The British public needs YOU!

If you would like to expose your Tesco complaint or story to the public and wider media immediately, rather than emailing them to TC, please post them on this blog post.

Please refrain from using detailed personal information, bad language, etc. Journalists often read this blog.

Sun Grown Discount Brands (Tesco) Apple Juice _ RANCID FOREIGN BODIES

Yes we're back, we've been indundated with complaints from customers about Christmas deliveries. All emails to us are read and treated in confidence. Only your name will be posted or you can remain anonymous. Members of the press often contact TC. The best selection of emails are posted here. Check out this awful picture and story below we have just received:

2nd January 2011

FAO: Environmental Services Commercial Team

Subject: Foreign Object in Sun Grown Discount Brands (Tesco) Apple Juice Carton

Ref: xxxxx

To whom it may concern,

Please find attached photos of the offending foreign bodies within a carton of Tesco Sun Grown Apple Juice. This was discovered on 02.01.11. A mouthful of the liquid was drunk by two people, which was sour and vinegary, causing instant 'wretching'. At this point both parties feel slightly sick, however nobody has been taken ill; if this should change I will inform you accordingly.

If deemed appropriate by Environmental Services we would very much like to know what this object was and the potential health risks associated.

We will also be looking at pursuing compensation from Tesco in due course.

We will deliver the items (carton & foreign bodies) to the Ely office on Tuesday/Wednesday, please do let me know if this is incorrect.

Best Regards,

Oliver Hawes

** We want to know how the VAT rise has affected your Tesco shop. Drop us a line **

The twelve days of Tesco (are not happy)

This blog has been swamped with complaints from many disgruntled customers over the 2009 festive period. While Tesco boast of increased profits through internet sales of toys, one family has been left waiting in twelve hours per day for twelve days and still hasn’t received Christmas presents for their cute little toddler, Andrew, aged 3, and his older brother Peter aged 8. The “12 days of Christmas” are famous as a time for receiving gifts. The “12 days of Tesco” is a sorry tale of 12 days of empty promises and bungling couriers. Tesco’s first attempt was to send Andrew a Snow White costume!

On the first day of Tesco, Friday 4^th December, Dorothy ordered a toy aeroplane, 4 police toys plus a Power Ranger suit for Andrew. She was told that she would need to be at home on the Monday from 7am until 7pm. 12 hours is a long time to wait, but Dorothy considered it worthwhile for the tremendous value that was on offer. Dorothy admits her house in south-west London isn’t easy to find, but gave clear directions for the delivery with the instruction for the driver to phone if needing help in finding the property. She repeated these instructions time and again in endless phone calls over the next 10 days, but no driver ever phoned to ask for help.

Hoping for delivery

On the second day of Tesco, the 12 hours ticked by slowly, but at 6.15pm Tesco were still confidently promising delivery within 45 minutes. Nothing arrived.

On the third day of Tesco, Tesco said that they had tried to deliver but needed more information (which had already been given) to find the house. Dorothy was promised a £10 discount. Ten days later, this had still not been credited to her account.Tesco couldn’t tell what had happened to the toys as their computer scanning system had failed as it couldn’t cope with the high volume of orders. At this stage Dorothy was put in touch with Eddie who was extremely helpful if trying to progress the order and gave Dorothy his direct number. Dorothy rang Eddie many times but realised eventually that she was running up a massive phone bill as, to contact Eddie, she had to ring a national-rate number at peak hours.

For the fourth day of Tesco, Dorothy was promised a 2 hour delivery slot and then later told that the couriers couldn’t offer a 2 hour slot to her address. She would have to wait in for 12 hours again. Still, it would be worth it to get those bargain toys.The hours passed and a delivery arrived. Dorothy’s blind neighbour was looking after the house at this stage. Of course, she couldn’t check the order. So when Dorothy returned, she found that there were no toys. There was no Power Ranger suit. Instead, Tesco had sent little Andrew a Snow White costume! Whilst not believing in gender-stereotyping, Dorothy didn’t think that this was what Andrew would want from Santa and thinks that his older brother Peter may make fun of him.

