HELP: Reliance Fresh Sellings Expired Products (Proof Inside)

[Dinesh_Malhotra]

SPREAD THE INFORMATION GUYs.... show this companys wat our beloved medium can do against such things..

spread the LINKS, BLOG IT.. do whatever u can to make this a good initiative for the consumers



check the blog link here

http://resoluteconsumer.blogspot.com/

This incident happend around 3 days back.

i was @ my friend`s place @ Seawoods (Navi Mumbai-Maharashtra) for studying purpose as our exams were suppose to start soon (startin from tomorrow).

as you all know studyin takes all that bit of energy left in your body, me and my friends decided to rejuvenate ourselves with some tasty food.

for the same we went to a local Reliance Fresh Outlet (a Mukesh Ambani initiative) for shopping and started pickup up things that we wanted to HOG on

while movin through the pile of foodload of stuffs, somehow we landed in front of a section which said 50% off on everything present here. it had all those canned Juices By Real & Dabur, some tangy aachars (pickle) and many other stuff. things that caught my eyeballs were the Canned Juice Packs.

we purchased around 10 of them to satisfy our gastronomic needs while pondering on freshly prepared yummy tomato maggi.

So... we all started eatin maggi and there popped an idea of openin a chilled can of Dabur Juice to sipp on...

so i peeled of the covers of 2 such cans and me n my friend started sippin them in... the taste was like some serious snake poison or something (i havnt tasted that though)... we realised that something was fishy there...

i started looking for the expiry thing.. and guess what the part of the product tat talks about the maximum time it has before consumption was hidden under the TAG applied by reliance fresh (wat an idea sirji :no: ).. i peeled that tag off and .....................

Kahani Main twist

the product had expired 12 days back... then i started lookin for other cans of juice.. to my sheer surprise all of them had expired (4) or were near to expiry (i.e 2-3 days to be expired) 6.

above on that wat concerned us was that we had consumed some expired shit half a can each...

time to ask some questions now

we approached that reliance fresh outlet again in a few minutes and asked for the manager to be presented in front of us. the manager barged out of his office and asked us to go to freakin FDA if we wan2, but nothing can be done from his side. he actually threatened us saying nothing would be done against us in this BS country...

next logical thing for me to do was not to take his bull-crap @ face and give him a befitting reply. i started informing each and every customer present there about this ordeal and this made the manager go crazy under his nuts...

HE said sorry (totally not genuine) with loads of anguish in his voice, snatched all the packets that we had of expired products (i still managed to snatch one back as i have the bill for the same ) and asked us to leave...

somehow i managed to make him say sorry to all the customers on behalf of reliance fresh for such a lame attitude towards customers (arm twisting-quite a bit)..

first he starts by sayin " the customers here have found some expired products @ reliance fresh ".. I stopped him there itself and asked him to recorrect his statement as we had not found the product in the warehouse lying expired but it was billed and sold to us... and he gave a fraked up apology..

i made him remove all the items that were near expiry or had already expired from that 50% off shelf and left from there, which he oblidged for with loads of low voice frowning on me.

also we made him remove earlier TAG that just showed 50% off and put another informative tag that said

'the products are near expiry,hence 50%, kindly consume fast'

Resolution

after going thru this whole s-hit and consuming half a can of expired poisonous stuff, i cant just let this thing passss ....

above on that the rude behaviour of the manager and ignorance shown by the other consumers make me feel more frustrated about this. not even one of the consumers (except one old man, who thanked me for the courage shown- south indian uncle) tried to voice their opinion with me.

what can be done and what should be done about such a RELIANCE OUTLET.. bloody looters and may be killers.. (how many small childrens might have consumed that drink seein 50% off on them)

kindly guide guys..

i have the Bill and a sample juice can (that i snatched back) with all the reliance seal and tags present on it.

what should be done to make this RELIANCE learn a lesson ???

CHECK THE PICS

 

[kippu]

most of the 50 % off and the one on one free offer is for products which are close to expiry date or expired ....i have seen it in most reliance outlets

 

[sri_rng]

Please check for puffed packs before buying. Most of the big shops do this. Have seen similar stuff happening in Big Bazaar too.. Very sad. But most of them will be near expiring date, and not expired. So I think it's legal to sell them. Only we should be aware of such things and avoid them.

