ETA: I was contacted by Baker's Delight in the comments below to assure
me that the Pt. Chev
store should have accepted the voucher for hot cross buns and they will be contacting them about it. Another reader commented that she had had the same reception from the New Lynn store this time last year, so unfortunately it wasn't an isolated incident. While I don't really care about the buns per se, I do care about the bloggers who are lending their good names to this kind of promotion and I hope Baker's Delight can ensure that stores honour the vouchers in the future.
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A couple of weeks ago several NZ bloggers had posts about how they'd been given some Baker's Delight Hot Cross buns and how nice they were and they were also giving away $10 vouchers so you could get some "fresh bread" yourself. I was lucky enough to win a voucher and have been hanging out to get over to our nearest shop in Pt. Chev to get some of the buns that sounded so nice in the reviews. The voucher also suggested that we "might like to write about it". Yes Baker's Delight, I'd like to write about it but I don't think you're going to be very happy with what I'm going to say. If you sponsor posts about hot cross buns, before Easter, and give away vouchers with those posts, I don't think it is too much to ask that you to make sure people are able to get hot cross buns with the vouchers. I was informed that hot cross buns are not "fresh bread" and therefore I couldn't use the voucher. I left it and walked out of the store seething. Either you don't think very hard about your promotions or you cynically manipulated bloggers to promote your product in the full knowledge that people would be mislead but buy the buns anyways. I chose not to spend my money in the store. One one level I'm thinking it's stupid for me to get so het up about not getting some bread considering it was free; but on the other hand it's the principle of the thing - that was half an hour of my life, plus petrol, and time and postage for the blogger who kindly sent me the voucher, not to mention that I felt vaguely silly for going all that way for nothing, and slightly used.
And now I'm going to go and make some hot cross buns and they will be delicious. And fresh.
Fair enough! Making your own buns will be so much more satisfying and quite possibly nicer. I make my own every year and my girls look forward to helping out and of course taste testing :-)
ReplyDeleteSo what exactly *are* Baker's Delight's hot cross buns then - stale??? Enjoy the homemade buns, I'm sure they're much yummier anyway!
ReplyDeleteI've stopped buying our weekly loaves from Baker's Delight because of bad service at the Brown's Bay store. I emailed and left a message on facebook for Baker's Delight but a couple of months later I am still waiting for a reply, even a quick note to say they received my email would have been courteous. We now buy Tip Top 'The One' which Mr5 seems to like
ReplyDeleteI usually make them too, but I must admit the idea of getting nice ones from a shop was very appealing!
ReplyDeleteHeh heh - the irony wasn't lost on me either!
ReplyDeleteMine are rising in the oven as I type - not sure how they'll turn out as I ran out of the required spices and did a little subsitution. I'm sure they'll be fine! The nicest ones I've ever had weren't home-made though, they came from an Italian bakery down on Queen Street and were literally to die-for. Horribly expensive but oh my... Yes, so those are my hot-cross-bun holy grail to aim for in my life :)
That's just silly on their part - why make yourself so available and then ignore the feedback you get? That just gets people mad and they generally tell WAY more people about their bad experience than a good one. And in this day and age it's pretty easy to spread the bad word around well past your immediate social circle!
ReplyDeleteI decided against doing the Baker's Delight thing again this year based on the fact that my nearest Baker's Delight is the Pt Chev one too, or one of the two in New Lynn. Both are a half hour drive from me way out west here. I felt all my friends and neighbours wouldn't thank me for sending them so far afield either. Double glad I made that decision now after reading this post. Hopefully someone will buy a franchise for the new Westgate centre? And, I love my breadmaker - even just for the dough.
ReplyDeletethat's terrible; I was convinced that's what the voucher was for! Well said, Jacqui; I also thought the suggestion that we might like to write about it was a bit much. this is the one promotion I've been doing on my blog but will steer clear of in future...
ReplyDeleteDear Jacqui, we apologise to you for the unpleasant experience with this particular bakery. Unfortunately the staff have not honoured the voucher when they indeed should have. I can assure you this is not reflective of Bakers Delight bakeries in NZ. We’ll take this up with the bakery as a matter of urgency. Sorry once again and we hope that we can send you some fresh Hot Cross Buns for you to enjoy in the lead up to Easter – please email us: daniel.lawlor@bakersdelight.com.au
ReplyDeleteLOVE this post YEAH for you for saying WHAT YOU THINK! I won one of those vouchers last year and had EXACTLY the same thing told to me!
ReplyDeleteWhich store was it?
ReplyDeleteHi Dan, thanks for getting back to me about this. I won't take you up on your offer of the buns but I do appreciate you letting me know you're not happy about the Pt. Chev store's actions. You might also be interested in a comment below this one where one of my readers says that she had the same experience with a voucher she won at Easter last year - but this time at the New Lynn store. Clearly this isn't just an isolated event and I wasn't the only person who was unhappy with how stores treat these vouchers.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like it's an individual store issue rather than a company-wide problem. They have certainly dealt with the issue promptly, but I can understand your feelings on it and I have no idea how you'd know it wouldn't happen again.
ReplyDeleteI've heard rumours that Mitre 10 Mega is going to close up their Lincoln Rd. site and move out to a bigger (!!) place at the Westgate development, so there will be all sorts of interesting things happening out that way and maybe you'll get your Baker's Delight. It's further for me to go out there than Pt. Chev or Lincoln Rd. so I'm not sure what I'll do! Personally I'm crossing every appendage I have that Ikea might move in - though it's doubtful I know!
ReplyDeleteLast year I "won" a bakers delight voucher to buy hot cross buns. It ended up that
ReplyDeletethe voucher wasn't even enough to buy a pack. I had "won" a discount
that I could've probably cut out of the newspaper! I can't remember exact prices but I think the voucher
was $5 and the hot cross buns were $8.99- ridiculous!!!
Thinking about
it, I'm pretty sure that if the manager hadn't been in store they
would've rejected the voucher too and I'm down in Christchurch.