… And the Warped Reason for a Lack of Wrap!
UPDATE:
Pret A Manger DELETED their Tweet to Natalie Raybold about the new (bogus) reason for the “air” hidden behind the cardboard, after Pret read this blog entry! I explain further below.
@Pret, thanks for stopping by again, unfortunately your visit led to your deletion of a Tweet. Getting caught doing the “right” thing again!
UPDATE: Class Action suit vs Pret settled
As the case is settled now, the “wrapped too tightly” version started again… and the generic “oh no” responses from Pret continue with the usual “Please send us a DM with which shop you visited” as if this was an isolated incidence. To any reader, go unto Pret’s “Tweet and Replies” page and see their cut & paste responses, even though lately there seems to be new Twitter staff on the shifts, their wording is changing finally!
Also, please see my front / home page (click on the top right of this page) for other issues, mainly with staff and how Pret REALLY treat their employees, incl. HQ staff. Please scroll to the screenshots on the home page, these are just the tip of the iceberg.
A longer list with mainly photos and less text just as a VISUAL to understand how common this is >>> Pret A Manger’s Misleading Packaging.
I didn’t want to put this “wrap collection” into a blog post, but Twitter and Facebook keep hiding, deleting etc. my posts, FB even deletes my PRIVATE messages when I have a link to my blog in the message! So I enter the below list into one post, hence only one link to post and a list of customer complaints.
In the U.S. people easily sue companies, in the UK they just go to Twitter, rant a little and that was that. Even customers dying, getting hospitalized from unlabelled allergen in products, no law suit! In the U.S. it would hail a storm of law suits upon Pret with lawyers drooling for cases like this! But in the UK they fall asleep being cooked like frogs while getting bribed with cheap free coffees! Unbelievable!
After my repeated comments on Pret’s funny reason for the cardboard to hide “air” behind it and letting customers pay overpriced half products, Pret keeps sweet-talking customers into sleep, “Oh no, this looks like it has been wrapped too tightly”.
UPDATE 2023:
The deceptive packaging issue continues, but I won’t update all that customers post on social media (mainly Twitter). But an update until June 2022 via YouTube:
.
I can’t be bothered to update all the complaints in 2023 mainly on Twitter, but also Facebook, reddit etc. But this of course continues as people keep settling out of court on issues for a quick money-grab and the company is never held accountable.
But let’s rewind to 2016 where Pret’s version of an excuse was, starting as usual with “Oh no…” to pret-end that the Pret social media staff is surprised. The rather TRUE response here is: “this isn’t right…”
Exactly! This is NOT right! Thanks for the honesty here, Pret. Unfortunately nothing was changed in the packaging to be decreased, or an increased size of wrap to fill the packaging for an honest product. And communication down the line, of which version would be best to give on Twitter complaints, got messed up over time.
In 2018 it “doesn’t look right at all”…
And this one from the U.S. in October 2018 is a give away that this indeed is not an honest packaging for the later “version” of a 13. Jan. 2019 explanation by Pret. Stephanie feels “very tricked” and Pret EVEN agrees by saying:
Full Tweet feed:
Link Oct. 2018
Fast forward a little … the version is that this is “wrapped too tightly”. This loosely wrapped product Pret says looks too tightly wrapped. LOL! The consistent “Oh no”… “Oh dear”… Oh gosh”… from the UK Twitter side remains, to give the impression that this is an EXCEPTION while Pret is being sued in the States for deception.
Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, here is a brand new version of a warped wrap packaging!
After repeated comments on this ridiculous “reason” for Pret having spread that version too broadly, the version now is even more ridiculous, I added the bold highlight. New reason completely holding customers for idiots!
Quote: “Our packaging is designed to leave a space in the middle so the wrap can be displayed clearly at both ends and doesn’t get squashed. We’re sorry if you feel mislead on the size, Natalie but we can assure you that you’ve received both halves of the same wrap.”
