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

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

Tesco's "Complete Mess" Delivery Service

I have emailed the letter below to online@tesco.co.uk and terry.leahy@uk.tesco.com after a really distressing experience this evening.

I placed the above online grocery order and arranged delivery for 28th March 2008 between 9-11pm. The driver arrived at 9.10pm approx and straight away i noticed that my order was not 'in carrier bags' as requested. Furthermore the order contained 2 items of dog food, one bag of dried dog food plus six tins of dog food - i do not have a dog. It also contained a packet of 6 snow ball cakes, which i had also not ordered. There was only one '21 pack' of walkers crisps - i had ordered 2, and to be honest this was the final straw. Myself and the driver began to 'tick' items off on the receipt but it became clear that the order was a complete mess, the driver said it would look badly on him as he was limited to time spent at each address so i asked him to take the order back. He advised me to telephone customer services to re-arrange the slot which i did soon after. I explained the issues to the operator and they arranged re-delivery for the following day - 24 hours after my original order. I also explained that i do my shopping online as i am disabled and have a young child at home, and we now have no food. The operator apologised - i also pointed out that as my delivery was completely messed up through NO fault of my own i objected to paying delivery charges, he said 'Tesco delivered your shopping - you sent it back!' - is this what you call customer service?? My order was totally incorrect, packaged incorrectly and now i'm told its my fault and expected to pay for an inferior service. The call ended.
I then went to log into my Tesco account to check the change of delivery time, to my surprise the total amount of my shopping had increased by almost £20! Again i telephoned customer services only to be told that as the 'home delivery team' worked short hours there was no-one available to find out the reason. I requested that the order be cancelled completely.
Now this leaves me with not only no shopping but no further funds to do my shopping elsewhere as the funds have been debited from my debit card and upon speaking to customer services for a third time i am advised that it can take up to 5 days for a refund. I really cannot believe that i could be left in such a complete and utter mess and no offer to rectify the situation. None of this is my fault and i will certainly think twice before using Tesco again - which is a real shame as i have used Tesco for almost 12 months now - but i suppose my business hardly makes a difference.
I just hope someone in a similar situation to myself may not have to experience anything like this, i will be sending a copy of this email to Watchdog and Motability Magazine as i think you're customer service is non existent.
I would like to continue shopping with Tesco but do not feel confident my custom is valued or that you are able to provide a basic delivery service.
I hope you are able to get to the bottom of these problems and look forward to speaking to someone in authority who is able to take ownership of this and bring it to a mutually acceptable conclusion.

Yours Faithfully
Mrs Diane Dawson

Pointlessly pointed nowhere

Hello Tesco-Complaint. Thought i'd share this experience with you.

I work for Sainsbury's, and the other day while at work, a customer bought to me some keys with a Tesco Clubcard keytag attached.

The keys/card were kept in lost property for a while, but as the day progressed no one came in to claim them, so I rang the customer service number and asked them to contact the customer and ask them to come in as it was obviously important as there were keys there. I explained the situation to the man in the phone and he brashly informed that he wouldn't. I protested that the customer would need the keys, presumably to get in and it was very important. They again refused and hung up!

This incident just reminds me why i chose to work and shop at Sainsbury's and go nowhere near Tesco! If the guy wasnt allowed to contact the customer then fair enough, but his attitude stank of Tesco through and through!

Anonymous

Tesco's FUCK YOU to customer!

A fortnight ago Tesco’s delivered my weekly shop, 20 minutes late as usual and with a list as long as my arm of substitutions that made no sense. I’d ordered my shopping “bagless” as per their new green initiative. So the delivery guy showed up with his crates which he dumped on the floor and stood their while I grappled around on the floor emptying the things into my doorway.

I decided to mention that he was 15 minutes late (knowing that some supermarkets offer a voucher for your next shopping if their late, but only if you point it out), to which the driver responded angrily saying he wasn’t. I assured him that it was in fact 15 minutes past 12 and my slot was between 10-12am. I then asked him politely to note that some of the substitutions I did not want were not even there. He told me there was nothing he could do. I asked him to note that I’d ordered Fairy liquid, and they’d sent me Tesco’s. Nothing he could do, he said, grunting. I asked him if he wouldn’t mind moving one of the empty crates so I could get at the last of my shopping, and the man blew up in my face!

