GTA 4 HITS TESCO STORES!

Good Morning Sir Terry,

Some background information on me - I am a disabled person with both physical and mental health issues. I do not like crowds, suffer paranoia and struggle to stand/walk for long after fracturing my back some years ago.

I have just returned from your Fforestfach, Swansea store, where I was assaulted, because of your poor handling of the release of Grand Theft Auto for the Playstation 3 and X-Box 360. I decided too late that I would like GTA and was unable to pre-order a copy from the usual games retailers. Knowing that Tesco sells games and is often competitive on price, my Wife phoned the store yesterday evening to check they were going to have stock. We were told that they had plenty, there was no need to queue early but they could not confirm the price.

11.35 arrived and we set off for the store. We arrived approximately
12 minutes later and entered the store, heading immediately for the games aisle. I didn't see the point of getting the electric buggy as usual as I wouldn't be doing a lot of walking. There was a queue already formed but, it didn't seem too large so we joined it. At this point I commented to my Wife that we may not get a copy but as it was approaching midnight, we may as well wait. On or just after midnight, the queue rapidly moved forward. It soon became apparent that instead of placing the games on the shelves, they were going to be sold from the customer services desk. I walked as quickly as possible and soon became embroiled in a scrum of people to get a game. This was an extremely difficult thing for me to do because of the amount of people and their close proximity to me. There were several people that were pushing in and forcing their way through to the front. I stood my ground despite being jostled and pushed back and forth putting pressure on my back. Suddenly out of nowhere, I was punched or elbowed in the ribs. I stood there for a moment afraid of what to do and then, enraged, I left the queue to complain to the security guard.

I explained to the security guard what had just happened and I now apologise for my use of language towards him. You have to remember that I had just been hit and was quite upset to say the least. I asked him who was responsible for the situation. He advised it was the problem of the Duty Manager and duly went to make a call for him. The Duty Manager some moments later meandered up to me. I explained what had happened yet again, still quite shaken by the whole thing. He informed me that it wasn't his fault but that of the Store Manager for choosing the method of sale. Now, I am not stupid, I realise that having dozens of gamers wandering around with their copy of GTA could pose a security risk but, the organisation was a big problem. I reiterated this point to the Duty Manager who spoke to a colleague on the security desk and wandered off to check the CCTV footage. Some time passed whereupon he meandered back to me with his hands in his pockets head bowed. He duly asked what I expected turning up when I did quoting the time on the CCTV. He said there were people in front of me who deserved to get their copy first.He implied that I had not queued and was trying to get a copy by dubious methods. I again reiterated that it was not about actually getting a copy anymore but about being assaulted. I had given up on getting a copy as they had run out of PS3 copies whilst he was reviewing things. There were people in the original queue behind me, that actually managed to avoid being assaulted, and stay in the scrum, who received a copy of the PS3 version. At this point, we left.

The whole management of the release was poor. Had a book of raffles tickets been booked out, they could have been handed out to waiting customers. Had the customers been informed by the staff they were queuing in the wrong place, the scrum could have been avoided. Had the security guards who were chatting the whole while with some friends bothered to do their jobs, they could have monitored the situation and prevent it being the bun fight it was. Especially as their desk is a matter of feet from the customer services desk.

Had your Duty Manager given a damn about what I was saying, I may not be writing this now. His attitude was slovenly, disbelieving and rude.

I know GTA is a violent game but I didn't realise actually buying it would affect my health.

I look forward to your comments Sir Terry.

Steve Birkett

Tesco's Wholemeal Beard - Fancy a slice?

I am writing with regards to a loaf of Thick sliced Wholemeal Kingsmill Bread I purchased from Tesco in Leyton E10 on 23rd April 2008.

As I opened the loaf I was horrified to find several strands of hair approximately 6 inches in length embedded in the slices. There is no possibility this hair could have been mine as I had just broken the seal. Not only did this deprive me of my breakfast but also prevented me from making my sandwiches for lunch, thus this inconvenience left me with no choice other then to buy lunch from outside.

I have now lost faith in purchasing any of your products and this incident has now put me off eating bread so far to the point that I am now considering only eating bread that I bake at home myself.

I am very disappointed in the breach in the quality assurance of the manufacturing process of this product and have now lost faith in your company, because as a consumer I trusted that your product would have been fit for its purpose. This has also lead me to believe there could easily be other possible more serious contamination. I would not wish any other consumers to experience what I have been through i.e. having strands of hair wrapped around their fingers.

I have retained my receipt and will now be contacting Tesco for a full refund and will also be notifying the local food standards authority.

Mother care or despair ?

I started working for Tesco on the 19th of November 2007, two weeks after that I found out I was pregnant with my third child, i informed Tesco of this just before we were off for the amazing amount of days at christmas :s ! Thinking to myself that they would finish me for this to my surprise they kept me on permenantly part time , for that i was grateful!

Anyway, I am now 31 weeks pregnant and still working on fresh, and don't leave till i am nearly 36 weeks , during which time i knew that I had to get maternity leave and pay / state pay sorted out - In this case i asked for the pregnancy pack or booklet Tesco supply about all the information i required . To my disgust i was given a booklet from 2006 as that was all they had, and the booklet specifically suggested, speaking to your personal manager about information you need to know.

Unsure if the booklet had the correct information in it, I went to see this person , only to be told she did not know anything about maternity leave or pay and would get back to me that was at 26 weeks into my pregnancy. I am now 31 weeks and still waiting for a manager or memeber of staff to help me in this situation i have also asked for Cardiff's number to contact them to see if they can give me the correct info and still waiting for that aswell !