How absolutely amazing Pret now openly fools customers! The Wrap WON’T get squashed as the cardboard center is sturdy and protects any product from being squashed. This should be a UK law suit (the bot that bookmarks my blog in the States on behalf of Pret can send this one to them! Be my guest!)
The issue is NOT the size of the wrap, but the misleading size of the packaging. It’s an old trick businesses do knowing that customers buy via sight, not probing on the weight and measure, even if a package would state that. But as everyone knows, Pret packaging has hardly ANY useful information on it, as at least the first of the two customers who died had to pay with her life, and only when the public became aware of their deaths does Pret SLOWLY change labelling. Let alone have a weight and measurement of the product on the packaging. Pret’s packaging just has bla bla sweet-talk of whatever, but NO useful information on ingredients, weight etc. except in stores where ingredient/allergen labelling is TRIALED as I write this.
So with Pret products that are assembled in the shops each day, customers rely SOLELY on their eye-sight, and as they don’t have time during their lunch break to weigh out the product with their bare hands if it is too light, or the usual weight, they go by eye-sight. They cannot purchase according to weight or how much of a certain ingredient is “behind” the packaging. Companies use this to their advantage and what I find, mislead customers to “assume” the package is completely filled inside.
The most common is items like Washing Powder. Yes, it does state the amount in KG, but what customer carries a scale or knows how to size up the packaging. So, the washing powder packaging is often very large, but upon opening at home a quarter is just air, because businesses know customers buy according to eye sight, not information and weighing the product.
And Pret’s wraps get the most complaints because it has the middle section to hide air, whereas the sandwich and salad packaging has more “window” to show the majority of the item, and less possibility to hide air.
Link to today’s Tweet A spanking new version of why there is a gap.
I cannot believe my eyes reading this! From “Oh no, this isn’t right…” to this hilarious open fairy tale, holding customers for complete idiots! And customers swallow the fast, efficiency of Pret’s Twitter feed and go back to sleep while they remain happy to pay for hidden air.
PRET’S DELETED TWEET:
The above link used to lead to this tweet from Pret:
But NOW it leads to this deleted page
The whole feed again before Pret deleted their Tweet:
Natalie Raybold’s Tweet here has no Tweet above anymore, as it is deleted.
Even the whole feed of her Tweet has disappeared and some are only visible because I have the remaining Tweets in my Replies as I responded. Pret changed quickly after Natalie kept protesting as well as my post on the bogus reason: “It does appear to be a rather small wrap, Natalie…” Link
Initial Tweet standing on its own, no other Tweets are found. This looks like part of shadow banning.
Direct link of part in the feed from my own Tweets & Replies as I tweeted within this feed. Natalie Raybold here responds to the new reason and finds this misleading. But from her initial Tweet, this cannot be traced anymore. If I wouldn’t still have my Tweets, only her initial post would be visible.
Twitter and Pret are in this together on behalf of protecting profit driven companies! Katschink!
Thus, it should be clear again how dodgy this is and how Pret tries to hide this, as this may get people’s attention for another lawsuit.
These, the list below and others I didn’t include here, are only those that people bother posting on Twitter. Not every customer produces a photo publicly as they don’t have time and may think this is a one-off, not realizing how much this happens.
Links to Class Action Suit and customers’ complaints on Twitter. Links open in new window:
Court Document (starts to get interesting from page 18 on)
Press Article on Deceptive Packaging
Customers Tweets on mostly cold Salad Wraps and a few Hot Wraps:
27. June 2016 USA
07. Sep. 2016 USA
12. Oct. 2016 USA
05. May 2017 Little Ingredient (lots of complaints on Twitter on this)
17. May 2017 Pret A Rip-Off
01. Aug. 2017 USA
Also 07. Aug. 2017 Another really bad one!