“How dare I speak to him like that” he said. I didn’t consider that he might have been stuck in traffic, did I? He asked. No I said, because that’s what I pay HIM to do. He started yelling at me. He stepped into my doorway and started waving his hands about. I couldn’t shut my door on him because it was stuck open by my all the shopping on the doorstep. I thought he was going to smack me. He eventually grabbed the remaining stuff and crates and stormed off, yelling “f*** you” as he left.

I called to complain, naturally. Two weeks later they’ve offered me a £10 Tesco online voucher. Needless to say, I won’t be accepting their insult of an apology.

Sarah

NO% more shopping hours as Tesco Lie AGAIN?

Tesco has been advertising on tv, in the press, and in my local metro store (corner shop) that some of their big “Extra” stores will be open from 1 minute past midnight today. What a great idea - do the Christmas food shopping without the crowds. (The opening times are here).

So I and about 60 people turned up at the ISLEWORTH EXTRA and guess what ?

The security guard looked a bit confused and slightly nervous. He stated that there was no-one in the store, and it would not be opening until 10AM. He advised we try the nearest Extra store at Osterley. And guess what?

There wasn’t even a securituy guard there.

So all my Christmas food and booze shopping will be done at Sainsbury’s – this year and every year from now on.

Every little helps – my arse.

Tesco please refund what is rightfully mine!

I ordered a dishwasher for my sister who lives in Andover England as a gift. (I live in the U.S.A..) The order # was 05426139. The dishwasher was supposed to have been installed and it was not. I had paid the extra 20 or so pounds for the installation. The people that delivered the washer informed my sister (who is 53 years of age and has no plumbing expertise whatsoever) that the pipe they had was not long enough. Then the same people told her that if she "had any problems to call them." My sister called and was politely informed that "if the pipe was too short they would not have been able to install the item." I do not believe when the 20 pounds was taken from my credit card that it said anything about, we can install, only if the pipe is long enough? I had intended the dishwasher to be a gift not an added expense. I had also intended to replace her stove and refrigerator one at a time. The dishwasher was delivered on the 16th of October and finally my sister was able to get enough money together to pay someone to come to her house and install the dishwasher November 2nd. I have emailed and called and up to this point received one response that says "we promise to be back in touch as soon as possible." That was dated 10/26/2007.
I am very disappointed in the lack of / slow response to both my sister and myself up until this time. I want to be refunded the amount that was taken from my credit card under false pretenses.
I am very unhappy with the whole situation. Tesco ruined the surprise that I had for my sister, then went on to ruin my perception of what I believed was a reputable company who really did care about their customers and customer service.
Again please refund that which is rightfully mine.
Yours Sincerely, Erika Culliford.

Tesco internet service pay as you (dont) go!

I had a Tesco Anytime Internet package which i tried to switch to pay as you go as i obtained a broadband package with another ISP. The Tesco screens went through and switched my package to pay as you go but then did not load the browser for me to use pay as you go. I didn't worry about it as didn't really need to use pay as you go.

I then emailed Tesco.net to resolve this and emails went back and forth giving mixed information. In the end i was told i would have to phone in.

Imagine my shock when my credit card was billed the following month. I tried to cancel it again online and it went through the motions and then did an error message about pay as you go. Then i was billed again for another months usage!

I phoned the number they suggested at Tesco.net and they cancelled my package and said if a refund was due it would be applied to my credit card.

To date this has not happened despite several calls to Tesco.net and two conversations with a Manager. He agreed i should not have to pay for the service if i had not used it. i asked him to check their records to see if i had used the net via Tesco since i switched to broadband.

No refund or contact has been received since. i have stopped shopping at Tesco's as i have decided to vote with my pocket.

Thank you for a great site.

Tesco's Fresh Prawns are FROZEN?!

