Complaint Review: Christian Gruenwald breadvillage.com HalloBakery LLC / BreadVillage.com - Miami Florida

Thank you for the nice comments. A few things to add:

1. I did inspect the bread but didn't see the mold at first as I also felt being under pressure to put them into the freezer (as this was their main instruction). So most likely I missed them and ate molded buns first.

2. I had them in 2 different freezers and all of them (4 packages or so) had the same issue. Honestly, I think a) they bred comes with mold from the warehouse and b) the shipment takes too long (cause they were cold but not fully frozen). Hower, since you live in Florida you might not have the issue if the mold does build up during a longer shipment.

https://track.shipstation.com/o/g/TOCEkRL3QdbYEzU1zvguZgg3hHavTdETQFlkoDDISNMMaNlr54Toa8YCSeJFf4yx?t=392167700972&c=4

Thank you very much for posting your complaint about this bakery!  I live in Florida and was thinking about ordering from them but wanted to do some research on them first.  Five star reviews and comments praising a company can be fraudulent, something I've learned the hard way thanks to purchases I've made through Amazon.  Being paranoid when it comes to online shops, I always check the BBB, their address, online comments and their IP address to see if they are legit.  Unfortunately, the BBB has no record regarding Christian Gruenwald, BreadVillage, or HaloBakery and I couldn't find their address anywhere on their website. 

Anyway, their childish response to your complaint about the mold was a great indicator of the type of service I should expect from them.  The, "we will return the favor" comment was also a good indication of the ages of the individuals running this business.  It appears as if they are very young and sadly, the majority of our youth today sees themselves as above reproach and infallible. As a result they consider negative criticism to be highly offensive and will often refuse to accept or even acknowledge the possibility they may have made an error.  Instead of using the criticism constructively to review how they ship their product and find ways to improve it, they toss it to the way side and lash out at the person who dared to insult the way they do business.

Not finding out about the mold until three weeks after it had arrived is not outlandish.  Most likely you just gave it a cursory inspection and immediately put it into the freezer as instructed, something people do everyday when they come home with frozen goods from the grocery.  Like frozen groceries, the bread was out of sight out of mind until it was needed. Tiny mold particulates could have been present on the packaging itself and these can be invisible to the naked eye and it is possible for the mold to grow for a short period in the freezer before the temperature can halt the process.  Not to mention their items are shipped without cooling so several factors could have taken place which would have caused mold spores to form.  

On the other hand, yes, you could have left it out longer than you meant to before putting it into the freezer and unknown to you, mold spores had begun to form on the packaging or the bread.  There could have also been a problem with the temperature in your freezer or the freezer door was frequently being opened and closed which would cause the temperature to fluctuate. 

A mistake could have been made on either end.  Humans are not perfect.  Regardless, the correct response would have been to replace your product and review how they package and ship their product. It's not as if you are a customer who makes frequent complaints in an effort to score free bread and even if you were, that is still NOT the correct way to respond.  Instead, it's a great way to gain a reputation for providing horrible customer service and customer service is what most people look at first when deciding to do business with a company.  In fact, customers often become loyal to companies who excel at customer service and will continue to do business with them even if they end up making mistakes.  

As you may have noticed, this reply is not just aimed at you, it's aimed at the business as well should they actually take the time to read your complaint.   Thank you again!