CUSTOMER SERVICE?

I will have mentioned that due to a lack of quality butchers charging affordable prices in West London ,I have for some years been ordering our meat from an excellent butcher in Grimsby. Only last week I placed an order with them foe a variety of meats, a three months supply in fact. I also placed my Christmas order at the same time,all very easy.

Recently a small town near us revived it,s Sunday market, fruit,veg,fish,all the usual stuff with rather too many “street food” stalls for my taste, all the same mindful of helping local business and keeping the high street alive we decided to support the market.

Frankly in the beginning I was not impressed,over priced cheese jostled with sweaty looking fish and vacuum packed meat which looked exactly like the rubbish available in supermarkets,then a few weeks ago the butchers changed and a very knowledgeable chap took over and the meat began to look as if if might be worth the price being charged.

I took a leg of lamb and ordered a leg of mutton for the following weekend and on the day appointed I went to collect the meat. As I wrote in earlier blogs it was a wonderful piece of meat which made several good meals. Having ordered some pork for this Sunday I was none too pleased to see torrential rain this morning as it would mean a wetting .

Not wishing to let the butcher down I climbed into my huge yellow rain poncho and began the mile long journey to the market. On the way my mind ran through a list of pork recipes and decided on sticky pork with wraps, and salad,imagine my annoyance when on arriving at the stall there was no pork to be had!

The usual butcher was not there and instead a man(rather surly) and a woman(rather dim were serving the only customer they had. I spoke to the woman about my order and she looked put out,she asked the man if there was (any more pork) ,his reply was in the negative....and that was that. No apology or a can we get you any thing else....nothing!!

I was very ,very angry and told the unprepossessing pair that I was surprised that they could afford to lose regular trade,especially the sort which came out in filthy weather to honour a deal!

Need less to say I shall give them no more custom,with winter approaching I do not intend to make any more such bootless journeys and although the mutton was wonderful I shall not be doing business with them again.