I like it! Think of all the young men she has put on alert. Let's encourage every snotty, entitled, lazy-as-a-cat witchette to do the same.

If you're going to sue, you sue for money. Who sues for a lifetime supply of a lackluster candy bars?

She put young men on alert in more ways than one. First she's sue-crazy. Next she lacks common sense. She's the young female version of Donald Trump.

I dunno much about Brit law, but I suspect that if Nestle offers to make her whole -- a replacement of the "defective" product -- that will be sufficient.

You're not enough of a special snowflake to warrant a lifetime supply of anything except 0 fucks given.

IRA, I suspect she hasn't got a chance in hell. Not that she'll sue. She'd get laughed out of court (well, suit dismissed) in no short order. As you say, restitution via replacement of the product would probably satisfy the court, assuming it got that far, which it probably wouldn't.

As for "monetary and emotional" loss, I don't think she is impressing her potential future employers as much as she thinks she is. Which is what I think this is all about.

She hasn't actually sued yet, Patrick. The offer of accepting free candy is more along the lines of a settlement she would accept in lieu of legal action.

I think she might have underestimated the amount of legal time Nestle have available to protect their brand. Although who knows, they might decide it's worth a case or two of chocolate to make her go away, along with a public statement from her that she accepts it was a manufacturing error.

The miracle is that we have pretty uniform products most of the time. It's not really a miracle, of course, but industrialization and its charms are pretty exciting.

"Law student"

That's the reason; she thinks she now knows the law, is smarter than most people, so she trying to put her "new-found" knowledge to use.

Fortunately, it is only about a chocolate covered wafer bar. In the US, way back in my day, it was newly-graduated law students who were the number 1 defaulters on student loans as they felt they now knew the law and knew how to get out of paying back their debt. Until, the laws were tightened on student loans that is.

If you want good chocolate go after the one that is meant for cooking. Whenever I have the chance I try to get a Neugebauer Semi Sweet chocolate bar, it's a 20oz brick of pure joy because that's how bittersweet chocolate tastes when it uses non alkali-treated cocoa.

Food manufacturers can't mess up (much) with that kind of chocolate.

Your disdain for the chocolate in Kit Kat bars is no doubt due to the fact that in the US, they are made by Hershey's, under a license that goes back to the time before Nestle bought Rowntree (the company that created the Kit Kat bar) in 1988. Kit Kat bars sold everywhere else in the world are made by Nestle, and taste different (i.e., better).

Amy - Actually, the KitKats in the UK are good. They are made with real milk choclate, not cocoa. I always pick up at duty free at Heathrow.

If this happened to me, I may have instagrammed it and said "cool." Lawsuit? Please.

In the US, way back in my day, it was newly-graduated law students who were the number 1 defaulters on student loans as they felt they now knew the law and knew how to get out of paying back their debt. Until, the laws were tightened on student loans that is. ~ Posted by: charles at February 4, 2016 6:01 AM

Way back when I worked in student loans (late '80s and early '90s), newly minted lawyers were the most prompt and dependable payers of student loan debt. The various Bar Associations wouldn't admit them if they defaulted on a legal obligation.

I loved taking calls from lawyers because they didn't argue or insult; they listened and did what you told them to do. They needed the situation resolved.

The biggest defaulters "in my day" were proprietary trade school students. They would go to one of those fly-by-night schools promising to teach them a trade but whose classes consist of little more than reading a manual. One truck driving school graduate told me that in the year he spent there, he never got to actually drive a truck. The admissions application included a student loan application with the "disperse funds directly to school" box pre-checked and the tuition was coincidentally the maximum amount available per semester for a student loan. The school would go bankrupt in 2-3 years.

Doctors were bad, too. They would scream and insult you and tell you how ignorant you were.

One University of Michigan medical school graduate doctor told me he had two cars, two houses, and a boat, he didn't need a credit score any more. He sure changed his tune when I told him the Justice Department could seize his tax refund if he defaulted on his government-guaranteed student loan.

Conan: "newly minted lawyers were the most prompt and dependable payers of student loan debt."

Yep, that sounds about right. "My day" was a bit before yours. I couldn't remember what they changed; but, you've jogged my memory - "The various Bar Associations wouldn't admit them if they defaulted on a legal obligation."

Being denied work in your chosen field would be one way to make sure you paid back your loans.

I've written letters of complaint before. Heck, I even wrote a letter of complaint for a friend, rather as a joke when she got a misshapen lump of chocolate covered in candy shell in a bag of peanut M&Ms. She got a letter from the Mars company and about 6 discount coupons for future purchases. I thought it was rather a lark.
The idea of suing is something that should be slapped out of that woman's tiny little mind.

Reasonable thing to do is write to the company with "I like your stuff, but this was a disappointment, and here's why..."

This will generally get them to replace it. Once or twice over -- not for a lifetime.

This is something I talk about in "Good Manners For Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck" -- proportionate "punishment" for bad behavior (or negligent behavior). It's rude to expect a windfall.

Right, Catherine -- and on the chocolate being better. So much American chocolate now seems to be or at least taste like sugary brown wax.

Amy,

Candy makers are relying more on scent than on flavour now. Which is why candy, and cheap (and not so cheap) chocolate has a bland-er taste but is getting smellier. The sad part? This is pet food science applied on humans.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-03/chemistry-kibble

"The student admitted she is 'trying her luck', adding 'if you don't ask you don't get.'"

That's the problem. To the plaintiff, it's risk free. It's like a lottery where the tickets are just given away to anyone who asks. Why not play? The worst that can happen is that you end up the same as you were before. Similarly for the plaintiff lawyers: they know they can get an intern to open a boilerplate demand letter in Word, fill in the defendant's name and a few particulars, and for the cost of a postage stamp (or at worst, a process server) the defendant's insurance will send them a few thousand to go away. It's free money. The defendant bears nearly all of the costs, no matter what the outcome.

"Saima Ahmad" seems to be a muslims name? How much do you want to bet that she doesn't use the settlement money to fund jihad or the ongoing European hijrah?

Islamic pirates are taking over Europe on foot, not in cars.

She is a law student and presumably wants a job on graduation. Does she not realise she has just alerted all prospective employers that she is sue-crazy, lacks judgement, has a tenuous understanding of English law and finds the absence of a kitkat wafer to be of ‘emotional significance’?

The company should write back and tell her it is one of the new *gluten free* ones.

seriously, how much is a life time supply of chocolate?

Apparently she is interested in being a 350 pound lawyer.

Reasonable thing to do is write to the company with "I like your stuff, but this was a disappointment, and here's why..." ~ Posted by: Amy Alkon at February 4, 2016 11:45 AM

Over the years, I've written plenty of letters to companies that disappointed me in some way. From some of them I received monetary or product compensation. From others, nothing. I didn't go back to the ones that refused to try to make me whole.

I've also worked for companies selling products to consumers. Most to them were generous with compensatory product for dissatisfied customers, sending out replacements and even extra product for customers who complained.

I'm sure whoever is selling US Kit-Kats will happily send a carton of candy to this woman if she writes to them( http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2015/02/15
) and lets them know they disappointed her.