I love my prawns!!!! However, visiting my local TESCO store in Montrose on Thursday 16th August, I was about to put my TESCO Jumbo (fresh) prawns in my basket, but noticed they were in fact FROZEN!! Label clearly states that the product can be frozen at home - dilemma! Are they fresh or frozen - can they be refrozen at home??

I managed to (finally) attract the attention of one of the two assistants standing immediately behind me - busy talking to friends (customers?) - though it took a few attempts! I explained my dilemma about "fresh", "frozen", health hazzards, etc. After around 6-7 minutes, they called "Chris" (presumably the person in charge?) who, VERY reluctantly shook the packages about, mulled over the situation (I'm still waiting for a decision) and, even more reluctantly, took the few remaining packets of prawns away (I think?) muttering something about "contacting the supplier"!

So, I left for home (minus my dinner) in the hope that I'd perhaps saved a few other unsuspecting shoppers from possible food poisoning?! Today (Friday 17th August) visited the TESCO store in nearby Forfar - guess what? Same "fresh" prawns - FROZEN! Unfortunately, I was in a rush, and couldn't find a nearby assistant to help - needless to say, I didn't buy the product - no dinner again!

This is a disaster waiting to happen - my biggest issue is (apart from the obvious health implications) that there were only a few items left on the shelf by the time I discovered this - how many people didn't actually detect this before purchase/consumption??

I, personally, am a long standing, faithful TESCO customer, however, I now have very serious doubts about the food standards - too many incidents recently in the media regarding health issues for my liking!!

TESCO, please do something about this - someone could end up VERY sick and, unfortunately, your staff appear blissfully unconcerned....

A VERY concerned customer. Vicki P viccatpat@yahoo.co.uk

Do not touch my BOX!!

Not so much a complaint about the companies ethos as the sheer rudeness of one of their staff. I visited their store in Fulbourn, Cambridge, this afternoon.

I had a look around the wine section and found a number of offers to tempt me. I selected half a dozen bottles and then looked around for a box to put them in. The Tescos employee in charge of the wine section was emptying half cases of wine in order to make an end of aisle display so I asked him if I could have one of the empty boxes; he refused! In a very abrupt tone he told me I would have to use the flimsy card carriers they provide instead. He then appeared to make a point of tearing up the box he had just emptied.

Half way along the aisle was one of their rubbish cages with a *complete* empty box beside it, so I picked it up and went to put my bottles in it. No sooner had I picked it up than I noticed the employee was bearing down on me! He shouted that "THERE IS ALWAYS ONE" at me in an aggressive manner and just stood there glaring at me.

At this point I tried to politely explain that I don't like using their carriers as I find them too flimsy. Indeed this same employee had had to fetch a mop the last time I used one as the bottom gave way mid way to the till and all 6 bottles shattered on the floor. Evidentially his memory isn't that hot. Was there really a heinous crime in me using an empty cardboard box that had been consigned to the rubbish pile?

Apparently so. He stormed off again muttering at me.

Thanks Tesco, there's nothing like sheer rudeness and public embarrassment to make me go to Sainsburys.

Tesco not kosher...

Today my wife was humiliated at Tesco Hurst Park West Molesey Surrey.

Due to staff neclect the security tag was not removed from a£3.96 hand mixer. She was detained at the door when the alarm sounded.

We are well known in the area and people who know her are witness to this. It was very embarrising for my wife.

We were not offered any compensation for there mistake.

We have had on two occassions fish and chicken that was off and if eaten would have cauesed harm.

The nice Jewish couple who started Tesco would not have approved. Sorry Tessi Cohen.

Shezian Morris

Sheer disgust!