 

[viralbug]

This is really bad.

I have seen really old stuff in More as well. Though those products didn't have an expiry date as such, I didn't buy them just because it was kinda dusty and the manufacturing date was old.

I would suggest to avoid stores like More, Reliance Fresh, etc. Plus I find that they generally don't have the items/brands that I'm looking for.

I have a D Mart store near my house which has a tons of customers each day. They always have new stock and I have had no problems so far with them. Plus they seem to have all the stuff you need. Food Bazaat/Big Bazaar also generally has lots of customers and thus new stock.

Bottom Line: Always check the expiry date. We always tend to not look at it while buying stuff. We should try to keep a habit of checking the date.

 

[6pack]

All those fruit juices containers look puffed up. Not worth buying imo. Might get a bad stomach.

This should be sent to some newspaper like TOI or Mid-day who can make a hue and cry on this. If we try to act on our own, we might get victimised by the company. If we send these to the media, the company will be forced to remove all expired products off the shelf and send them back to the dealer or company (which should have happened in first place) instead of selling them for half price.

i smell some mischief some here on part of store owners.

 

[MAGNeT]

Dinesh if u have guts to stand in front of television just do a mini shoot of same on mobile with a tv crew to expose them....

Seriously the FDA wont do a damn here.In all u will be helpless when they will call u again and again for case if u file and ultimately u will give hope...

With a sting at least reliance will lose a good 5-10 % crowd affecting its margin and might get brain

If u want to go FDA root best of luk....already 60k crore has gone telecom lane and still minister says what wrong has happen...than where does your case stands...reliance pays lots of black money to gvernement so that they can even by pass normal taxes like property and all....

 

[gmano]

Give a written complaint to the Health Inspector of that locality. He should take action and seize such products.

If you have purchased expired products, you can take Reliance Fresh to consumer court.

 

[raksrules]

Send them to Mumbai Mirror and Mid-day. They are always on lookout for such things and i bet it will come on front page.

 

[axeman]

Ok, after a phone call, I have the simplest solution.

1. Go to the nearest Police station, make an entry there, and make sure they note the key bill date & no. & product dates etc details.

2. Take a copy of this and approach the local municipality, the shop gets sealed and the co. gets a summons/ notice asking for an explanation of the incident.

Our laws are not as weak as we think, we need to know how to apply them.

Also contact TOI. HT & Midday reporters immediately, as they crave for such stuff.

 

[Vince]

I find expired products all the time. Reliance, More, wherever.

Havent seen anything like this at Nilgiris though.

 

[Dinesh_Malhotra]

Ok, after a phone call, I have the simplest solution.

1. Go to the nearest Police station, make an entry there, and make sure they note the key bill date & no. & product dates etc details.

2. Take a copy of this and approach the local municipality, the shop gets sealed and the co. gets a summons/ notice asking for an explanation of the incident.

Our laws are not as weak as we think, we need to know how to apply them.

Also contact TOI. HT & Midday reporters immediately, as they crave for such stuff.

thanks your for ur support axeman.

i have a query though..

my exams for MBA are startin today and would end by 7th Nov.

will it be OK, if i continue with my agitation against this frak-up incident after that time time..?

i have kept the bill, juice can etc safe...

PS:



SPREAD THE INFORMATION GUYs.... show this companys wat our beloved medium can do against such things..

spread the LINKS, BLOG IT.. do whatever u can to make this a good initiative for the consumers

 

[apextwin146]

This is so common man .. Y do u think the Products were marked 50% off in the first place .. Do u think they were up for sale ? This is a bery common phenomena as due to recession the perishable Items wrnt being cosumed in a timely manner (due to lack of demand) you are still in a metro so its kinda suprising that this stuff happens .. In Mysore (tier-2) city all we get it 4 months old stock for each and every item and there is nothing that can be done abt it cuz these ppl will only push that kinda stock to Tier -2 cities which are slow moving ..
Though i agree with you that they should have warned but it never hurts to use a little common sense .. You are doing an MBA and it never occured to as to the reason y these products are being sold at 50% off?Suprising ..

