I have never been so insulted! Coca-cola enterprises!

[Babs24]

A month ago I was sitting in my living room drinking a can of diet coke, I got to the last sips and something slipped out of the can and into my mouth, my immediate reaction was to spit the coke all over my living room floor. I looked down and found a red, inch long splinter laying on my floor within the spat out coke. I've attached a picture so you can see it for yourself.

It was a large wooden splinter which thankfully I managed to feel in my mouth so I could spit it out, I dread to think what could have happened if a child had drank from this particular can as it was sharp!

I contacted the company and told them what I had found, they were apologetic on the phone and sent out a box whereby I would send them the can, the splinter and another can from the multipack I purchased it from. I done exactly that and after a month I called them up to ask what the outcome was from the investigation, they said they had put it in a letter which came today.

This is the insulting part as the letter stated that;

The factory only uses wood based pallets for finished sealed products.
All components come in plastic boxes or plastic pallets.
We have no idea how you have come to find this foreign matter as we are confident that nothing has entered into the soft drink in the factory.
All packaging stations are verified against the companies standard specifications.
There are many preventative measures placed in critical points to stop any kind of foreign object entering or contaminating any of our products.
We have checked site records and this was the only complaint recieved for this particular batch in question.
We regret we cannot offer further enlightenment.
We are pleased to have had the chance to look into your complaint.
We have enclosed vouchers for £8 for goodwill.

I mean how insulting right? They have basically said that I've put it in there myself and that the piece of wood didn't come from them, what bullshit. I am perplexed at there cheek to be honest, I wasn't expecting vouchers or money from them but to know where and how this piece of wood had got into my coke can! There were red marks on the bottom of the can and as the piece of wood was red it crossed my mind that it could have been blood which worried me so to have knowledge about this would have let me rest my mind about something like that but instead I get called a liar and the blame is put on me as a customer who brought up a rather large concern not just for 'maintaining high standards' but for the safety of others who consume cans of coke.

I'll never be purchasing a can of coke again because of it, I think that it's disgusting how they have written the letter and think that it's my fault when this wooden splinter came out of there product!

Very few companies hand out compensation cash now if there is no provable liability. What you received is actually ok. The investigation appears to have been inconclusive. They could have sent you nothing. I'd chalk it up to experience and forget it. It could've been worse.

Compltely OT, but I love your flooring!

You'd be surprised what people try and complain about. Exploding bottles (dropped off a worktop!) requesting compensation for the cleaning. "Unpalatable" if you are paying 9p a bottle or whatever it isn't going to taste like the brand equivalent(!)
Most common is tablets in bottles, which is always from the customer, who had a headache the day before, chugged painkillers with the open bottle of tonic(or similar) and back washed it in. Next day come along and "find" it.

There's not much else they can do, they have security systems in place and have investigated your find, and compensated you.

I don't work for coca-cola, just have knowledge of the soft drink industry. There are multiple filters, no wood or glass in production areas etc to make these things practically impossible.

My DH's aunt found a rubber band in a packet of crisps her kids were eating once. She went made, rang the manucturers etc. They were very nice about it and gave her a huge hamper of products.
A few weeks later, after all the goodies were eaten she over heard her children talking and one said I'm going to put another rubber band in to my crisps again like I did before then we can get free stuff.

What were you wanting them to say? To me it looks like it could be part of a pencil, which may have been brought in by a worker. It could be a single rogue factor that they can't find in the manufacturing process. I don't think they are blaming you just letting you know it isn't a widespread issue. Use the token on something else, coca cola manufacture lots of drinks, pour it into a glass and you can drink confidently!

OP I once saw a talk by someone who handled these kind of complaints. He said the vast majority of foreign objects found in food or drink got there after the consumer got hold of them. This ISNT the same as saying that consumers do this either on purpose to get money etc. It is simply the case that there are many ways for consumers to accidentally contaminate things without realising.

One example he gave was glass found in jam. This happens a lot and is actually caused by people hitting the bottom of the jar with a knife or spoon and a small chunk of glass fragmenting off into the jam. This speaker said that they don't quibble with consumers but they know from the size and the shape of the chunks that this has been the cause.

He said the strangest thing he got sent was after a recall - a glass smashed into some product so they recalled the whole batch - they got back around 1000x as much glass from consumers as had actually gone into the vat, and one piece was some really rare glass that could only have come from a genuine spitfire aeroplane!

So maybe Coke are right...maybe the splinter got into the open can in your house rather than their factories....or maybe not. But don't assume they are accusing you of deliberate sabotage!

It's a shame Coca-Cola Enterprises don't sell grips. You could use your vouchers to get one...

Bestguess- pencils just simply aren't used in any manufacturing facility. It's not a permanent recording material, you use specific one piece pens, that don't come apart, and are findable by metal detector/X-ray whatever security system they use.

All these things are risk assessed and controlled. It is understandably very very strict.

Why would you send the voucher back?