Goods lost

On the fifth day of Tesco, Tesco admitted that they had now lost the goods. They tried to get Dorothy to cancel the order. However, as the bargain prices were no longer available, Dorothy insisted on continuing with the order.

On the sixth day of Tesco, Tesco found the goods and promised to deliver. Nothing happened. The weekend came and went. Still no toys.

On the seventh day of Tesco, Tesco claimed to have tried to deliver on the Saturday evening, This time, they hadn’t asked the family to be at home, but they were in the house. No driver came to the door or phoned to ask for directions.

Sunday came and went – the eighth day of Tesco.

On the ninth day of Tesco, Dorothy tried a different approach. Instead of phoning, she e-mailed Tesco. This led to a flurry of phone calls with Tesco definitely promising immediate delivery. Dorothy was contacted by a Warehouse Supervisor called Angela. She had the Power Ranger suit and would put on a van. What about the toys? Angela seemed unaware of these, but eventually found them. She reassured Dorothy that everything was together in two packages. She’d personally put them on the van and given the driver instructions to phone to check where Dorothy lived.

Empty van

The hours passed and eventually the doorbell rang at tea-time. Everyone rushed to the door in excitement. Tesco had delivered. Of course they hadn’t. A delivery driver had indeed turned up at the door – without any toys. She had come to collect the Snow White costume!

Dorothy asked if the warehouse supervisor, Angela, had spoken to her, but the driver insisted that there was no one called Angela at the warehouse. Dorothy refused to hand the Snow White costume over before phoning Tesco to see what was happening. The delivery driver refused to wait.

Dorothy yet again phoned Tesco and was told that a second van was on its way. At 7.15pm, Tesco phoned saying that delivery was continuing until 9pm and the goods would definitely arrive by then. Of course, they didn’t.

Ultimatum

On the tenth day of Tesco, Dorothy’s husband David contacted Tesco’s Chief Executive, Sir Terry Leahy, demanding delivery at 7am the following morning. That day, a delivery driver came with a package. Once again, Tesco hadn’t asked the family to be at home at this time, but the family were at home.

The Power Ranger suit had finally arrived, but the driver still didn’t have the bulk of the order, £60 worth of toys. The driver also refused to take away the Snow White costume.

In the evening, Tesco phoned to say that they couldn’t meet the 7am deadline. In the Christmas spirit of generosity, Dorothy’s husband, David, agreed to give Tesco a further 24 hours to deliver.

On the eleventh day of Tesco, David again contacted Sir Terry demanding the delivery of the toys, an apology and compensation for the wasted hours, massive phone bills, stress and sleepless nights. There was an acknowledgement, but no toys, apology or compensation.

On the morning of the twelfth day of Tesco, David and Dorothy were hopeful that Sir Terry would respond to their ultimatum. It was now only one week to Christmas and Tesco had already wasted the previous fortnight of their time, not to mention the intense stress that they have suffered. Sir Terry’s company did precisely nothing. Andrew and Peter are really excited about Santa coming, but may be surprised that Tesco’s Santa thought that Andrew should have a Snow White costume and that, with one week to Christmas, neither have any toys from Tesco and very little hope of Tesco bothering to do anything about it other than possibly giving more than empty promises.

Dave Innes

TESCO COMPLAINT HAS BEEN INUNDATED WITH COMPLAINTS ABOUT TESCO'S SERVICE OVER CHRISTMAS. KEEP THEM COMING.

Tesco direct: Double stress points with your sofa

On 26/09/09 I ordered a sofa from Tesco direct for £398 on a buy one get one free basis. Tesco confirmed my order and I was told of a delivery date for the 30/09/09.

