OUCH, Hershey! That Was My Tooth

The way things are now adays take the money and run.Youre lucky they
offered you anything is my guess.

I want to thank you all for your thoughts and opinions on my letter.
All of them played a big role in the decision that I have made, and
that is to not persue this any further. I must say that Ms. Judy did
make me another offer in which I'm going to except. So again thank you
all for your responses and I do still feel in my heart that they
should still list "May contain shells", on the package and leave the
risk of injury up to the consumer.It should not take several people to
get injured by something before there is change. Some of us don't
think that far into to things. I've been eating hershey since I was
little and never thought about being injured by a nut shell,it
actually never crossed my mind.I have so many other things on my mind
so that one never crossed! I'm looking at a bridge mix package from
Walgreens and it has allergy information saying "This product made in
facility that processes peanutes,tree nuts,soy,wheat,and dairy
products. And it also state on the package after the
ingredients,"Contains Milk,Peanuts,soy and tree nuts.If your allergic
to these items I'm sure you appreciate them listing these cautions.I
am sure that people that buy bridge mix would expect for these items
to be in the product,but would they even think about the shells? I
understand that people can be badly harmed by some of these
ingredients so they list them on the package.That is no different than
a shell,it can still cause injuries or harm to a person.So their is
nothing wrong with putting these cautions on the packaging in small
but big enough to read writing.Why would a company not want to put
cautions? For the people that wrote and stated their not big on all
these cautions " I WOULD BE VERY CONCERNED" may contain something that
is deadly to you and the caution may save your life!

The fact that you have stated you might hire an attorney means that
Hershey will not be contacting you and you won't be hearing from them
soon. Furthermore, their Claims Adjuster is not going to apologize
for being rude and Hershey has set the price they are willing to pay
for your medical bill and pain/suffering at $200.

Judging by your comment below about the infamous McDonald's hot coffee
lititgation it appears you are indeed looking for your situation to be
raised to the level of product liability and are seeking a substantial
settlement. If this the case then Hersey isn't going to deal with
your directly. You need to find an attorney willing to accept your
case.

and still remains unanswered, I will ask again.

What do you think is fair amount for pain and suffering loss?

Secondly,how is $150 plus the dental visit unreasonable considering
you spent less than $2 on the product.

When I first read this letter, I thought it was just an attempt to
cash in. But after reading the letter writer's responses, I started
thinking about it. I have eaten a lot of chocolate in my life and
other candy with nuts, and it never occurred to me that I could bite
on a shell. I'm careful when it comes to bones and pits, but
nutshells?

I'm not an advocate of silly warnings on packaging, but maybe there
should be something said about nutshells.

Hmmm... I'm not sure about this. Warnings don't stop people from
suing, but a warning about nutshells might be a good idea for those
people who actually just want to be careful.

Your dental bill got taken care of, and they threw in another $150 to
boot. That's more than fair. You don't get money for "pain and
suffering" for something so minor. How much do you think you deserve?
How much "lost wages" did you suffer.

Yeah, I thought so. MOve on with your life.

It was always my understanding that if a diner at a restaurant was
injured by something that could reasonably be expected to be in the
food - like clam shells in a seafood dish or a piece of chicken bone
in a chicken dish, the restaurant wasn't responsible. It was expected
that there was a higher liklihood that these things MIGHT be in the
dish, so the diner should take care while eating. Only if it's a
foreign object, like a piece of metal or glass, does the restaurant
have any liability. I'm not sure, but that could be the case for
Hershey's. If the candy was made with macadamia nuts, there's a good
chance that a piece of macadamia shell could end up in the finished
product. It doesn't mean the candy is defective or that there is a
flaw in the production process.

I think Hershey's offer of paying for your dental visit plus an
additional $150 is generous.

Sorry to say, but this is really gonna be a tough case. To them, that
shell coulda came from anywhere.

I read this post several times and never thought about the fact the OP
mailed Hersey the shell. Good catch!

I used to work for an attorney (and was formerly married to one but
that is a different saga altogether) and no matter how many times I
read and re-read evidence he would pop up with the the most common
sense point that any sane person should have noticed right off the
bat.

If your intent is to turn this into a full-blown product liability
case then hire a product liability attorney. Hershey isn't going to
negotiate with you because they have already made their best and final
offer of $50 for your dental visit and $150 (3 x the medical bill) for
pain & suffering for a total of $200.

The ball is in your court - - either find an attorney willing to take
this case on contingency or accept Hershey's offer.

Pain and suffering does not always equal large payout.

When I was 7-1/2 months pregnant, I was in a serious auto accident
(car was totaled). As a result, I went into labor four weeks early,
and my child was born with neurological issues. That was 18 years
ago, and our lives haven't been the same since. I suffered physical
and emotional pain and suffering from the moment that car ran into
ours.

My payout?.. Nothing. Insurance covered our expenses, but that was
it. I didn't sue the woman who ran into us because I felt sorry for
her. It was an accident, and I understood how and why it happened.
She felt terrible, and even called me at one point to see how we were
doing.

My reward for not suing?.. Slapped with a million dollar lawsuit. Our
car was pushed into another one during the impact. The people in that
car were not hurt but claimed they could no longer have sex.

Moral of the story?.. I don't have one, other than to say that
everyone has to do what's best for them, as long as they can live with
it.

Hershey make a lot of different candy. What kind of candy were you
eating? Did it contain macadamia nuts? The general rule for making an
offer of compensation for pain and suffering is three times the
medical bills. 3 times $50 is $150, so hence the offer of $200.

just curious cos i didn't see an amount listed, other than the 200

also how much is the dental going to come to?
you might be able to get more if the dental bill is going to be over
that

You should consult with an attorney before you sign anything. Period.
You may have a better case, you may not. You will not know until you
ask. But, do not be surprised if this is the best offer you are going
to get. "Pain and suffering" do not always mean a huge cash payout,
sometimes it is only a small amount.

I'm curious, just how much cash would you like for your pain and
suffering?

Please, don't take this as being rude and uncaring on my part but how
I thought that was a danger of eating anything with nuts.
Occasionally things slip through the sorting machine or quality, but
that doesn't make the product defective. You received $50 for the
dentist and the other $150 would be considered pain and suffering. You
received a rather good amount for shell damage to your gums. I've cut
my gums on nut shells before and didn't go complaining to anyone. I
just accepted it and drove on. You do have the right to not accept
what they are offering and take them to court, but is it worth the
time and money if you don't get what you want? I hope this works out
for you, and I hope your mouth feels better, or did you swallow this?

Just because = pain and suffering.

If 50 is for your dentist, then you can call the 150 dollars pain and
suffering.

Sounds like a sweet gig. Id take some tissue pain for 150 bucks!


Good Day

If you don't want to accept what they are offering, you don't have to.
And don't let anyone at the company or their insurance company tell
you otherwise.

You can turn down the money, not sign their waiver, and then get a
lawyer and sue them.

Until you do that, they are giving you what they want.

I'd suggest that you NOT have further discussions with them, without a
lawyer. Why? Because if you don't like how you've been treated up to
now, you're not going to like how they treat you during any
negotiation. (Which begs the question: if they said they were sorry,
would you drop the whole thing?)

So, either take what they've offered and move on. Or get a lawyer who
will advise on the likelihood of getting more money in a settlement or
in court. The lawyer will also advise you of his/her fee.

By the way, what product was this? If it was a product that contained
macadamia nuts, it's always possible for a shell to get in. Same for
any other nut product. While steps are taken to keep shells out, it's
impossible to guarantee that there will be absolutely not shells,
without having redundant manual inspection of each nut. And that
would be an expensive piece of candy.