A&P/SuperFresh ~ Question: SuperFresh ~ Fresh or FREE Guarantee?

[LianneSNJ]

So I was at Customer Service at Super Fresh returning some rotten strawberries I bought yesterday. As I waited I noticed it...the most amazing sign ever! Apparently the Fresh or Free Guarantee is back and has been for a bit, though I didn't notice.

First off, she gave me a refund on those strawberries I had planned to just exchange- and I gpt my strawberries. Then I decided to test the waters on the new program, which (I am told) has been tweeked to avoid folks getting tons of free stuff from the load of expired good sold in these stores. Last time they had this guarantee I ma
de out...extremely well and hopefully got them to stop selling customers so much expired stuff.

So I found a $15 package of Rib Eye (they look so yummy, is Rib Eye a good steak? I never fork over $ for this stuff!) expired the 14th. It was a BIG hassle but hopefully next time will go better since the lady knows how to process the refund now...I hope. I got a new package and paid the difference since the first one was 15.01 and the next cheapest was 15.94. But still...with the Discover Card Q and overage on my order I came out about $1 ahead and 2.65lb of Rib Eye to boot as well as 20 .99 items!

Anyone else do Fresh or Free and have something to share with me about your experiance?

Also I was wondering if anyone has had postive experiances from calling CS about issues. Do they give you gift cards or anything for a bad time in the store? If not, it doesn't seem worth complainng to me because what will it benefit me, beyond hot air and possibly displeaed store employees if the figure out it was me.

Today I waited at CS to be helped with me Fresh or Free return for 25 minutes without being ackowldged at ALL. The lady was busy with Western Union customer, but the other employees would NOT come help me. They stood around chatting at the register, some of them being CS workers. Then I finally got helped by one of the folks not working CS and left the store having paid the 91¢ diference in price from the cheaper package of meat to the more expensive...but never got the $15.01 refunded...So back I go when I realise this. It took 45 minutes in all. The CS lady who had been busy was very polite, but I was really displeaed that they would NOT come help when they saw me waiting there for 25 minutes without a single word to me...what would you do?

EDITED: More info in third post.

[EmeraldBaby]

How does the Fresh or Free guarantee work? If you find something expired in the store, they will give you one for free?

Kimya

[LianneSNJ]

Originally Posted by EmeraldBaby How does the Fresh or Free guarantee work? If you find something expired in the store, they will give you one for free? Kimya

After a second trip,where I got free Organic Spring Mix (retail 6.99!), I got more info. The official written info for the cashiers says limit $10. So I should have paid $5 for the $15 steaks I got for instance.

So the rules,as best I can tell:
1-Purchase the expired item
2-Spend the same value as the free item in other purchases on the same order. This is AFTER coupons, the actual OOP. (Boo!) So if the item is $10 you would pay for that, plus $10 OOP in other items and get the $10 back for the fresh or fresh item.
3- take expired item and reciept to CS before you leave (must be same day) and get your refund and exchange for a fresh item
4-If there is NO fresh version of the item you found (as I have found already) they will substitite a silimar item of a siliar value. Since I found *blank* brand Org. Romaine (6.99) and there were no good ones, I got *blank* brand Org. Spring Mix (6.99) instead.

HTH
Lianne

[kamitchell6]

Sounds similar to the Big Y fresh or free guarantee. In Big Y if you spot a moldy berry or other fresh produce and bring it to customer services attention you get a "silver coin" which is a store coin that will give you a discount on select items. If you buy the item then bring your receipt and item to CS then you get to exchange the item and get a refund. Guess which I do?

Thanks for letting me know Superfresh does the same. I shop A&P so hopefully they do as well. Will save me from going to Big Y at all now.

[rc9272]

I just bring the expired item to Customer Service (without buying it) along with another of the same item with a fresh date. They put a "Paid" sticker on the fresh one, and I just show it to the cashier when I check out. Most of the time, it's expired yogurt that I find.

[LianneSNJ]

Originally Posted by rc9272 I just bring the expired item to Customer Service (without buying it) along with another of the same item with a fresh date. They put a "Paid" sticker on the fresh one, and I just show it to the cashier when I check out. Most of the time, it's expired yogurt that I find.

That sounds lovely, and more like how it used to be in the old days in my store. I hope once the dust settles (which I am the one who kicked up, as usual) we'll find a nice easy way to do this in my store.

Btw, I had returned some strawberries that were nasty the day after purchase. Got fresh ones, checked them in the store. Today (a day later) open them and they are ROTTEN again.:sad: I'm not going back tomorrow, but considered calling CS...I don't know.

[kamitchell6]

Originally Posted by LianneSNJ That sounds lovely, and more like how it used to be in the old days in my store. I hope once the dust settles (which I am the one who kicked up, as usual) we'll find a nice easy way to do this in my store. Btw, I had returned some strawberries that were nasty the day after purchase. Got fresh ones, checked them in the store. Today (a day later) open them and they are ROTTEN again.:sad: I'm not going back tomorrow, but considered calling CS...I don't know.

I would call and get the name of the person you speak with. If you're worried that you'll end up with crummy strawberries a third time and probably will if the first two were like that, ask if you can exchange them for grapes or bananas or whatever instead.

[hcwhcw]

Originally Posted by LianneSNJ Btw, I had returned some strawberries that were nasty the day after purchase. Got fresh ones, checked them in the store. Today (a day later) open them and they are ROTTEN again.:sad: I'm not going back tomorrow, but considered calling CS...I don't know.

If twice in a row, the strawberries were fine when you left the store, but only went bad after you got home, isn't it more likely there may be an issue with how you're storing them or with your refrigerator?