Knock A Bit Off

It’s not often I get a sales lesson when in m’local chippy, but amazingly that’s what happened the other night.  Working late, although not realising it as in London at the mo’ it’s getting dark just after 4 🙁 cooking lacked appeal.  I popped down the road to gorge on fish ‘n chips.

It’s an old-schol vibe in there.  You can still ‘eat in’.  I was impressed to see my ‘medium’ cod was enormous.  Although it’s wierd how spoiled you get once you’ve had similar meals in Oz & S Africa, as cod is relatively tasteless compared to their stocks, and we shouldn’t be plundering the North Atlantic breeds to extinction either…. Anyway,

The downside of this big chunk, was that a section in the middle was cold, wet and transparent.  It was clearly larger than normal, so the fryer hadn’t taken this into account when cooking.

I thought this was a genuine oversight, so took my plate to the fella to suggest a remedy.  His disdain was incredible.  He said it looked fine.  He refused my suggestion to taste it himself.  And made it clear a refund was out the question.  As I pointed out, the rest of the fish was to their usual high standard.  If a replacement grated, then simply knock a couple of quid off.  I emphasised I wasn’t being funny, but got zero change.  With several alternatives in close proximity, the result is they’ve needlessley lost a once loyal customer.

There are times in every ‘farmer’s’ life when something will go pear-shaped.  In the past, I too have felt myself caught between two magnetically opposed solutions; stick to your guns and defend to the hilt doing nothing, or give all their money back.  Maybe it’s just not in our nature to find a compromise that makes everyone feel good….