I once found a piece of wood in a loaf of Sainsburys bakery bread - put me off it for a little while, but not forever. Life is too short...

gabsdot that's hilarious!
icebeing interesting points.

I don't know what else they could have done really. They did a thorough investigation and gave you compensation.
I understand that you are upset and cross by what could have been, but I don't know why you feel insulted.

I had similar once. Found 3 screwed up sweet wrappers in a packet of Walkers crisps. (I was definitely not responsible for them getting in there!) I got quite a snippy letter back and a voucher for one packet of crisps so it was clear they didn't believe it happened in the manufacturing process but it must have done.

My Mum though, had a work colleague who cooked some frozen vegetables and found a screw in them. She made a huge fuss with the supermarket she bought them from, got some vouchers etc Next time she used her pepper grinder it fell apart as a screw seemed to be missing .....

CloserToFiftyThanTwenty
Why would you send the voucher back? confused - well if there was something of unknown origin in something I'd consumed and no way of knowing how it'd got there I wouldn't be keen to try again. Plenty of other soft drinks. Plus I really hate that "here's a voucher, go away" stuff. Not everyone is on the make.

yaffle

Does anyone remember the Montego bars from the '70s/'80s?

I was biting in to one of those at home after a meal when I noticed the smell of a cigarette. No one in the family smoked.

Then I noticed my next bite was not crunchy biscuit, but a bit chewy. I spat it out. A cigarette butt was in my biscuit. Boak

Anyway, my parents sent it off to the manufacturer and we got the standard letter back together with a box of goodies.

It can only have got there through the malice of an employee. I don't know whether they believed us, but I'm sure that all of these factories have systems in place, and if my letter made them look more closely at what was going on, so much the better.

They will have taken this seriously but you have to realise a product batch recall is complicated, expensive and very bad for business. It may also be completely fruitless, They have probably sent the rest of that batch out so can only wait for more complaints if they don't know how it got there. I've worked in a similar industry and dealt with these kinds of quality concerns. It is really hard to identify sometimes where the problem comes from even as it leaves the production line right there and then. They will have looked under a microscope at that red splinter, tried to match it to their raw incoming materials including pallets etc but sometimes you just can't work it out without a couple more instances. It is sometimes something as innocent as breaking down a cardboard box near the filling machine. Or putting a lid on top of the empty cans that has somehow been contaminated with dust. It shouldn't happen but systems do fail. They are not blaming you, they are just admitting they don't know how it got there and probably wish they could have given you a cause and fix. Not nice but it happens.

Shame it's now wiped up. You could've sold the story and done a Daily Mail sad face whilst pointing at it.

It'd annoy me that they basically imply that it was put there by someone else not them but they're a huge company who must get people trying it on every day. I think I'd brush it off now as no harm was done and spend the £8 on something nice. Maybe bottles so you can see inside...

I used to work in a dairy. We had a complaint from a woman who had found a Cheerio in her 4 pint polybottle of milk. Wonder how that got there

Last year we found the same, a red plastic splinter, in a Milka chocolate biscuit. We took it back to the supermarket where we bought it from and they gave us a refund and let the kids choose free lollipops. They sent it back to their supplier (I think the company is called Mondelez - we are in Spain), but I don't know what happened after that.

Anyone else a little bit jealous that this is the worst insult the op has ever recieved?

The problem is dishonest people try this sort of thing all the time to get compensation and it's hard to prove it was there to begin with.

I once got a stomach bug after eating dominios pizza, when I complained they said that nobody else from the batch of pizzas got sick and they won't refund me because there is no proof.
When I said I'm going to report them to EH they suddenly have me a refund.
I wonder what they found in the kitchen to give me a refund, never ate there again.

Is it just me who wouldn't drink straight from a can anyway? If you pour into a glass you'll have more of a chance of seeing any floaters and you aren't risking putting a potentially dirty can in your mouth. For that alone I think yabu. Also, I don't think you could have asked for much more from them, it's not like you choked to death on screw in the can. Sorry, but I agree with pp, you need to let it go and use a glass

On another note, every time I open a new sack of compost I worry about finding a finger I must've seen it on TV once or something

Rose that's awful. Any reputable place would advise you to call EH and then ring EH themselves.

We owned a restaurant and its what we always did. Happened 3 times in 6 years and not one customer actually called EH. We did everytime. Procedure shouldnt be to issue an immediate refund. But investigate.

Says to me they knew their practices or ingredients were not up to scratch.

Bestguess, I don't work for Coca-Cola but have knowledge of their sites in the UK and Europe as well as their working practises.

No loose items are allowed on the production floor. Overalls/uniform,hair and beard nets are compulsory. They greatly upgraded their CCTV at huge expense for the 2012 Olympics in case of product contamination.

And I was gobsmacked when I saw how many bottles of Coke came through the production lines

Years ago, I found a fly in the middle of a packet of fruit polos, right in the middle, having eaten half the packet already!

Sent it to Rowntrees (or whoever) and got an apology and a cheque for £25. I was thrilled with that as I hadn't expected much more than replacement sweeties!