I am typing this email in sheer disgust ! My name is Donna Ramsden, and I have been a Tesco customer and club card member for approx 6 years now. Until recently I actually enjoyed shopping in your stores, for the baby products we require. However, on Friday I went into Tesco express in Birstall Batley, for babywipes and groceries for that nights dinner. Now the only money I had access to at that hour (6.30) on that day (fri)happened to be two scottish 10 pound notes. I finished picking out what I needed, and stood in the que for around 5 to 10 mins, only to be told (after she had scanned all of my shopping through the check out) that the store now has a company policy of NOT accepting the notes due to too many forgeries ! So, after I told her she had to take it because it was after all, legal tender, she called the manageress to explain to me why they couldn't take it. Therefore I had to leave the shop empty handed, and feelin like a criminal.
So, my partner (who is scottish, and finds this whole affair very offensive) called the tesco customer services number and was told by the customer service advisor that he knew nothing of the so called ban ! To cut the rest of a long story short, Tescos head office phoned the Manager of Tesco Express that this is not company policy, and that he should re-train his staff to check for forged notes ! We were satisfied by this action and were quite willing to forgive and forget ! But then this (sunday) dinnertime my partners brother (who is obviously also scottish) went to the same store only to be made to feel like a criminal aswell. This is totally out of order. We are as a family, all of us hard working people who have never had any trouble of any kind before. I cannot stress enough, how embarrased I was, and brother in law says he has never felt to racially belittled in his entire life.
Can you please sort this issue out one way or another, or I will be taking it further believe me ! I am very angry and unsure as to weather or not I will be using any of your stores again, as a result of this. Seems to me that we have been lied to by the staff, as they said it was now company policy, and then told the opposite by customer services. Please respond to this email, as I cannot just ignore this matter !
Donna Ramsden

Rotten Tomatoes for Tesco CS

I recently complained to customer services in my local Tesco (Flitwick Bedfordshire) that I could not buy loose - unprepacked- tomatoes. I filled out a customer complaint form but was told that the complaint would stay "in Store" and that the reason they did not have loose tomatoes was that they had changed supplier and the supplier did not supply loose toms. "You can buy tomatoes on the vine" they said. "Not the point" said I. If this complaint stays in store how can the managers of Tesco know that there is another dissatisfied customer out there and try to do something about it. The assistant said she would pass the complaint on and eventually phoned me later that day to confirm she would.

Waitrose have recently opened a store in the next town -3 miles away. When reminded of this the supervisor said that I would be very lonely there as she had been in Waitrose the day before and there were only two people in the store. I suggested that shopping for me was not an exercise in social interchange but a need to buy goods. The staff at Waitrose are helpful well trained and very polite. I have no connection with Waitrose except as a customer who used to spend nearly £1000 a year in Tesco.

Customer Disservice - A Tesco Standard?

I got so irritated by the queues and unmanned tills at the Elephant and Castle Tesco Metro that I wrote to complain and received a bland, form response. So I wrote back:

You say your 'aim is to have no more than three other customers waiting in front of you at any one time'. I reiterate that the Elephant & Castle branch of Tesco Metro consistently fails to meet this aim. No doubt this is because most of the staff are off sick most of the time. I imagine Tescos is a pretty sickening environment to work in and that alarm that goes off every couple of minutes @ the Elephant is especially enervating. I would like to spend as little time in the place as possible and that is why I would prefer not to have to queue for ages at the checkout.

A couple of weeks later, I had another go:

I recently wrote to complain about the queues at the Elephant and Castle branch of Tesco and received a bland response about your corporate target of not having more than three customers queuing at at till. As I pointed out in a subsequent e-mail, the Elephant and Castle consistently fails to meet this target. I've just been there and, just after nine o'clock in the morning, only a couple of tills were open and there were queues of at least two dozen people at each. It's not as if they were short of staff, either, as herds of them were restocking shelves and standing around in little groups with their arms folded, chatting. Happily, this enervating circumstance did not detain me as I merely dumped my basket and left. I'll go to Somerfield on Walworth Road later, but thought I would take a few more minutes, from the kindness of my heart to remind you how appalling your store @ the Elephant is. Roll on the demolition!

And I received the same insincere corporate response:

I am sorry to learn of the problems experienced with delays at the checkout in our Elephant Castle Metro store. I can understand how inconvenient this was for you. Our aim is to have no more than three other customers waiting in front of you at any one time unless, of course, all checkouts are open. To ensure this, the queue lengths are monitored regularly and the information is used to compile schedules to make sure that there is an adequate number of staff on duty. Our staff are multi-skilled, in case the need should arise for extra cover on the checkouts. We have also installed a paging system, to keep management informed of the situation at all times. Despite these efforts, there are occasions when the '3 in front' standard cannot be achieved, i.e. when there are staff shortages due to illness. I can assure you that all of our stores try exceptionally hard to serve customers as quickly as possible. Thank you for bringing your views to our attention. We will bear your comments in mind when we next review this policy.

