letter of complaint

[labrat]

need help writing a letter

 

was having a nice meal in a pub, unfortunatly the waitress dropped a tub of pepercorn sauce

 

this coated me from forehead to wrist on one side

 

mostly its healing fine apart from my wrist which has had to be bandaged due to a large ammount of blistering

 

im going to write to head office to complain i have pictures to show injurys

 

im not a great letter writer so could do with help

 

i want to make it clear that it wasnt the waitresses fault, it was an accident, she was brilliant and immediatly refundned my meal (not the other peoples but mine) and tried to sort it out

 

what i want to complain about is the organisation of the pub, they couldnt find the burns kit, had lost the eyewash (it got in one eye as well) and seemed very disorganised about what to do

 

any ideas

[dx100uk]

prob be best to direct your concerns to the manager

it will most prob be a private franchise to boot

 

sometimes these things act as a wake up call to them.

 

dx

[labrat]

it was the manager who admited they had no burns kit

[labrat]

oh just incase theres a company rep on here it was a flaming grill pub

[sparx]

"Burns Kits" and "Eyewash" are just fancy things which can be used instead of, or in addition to, cold running tap water. I do not believe there is any legislation that states a first aid kit must have these items. Did you go to hospital after the event?

Edited December 25, 2011 by sparx

[labrat]

no a gp

 

and according to a friend in health and safety they should have these

[rebel11]

Hi labrat

 

All companies have Health & Safety Guidelines to follow. The minimum standards are set by the Health & Safety Executive. The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995, also known as RIDDOR. They should have logged the accident in the Accident Book as a

minimum, which you should of signed :- http://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/do-i-need-to-report.htm#Catering

 

They need to get this right for each and ever site, the Guidelines are easy to follow, they seem to be a shambles regarding what should be in the First Aid box etc http://www.hse.gov.uk/firstaid/faqs.htm

 

Regarding a complaint, here are some tips:- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1242161/How--write-letter-complaint.html

 

You might want point out the lack of Health and Safety Training, very important indeed.

[labrat]

oh im going to have to mention

 

they never entered into the accident box, fortunatly there was 6 of us at the table so witnesses arnt an issue.

fortunatly the hse guy i mentioned earlier was one of them, lets say hes not impressed and may be reporting them himself

 

found out its part of the spirits pub chain

[sparx]

they never entered into the accident box, fortunatly there was 6 of us at the table so witnesses arnt an issue.

fortunatly the hse guy i mentioned earlier was one of them, lets say hes not impressed and may be reporting them himself

 

They may have recorded it after you have left, did they take any details from you?

 

Burn dressings are quite new, in essence they provide continual cooling (exactly what cold tap water does), while keeping the wound sterile. Some also have some medicated lotions in them. Again, eye wash, although it is good to have sterile eye wash, running cold tap water will suffice. A HSE first aid kit, if you follow the advice on the HSE website, does not need to have these items. You also need to bear in mind that their first aider may not have ever treated a burn, or even treated any injury at all before.

 

What treatment (if any) was provided (if you don't mind posting on this forum)? Just my personal opinion, if it was hot enough to cause blistering to your wrist, and it was not washed out of your eye asap, then I would have been down the accident and emergency dept pronto to have my eye checked. Burns and eyes do not mix.

[phoenix11]

Maybe also contact Consumer Direct and log a complaint and ask if it can be sent to Trading Standards too for full investigation.

 

Consumer Direct also have template letters on their website which may help and they will make sure you can quote any relevant laws if required.

 

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/DG_195923

 

Try the third one in the list. It's not ideal and you will have to tweek it, but it may give you inspiration. However, CD may have other suggestions so try calling them first.

 

Personally, I would not address it simply to the manager of the premises because a) they may well not deal with it properly and b) it is the responsibility of whoever is at the top to ensure that premises are safe and where an accident is concerned,that appropriate action has been taken, both to ensure that the matter has been dealt with properly (including it being recorded) and that whatever caused the problem is rectified asap.

 

Whilst it may not have been the fault of the waitress, simply refunding your meal immediately was not actually appropriate action - that should have been something that was offered much later as additional compensation.

[labrat]

I would like to complain about a recent meal we had at the “fox and crown” which is one of your flaming grill pubs on the 23rd December 2011

 

We had eaten at this pub before and therefore we met with friends to try an enjoyable meal at this pub, we went for the option of the king size steaks with a new York topper and the peppercorn sauce.

 

When the food arrived at the table it was missing the peppercorn sauce which i requested the waitress brought out, when she arrived it was with only one sauce not the two ordered, i turned to my wife to double check that we had indeed ordered two, unfortunately at this point the waitress dropped the sauce, this hit my daughters plate and preceded to coat my left arm below the elbow and the left hand side of my face including my eye.

At this point the waitress left to get the first aider who arrived at the table and went to find the burns kit and eyewash, in the meantime we used the serviettes to clean out my eye and get the remaining sauce off my hands and face.

The first aider returned to the table with some ice wrapped in a blue dishcloth as he could not find the burns kit or the eyewash but said he would keep looking, he also refunded the cost of my steak and provided a free coke.

Throughout the rest of my meal i had to keep returning to the toilets to soak my arm under the cold water tap in the sink as the pub admitted they were unable to find either the eyewash or the burns kit.

By the next day i had to seek medical attention as there was a large blister coming up on the side of my wrist, this then had to be lanced and dressed (see attached image).

This has also led to me having time off work due to doing manual work and being unable to fully use that wrist.

 

I must say that this complaint isn’t in any way about the waitress on the day who was excellent and did the best she could after the accident.

However i think there could have been alot better organisation in the pub which may have prevented me needing treatment after the fact these include

 

1. Handles on the sauce pots, the design used is a simple round dish that must be hard to hold for the waitresses when it is filled with hot sauces

2. Why did the pub not have an easy to find burns kit with eyewash, one of our guests on the day is qualified in health and safety and has pointed out it is a requirement to have these sort of kits

3. The pub gave me the option of filling in the accident book which i declined as i did not wish to get the waitress (who as i mentioned before had been excellent) into trouble, i have been also reminded that i should not have been given this option as it is a legal requirement to fill this in.

 

I look forward to your reply on these concerns and details on how you are going to resolve the issues raised above, i do have to say that unfortunately our guests on the day have said that they are unlikely to revisit the pub due to the events which is a shame as it has always offered good food.