This is in regards to an incident that occurred at Safeway store located in Antioch, California on Sunday, June 22.
On Sunday I purchased some fish from the Safeway store in Walnut Creek. On my way home from the grocery store, I noticed that the fish had an awful smell and the color looked bad. I decided to take the fish back to the store in Antioch, California where I live. My intention was to purchase some other fish after returning the fish at the customer service booth.
When I entered the store in Antioch with the bag of fish that included 4 packages of fish. I handed the customer service clerk the bag of fish and explained to him that it was bad. He agreed as he commented about the smell. He then began to give me a credit refund for the fish. I asked if he could put the refund back on my card, which I used to purchase the fish.
As he was finishing the transaction, he handed the fish to a bagger and asked the bagger to take the fish to the back and throw it away. The customer service clerk then came from behind the counter and begin fiddling around at checkstand one. I signed the receipt for the transaction, but just as I was completing that the guy from the seafood dept came.
He started saying "Ma'am, we can't take this back, this is not from our store. What do you want me to do with this? This is not from our store. We can't do anything about this, these are not our tags. What do you want me to do with this? I can't do anything with this." "Since this is not from our store we could take a loss on it." So I replied, "What do you want me to do with it? What am I supposed to do with this? Am I supposed to take it home to my family and feed some bad fish to them? You can smell it and see that it is bad." He replied "I see that it's bad but what am I supposed to do with this? I can't do anything with this?"
He began to tell me that seafood was a different department and then said o the customer service clerk, "remember seafood is a different department" I replied, "throw it away, I don't care what you do with it, it's not my problem nor my issue what you do with it. I'm returning it because it is bad. What do you mean seafood is a different department, I've nerver heard of that. Safeway is Safeway, whether it is seafood or dry food." So I said "Can you please call the manager?"
The seafood dept guy went running to the back to get the "manager". Her returns with a guy that stops at the check stand and gets on the phone as he is staring at me. He hangs up the the phone and then begans to tell me "we can not take this back, this is not from our store" so I said, "you mean to tell me that I have to drive back to Safeway in Walnut Creek to return some bad fish?" His reply was "Basically".
I asked if this was Safeway's policy, he said "yes"."He said that the seafood department is run different and you can not go from store to store to return seafood." "You must take the seafood back to the store you purchased it from." I said "you mean to tell me that me the customer has to drive back to Walnut Creek to take this fish back. I've never heard of this being Safeway's policy." He said "yes". I said this is ridiculous. He continued to say I'm sorry ma'am but we can not take this fish back from another store, if this was a couple of dollars then it would be fine, but this is $25.
I asked to speak with the Manager because I noticed his tag said head clerk, he said he was the manager, the manager was not there for the day. So I asked for the manager to be called at home and the antioch police. I said it must be someone over your head. I said fine grabbed the bag of fish and the receipt and my niece and I walked out of the store,
As I was halfway to my car the customer service clerk comes running out of the store yelling ma'am you have to come back in the credit has already gone through on your card, you have to bring your card back in. I didn't reply nor turn around. I began to open my car door and get in, the customer service clerk grabbed my door and held it so that I could not close my door. While he's still yelling, I have to bring my card back in.
Scared for my life, I snatched the door, locked it and drove home. He began to take down my license plate number. My 11-year old niece was with me and witnessed the whole incident. She was scared also she thought he was going to hurt us.
On Monday morning, I tried to call the store to talk to the Store Manager, they told me his name was one thing and that he was in a meeting. My mother-in-law works for Safeway and she called and they told her something else after keeping her on hold for almost 10 minutes. Needless to say we have gotten the run around.
An Assistant manager called me back and got an attitude with me when I said I wanted to speak only with the store manager or the district manager. I left a message for the district manager, he still has not returned my call. I have sent a letter to the CEO, store manager and district manager. I have even alerted Contact 4 who called Safeway headquarters.
They informed contact 4 to tell me to send the complaint in writing, which I've already done and tell me to take the fish and the receipt in the store, which I've already done, when they said I couldn't return it. Then they said they question if I kept the fish in my car for over an hour.
This is ridiculous that first they would sell bad fish and then not stand behind and at least exchange it. Do their policies just appear, or are they only for certain individuals? Do they think that it is okay to treat people any kind of way? This is just ridiculous.
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