The delivery turned up on time, and this is where the nightmare begins. The sofas ordered were advertised as self assembly, as one was for a narrowboat this was ideal, as I was getting one free, I decided to donate it to a nursing home where my wife works. So, on the day of delivery, I dismantled the furniture from the narrowboat that we live on, and disposed of it. When the delivery arrived there were 2 sofas, one in brown NOT self assembly, so would not fit into our boat, the other was a three seater in cream!

I complained via phone to Tesco direct and they are giving me a refund. Not being a happy bunny, I went to my local Tesco store, which had re opened following refurbishment 2 weeks ago. They did not wish to know and said that they were not part of tesco direct, to which I pointed out that they were the same company, and it was in the Lichfield store that the catologue had been handed to me - still no joy, but I was told to drive to a direct store 15 miles away!

To say i am disgusted with their service is an understatement. I have informed them that I will never buy another item from them or their related company in my lifetime, I also informed them that I have every sympathy with the fellow that drove his Rolls Royce through one of their stores in sheer frustration.

I send this email, sitting on a deck chair in my boat. My wife is in tears, and I am fuming with anger.

What can be done to stop this company from treating customers in such a shoddy fashion? - I wish I owned a Rolls Royce because I know exactly what I would like to do right now!

Martin Lewis

Do you need a carrier bag? Er.. yes.

Dear Mr Leahy,

I write to you today as I'm rather concerned that after writing letters to your complaints address in Enfield I never seem to receive a reply? After a short search on the web I find this is not only common practice for Tesco, its actually rife!

I'm left with no option but to contact you directly, and also have started a blog on the web about it, with copies of all letters and e-mails due to be posted there!

The letters of complaint went as follows:

First letter, was asking, quite politely why the Tesco store in Broughton refuses to stock carrier bags? Severál times we've visited the store the do our shopping however there never seems to be any carrier bags. You're often confronted with a deadpan question of "do you want any bags" - well considering I've just spent £250 in your store of course I want carrier bags. If this had happened once, it wouldn't have riled me, however it happens time and time again! My response now is just to leave the shopping there and walk out of the store. I have asked staff time and time again why there aren't any carrier bags available, the response I've had on more than one occasion is: "The Welsh Assembly have made it illegal to give out new carrier bags" or "The Welsh assembly only let us give out so many bags per year" or "its more environmentally friendly" - The Welsh Assembly haven't yet put any restrictions on the provision of carrier bags, I practice as a solicitor in Wales and the last I knew the plan was still in consultation stage... Furthermore, you cannot argue on the basis of it being more environmentally friendly, if this were your real concern you'd be issuing sustainable, recylable paper bags, the same type they've been issuing in America for many years now!

The fact that your staff are willing to lie to a loyal customer is one thing, the fact that they feel you've got no right to ask for a carrier bag is one thing. After buying a basket full of shopping after work one evening, which totalled £46.51, and asking if I could have a carrier bag, the member of staff said "I haven't got any" after asking if she could ask for some more, or get some more she said "There's nothing I can do about it, I haven't got any" - so my response was to walk out of the store without the shopping and without having paid for it, hearing her grumble something under hear breath, which I shall not repeat!

Further to this, as stated before, your staff in the customer care address on your website simply do not reply to letters your customers have taken time to write and spent money to post, and same as I've said there are acres of coverage on the net, which makes this out to be quite common place!

Unless I receive a response, in a timely manner, I will stop shopping in Tesco stores. I've looked through my credit card statement from last year, and in total I spent: £12,272 in your stores. In a climate where your competitors are seeing their customer base increase whilst yours doesn't seem to be doing anything (hence giving away double club card points etc) it is of no surprise, perhaps their finding a better quality of service at places like: Sainsbury's; Waitrose; Morrison's and Asda.

I look forward to hearing from you, and this letter can be found on the internet.

Yours Sincerely,
Gareth Baines

Bumper Bargain? Bumper damage?

A few weeks ago a trolley collector at Tesco damaged my car with a line of trolleys, saw the damage (albeit minor) and continued on his way. I was in my car at the time; when I got out and called to him, he immediately replied that he'd "never touched it" (how did he know what I wanted then?) and then was very aggressive, shouting at me that it was my fault and coming to the conclusion that I had rolled into his line of trolleys (rolled sideways? after he had first denied any collision).

