Discovering that fruit you bought isn't "Fit for purpose"?

cormie · 04-06-2018 07:27AM #1

Hey folks,
I buy a lot of fruit and have always been curious about my rights as a consumer when it comes to cutting open a fruit, only to discover it's bad.

Bad is subjective I guess, but is there a general stance on this? I have gone back to sellers after having spent about €20 on a box of a particular fruit, only to find out they were all bad, and had that money refunded, and I've brought back another piece of fruit I spent about €60 on and was refunded that too.

I bought a piece of fruit for €35 on Friday only to discover it was bad on Saturday when I cut it open, but I won't be able to go back to the seller until tomorrow (Tuesday), which is also when they get their new stock in. Is it at their own discretion whether they refund me, or how does it work? I'm happy to have it put towards another piece. I'd say they'll be find to refund me, but just curious how it's meant to work in general.

Any feedback would be appreciated!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 04-06-2018 07:43AM

Sorry...what piece of fruit costs €35 or €60?

Generally, if I get fruit that is bad I might mention it in the shop the following week and they'd replace it. It's a very rare occurrence though. If it happened a few times I'd find new supplier.

cormie · 04-06-2018 09:43AM

Check the attached photo, the Jackfruit was around €70 and the Durian around €30. I do buy from different suppliers, a lot of different fruit. There's some fruit you just can't be sure of until you open them and although sometimes I'd ask to cut the Jackfruit open before buying it, if the store is busy etc, it's not really practical. Same with mangoes and any other awkward or messy fruit that you're really never sure of until you open it.

So just wondering if I ever do have any issue with any supplier, where I stand.

henryporter · 04-06-2018 09:53AM

When that happens me I make a note to self to go and figure out how to select a ripe fruit eg: https://www.yearofthedurian.com/2012/11/how-to-choose-ripe-durian.html. It’s still caveat emptor afaik, so it’s the owners discretion to refund based on your repeat business and their ability to get the refund at wholesale level

stimpson · 04-06-2018 09:59AM

Durian is meant to smell like a refuse tip on a hot day. How would you know if it has gone off?

henryporter · 04-06-2018 05:17PM

stimpson wrote: »

Durian is meant to smell like a refuse tip on a hot day. How would you know if it has gone off?

Give it a good sniff and a shake apparently

Archeron · 04-06-2018 05:20PM

Call me old fashioned and give me a banana.

cormie · 05-06-2018 08:16AM

It's not just a case of being ripe or not. Some fruit is just bad and there's no way to tell until you open it up. It wasn't the durian I was referring to above as the one I want refunded now, I was just giving an example of expensive fruit with that.

I buy cheriomoya, mango and jackfruit often, and know how to tell ripe from unripe and how many days they may need before opening, but you can still find out it's got an underlying problem and some will also just never ripen properly either, some develop mould on the outside when they can still be salvaged from the inside, others will have no signs of mould but can be fermenting inside, there's just no telling sometimes

It’s still caveat emptor afaik, so it’s the owners discretion to refund based on your repeat business and their ability to get the refund at wholesale level

Do you think this is definitely the case? And why is it the case for fruit, but not for any other product except for the likes of a used car? :pac:

cormie · 06-06-2018 12:21AM

So I brought it back and they said they wouldn't usually give refunds, but I'm a good customer so they would. I got the price of it discounted off my shop at the time, after having paid, I noticed printed on the receipt it says no returns for veg, fish, meat.

emo72 · 06-06-2018 12:40AM

this is a big problem in my house. fruit bought mainly from tesco, rock hard and not ripe.....waiting...waiting...and the boom ripe for an hour and then rotten. fecking annoying the price of it and then throwing it out. is this whats to be expected buying fruit in winter, out of season?

cormie · 06-06-2018 06:50AM

Can happen any time of the year or season from what I know. Sometimes they may not be picked at the right time and sometimes it's just a bad batch no matter the stage of season. I don't buy fruit in supermarkets anymore, there's very little loose fruit meaning you can't inspect each piece you get and you're drowned in unnecessary packaging after too. I've generally found the taste to be incomparable to fresh/local/organic producers and the pricing on some items like the special 6 for 49c or whatever it might be are of course great, but for example when the best organic, in season, red globe grapes, huge and tasty were about €3.50/kg at the organic market, Tesco were selling tasteless non organic grapes at €9.50/kg.

Discovering that fruit you bought isn't "Fit for purpose"?

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