Yeah. Right. Bollocks!

Every Tescos Little Help?

I visited Tesco at Clifton Moor, York on Thursday 25th October 2006 at around 9.20am to do my weekly shopping, other to my normal weekly shopping I hope to purchase a computer printer as well. I visited the area where the printers were shelved, (as I am in my sixties and not that clued up on these items), I look for a member of staff to help me with my queries regarding the printer, iImanaged to find an elderly assistant, whom stated he knew about books but not anything to do with computers and suggested I go to a service desk/point, this I did.

On arrival at the desk, an elderly lady in a Tesco red top was ticketing some items, and totally ignored my standing at the desk (even though she knew I was there, maybe she hope I would go away), I asked her if she could help with my queries about printers, she stated no, and that the only person who could was on holiday and would not be back until next week, however she asked a staff member if she could assist, which she did in the way that if I did not want what was written on the printer container, she could not help, being quite abrupt due to being disturbed from what she was doing.

I noticed two female members of staff quite near me wearing different uniforms, I asked them if they were management, they said yes, (good I thought I will get help now) I asked them if they could assist me with my queries, one with blond hair and wearing a various coloured top stated that she could not help, and that they were short staffed due to the half term holidays, and that they do not employ any one person just to advise about electrical good, and that if I required to know more about printers I should go to Curries or the like, I stated that if they were selling such items surely they should have some staff trained up on these items, she stated - no we don't do that, this is why we are cheaper than other and is a way of cutting the prices!!

With this they both walked off, then the lady with the red top said to me that this is why the printers are one hundred and fifty pound cheaper than others, this is why we (meaning Tesco) save you money, and that if they issued customers with information about the products the price would have to go up. I gave up my quest fora new printer in that store and took the Tesco management advice and went to a Competitor of Tesco's where I got help and managed to purchase a printer. It is my opinion as a businessman myself that the Tesco Store at Clifton Moor, York lacks customer service training and politeness.

Mel Fox.

Sir Terry's Direct Number at Tesco

If anybody knows this please let me know at
we_will_prevail_against_tes_co@hotmail.co.uk

Tesco gets it's wilt on...

I just subscribed to this blog and having noticed the complaint from Julie about quickly rotting fruit I decided to write about my similar experience when I ordered a dozen red roses for Valentines day. The flowers looked good on arrival, but within 2 hours had wilted, by the next day they had fallen over completely.

I would never buy flowers from Tesco ever again, the quality is terrible and the customer service number puts you on hold for long periods when you do try to complain. Thanks for this website and for the Tesco email addresses so I can now share my complaint.

Kind regards, Susan

Apologies for the inconvenience...

Welcome to and thanks for reading this new blog, a satirical examination of Tesco Customer dis.Service spiced up with a little practical help to get your complaints resolved.

This blog is to highlight the concerns of customers of Tesco who have suffered poor customer service. If you have suffered please let us know and we will publish your complaints. You can complain by email to Tesco Customer Service and cc us to the email so we can publish it here. You can even publish your complaint directly to the blog yourself simply by emailing the blog posting bot at tesco-complaint.publish@blogger.com. It will be interesting to see what sorts of problems arise regularly and whether Tesco do anything to stop such problems or simply repeatedly "apologise for the inconvenience" caused...

We will also be countenancing action plans to get your problems and disputes with Tesco resolved which will include accessing your legal right to take Tesco to court to solve complaints.

The first tale of poor customer service woe at Tesco will be blogged shortly. In the meantime we'd like to apologise in advance for any inconvenience we may cause you. And then repeatedly after that without ever sorting anything out. That's good customer service after all ... isn't it?

Stay tuned (or better still atom subscribed!)