Luckily another witness had seen him check the side of my car for damage so I had back up. However when he went to get the manager who I assumed would be apologetic, he was just as rude, and refused to acknowledge that any damage had been caused.

Once we brought a trolley over to my car and demonstrated that the scratch had in fact been caused by the trolleys, he still did not apologise on behalf of the other employee, or Tesco, nor did his attitude towards me change. Throughout the conversation he was incredibly rude, and acted as if I had done something. I could go on! I then complained to Tesco about the attitude of these two men, not the damage to the vehicle itself (my car is old, and had the first man apologised, or acknowledged fault I would happily have accepted the 'bumper restore' I was finally offered after half an hour of questioning).

Their only response is that the manager did not record the incident, or has lost the incident form, so it is not in their database, so they cannot 'take my complaint further'. It is no surprise that the manager has 'lost' the vehicle incident form, given his attitude on the day, but I don't see why they need that form to uphold a complaint about the behaviour of 2 of the staff. What they have told me to do, with again no apology for losing the incident form, is go back and make another complaint in store. After the aggressive and hostile attitude of the two men in question, do they really think I am going to go back, and complain to their faces???

eleanor watson

Food waste piling up at stores?

I am writing to you to express my utter disgust at a food wastage policy that I discovered when shopping in a Tesco Express store in Ocean Village, Southampton.

I entered the store in the evening time and proceeded to go to the bakery section. Whilst there was a sizeable quantity of pastries etc left on the shelf, one of the members of staff was loading them into an already full dustbin size bag of pastries and I was informed that they were being thrown away. Whilst I was told that I could still buy the ones on the shelf at the full price (just before they'd been put in the bag), I was told that neither I nor the members of staff could take them for free and thus preventing the shocking food wastage that was occurring.

This slightly baffled me as I was told that even though the food was to be thrown away, the staff had been told explicitly by the store manager that any attempt to take the food home that was to be thrown away would be considered as theft and would result in the loss of their job. Adding to this puzzling and ridiculous practice was the fact that I was told that such food wastage was common in that store, to the extent that sometimes, due to space issues or delivery sizes, the food would be transferred directly from the delivery van to the rubbish bin without even seeing the shelf. Perfectly edible food. That has been transported in expensive, fuel-thirsty lorries halfway across the country.

In these times where fuel-economy and food shortages are key issues that need to be taken seriously by large corporations as they finally take up some vestige of global responsibility this (admittedly minor on the grand scale of things) practice, to me, revealed a worrying disregard for such matters and a deeply perturbing hypocrisy.

In Southampton alone, there are plenty of organisations and groups that would be more than happy to distribute (in an environment of quality control and food standards observance) the left over (or unused) food to the many disadvantaged people that populate the city.

Therefore I request that you heed this complaint and address this issue by re-examining such scandalous wastage policies and exploring the alternatives to throwing the food away.

Yours Sincerely,

Tom Price - Customer, Tesco Express Ocean Village Southampton
tomalprice@googlemail.com

Bagging a load of nonsense

As I am fully aware of the impending doom that humanity faces by using carrier bags to transport purchased goods from your stores, I am getting rather tired of fighting for a carrier bag every lunch time when I purchase at least 10 items or more for my department’s lunch. Most companies, as mine does, requires a ‘clean desk’ policy, which unfortunately includes stockpiling carrier bags like a tramp. So I am, unfortunately, required to obtain a plastic death bag from you on a regular basis (although, we do only use 1 bag for 3 peoples lunch!)

As much as I enjoy a daily lecture about global warming from someone as qualified as a checkout girl, I don’t particularly enjoy being told that that you ‘don’t have any bags’ when I can clearly see them in view. And I also don’t appreciate being looked at like I’m using said carrier bag for drowning puppies in when I DO insist on one. I personally do not own a pair of clown pants with giant pockets capable of holding 10+ items in them and simply carrying them in my arms isn’t an option as I was only blessed with two of them.