21. Aug. 2017 USA
10. Oct. 2017 TWO for the price of ONE!
17. Jan. 2018 (no response from Pret)
20. Apr. 2018 It took Pret 3 days to respond!
22. May 2018 Pret admits the wrap is a “little stingy”
06. Oct. 2018 (no response from Pret)
10. Oct. 2018 USA
16. Oct. 2018 Hot Wrap
29. Oct. 2018 USA
06. Nov. 2018 Hot Wrap
12. Nov. 2018 Little Duck more Spinach, badly wrapped
13. Nov. 2018 Hot Wrap
17. November 2018 This is the worst so far!
12. Jan. 2018 Little Duck (expensive), lots of Greens (cheap)
13. Jan. 2019 Pret’s NEW reason for packaging “deception”
Ok, didn’t expect the next day to have to continue on this…
14. Jan. 2019 I should get paid for giving Pret so many tipps, now Pret does NOT give any reason anymore but write instead: “We’re sorry to hear that, Sam. Please could you send us a DM with some more info including the shop you visited?”
There isn’t even a “oh no… oh gosh” response anymore, well done Pret! Them spies and boss are reading my blog. Well, thank you! Keep it up and be on your toes! 😀
14. Jan. 2019 Flatbread living up to its name: FLAT
25.01.2019 No Hoison in expensive Hoison Duck Wrap
25.01.2019 Spicy Chicken Flop
25.01.2019 Bang Bang Chicken Flop
12.02.2019 Big in Japan!
23.02.2019 Pret A Gap Wrap
26.02.2019 Pret A Light Wrap
12.04.2019 No Photo, but an observation
24.04.2019 Feeling deceived
27.04.2019 Mind the BIGGEST Gap!
01.05.2019 Another BIG gap!
06.05.2019 … and another one…
09.05.2019 Customer quote: “Where’s the rest of my wrap?! Believe me it’s not a one time thing …”
06.06.2019 … another one…
All the above dates/links are features in pictures as a visual >>> Pret A Manger’s Misleading Packaging.
And with the one from 06.05 someone cared enough to confront Pret:
In context:
On 28. May 2019 a customer posted a video and I will include the whole feed as the exchange is brilliant. This customer won’t let Pret BS him or get lured into DM:
Pret being desperate to get the customer away from the public into DM.
Little side note, where it says “1 more reply” is my reply LOL! Twitter hides it, even though I’m not shadow banned (yet!) they do hide posts for companies or political issues. They hide it so it can’t be seen immediately as people are busy often, they don’t realise there are more replies and don’t always see the “1 more reply” thing.
Here’s my reply when one clicks on it, tucked away in-between two tweets:
Peek-a-boo… PreT-A-Boo…
Direct link to the first of my tweets as I feel a shadow ban coming! 😀
One solution would be for staff just “spread” the wrap to fill the package!
To be continued unfortunately …
It’s certainly a good give-away that Pret knows what they are doing and the versions they keep giving when they don’t even respond to the Tweets addressed to them directly in this feed HERE further down the Tweets.
And I can’t help but think that Pret now changed the version because of this law suit. Time will tell. I cannot find any more info on this suit.
A TripAdvisor Review on Pret and the oldest trick in the book on shrinking products but charging same or higher price. I have seen this many times over the years when I worked in Pret. The brownie for example disappeared for a while, we were instructed to tell customers that the product is being “improved” and when the brownie returned, it was smaller.
And currently customers on Twitter keep lamenting that the Vegan cookie is not on sale anymore and Pret again says that the recipe is being improved. And yet customer after customer says that it was perfect, doesn’t need improvement, even today again:
Someone recently mentioned a rumour that the Vegan cookie wasn’t even Vegan in the first place, hence Pret did what they do best, they “deleted the cookie”. Vegans point this out a lot that many products advertised as Vegan have eggs in it, not to mention Celia Marsh’s death as she was allergic to dairy. This second death in Pret from a non-dairy product that contained Dairy Protein is still under investigation who is responsible, Pret or Coyo that supplied the non-dairy yogurt.
