‘Booths’ cherry muesli left me with a £3,000 dental bill’

QBack in September, I purchased a 750g packet of own- brand Cherry muesli from Booths in Ripon. Two days later, I was eating some of this muesli and there was a tremendous cracking sound as one of my front teeth was completely sheared off by me biting on what must have been a cherry stone.

The stone was shattered by the force my jaw exerted upon it such that, although I spat out the mouthful, it was not possible for me to retrieve individual pieces, although I did keep the mashed up muesli in a little bag.

I went to the dentist, who concluded that the only way to properly remedy the damage was a tooth extraction, followed by an implant. This treatment is under way and has cost a total of £3,655.

I advised Booths of the situation and sent them photographs of my broken tooth. I said it was free to contact my dentist if it wished, and offered to send in the chewed muesli for inspection.

Booths told me to talk to its insurers, despite me telling it my claim was against them. In desperation at their delaying tactics, I wrote to senior personnel at Booths, but they did not respond. Now 50 days have elapsed from what was a very simple incident with no sign of any resolution.

On Nov 14 I received a terse email from the insurer saying it was now taking steps to investigate, but that it might take three months. This is utterly ridiculous. I have been a very satisfied customer of Booths for many years and I feel I don’t deserve this treatment.

– GP, North Yorkshire

Dear Reader

AYou read an article in this newspaper in which Booths’ managing director was quoted as saying: “We are a business that prides itself on very high levels of service and very high levels of warmth and personal care with our customers.” Yet here, missing one front tooth and £3,655 out of pocket, you felt ignored and abandoned by the supermarket.

I could perfectly understand this and I too felt Booths’ wall of silence was unacceptable, so I contacted it to ask if it was paying the claim. As you purchased the muesli from it, I felt it should not have been palming you off on its insurer, which appeared to be dragging its feet.

In Booths’ defence, the packet of muesli contained a small warning on the back of the pack saying “may contain fruit stones”. However, this does not automatically exempt it from paying you compensation. In reality, warnings on the back or side of packets are useless at preventing accidents such as this.

Customers cannot be expected to inspect each mouthful of cereal for stones before consuming, or chew each mouthful tentatively in anticipation of something potentially tooth-cracking.

However, there are cases where hard fruit stones make it into packets. Cases like yours are rare, though, but as you have clearly sustained personal injury and dental expenses, I felt Booths should cover your dental bill in full.

Booths came back saying its insurer was “investigating”, which felt like another disappointing fob- off. In the meantime you sent me an email saying you “loved” Booths as a supermarket and really didn’t want to have to take legal action, but assured me that you were prepared to, if it was what you needed to do to get your dental bill paid.

I passed this on to Booths and it did an about-turn within 24 hours, agreeing to pay your £ 3,655 in full. You are delighted with this outcome, although you wish it could have been agreed upon sooner, as it would have saved you all this stress and hassle. Your dentist has fitted a cap and you are waiting for the implant to be fitted, which you are looking forward to.

A spokesman said: “Food quality and the safety of our customers are of paramount importance to Booths. Following our own investigations, this matter was recently passed to our insurers who undertook their own investigation. Booths has been in regular, prompt and courteous communication with Mr P throughout this investigation.

“It is important to recognise, the Booths Cherry Muesli carries a clear warning on the packet that the product may contain fruit stones or pips. However, we understand that this has caused Mr P a great deal of anxiety and as a gesture of goodwill and respect for a valued customer, Booths has agreed to pay for his full dental costs.”

QLast year I bought a dishwasher and washing machine from Hughes Electrical and decided to pay using the “buy now, pay later” credit facility offered by Klarna, which allowed me to spread the cost over one year.

In October this year, I contacted Klarna as I wanted to pay off the loan early and in full. The customer services person I spoke to gave me the sort code, account number and references to use, and I sent two payments, totalling over £1,000 for the appliances.

Now Klarna is saying it cannot find my payments and is trying to pursue me for the balance. My bank, Barclays, has confirmed the payments went through, yet I continue to receive automated demands for a debt I consider cleared.

I am 100pc sure I got the payment details correct. I don’t know what else I can do. I feel Klarna’s actions are completely appalling. I have cancelled my direct debit with it, but I am very concerned that its continued demands for payment will affect my credit rating. It is also causing me so much stress. I have called Klarna so many times, and sent numerous emails, but I am not getting anywhere.

– RM, Cambridgeshire

Dear Reader

AKlarna kept insisting these two payments (£569.71 and £496.14) were not showing on its system. But you are absolutely sure you sent the money to the right place. The only thing I knew for sure at this point was that someone was wrong, and I set about finding out who.

After I made contact with Klarna it sent you another email saying it had concluded its investigation and was not upholding your complaint. This was because it believed its agent had provided the correct bank details and references for each of your orders on the phone. It didn’t say this explicitly, but it was clearly convinced you had made a fat-fingered typo when making the payment, meaning it had not been received, and explaining why it could not find it.

This sent you into a rage, but then it did an about- turn, saying it had re- evaluated your case and had decided to uphold it after all. Why? Well, unbelievably, after all that, it had found the payment. Both you and I were baffled about what had changed.

Klarna explained it was because you had opted to use a manual payment through your bank account, instead of a direct debit or payment through its app, which it “always advises”, apparently. It also blamed “an error” within its systems in matching your manual payment to your account, owing to your bank adding extra characters to the payment reference.

This was in no way your fault and Klarna said it was “working to fix the issue”. Klarna has also admitted its customer service team could have worked much better to help you quicker, and is updating its processes to make sure this does not happen again. It has now apologised and paid you £100 compensation, which you are happy with. Your credit score will be unaffected by Klarna’s utter incompetence during this episode, but I suspect your ego, at being falsely accused of being unable to make a payment correctly, will remain bruised for a while.

A Klarna spokesman said: “We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to the customer, but can confirm the issue has now been resolved. We have offered him compensation as a gesture of goodwill. We are working on fixing the issue to ensure this does not happen again.”

‘Klarna lost the £1k I paid it and blames me for having fat fingers’