I just got a shard of plastic or ceramic in my frozen dinner. Can I get money out of this, and if so how?

The problem is you were not injured, so your loss is the cost of the dinner. If you cut your tongue or cheek or chipped a tooth, you’d have a claim for injury and maybe trauma.

Sorry.

No. You’ll save a lot more money if you buy fresh food that’s not all processed and gross and killing you anyways even without the shard of whatever and cook it yourself.

There is never, ever, ever, ever, “a quick and easy option” to get money out of being hurt, traumatized, finding a chicken foot in your McNugget, cutting your mouth on a shard of something in your frozen dinner, taking a drug that caused some horrible something, etc. You have to jump through a million legal hurdles, file a lot of paperwork, have detailed accounts written out, have some kind of evidence to verify that its actually the wrong doing of the company that made the product, that you aren’t bullshitting just to get money. Hire a lawyer (which costs money). Pay for travel wherever the court stuff is being held, probably miss a lot of work/school/social things to be in court a lot. Even if you win, your lawyer is gonna take a hefty chunk of it. Etc.

My dad was part of a big bad drug lawsuit. It took almost 3 years for him to get the money from it after he’d joined it. And by the time he got the money it’d been at least 4–6 years since he’d been on the drug and had the stroke or two that made him able to claim money from it.

Write the company and complain. You may get some coupons to buy more frozen dinners.

Maybe its time to get a second job and not worry about frivolous lawsuits to make some quick cash which isn’t quick by any means, you may have to go to court and prove where you were an injured party in this which you weren’t injured. I could see if you were seriously injured but all frivolous lawsuits do is make prices go up and people worry your going to sue them next.

Haha, this question is awesome. “I put it in my mouth unawares”. What do you think you deserve for that trauma, exactly?

The normal route would be to complain and you should. I rarely see anyone getting paid out for things like this, the companies have legal teams the length of football fields. But as @Sunny2 mentioned they owe you one. (Or six!).

Of course you can. Write a nice polite letter and submit a receipt for the product and make a demand for all your cost involved. Make sure you indicate that you have retained an attorney to preserve your right to further sue them for punitive damages at a later date.

I find it funny though you prefaced this question by telling us you are not a douchebag. IMHO, only a douchebag would think to shake down a company for something that did not cause harm in any way shape or form to you just because you need the money. Go get a job if you need money and accept the coupons that this company will send you as a decent and reasonable gesture for your trouble.

Join the other douchebags of the world and file a frivolous lawsuit.
I could use the money too, so if you win a big settlement, I’ll sue you and see if I can get a piece of that action. I’m not a douchebag either, so I am sure you would understand.

I once got peanut butter crackers out of a vending machine and went to eat one only to learn they were just crackers, no peanut butter. I wrote the company a letter and enclosed the remaining product expecting an apology and my money back. I received a very nice letter and a box of several each of all their products. Didn’t expect that . . .

There are ethical ways to make money. If you are really struggling, you could look into what services are available to help you while you try to turn things around.

It is a lost case, you have no way of proving that you found it in there and did not put it in there.

“Your honor, our frozen food company employs over a dozen inspectors to make sure the food is of the highest standard. We rigorously check the food at each stage of production as well as one final inspection at the end. I put it to you that it is impossible for this plastic to have made it’s way in to one of our packages without being tampered with by a 3rd party”.

@many, I literally work for an organic CSA farm and don’t get paid much, so I’m plenty well versed in the virtues of unprocessed foods and general ethics. (What is it that you do for money?) This was my first frozen meal in months if not a year, and it came about only because my schedule was too crazy yesterday to prepare something for me and my SO (we ate around 10 pm). But congratulations on your well developed judgemental reflexes. They are finely honed.

And thanks for the portions that were actual answers. I’m a little pissed that I ended up with a hard and sharp something in my mouth.

A friend of a friend bought a big bag of Doritos at Costco. When he got it home, and opened it, he found a cockroach cooked into a chip.
He contacted the company, who sent someone out to examine it 3 days later.
The f.o.a.f was then issued a $15,000 check.

@serenade I manufacture stuff for a living and QC is EVERYTHING to our success and in that rare event something ships that had issues, I am very receptive and grateful when a customer brings this to my attention. As a consumer I can also empathize with your frustrations over the errant piece of plastic that truly could have caused you harm. Close call there. You would be remiss to not bring this event to the attention of the manufacturer and even the store that sold the product.

Hopefully you will get a positive and regretful response from the manufacturer and you do have a right to make a claim at any time. BTW thanks for starting an interesting discussion on this topic.

How do you prove that you yourself didn’t put the offending shard into the container?

Stuff happens. Tell the company about it, get a few free dinners, and forget about it. If you really do pursue a lawsuit you ARE a douche bag.

@filmfann How in the world could you prove that your friend didn’t put the roach in the bag himself? Something doesn’t sound right about this. EVERYONE would be putting roaches in their chips, then complaining.

@Dutchess_III As I understand it, a roach was baked into one of the chips. It was pretty obvious it wasn’t placed there later.

Oh, I see. Gross!!

Seriously?

LOL another American trying to take something from someone else that doesn’t belong to them. Get a life and a job. You disgust me.

”^^^^chill

No it’s people like that, that are ruining America. No one wants to work hard, they want the easy way out. If OP company had accidentally put a piece of plastic in someone’s meal, he wouldn’t want to get his socks sued off either. The legal system needs to be set up the way Britain’s is. If you sue someone (arbitrarily) for 1000$ and you lose, then you owe them 1000$. OP is trying to manipulate his way into unearned compensation. LAME.

Yes, that would solve America’s problems. You are so brilliant to make this suggestion.

@SaveTheRhinos I understand you sentiment. I’m just saying you don’t have to be so hateful. It’ll shorten your life.