Snotty letter time

[wafflycat]

Back in the dim recesses of mid-2008 I tried over several weeks to organise delivery of organic fruit & veg box to Chateau Wafflycat. To cut a long story short, I eventually found one organisation willing to come out to the uncharted wilds of mid-Norfolk. Said organisation had been exceedingly tardy in responding to queries, but eventually it did, apologised for the tardy response and offered a concilatory box of organic eggs as a freeby with my first delivery. So I gave them a go.

Bad move.

The stuff was delivered a day late. It was missing items and some of what was in there was already starting to rot and was inedible. Seems the driver couldn't be arsed to deliver on the day he/she was supposed to and left it to the next day, with the fruit & veg in the back of the van on a warm summer day/night.

So I immediately contacted the organisation, said I wasn't happy and I would not be ordering from them again and said why. After that first box, nada, nothing. As it should be as I'd stopped the order.

I heard nothing further until this morning.

Got a letter from them stating they are ending their delivery box scheme as its not cost effective for them and asking me for nearly £87 as the cost of, according to them, the carton of eggs I've been receiving from them each and every week...since then. These would be invisible eggs as I have not asked for or received any.

Snotty letter is sent, informing said organisation of its error and that I will not be paying them for goods neither asked for or received.

 

[Aperitif]

You could have sent them some of your finest examples - as a sign of true grit. Ruffle their feathers, cock-a-snook etc, tell them their business isn't all it's cracked up to be and post back by Ordinary Mail - that's to say an "OMletter"...the cheepest way.

gone...

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Taxi for Mr Aperitif!!!


We used an organic box scheme for a bit, they were useless too.
Maybe it's all part of the non-service.

 

[Kirstie]

We have had a similar problem - nobody will deliver a veg box to the wilds of south leicestershire either. Apparently we live in some sort of no mans land between cov, rugby and leicester (all handily connected by the A5/M69) so nobody wants to bother with us. We grow our own instead.

 

[wafflycat]

It's one of the reasons I started to grow more of my own.

One of the things I found quite eye-opening was that the 'organic is good' mantra was being appearing to be used as an excuse for poor quality, poor service and expensive goods. I didn't mind paying a bit more, but the price was OTT for what was actually delivered: items missing, what was there very limp and some actually rotting already. Lumpy, mis-shapen veg I fon't mind but rotting ones are a definite no. And items missed out with no apology and reduction in price charged is a no-no too.

 

[Arch]

You could have sent them some of your finest examples - as a sign of true grit. Ruffle their feathers, cock-a-snook etc, tell them their business isn't all it's cracked up to be and post back by Ordinary Mail - that's to say an "OMletter"...the cheepest way.

gone...

Great idea. Mind you, it might take a while to save up that many spare eggs, so the first ones could be getting a bit stale... Even better!

 

[BrumJim]

A pity, because we get a regular, friendly and efficient box from Boxfresh (who won't deliver to Norfolk - nor any county that far from the farms). Their food is often mis-shapen, which I don't mind either, but tasting the veg and talking to the farmer indicates that they care much more for the taste (=quality) than any supermarket buyer. And they tend to keep for a fair while too - we are now running on veg that is 1-2+ weeks old, and still OK (but close to going over).

There was a problem with tasteless rotting carrots a few months ago, but they acknowledged the problem, and hopefully it won't happen again.

 

[wafflycat]

Have had a root about my hard drive and found some of the original correspondence, including the notification where I cancelled the order from them. So if they get awkward, they are on a hiding to nothing.

 

[Mr Pig]

What happened to going to a shop and buying vegetables?

 

[4F]

What happened to going to a shop and buying vegetables?

Must be a Norfolk thing

 

[swee'pea99]

I once lived in a shared house with a woman who worked at a very 'right on' wholefood cooperative wholesalers. The things she used to tell us about the way the place was run were just jaw-dropping. Just monumental stupidity at the most basic level, everywhere you looked.

One example: the pulses were delivered in unmarked identical hessian sacks. These were then dumped on the shelves, still unmarked, willy nilly. So when somebody needed to find some mung beans, they'd go along the shelves, undoing them one after another, until they found the mung beans. So what should have taken 30 seconds could take anything up to 20 minutes. And they had been doing it this way *for years*. 'Why don't you mark the bags when they come in, and put them in some kind of order?' I asked, and she gave me a sort of 'ooh, that's a good idea' look. They never did it of course.

Organic food. Apparently it makes no difference physiologically. But from what I've seen, I'm sure it damages the brain...

 

[PK99]

Back in the dim recesses of mid-2008 I tried over several weeks to organise delivery of organic fruit & veg box to Chateau Wafflycat. To cut a long story short, I eventually found one organisation willing to come out to the uncharted wilds of mid-Norfolk..

It may be a dumb question, but why would you want an organic box delivered if you live in the middle of a farming area? Or are they all wheat prairies in your parts?

I long since decided that the premium for Organic is too much to justify and opted for a local (SW london) farmers' market which has small farmers with low chemical input, minimal antibiotic use etc without the excessive costs of going the whole organic hog.

It is the growing of traditional varities and not inflating them with chemical fertilizers that makes the difference not being organic.

In my garden and a few others i look after, I adopt a similar approach. Judicious use of glyphosate and very sparing use of ultimate bug killer for Lilly beetle & viburum beetle and spraying just the tipe of roses if the black fly gets out of hand (most years even that is not necessary). Plus growing plants suited to thier location and therfore strong and healthy without artificail life support.

 

[wafflycat]

The farming round here is mostly cereals, poultry concentration camps and pigs.

I like to support local businesses and dislike overly industrialised farming practices. So I thought I'd try to source some local organic fruit & veg. Easier said than done. The nearest such enterprise wouldn't include me on their delivery run as I'm too far from them - apparently. Even though when I looked at their list of delivery runs on their web site, they deliver to places further from them than me. It would seem that their knowledge of local geography was suspect. The place I ended up dealing with is still in Norfolk but a bit further away. So I gave them a go. They proved to be less than satisfactory. So it's back to the standard buying British and seasonal and usually non-organic when possible. That and growing more of my own.

 

[HelenD123]

Waffly - have you tried Riverford? They look to have a farm covering your area. I've started getting a box from them fortnightly and it's great quality.

 

[wafflycat]

Ta, but I'm happy growing my own, getting lovely stuff from my next-door neighbour (he gives me veg, I give him eggs) and buying the remainder. The experience I had has put me off trying it again round here.