Day 100 - 09 Mar 95 - Page 09
1
2 Q. Do you have a set procedure for investigating complaints by
3 customers?
4 A. Yes, we do.
5
6 Q. Could you just run through what that procedure is?
7 A. The normal way for a complaint would be for a customer
8 to complain at the counter. We have a reporting system
9 called an Incident Report Form which the store manager
10 fills in. That has various sections for various details.
11 It is used as a general form. It is used as an accident
12 form. It is used also for complaints.
13
14 On that form would be details of the complaint, details of
15 the codes of the products that were being cooked at the
16 time that made up the complaint, and also if it was a
17 foreign object complaint, that foreign object would be
18 attached. The form and the object are then sent into our
19 Head Office where they are logged on the computer system
20 and the foreign object passed up to our department.
21
22 Q. Does Head Office investigate the complaints or is that
23 something that is done at the local store level?
24 A. It depends very much on the complaint. Obviously, if
25 it is a chicken bone we know that it has come from a
26 chicken. We actually log those. We keep a record of all
27 the complaints that we get, so we can continually monitor
28 the performance of our suppliers. If it is a different --
29 if it is, say, a non-chicken related foreign object, then
30 we try as best as possible to investigate it further which
31 might mean laboratory analysis.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Keep your voice up.
34
35 MS. STEEL: Would you also get complaints about under-cooking as
36 well?
37 A. The under-cooking would be reported by the same system,
38 correct, yes.
39
40 Q. So complaints about under-cooking would be logged on the
41 computer as well?
42 A. Yes, they would.
43
44 Q. How does the company investigate complaints about
45 under-cooking?
46 A. In different ways really. We get a number of
47 complaints on alleged under-cooking. Unless we have the
48 food material, it is very difficult to identify whether or
49 not that is the case. If we do have the food material, we
50 can send it away for analysis. Obviously, it has to be
51 temperature controlled throughout the chain. It has
52 frozen, picked up frozen, transported frozen, and usually
53 sent for microbiological analysis or a phosphatase test
54 which is an indication of whether the product has been
55 cooked.
56
57 Q. How often do you actually go through with that kind of
58 investigation, actually sending the burger product for
59 analysis?
60 A. How often does that happen? It happens very