 

[thunder.dragon]

 

[amol_cool]

Send them to Mumbai Mirror and Mid-day. They are always on lookout for such things and i bet it will come on front page.

They won't. Remember HUGE ad revenues for them

I had once sent a BIG mail to Pune mirror WITH pics regarding the dictatorship of a Big Bazaar store in my locality. The thing was, that Big B had a multiplex adjacent to it that charged people Rs.10 for parking. While as well all know Big B don't charge for parking. So few people, to save those Rs.10, would park in Big B and go to that multiplex to watch movie.

This pissed of Big B and they instructed their watchman to not allow ANY customer to take his bike/car without proof of purchase from Big B. Of course this wasn't written ANYWHERE neither inside the parking nor in the store. Once, I had gone there to inquire about the photostore present at the big bazaar and hence didn't purchase anything. The watchman stopped me and threatned me that if I don buy anything he will puncture my tyre. Of course there was no point shouting at him as he was just instructed and I directly went to talk to the manager. He, was however, unlike the reliance fresh manager, kind enough and came with me to the parking and let me go.

When I reported this to Pune mirror, they sent me reply (after more than 2 weeks) saying, we will look into the matter.

Now the same store has uplifted those restrictions and people are free to park anytime! Pune Mirror effect?! Of course these guys must have called Big B and said, we have a story against you blah and blah. Either stop doing it temporary or we will have to publish it! And voila!

My dad often says that if you have lots of money then India is the best country for you as no one can do ANYTHING to you! I truly experienced that myself that day. We just cannot do anything to these people. :no:

 

[shady2pac]

Well done mistuh....:hap2:

 

[random2]

I went to More over the weekend and maybe it was my last visit. Almost all products are too old or in beaten up condition. As a poster above said, tier-2 cities might have much more of this. I too am from Mysore. But I usually shop at a relatively smaller store and things are much better there (I have rarely come across such things in last ~4years). I always check for manufacturing/packaging dates before buying any food products and make sure I buy fresh ones. Whatever is even half way into expiry wont get into by basket.

The 50% off on near expiry goods used to be pretty common in stores in US too. But selling expired ones is illegal.

There are two things OP can do.

1. Go the legal course - This might take a long time as the corp guys have more money and stretch the case till the end of your life.

2. Blog about it and be more careful wherever you shop in future. And make sure you have proof of everything you say even in blogs. Im not sure if the media will entertain this as they get way too much of revenue from these guys. I know of couple of newspapers who wont publish even an event note of an NGO because of threats from a corporate house.

 

[blr_p]

Well, well, i was casually mentioning something similar in the other thread and there you go and make a thread about the very subject only cpl of days later

I've seen this with imported food stuff, thing they do here is score off the orginal expiry date then affix a sticker which says imported by some company in mumbai at such a date.

I always check the expiry date on anything packaged that i buy. This is the date affixed by the manufacturer and printed on as thats the only one that counts. This does not mean i condone what has happened here one bit

 

[amol_cool]

The 50% off on near expiry goods used to be pretty common in stores in US too. But selling expired ones is illegal.

But here in OP's case, THIS was not mentioned! It would have been understood in that case as people would know BEFORE buying that the product was nearing expiry. But here, the reliance fresh posted this note AFTER the OP went and fought for this!

And selling expiry good might be illegal mate, but I don think selling near expiry goods is illegal. But yes, customers should be notified of the same otherwise it SHOULD be illegal.

But I don't think there is even a check for such thing at stores in India. Look at their inventories storage and you can see that apathy of the products there!

 

[Party Monger]

File a case of Attempted murder and deliberate negligence, file an FIR... Get a docs certificate of some illeffect like vomiting, food poisoning and all, get the product tested in a lab, possibly one that has standing in the court of law..
Simultaneously go to the consumer court..
And then ask them for an out of court settlement

That shud make them shit in their pants..unless they try and actually murder you

 

[foruamit2004]

Well done Dinesh..