Hannaford Fails Again

Hannaford Supermarkets, already on my "fail" list, has added another reason to steer clear of their stores:

Hannaford is recalling all ground beef that was sold at its Topsham store on Saturday.

Hannaford said employees at the Topsham store found small metal clips used in food packaging near where the beef was being ground around midday.

Apparently keeping their meat-grinding area free of hazards is also "inconvenient."

Hannaford Pharmacy FAIL - Part 2

When last we checked in on the losers at the Hannaford Pharmacy, they had lost a number of the lovely yet talented Mrs618's prescriptions, because a hyphenated last name was "inconvenient" for them.

Well, we transferred the rest of our prescriptions from Hannaford -- the "You can't fix stupid" of the pharmacy world -- to another pharmacy, this one staffed by people who THINK. Of course, the LOSERS at Hannaford didn't transfer most of the prescriptions... ONLY THE EXPIRED ONES.

Back to the phone to have the various doctors send new scripts to the new pharmacy.

Hannaford: Losers that make other losers look good.

Hannaford Pharmacy Fail

The lovely yet talented Mrs618 and I have been getting our prescriptions filled at our local Hannaford Pharmacy for the past five years. Hannaford is a grocery chain with stores located in New England and New York, and is part of global grocery giant Delhaize.

About a year ago, Hannaford installed new pharmacy software that was supposed to streamline the system. Well, it didn't. Hannaford started losing prescriptions left and right, blaming it on "the doctor's offices." After losing so many of the lovely yet talented Mrs618's scripts -- meds that she needs to stay alive -- we started asking the doctor to confirm the pharmacy had in fact received the scripts. Turned out our doctor had been doing that for a while.

Now, the lovely yet talented Mrs618 hyphenates her last name, because she is proud of her own heritage. And we know that some folks have a hard time dealing with complicated names like Smith-Jones, so we always spell "Smith" for them. If the techs can't find it under "Smith-hyphen-Jones," we ask them to try "Smith," then "Jones."

This last go-round, Hannaford lost the script because:

(a) the doctor didn't send it. We had the doctor re-send it (for the FOURTH time); and
(b) the folks at the central data center sent it to the wrong store (not according to the confirmation our doctor received).

It didn't help that the pharmacy staff -- all relatively new -- were arrogant, condescending, and just generally snotty.

I spoke to the store manager, who said he would look into it.

Half-hour later, we get a phone call, the script is ready to go.

It had been there the whole goddamned time.

Turns out they couldn't locate it because my wife hyphenates her last name. This is after we asked them to check "Smith-Jones," "Smith," and "Jones."  How was it filed? Under "Jones."

It was my wife's fault that these MORONS couldn't find it filed under "Jones," even after we ASKED them to check under "Jones"?!?

And the pharmacist had the balls to tell us the lovely yet talented Mrs618 shouldn't hyphenate because "it's too much trouble for us."

We saved them the trouble and switched pharmacies. And supermarkets.

If you do business with Hannaford or any of the other Delhaize America companies (Food Lion, Harvey's, Sweetbay, and Bottom Dollar Food), maybe you should do the same.

Why make them go to all the trouble of doing the jobs they were hired to do?

Data Breaches

We've all heard horror stories about commercial entities not taking sufficient steps to safeguard their customers' information. TJX (parent company of TJ Maxx), Hannaford Brothers Supermarkets, TD Bank, all sorts of people have been experiencing data breaches (even the Social Security Administration and -- not surprisingly -- the TSA). Many folks in the security field are trying to figure out better ways to protect this information. Believe it or not, this may be one place where the private sector really might be the solution.

Think about this:

Your company, XYZ Bank and Trust, holds confidential information on hundreds of thousands of customers. We're talking names, addresses, bank account numbers and Social Security numbers. You keep all this information on unencrypted tapes because (a) you're lazy, and (b) you don't want to spend a couple of thousand bucks on encryption software. Then, one day, you discover that the tape has vanished between Office A and Office B. Investigation indicates that the manager at Office A asked her teen-age son to drop the tape at Office B en route to pick up his girlfriend. Your customers have their information at risk.

As Karl Malden used to ask, "What will you do? What will you do?"

Here's a nice, easy solution. Fine the business a mere $100.00 for each customer potentially affected. This fine, by law, must come out of owner's or shareholder's equity, not general operating expense (which promptly gets passed right back to the consumers affected by your laziness). The cost of any credit monitoring comes out of owner's or shareholder's equity. Prohibit the bank from raising interest rates charged and from reducing interest paid, for a period of two years. For particularly egregious offenses, double the fines.

Not all that bad, right?

TD Bank managed to expose the information of 267,000 customers. That would be a fine of $26,700,000. Out of the shareholders' pockets. You think the shareholders would make sure that never happened again?  Damn straight they would.

You want to really drive the point home? Fines and costs come out of executive compensation. Start with the highest paid official of the corporation, deduct all but $50,000*, and put the withheld funds towards the fines. Do that until all fines and costs have been covered. Maybe hold an extra 50% in escrow, just in case. The execs will make goddamned sure those tapes are constantly monitored.

One more twist, if you're feeling REALLY evil: if any customer's information is misused, post the same information from the executives, including Social Security, and prohibit them from changing Social Security or bank account numbers for six months.

Hit the lazy thieving bastards in the pocketbook, and they'll start paying attention.

* Some of the executives may complain that they can't live on $50,000. Point out that that's a LOT more than many of us make, and welcome them to the 99%. They'll have to sell the BMW, the Rolls, the yacht, and the Montana ranch? Cry me an effin' river, dude.