Might I suggest a series of training exercises for your staff in the skilled art of ‘the customer is always right’ or possibly screen your staff for fundamental environmentalists before hiring them? Or possibly offer me an alternative, environmentally sound paper bag? As now, after a year of constant battles I will go elsewhere for my lunch where checkout staff understand their jobs and simply serve me.


Yours sincerely ,


Jon Keddie

Standards flushed down the pan at this store

On Tuesday 12th May I stopped off on my way to work in your Colney Hatch Lane store. It was around quarter to seven in the morning and I just wanted to grab some lunch for the day. As I have a 50 mile journey I thought I would quickly use the customer toilets.... I'm sorry to say I didn't!!

I went into the toilets and I have to say I was very shocked and disappointed with what I was confronted with. The three cubicles and hand washing area were all absolutely filthy to the point they couldn't be used. There was rubbish and toilet roll all over the place but worst of all there was excrement and blood all over the walls and toilet seats. I know the toilets cant be checked every minute of every day but to make matters worse, as I was going in through the female toilet door I passed a member of staff coming out..... (and she wasn't a cleaner!!)

As there were only two checkouts I waited at one and was going to mention it to a member of staff but then a third till was opened... By the time I had listened to the two cashiers shouting and arguing with each other across the four tills between distance them I was running late so I had to leave. They were arguing about the new till opener being too lazy to go to the warehouse to get their own carrier bags and leaving the first till with none. They were shouting to each other to shut up and stop moaning etc etc much to the embarrassment of all the customers.

Up to this point I have never had any reason to even think about complaining about any aspect of Tesco but I was truly shocked by this store..... it also made me think..... if the stores senior management are happy for the customer areas to be like this what must the staff only and food storage areas be like?

Cassandra Paton, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire.

Blood on your shelf, you big disgrace

View complaint letter and photographs sent to Tesco CEO by Ravi here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13965520/Tesco-complaint-letter

Received a very nice letter of apology on behalf of Terry Leahy.

Six weeks on following the letter, the store, Wood Green Express is still a tip, blood on the shelf, rubbish on the floor.

Ravi Vadgama.

Tesco staff give me a headache

Dear Tesco,

I have just been to your new South Road store in Dundee to do my usual weekly shop. As a sufferer of chronic headaches and recently diagnosed IBS I decided to get medication for both of these illnesses at Tesco as the local pharmacy does not open until later in the morning.

I tried to purchase paracetamol and ibuprofen for my headaches and buscopan for my IBS.

At the checkout (where three members of staff were huddled around chatting about Disney holidays) I put my messages through. WHen it came to the medication I ( and the other members of staff that were stilll chatting about holidays) were told that I couldn't purchase more than two types of painkillers.

Confused - I told the girl that there WERE only two types of 'painkillers' - paracetamol and ibuprofen. She said that the buscopan was a painkiller also. Confused, I said it was a muscle relaxant or antispasmodic.

SHe said she would have to ask her supervisor. So the box of Buscopan IBS (oh - it's clearly marked on the box) was shown to the supervisor and the members of staff who had stopped speaking about holidays. She said it was a painkiller. I said it wasn't - she should check the British National Formulary if she wasn't sure.

In the end my IBS meds were put through as a separate transaction - the mind boggles - and I suffered a lot of needless embarassment.

I am a longstanding and good customer of Tesco but this makes me want to shop somewhere else. Shouldn't your staff be taught to deal with these things a lot more sensitively? Why the hell were they allowed to hand about at the tills for so long chatting about personal things? Is there not a canteen for that kind of thing?

Thanks Tesco for making the start of my weekend so crap.

