Peter's Tussle with Tesco

[Coppercap]

I seem to recall reading somewhere about a scouts or guides group who went to buy a load of baps and sausages for sale at an event (or something like that) and were refused when questioned as to why they were buying so many. That was probably a Tesco. If they'd said they were having a party they might not have been refused. I trust that you've spent the £10 voucher?

[Ohmisterporter]

Yes, £10 voucher spent in another branch. There are parts of the country where Tesco are the only supermarket, especially with an attached filling station. 

[Torper]

......When she went to pay (by card), it kept getting rejected, as in there was a problem with the card, like it was reported stolen or something. In front of lots of other shoppers she was escorted to the 'manager's office' and was asked a few questions. After a call to her bank, it was found to be OK (which it would, as she and her husband were hardly likely to be crooks), and the manager let her go saying it was just a routine 'spot check' for security purposes, and was given a feeble apology. Can you imagine how she felt when her card was rejected the same way on the next visit? She (quite loudly) let the staff and everyone else within earshot what had happened on the last visit and refused to 'come to the manager's office'. She made the manager go and call her bank and get it sorted - and when it was come back and apologise - in public! She was not going to suffer the embarrasing indignity of people thinking she was some dodgy person who had a stolen card or couldn't pay for her trolley load. It was eventually sorted out, but she was livid. I don't recall if or how Tesco apologised for her double embarrassment.

 

I cannot help but feel that your sister's complaint should be with her bank, and not Tesco. The card came up as "reported stolen or something".  What did your sister expect Tesco to do?  They were faced with a situation where they might be dealing with a thief and inevitably there were questions to be asked (and answered).  Subsequently the card failed again and she "made the manager go and call her bank", something frankly she should have done.  Why should Tesco have apologised for anything?

 

There are some 3700 Tesco branches in the UK employing over 250,000 people.  Inevitably some customers will have bad experiences and some staff will have off-days, but that doesn't mean that the whole concern should be tarred with the same brush.  If you heard of  the rudeness, bad manners and sometimes downright abusive behaviour that checkout operators sometimes have to suffer from customers it would make your blood boil, but that doesn't mean to say that all customers are like that.  Personally, I've found our local Tesco staff to be friendly and helpful, and I rather enjoy shopping there.

 

DT

[Coppercap]

I cannot help but feel that your sister's complaint should be with her bank, and not Tesco. The card came up as "reported stolen or something". What did your sister expect Tesco to do? They were faced with a situation where they might be dealing with a thief and inevitably there were questions to be asked (and answered). Subsequently the card failed again and she "made the manager go and call her bank", something frankly she should have done. Why should Tesco have apologised for anything?

 

There are some 3700 Tesco branches in the UK employing over 250,000 people. Inevitably some customers will have bad experiences and some staff will have off-days, but that doesn't mean that the whole concern should be tarred with the same brush. If you heard of the rudeness, bad manners and sometimes downright abusive behaviour that checkout operators sometimes have to suffer from customers it would make your blood boil, but that doesn't mean to say that all customers are like that. Personally, I've found our local Tesco staff to be friendly and helpful, and I rather enjoy shopping there.

 

DT

Well, as she used her card successfully many times in other supermarkets including a more local to her Tesco, plus petrol stations and other stores between the first 'problem' there and the second, it does seem very odd that it happened twice in the same Tesco, hence her being pi$$ed of about it! Edited March 12, 2018 by Coppercap

[flubrush]

I seem to recall reading somewhere about a scouts or guides group who went to buy a load of baps and sausages for sale at an event (or something like that) and were refused when questioned as to why they were buying so many. That was probably a Tesco.

 

Is there a proven fact in these two sentences?

 

Jim.

[Coppercap]

Is there a proven fact in these two sentences?

 

Jim.

It was certainly one of the 'top' supermarkets.

[alastairq]

I cannot help but feel that your sister's complaint should be with her bank, and not Tesco. The card came up as "reported stolen or something".  What did your sister expect Tesco to do?  They were faced with a situation where they might be dealing with a thief and inevitably there were questions to be asked (and answered).  Subsequently the card failed again and she "made the manager go and call her bank", something frankly she should have done.  Why should Tesco have apologised for anything?

