Mum slams Coles over critical typo after daughter's poison scare
A Coles customer has been left “outraged” after a typo on a product gave her the wrong information in the middle of a medical emergency.
The mother took to Facebook to warn other customers after her young daughter placed a Coles brand Outdoor Mosquito Coil in her mouth “and started to chew”.
“I had only turned my back for five seconds and she had managed to climb into the cupboard and get hold of them,” the distressed mother wrote on the Coles Facebook page.
“The panic set in a little so the first thing we did was call the number on the back of the box for first aid,” she explained.
The back of the box listed instructions that if poisoning occurs to call the “Poisons Information Centre Australia on 13 11 23.”
However when the mother dialled the number she was directed to NRMA Insurance. The correct number for Poisons Information Centre is 13 11 26.
“Lucky we knew to then call 13 Health who gave us the correct number.
“I am so outraged that a potential harmful product has the wrong first aid reference number,” the customer wrote.
After the frightening incident the customer wrote she phoned Coles customer service to inform them of the typo but didn’t believe the urgency of the issue was understood.
“I called your 1800 number for the man to just ask if my daughter was okay and then say ‘thanks for the call we’ll deal with it’,” she wrote.
In response the to the incident, Coles apologised and informed Yahoo News Australia they would be removing the product from store shelves.
“Coles takes the quality of all our products seriously and we apologise to our customers for the error in labelling on this product.
"We are withdrawing this product from sale while we work with our supplier to address the labelling issue, and have confirmed that no other Coles Brand products are affected.
"The correct contact number for the Poisons Information Centre is 13 11 26,” a Coles spokesperson told Yahoo News.
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