Kind regards,

Joanna Forbes
Clinical Research Nurse

Diet to disaster - Healthy tesco profits

I cannot believe how money grabbing an organisation like Tesco is. I joined their online diet service last Thursday and within an hour of looking at it had realised it didn’t offer the facilities I wanted from it. As they don’t offer a trial period like other sites you have no choice really but to pay the £30 and see what it’s like (rubbish). I immediately called customer service to make them aware of my error and to cancel the service, however they will only cancel the service from the end of the period paid up to. So I have paid a 10 week membership for something I have used for an hour.

After complaining hard, I was told that just one woman can help me – Debbie Mallerman. I emailed her to complain and it has taken exactly a week (and 4 emails) to get any response from her – which looks to be a standard response just refusing to refund.

How can they justify charging someone for a 10 week service when they cancel within an hour of signing up? It is not a lot of money but out of pure principal I am seething and have pledged to boycott Tesco completely – they will lose more than the £30 from me that’s for sure.

I know what you’re saying – its £30! But it is the principal. Tesco probably have a few thousand off me over the year and I feel that a little flexibility is appropriate in order to maintain happy customers. I run a business and would not dream of ostracising a customer in this way. If this is the way Tesco want to work then they will lose me, and I will become a permanent fixture in Sainsburys. The old saying look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves translates well to customers too. I may be just one tiny speck in the Tesco spectrum, but if they upset enough of us, they’ll start to feel the pinch!

Malina Bergeman

Tesco chickens, PR bunch and the credit crunch

Chickens, Hugh and Tesco Poo: The awfully arrogant Tesco spinner
View here: http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2126270640859779693&hl=un

You may have seen the second documentary earlier this week by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on Channel Four, highlighting some of the horrifying conditions that cheaper Chickens endure before being slaughtered.

The disgusting PR arrogance from Tesco HQ at Cheshunt was enough to make customers fume at their TV sets. It's labelling is 100% accurate and all its chickens live in harmony... right?

TC has been inundated with comments about the contents of the programme. We'd like to hear more of your views - so why not post your complaints in response to the programme on this post.

Will you be buying Tesco chickens again? Or are you now buying 'free to roam' only? What do you think of Tesco's response?

Here's a selection of complaints received by TC on 31st January 2009:

Dear Sir/Madam,

As a loyal Tesco customer I was extremely dismayed to watch Channel 4's Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's documentary on your treatment of chickens. Not only was I horrified by Tesco's interpretation of the RSCPA standards, and of how far short you fell of actually adhereing to these basic guidelines; but I was angered by the treatment shown to anyone who dares to challenge your practices. I consider this treatment corporate bullying at its most powerful.This behaviour is something that has been highlighted to customers in recent times through several mediums and something which I feel strongly against. Your PR response for this show was arrogant and typical of what one has come to expect from a powerful chain like Tesco's.
As a result of your treatment of us mere mortal customers and small shareholders I have decided that I shall never shop in your store again, choosing stores that treat people with respect and social conscience instead, and I look forward to sharing my views with many others.

Yours Sincerely,
Aoife Kelleher

Gareth said...

Re : Intensive Standard Chickens

Complete corporate arrogance - well just watch Tescos.... people power will win the day and ultimately MAKE you take action because the only thing you understand is ££££££.

Im taking my £5000 p.a shopping business elsewhere and never stepping foot in a Tescos ever again.

Bye Bye.

And another complaint, also received today. Alison sent a duplicate to Sir Terry Leahy:

To Whom it may concern,

Firstly, can I ask why it is so incredibly difficult to find an e-mail address so I can write to you...There is not 1 general contact e-mail on you website.

The reason I am writing is to register my utter disgust at tescos after watching the Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's channel 4 programme about your lack of policy and disgraceful underhand tactics with regards chickens. I must spend at least £300-£400 each month at your various stores, so I am not just a do-good hippy jumping on a band-wagon. Your company makes billions of pounds profit every year, yet you seem to be happy to put basic morals and basic animal welfare below the need to make still more money.

I doubt your'e overly interested in my complaint or my concerns so I will keep it brief.....unless you change your policy and begin to act responsibly, I will no longer shop at your stores. I have written my club card details below so you can confirm this.

