Dis-Chem pharmacists do care

Dis-Chem responds in full to a customer complaint regarding shards of glass found in a Dis-Chem product entitled, Pharmacists who care, published in the Northcliff Melville Times week ending 21 July.

According to Dis-Chem, the customer in question, Yvette Wall, emailed Dis-Chem’s customer care division on 13 July 2015 to report that she had found shards of glass in a bottle of Dis-Chem Calcium & Magnesium with Boron softgel capsules. She described the problem, included images of the bottle and capsules, and requested an urgent investigation and a refund.

Two and a half hours later, Dis-Chem’s national quality assurance manager Christelle Bekker, responded with an email thanking Ms Wall for bringing the problem to her attention. In it she confirmed that she would investigate the situation as a matter of urgency and requested that Wall return the bottle to her nearest Dis-Chem store for collection.

The following day, Wall responded by email to what she referred to as Dis-Chem’s “standard response” to what was a serious situation, saying she expected a more personal, concerned and courteous response. Further, that Dis-Chem should arrange to collect the bottle from her and not expect her to return it to her nearest Dis-Chem store.

Following Wall’s second email, Bekker made telephonic arrangements to collect the sample from Wall and then advised all stores to remove corresponding batches from store shelves, pending the outcome of a thorough investigation.

For the record, on receipt of Wall’s initial email, Bekker instructed the manufacturer to provide relevant documents and feedback on retention samples and production records of the day. The contaminated sample was collected from Wall and delivered to the manufacturer the following day.

The manufacturer’s report, supplied on 20 July 2015, confirmed that both manufacturer and supplier were accredited with the legislated food safety and quality certification. The report stated that while fine glass shards and a piece of brown glass were found in the sample supplied by Wall, neither manufacturer nor supplier could explain the alleged contamination for the following reasons:

• The retention samples were carefully reviewed and found to be clear of any contamination.

• No other complaints of this nature have been reported.

• When the batch document was reviewed, all standard operating procedures had been followed on the day and no discrepancies (such as glass breakages) were noted during the in-process checks of this run. In-process checks were performed every 15 minutes, as per the prescribed SOPs.

• Bottles to be used on-line must be inverted before use to remove any potential foreign objects.

• The glass found in the contaminated bottle did not match the width and colour of the glass bottles used for filling.

The report concluded that there was no evidence to support that glass was introduced on the factory floor. However, as a precaution, all the stock from that batch has been written off and returned to the supplier.

While Bekker dealt with the complaint with a sense of urgency and the seriousness it deserved, Dis-Chem Pharmacies feels that Wall made a valid point and, as a result, has taken steps to amend in-house protocols for complaints of this seriousness, in particular, giving prompt and personal feedback to customers telephonically. Dis-Chem Pharmacies is aware that customers do not know what goes on behind the scenes and this will now ensure more transparency in the process.

Dis-Chem does not dispute that finding glass shards in one of their branded supplements is completely unacceptable and that urgent, expedient investigation was necessary. The “standard response” Wall received was not intended to diminish the seriousness of her complaint, but further comment would not have been judicious until the alleged contaminated sample had been received and undergone investigation. In-house protocols were initiated with urgency and followed to the letter.

Dis-Chem hopes that their customers feel reassured that serious complaints of this nature receive urgent attention and action.