And to finish on a positive, just today when I cooked something, I was pleasantly surprised when I opened a brand new Colman’s mustard powder package and upon opening had to catch powder falling out as the jar was so full it ran over. The photo is already after I used some of it, but it’s still filled to the top. This is rare these days, and maybe it was an “accidental” overfill, as I haven’t bought this product for a long time and can’t remember how it used to be before.
But maybe there’s another blog entry on deceiving vs honest packaging one of these days and companies need to be called out for it, the good and the bad guys. But on a positive note, the good stuff needs to be mentioned as well.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather starve and speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
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Bullied during bereavement in Pret A Manger 
Years and years of deception and all they can say repeatedly is “oh my oh no oh dear”? It is astonishing that this folksy “aw shucks” persona has fooled so many for so long. Is it possible for you to put together a pro se case with the certification of everything that you’ve assembled over the years? I don’t know what the law is in the UK but I worked for attorneys in the US for many years, and some of those worked soley on commission for med mal, personal injury, etc. In most states there is a statute of limitations, like med mal is two years, wrongful death is two years and so on. But I don’t know what the law is in the UK. And since this is ongoing over many venues, this would come under a class action suit. Under federal law as far as I know this is still true it’s been years since I’ve worked in law, the statute of limitations begins the minute that a cause of action is determined and it gives the attorneys and plaintiffs about six months to get the kids together and present it to the court. So what I’m thinking is, you have years of research. You’ve done as well as any investigative researcher for any team of class action attorneys could do, I think, to assemble evidence. So if you took this in the form of a certification to a workplace malpractice attorney you know he he might take you on commission. I don’t know anything about UK law unfortunately or attorneys but I am sure based on some of the really great bosses I’ve had over the years that there are people that would really care about this and want to help you. Check out workplace fairness.org – It just gives you some basics but I don’t know again if it’s correct for the UK. 💕.
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Yes, I’ve done the research. But doing the research is just coming to terms on why this company is so toxic.
My story, my writing will be used in years to come.
Kind regards.
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I understand. I won’t sue either for anything. Recently I wrote that I don’t want recompense or vengeance or even justice, just healing. ♥.
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Yes, that makes sense. In my case, because I can’t cope with a court case, no matter if I have good chances, it is still important to expose and show what really is going on. I am not the only person that was mistreated, and people are still treated bad. I get emails from current employees who don’t want to out themselves publicly for fear of losing their jobs having to feed kids. I am just the only one (apart from the guy who was fired for starting a Union) who speaks out publicly and so extensively and detailed, because I do believe that justice needs to come and will come.
My blog has already sparked an undercover reporter to poke into Pret, the Unions are now aware as before Pret was NOT on their radar, as Pret is very good in PR and hiding what’s going on behind the scenes. And others are having an eye on Pret as Pret has an eye on my blog.
Pret became aware of my blog in the night from 28th to 29th May 2018. And what did Clive Schlee, CEO do in reaction? He went to Twitter and announced that ALL staff will receive £1000 with the new buyers who take over Pret. Knowing him, it was his typical reaction for PR to make the public and staff believe Pret is such a great company.
So, when people become aware of my blog, they won’t believe me because the £1000, all the free coffees Pret bribes customers with, the project to take former homeless people etc has the public fooled how Pret really is.
But just as their poor dealings with customer deaths and injuries, everything eventually will come to light. The truth is like a ball that dishonest people try to keep under the water, but it keeps popping up to the top.
So, I’m not worried and know that my blog has served and will serve in the future as a valuable information source as well as confirm other people’s ordeal.
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I like the metaphor about the ball. Truth from all sources inflates it even more until it becomes impossible to keep down. Thinking of Erin Brockovitch when I said pro se (self-representation) though pro bono would be idea. She took down a major corp.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Brockovich
PR – yes. So many ways to cover the ugly truth. Tyrants and bullies in power have skilled PR. I’s why they can fool some of the people some of the time — even for decades. but — not forever. ♥.