With this regard, even in the current economic climate, you have shamefully underestimated public opinion.

Regards

Alison Holden

RECEIVED 15TH FEBRUARY 2009

Dear Sir/Madam

Re: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Tesco Chicken program

After watching the highly publicised ‘Chickens, Hugh & Tesco Too’ aired on Channel 4 on the 26 January I feel compelled to write to express my disappointment and anger at the way Tesco management have dealt with the matters raised by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

It was pleasing to see Supermarket chains such as the Co-op and Sainsbury’s respond to Hugh’s request in a timely manner as well as promote their association with the Freedom Food scheme, in which the Co-operative group was the first major retailer to support this initiative and Sainsbury’s launching the freedom food endorsed chicken range.

The programme highlighted how a shareholder of an organisation can have a say in the running of the business in which they own a portion (however small) of a company. It also highlighted the attempts that Tesco took to thwart and obstruct a shareholder in exercising their shareholding rights. As the program highlighted it seemed that Tesco ‘changed the goal posts’ to prevent a resolution being put forward at the Tesco AGM. Chicken package labelling was also highlighted and how the wording used is meaningless and fails to state explicitly how the birds are actually farmed. When queried by Hugh about having accurate labelling stating whether a chicken was reared indoors or outdoors the Tesco representative (the one who appeared on camera) stated ‘We don’t need to patronise our customers like that’. The comment caused quite an outburst at our household and clearly demonstrated a clear lack of understanding on behalf of the company. The comments and attitude displayed by the Tesco representative did not help the cause and proved to strengthen in the viewers mind that the company’s position and attitude on this issue is clearly opposing the increased consumer awareness and understanding of moral and ethical standards of chicken farming. I applaud the Coop in taking steps to introduce their new chicken labelling which is explicit in identifying the environment a chicken is raised. I also am happy to see Sainsbury’s educating the consumer and promoting the ‘Freedom Food’ range and donating a portion of sale price to the Woodland trust. Further from the 5^th of February Salisbury’s have stated in their brochure (see attached) that they will stop selling eggs from caged hens. It would appear that Sainsbury’s are promoting and advancing their freedom food range and strict standards of welfare. On the other hand it would seem, certainly based on the recent television program, that Tesco management have chosen to adopt a different direction.

The program highlighted a range of areas that Tesco management rated poorly in – they are least willing to cooperate with responding to request for interviews for products consumers buy, thwart attempts and change rules for shareholders to put forward resolutions, and, it would appear, do not fully appreciate the gravity that such a program and surrounding publicity can generate and influence a company’s public perception and good will. I do not hold shares in any food producers or companies or associated with any animal welfare organisations. I am a concerned consumer who believes in high standards of welfare for livestock that produces the food we buy. I do believe that Tesco can change the public perception and travel along the path of increasing the welfare of its chickens (through its farmers and suppliers) and chicken labelling as its competitors have or are in the process of doing.

I look forward to hearing from Tesco.

Yours sincerely

A.M.

CREDIT CRUNCH TESCO £££

Does the Credit Crunch affect whether you buy an intensive farmed Chicken or Tesco Finest? Post your response to this blog post for the public. Or even perhaps you've opted for Asda or Morrisons....? Tesco recently announced a loss of revenue due to the launch of their 'discounter' brand...

"The total shopping bill had gone from £15 to £60"

Phil Barnes sent in this email to TC on December 11th:

Here’s a snippet of a complaint I sent to Tescos…

I write extremely angry and frustrated at the shoddy service provided by Tesco online. After hours of searching and selecting for products online, entering my personal and bank details I finally place my first order online, due to be delivered the next day between 9 and 11pm. I didn’t mind this effort as it would save me having to go shopping for some stocking fillers; I don't have much free time.

