolies I was going to share this story, have to keep my word, yep 2018 Oct it was that I almost lost my job because of woolies. If yall can remember the Ayrshire Mango & Passion Fruit Smoothie in plastic bottles, the first recipe of the smoothie not the latest watery one. It was a norm that when I drop the children off at school in the morning before I head to work I stop at the garage and get one of the ayrshire smoothies. Well that faithful day I didn't know that I was purchasing a humiliation drink/almost lost my job. As I was driving to the office sipping my smoothie minding my own business, I pulled over at my work's gate, while waiting for the security guard to attend to me I took my last sip of the smoothie. Security guard asked for my permit as usual and pulled out a breathalyzer to test for alcohol; relaxed as always because I do not drink alcohol I blew on the machine and to my and security's surprise I blew POSITIVE. Shocked and confused, the guard asked if I had used strong perfume in the car I rep**** no. When he came back from getting his logbook I realized nonono it must be this Ayrshire Mango & Passion Fruit Smoothie, I asked him to allow me to swallow nicely the remainders of the smoothie, I blew again the machine gave a very low reading so I asked him to put the machine on the mouth of the Ayrshire Mango & Passion Fruit Smoothie bottle, I opened it and he placed it as requested and machine beeped with a high reading, we were very shocked. I just couldn't believe it, I asked for a calibration cert and he showed me that the machine was recently calibrated. To satisfy my curiosity I called in another security team from another division they attended to me with speed, they took readings on the Ayrshire Mango & Passion Fruit Smoothie bottle IT WAS POSITION, they tested me I was reading negative then- with a zero alcohol tolerance at work I had to explain to my manager and be investigated. Being a manager myself, having to lead by example I was disgraced by this experience. I explained to my manager and asked that he gives me time to escalate to woolies customer care line. I explained everything to the lady named Unathi, she sounded shocked as well; she made me hold and came back asking for the batch number on the bottle and the convenient centre I bought it from, she also indicated that they are dispatching a courier company to fetch the bottle for testing. I didn't realize they were stripping me off all the evidence I had. Courier came took the bottle, there was a lil left on the bottle but was told it will be sampled and will be informed of the results. I went back to the garage where I bought the smoothie from that afternoon how convenient that those smoothies were not on the shelve, possibly all sold I comforted myself. After a week of waiting for results sending emails reminding them to share results so that I can share with my manager and clear my name I was told, " The Ayrshire Mango & Passion Fruit Smoothie does not contain alcohol as an ingredient.We have pulled and evaluated our retention samples and no alcohol could be detected in the product. The product was also not fermented. The micro results were within specification on the day of production. We received your sample but it was almost empty and didn’t have enough to allow us to send away for external testing. We did not pick up alcohol aroma. The dairy products are Halaal certified and therefore no alcohol is used on site." So they started contradicting themselves I have an email where they acknowledged receipt of the smoothie bottle and they indicated that it was sent off to their technologist, however when I asked for the results from their technologist they couldn't share. I went on to indicate to them that I have photos and videos of the testing and readings from that day, their next email politely asked me to share the photos and videos with them. Anywho, after a short while, I went to woolies and noticed the consistency of the Smoothie had changed to a runny smoothie and the taste was not the same and I couldn't help but laugh when a friend complained about how different the smoothie tasted...the *****s of the first recipe of the smoothie will atest. After the whole ordeal I couldn't help but wonder if all that is Halaal marked is really Halaal.

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