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Oh yes, I LOOOOVVVVEEE Erin Brockovich!! What a kick-ass Heroine that lady is!! One big inspirational person!
I don’t know the difference between pro bono and pro se. Ok, self-representing. No, with my mental health and the complexity of my case, it would be suicide!
Even though I cut down Pret’s 21 page response to the tribunal to 3 pages in 15 minutes, immediately seeing that they tried to fill pages with non-important issues as they know the judge is too busy to get his head around the case fast, but the case would have been 4 days in court with a preliminary hearin before. 5 days of hearings minimum without a lawyer, a broken head and heart, my dad just died. No, I am learning to pick my fights and at least I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent of my ordeal!
No, thank you Pret, keep your pennies I rather starve!
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Yes I understand. It’s something you would need a lot of help with, which is why I mentioned the class action thing. Pro se = self represented; pro bono – attorney doesn’t charge to take your case. Commission (most malpractice is taken on this) – no fees required; fees and commission taken from settlement, usually 1/3.
Yes choose your fights for sure. I pray and hope you will see justice done. But peace is priority and the path to peace begins with peace within. *hugs* ♥.
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P.S. about the ball, yes that’s what I meant, if one stand in the water and all these balls eep popping up, you can only hold down 2 or 3 at once, but more and more popping up, you can’t keep them down.
That’s what my blog is, I let balls rise to the surface. I know what I’ve been through, it can never be undone and will never be unspoken again.
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{{{{LNG}}} Very well written. I agree. ♥.
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Thinking further on this, my research and public writing on Pret certainly is the only one out there. The issue in the UK is completely different to the U.S. in the UK people are very forgiving, that’s why organuzations like Pret keeps getting away with stuff.
The ultimate event of a person dying, not to mention TWO, and no-one does ANYTHING shows you the mentality of this country.
And Pret get more and more arrogant their patronizing way towards people.
Also, the politucal landscape currently here is a mess. Of course everywhere in the world is at boiling point right now if we concentrate too much on negative news we are bombarded with. But because the UK is such a small place, it’s unavoidable almost not to be swamp with the politucal atmosphere of poverty,increased homelesness, richer getting richer, poor poorer, unnecessary government cuts, tax cuts for the rich etc.
So, the priority for people, press etc is not Pret A Manger wrap packaging. But as usual in time people will pick up on it. And that’s where my writings will come back into play.
That’s what I meant with years to come.
Also, when I filed a Tribunal case against Pret last year, I already contacted many pro bono lawyers, did research, went to the Citizen Advise Bereau (free legal advise on all subjects)…. but apart from general superficial advise, none of the pro bono lawyers wanted to take my case. Not only for its complexity and me being very unwell, but because in the UK there are no millions to win. I researched cases against Pret, and the highest they were ordered to pay a former emoyee for unfair dismissal was under £9000, which is what $12-13K?
I had very good chances, lawyers said that, even Pret’s lawyers hinted on it in their initial response to the court. But without a lawyer and strong mental support it would have been suicide.
And then my dad died in the middle of me preparing for the case. I withdrew the claim as I completely broke and with no lawyer my mental capacity was in the basement.
With no security if I still survive the next day I started to write openly about Pret.
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{{{{{{{{{LNG}}}}}}}}} Just want you know I read this. My heart is with you. I will respond more fully tonight. I sent you a private message by way of your contact from. 💕.
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Case not kids* 🙄
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Funny! 😀
But not far off, this blog and the Pret case is like my baby! So, not far off. The Pret mess is just what I write publicly, there are other things I deal with outside of this blog. The blog is just something I do in-between, even though it looks very OUT THERE… I want to start separating Pret from my blog again. I used to write only for/about my brother and I am still looking into his death and other things in my life, as Pret is too toxic for my personal blog and needs to get separated from my personal blog again.
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That’s a good idea to keep Pret’s toxicity in a place, insulated from your life and those you love. ♥.
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