The order arrives and I'm informed by the driver that some of the products have been replaced with others due to stock shortages. Fair enough I said, expecting a couple of items to be replaced with alternatives. On checking the invoice 17 or the 20 (approx) items I ordered had been replaced. To make matters worse, the prices were not comparable. For example an item costing 50p had been replaced with an item costing £7.99. All in all the total shopping bill had gone from £15 to £60 (approx). I find this ludicrous that common sense didn't tell someone that this would be unacceptable to me.

At this time I am still awaiting a call about refunding me accordingly but I guess it's not a priority to you. You have completely wasted my time and I am unsure how I am going to find time to repeat the process. As you can probably expect, I will not be shopping with Tesco online again. I have fear of ordering £100 of shopping and getting £500 bill. In fact, I am that annoyed, think Sainsbury’s can now take my £1,000 per month spend.

I can't even believe I have wasted more of my time writing this. Idiots.

We don't want to give you that!

I have recently accepted voluntary redundancy from Tesco after 18.5 years Service, before this happened we had a one to one with a Manager and one of my queries and the deciding factor as to whether I accepted the redundancy was I kept my loyalty card.

Just a couple of weeks after left my card was stopped, when I contacted customer services at Tesco, they said that I am not entitled to keep the card and was told by Managers that I would not be able to keep it. Just one of many lies that have been told to Tesco's employees by Managers has anyone else encountered this probably or am I the only one. I have e mailed customer services and have got a standard letter back, reading between the lines they think I tell lies as well.

As for Terry Leahy, he cannot even be bothered to answer, Tesco do not deserve the loyal staff that they have working for them.

All I can say is Morrisons's here we come!

- Ex Hinckley employee

I am 29 and I have a right to Intoxication!

At 4.30.pm today, 1st May , I went into your Consett branch with my 6ft tall son who had a stubble and is 29yrs of age, actually looking about 35yrs old. He had in his basket 2 bottles of wine and some cans of lager. I left him at the till while i went to look at magazines. Two minutes later he rushed up to me in a blazing temper.

The stupid woman on the tills wouldnt serve him until he showed ID. Hes a man for gods sake and certainly looks a man. There was a lady waiting behind him who just couldnt believe what this woman on the till was saying. My son actually thought she was joking when she asked for ID, but soon realised she wasnt. He then told her what he thought of her and left.

I myself do my shopping there at least twice a week, and have done so since it opened, but I can assure you I will never set foot in there again. Its a total joke. If u saw my son you would know the reason why I feel so strongly. [Tesco-Complaint: See REAL picture of Alan above & click to enlarge]

With staff like her she makes your shop a laughing stock.

Yours,
Mrs Pam Lambert

Every Little Patronise Helps Tesco's Dum-Dum Customers!!

I read in the paper yesterday that you have empowered your sales personnel to decline selling alcohol to adults accompanied by teenagers or underage persons on the off chance that they may break the law by passing it to the underage person.
I have been a customer of Tesco for many years. I encourage everyone to use Tesco as you carry a range of foods and goods which is very diversified and pleasing and at very reasonable cost, I tell people that your service is excellent and you deserve to be market leaders. But I am afraid I cannot condone this insult to your customers, nor the role of big brother you are assuming. Is the person who encouraged this in your stores naïve???? Do you really think that anyone intent on doing this will take the teen ager in the store and only pass the alcohol under these circumstances??? Worse, do you assume that anyone who drinks alcohol will do so in excess? Have you not heard of France and Italy and Spain and other Mediterranean countries, or of the effect of prohibition in the USA??? You are opening a huge can of worms by taking the responsibility to enforce moral choices on people, only fuelling rebellion, as in my case.

This is the country, leading the world, in ‘NO you can’t’ idiotic lifestyle rules and I cannot support your stand, as this patronising attitude is just the sort which, by removing responsibility from individuals, encourages people to lose the ability to make their own choices and take the consequences. Will you be doing this with people who smoke too, deny them the purchase if in the company of children????

I hope to read soon that you are retracting this policy, as I shall seriously consider shopping elsewhere.

Franca

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 !