Bakewell under fire in Lusignan for mildewed products – company says it has return policy before shelf-life expires

SHOP owners in the Lusignan area are not pleased with the level of customer service being offered by Bakewell Inc.The business persons are of the view that Bakewell is deliberately dumping unwholesome bread and tennis rolls on them without any consideration for the damage it causes to their small

Businessman Angad Sukhdeo speaking with the Chronicle on Monday
Businessman Angad Sukhdeo speaking with the Chronicle on Monday

establishments.
Angad Sukhdeo who operates a grocery shop at 229 Lusignan, Grass Field, East Coast Demerara explained yesterday that he has been having a hard time getting the company to take back their mildew products which are sometimes dumped on him.
His most recent case was a delivery of bread and tennis rolls from the company on Friday last week which by Sunday morning were found with mildew and were rejected by customers.
The man said that usually the products are expected to last for one week without any signs of mildew but in recent times they have been showing mildew in less than three days. However, the company has been reluctant to refund monies paid by him or to even replace the spoilt items.
“When we call them and give them this bread, they take it to their company and do not give us any replacement, no result, no answer. Every time a portion of bread spoil on you, be it bread or tennis rolls they coming to uplift the bread and take it away and they don’t give you any satisfaction,” the businessman stated.
He explained to this newspaper that he makes a profit of approximately $20 on each bread or tennis roll sold and when the issue of mildewed products are discovered and the company reclaims it without offering an exchange or money back, he suffers the financial loss.
Sukhdeo added that he informed the company in the past that he was going to approach the media about this unsatisfactory situation if they failed to address it in the right manner but that warning has so far gone unheeded.
The businessman also noted that the problem was not being experienced by him alone as he pointed us to one other shopkeeper in the area who confirmed that the issue is also faced by his establishment.
Sukhdeo told the Chronicle that another shop in the area was denied deliveries from one sales crew from the company after they pointed out the problem to them and demanded that they inform their management of the development. The man said that although that establishment still enjoys deliveries from Bakewell, it gets its supplies from another sales truck that goes directly to them.
While Sukhdeo operates his grocery shop at his home and has been doing that for some three years, he pointed out that he had his establishment in Annandale and during that period he had been a customer of Bakewell.
“I called the guy and talk to him and he said he will talk to his boss then get onto me Tuesday, by then the bread will go more bad. I spoke to the salesman and when I wait until Tuesday he will come and tell me something else, take it in there and there will be no bread coming back to me, no answer and when I ask I am usually told a whole heap of sad story as they always do,” he contended.
The proprietress and proprietor of another shop in the area said that they too are experiencing the same problem with the company. They are of the view that while the company has what appears to be a ‘no return or exchange policy’ for small establishments, the bigger establishments do enjoy that arrangement.
“When you asked them to change it they saying that they do not change back bread, sometimes they use to do it and now they still do it for some people,” the proprietress who asked not be named explained, although she did give her address as Section B Grass Field, Lusignan, East Coast Demerara.
The woman’s husband who is also a part-owner of the business opined that what may be responsible for the problem could be the packaging and sealing off of the bags while the bread and tennis rolls are still hot rather than leaving them to cool.
Meanwhile, contacted yesterday afternoon, General Manager of Bakewell, Rajin Ganga told this newspaper that the company will be looking into the concerns of the customers.
RETURN POLICY
The senior manager also stated that the company has been advising customers in the past that they should not take more bread and tennis rolls from the company than they can sell off.
Mr. Ganga said that the company does have a return policy but one of the reasons some customers are not permitted to return items is when the company finds that the items were kept for an exceptionally long period on the shelf without being sold.
He added that the company has a feature on its bags that tells when bread was dispatched to the store for a particular area and once those returned items are not within that batch or do not represent a batch that is experiencing mildewing before the shelf-life expires, then the company cannot take the items back.
Ganga reminded that customers need to also store the items away from direct sunlight and avoid getting the bags wet since that too can result in the bread or tennis rolls getting mildew.
On the issue of one shop owner being refused items from a particular delivery crew, the General Manager dismissed those claims stating that the company has an overlapping system in its delivery of items since in most cases there are too many shops and establishments in areas to be serviced by one delivery crew.

By Leroy Smith

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