Complaint Review: ShopRite of Monticello NY - Monticello NY

I was sold spoiled fish. It was obviously spoiled. The smell was so bad that I had to bleach my counters when I opened it up at home. There was no way that the man behind the seafood counter was unaware of this when wrapping it up. He even double-bagged it (this is the only time fish I've purchased has ever been double-bagged at any store).

This was presumably to mask the smell, though that is a clear indicator that the fish should not be sold, it should be thrown out. It was impossible to get through to customer service. No one was ever there. I called easily more than twenty times. Finally, someone informed me that I should bring in the receipt for a refund (just the receipt, they specifically said that was okay).

So, I went to the store, receipt in hand for a refund. I was given trouble when trying to do this. They went back on their earlier word and claimed that I had to bring the spoiled fish in. I insisted that I was told otherwise. Finally, someone helped me. They didn't apologize for my being sold spoiled fish, then proceeded to charge my card instead of refunding me.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize until I'd gotten home. I didn't have time to go back to the store, so I e-mailed them. They took a long time to respond, kept giving me the runaround. It took several months and they still didn't resolve things with me. They only made promises that they'd call me (I never got one single call from them). I had to file a report with the BBB.

Then, instead of just sending me a refund (at the very least, for the fraudulent charge to my card), they tried to push me into taking a gift card instead (so I would be forced to spend my money at their store). They even got my name wrong when addressing me (which they really shouldn't have after several months of my e-mailing and calling them).

The BBB didn't make good on the complaint and they got an 'A' for attempting to rope me into purchasing items from them when they committed fraud on my credit card. (Just in case you're wondering how someone earns an 'A' on the BBB site, it apparently doesn't mean much.) Not only was this terrible on the part of the manager of the store, who kept claiming to be willing to resolve things, but never did a thing to follow through in action, but Wakefern, which owns the franchise was horrible.

They kept telling me that they don't control their individual stores. That's nonsense. There are guidelines on conduct for stores in a franchise. At every level, this company is irresponsible and unprofessional. They committed a fraudulent charge on my card — that's a crime. A responsible business would've issued a proper refund at the time, or sent one to the customer afterwards, not wasted their time with delays, unanswered e-mails, and a gift card offer that was totally disrespectful of the fact that I didn't want to spend my money with them anymore.

All of this, by the way, happened after being their customer, at this store, for more than fifteen years. (And, they knew that.) Caveat emptor.