I have listed a few customer complaints on Pret’s misleading, and what some call “deceptive” packaging in “Class Action vs. Pret For Deceptive Packaging” and the different versions from Pret why this happens. But the list below is just the tip of the iceberg. Not all customers flock to Twitter with photos, and I worked in Pret knowing how common this issue is.
One of the last and most ridiculous reasons Pret gave has been deleted after Pret read that blog entry.
In this blog entry I just want to give a visual throughout the years, briefly touching on the lawsuit and again the deleted Tweet at the end. These complaints are only the ones customers care to show on Twitter.
A list on mostly cold Salad Wraps and a few Hot Wraps. Plus Pret’s mostly repetitive responses with some change of versions later:
New reason for “air” wrap which was later deleted!
13. Jan. 2019Pret’s NEW reason for packaging “deception” which was later deleted! (After my other blog entry “Class Action vs Pret” and Pret visiting especially on the 14. Jan. 2019).
12. June 2019 This looks like after a team brief about all the complaints on Twitter, so staff spread it out as much as possible! 😀
etc…
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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 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.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
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!
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.
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.
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:
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.
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:
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:
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! 😀
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!
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.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
Bullied during bereavement in Pret A Manger 
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