I have never had a day off in all the time i have worked there. I make all my appointments on the days that I have off. Tesco talk all the time about training and 'knowing your stuff', silver bronze and gold this - it makes me laugh when even the senior managers don't know what they are spose to !

Tesco want to pull the finger out there profit wallet and put some money into training there senior staff and update all there booklets, but no no no Tesco are all about profit profit profit , we have also heard that there will be job cuts yet again in our store even though we are short staffed as it is even more so on a sunday me and another member of staff for all of Dairy / Fresh ! I hope you put this on your site as not being given the correct info and support for this is disgracefull for a firm that earns up to 3 billion pounds profit !

We'd better start walking down the motorway

Hi,

Just had a bad experience with Tesco... for the sake of 30p. This is the email we just sent them which explains it all...

Dear Sir,

My partner and I have been customers of Tesco for some years now, both instore and online, and have always felt valued and cared for as customers.

Unfortunately, that experience has come to an abrupt end!

Having placed an order online on 18.04.2008 and received a confirmation email, I was contacted by telephone this morning, Saturday 19th April 2008, to inform me that my payment was not authorised. The advisor offered to call me back within five minutes once I'd obtained my card details. She never called back.

Upon further investigation I discovered the reason for the payment not going through; although I had left £35 in my account and the order was less than £34, a £2 debit was removed from my account to verify my card details.I called customer services who transferred me to the store responsible for the delivery. The manager explained there was nothing he could do, not even remove 1 item from my shopping as there was less than £1 difference. He blamed my bank for not re-crediting the £2 in time.

This resulted in me calling my bank three times and Tesco customer services a further two times as each company blamed the other for witholding the £2 that caused my payment to fail.

As a working couple with two young children we were relying on this shopping as we can't get to the store without spending £15 on taxi fares.

This experience has left me very upset and worried as we know that we can't spend that amount of money and get the same volume of products and quality from a "convenience store " that we've always received from Tesco.

Due to this, my partner has had to come home from work earlier, sacrificing a days pay as we have no food in the property and need to get to a supermarket before we're left with no provisions for the entire weekend.

I am hoping that you will be able to give me the kind of service I've come to expect and reply to this email with any suggestions you may have regarding my situation.

I am hoping that I do not have to remove my custom in favour of another retailer.

Not holding out much hope of getting it resolved. Oh well, we'd better start walking down the motorway to the supermarket 10 miles away or our kids will starve.

Fresh? £2.8billion profit smells fresh enough....

It's all very well Tesco making these collossal profits, but put your house in order and give your customers good quality merchandise. Not for the first time, I have found fresh produce, fruit and vegetables, to be of poor quality. I have had problems in the past with freshness, in particular sliced beans which never make their sell-by date as they turn mouldy if left to the date. Also the case with strawberries. I purchased both these items on Friday, both with sell-by dates of the 15th April. I went to use the beans today, which were in my fridge, and had to throw the lot away. Inside the sealed pack they were wet and grey. Four of the strawberries had green mould underneath them.

I bought some fresh cod loin three weeks ago, put it straight into the freezer, took it out of the freezer yesterday morning to cook for dinner but the fish smelled "fishy". I know that fresh fish should NOT smell. However, I cooked it and my husband refused to eat the fish because it tasted "off". Another waste of money.

Over the years so much has been discarded and so much money wasted. I always vow I will never shop in Tesco again, but I get "sucked in" because I have a huge store (Lakeside) near where I live and its an interesting place to shop. I may shop there again, but I will NEVER BUY FRESH PRODUCE.

Would you like help packing Terry?

SOURCE: BBC News

A grandmother from Merseyside has applied for planning permission to demolish the home of Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy.

Dot Reid is retaliating against plans to bulldoze her home and 71 others in Kirkby, to make way for Everton's new stadium and a Tesco supermarket.

The 58-year-old said Sir Terry, who lives in a mansion in Hertfordshire, deserved a taste of his own medicine.

She plans to turn the site of the Tesco boss's house into a community garden.

The grandmother lives on Spicer Grove where there are a mix of bungalows and houses, which would be bought under a compulsory purchase order and demolished under the plans.

She helped set up a housing co-operative which was given government money to build the homes, which were finished in 1992.

I want Sir Terry to have a taste of what we have to put up with Dot Reid

She said: "These are more than just houses, they are homes.

"I have been living under the threat of losing my home for 18 months now and it is very stressful.

"I want Sir Terry to have a taste of what we have to put up with.

"When we found out about the plans by Tesco and Everton, we thought it was disgusting."

Mrs Reid has submitted an application to Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council in Hertfordshire for permission to demolish Sir Terry's 1930s mansion in Cuffley.

'Publicity stunt'

Mrs Reid has plans for the site.

"It's going be a nice community area. Trees and ponds and a little play area for the children, somewhere for the old people to go and sit and relax."

A council spokeswoman said: "Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council has received a planning application from a resident of Kirkby relating to the demolition of a property in Cuffley and use of the space as a community garden.

"This application will go through the normal planning process."

A spokesman for Tesco said: "This is just a publicity stunt.

"Unlike this application, for our application we spoke to hundreds, if not thousands, of residents in Kirkby, the vast majority of whom recognise this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which will create 2,000 jobs."

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THE APPLICATION ITSELF CAN BE VIEWED HERE:

https://fastweb.welhat.gov.uk/detail.asp?AltRef=S6/2008/0668/FP&ApplicationNumber=&AddressPrefix=&submit1=Go

Actual Documents open as .PDF file!

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