 

There are some 3700 Tesco branches in the UK employing over 250,000 people.  Inevitably some customers will have bad experiences and some staff will have off-days, but that doesn't mean that the whole concern should be tarred with the same brush.  If you heard of  the rudeness, bad manners and sometimes downright abusive behaviour that checkout operators sometimes have to suffer from customers it would make your blood boil, but that doesn't mean to say that all customers are like that.  Personally, I've found our local Tesco staff to be friendly and helpful, and I rather enjoy shopping there.

 

DT

 

Tesco did have a 'problem' with their card readers rejecting some cards and not others ....even if from the same bank.  [Turned out to be a software issue, in a new IT system at Tesco]  The issue here for me is, the way the whole problem was dealt with by the local management.     Had that been HArrods,  with a typical Harrods customer, then considerable compensation would be forthcoming.      

 

Part of 'customer care' is consideration for the customer's feelings.  Therein lies a fault with staff training, if that is lacking.       Why should there be any sympathy for a big company like Tesco, [or its employees?} when the customer is subjected to embarrassment and has a feeling of public humiliation?  The fault may well not lie with the individual staff members...but does lie in the standard of training  they received, perhaps??

Staff that suffer from problem customers, who are barely adequate at dealing with those customers, need additional, effective, training, if they are to do their jobs satisfactorily.....a poor attitude from a staff member reflects upon the company.....and its workforce, as a whole.  So getting tarred with the same brush is par for the course.

 

In this case, both the bank, and Tesco, had a problem that both of them should have solved....not the customer who is caught in the middle.

 

The debit card readers are there for the  retailer's convenience, and the bank's.   The customer is simply, piggy-in-the-middle.   

[eastwestdivide]

I'm off to Morrisons tonight. Wish me luck.

 

In the last 4 visits...

Total number of parsnips available: 0.5 (a broken bottom half of one!)

Number of visits to unstaffed customer service desk for special offer not applied at till: 2

Number of games of Guess that Veg Price: 3 (a member of staff told me they had to spread out all the remaining veg to make it look like the shelves weren't empty - result, nothing was near its price label) 

 

As someone said earlier, it's about having a management team who care, and who make sure the little things don't get messed up. No-one really wants to be there, so if they can make it as painless as possible, all to the good.

[flubrush]

Tesco did have a 'problem' with their card readers rejecting some cards and not others ....even if from the same bank.  [Turned out to be a software issue, in a new IT system at Tesco]  The issue here for me is, the way the whole problem was dealt with by the local management.     Had that been HArrods,  with a typical Harrods customer, then considerable compensation would be forthcoming.      

 

Part of 'customer care' is consideration for the customer's feelings.  Therein lies a fault with staff training, if that is lacking.       Why should there be any sympathy for a big company like Tesco, [or its employees?} when the customer is subjected to embarrassment and has a feeling of public humiliation?  The fault may well not lie with the individual staff members...but does lie in the standard of training  they received, perhaps??

Staff that suffer from problem customers, who are barely adequate at dealing with those customers, need additional, effective, training, if they are to do their jobs satisfactorily.....a poor attitude from a staff member reflects upon the company.....and its workforce, as a whole.  So getting tarred with the same brush is par for the course.

 

In this case, both the bank, and Tesco, had a problem that both of them should have solved....not the customer who is caught in the middle.

 

The debit card readers are there for the  retailer's convenience, and the bank's.   The customer is simply, piggy-in-the-middle.   

 

The first question that might be asked is when did Tesco's IT department realise that there was a problem with the card reader software - maybe after several managers had contacted them after having difficult encounters on the shop floor.   So if a manager didn't know about the software problems,  what did he/she do when a checkout flagged up a stolen card being used?   The action taken was correct although the card holder didn't like it.

 

And surely the card readers are there for our convenience as well,  otherwise we would have to be carrying around loads of cash since cheques are not accepted by a lot of places these days.

 

Jim.

[Torper]

Tesco did have a 'problem' with their card readers rejecting some cards and not others ....even if from the same bank.  [Turned out to be a software issue, in a new IT system at Tesco]  The issue here for me is, the way the whole problem was dealt with by the local management.     Had that been HArrods,  with a typical Harrods customer, then considerable compensation would be forthcoming.      

 

Part of 'customer care' is consideration for the customer's feelings.  Therein lies a fault with staff training, if that is lacking.       Why should there be any sympathy for a big company like Tesco, [or its employees?} when the customer is subjected to embarrassment and has a feeling of public humiliation?  The fault may well not lie with the individual staff members...but does lie in the standard of training  they received, perhaps??

Staff that suffer from problem customers, who are barely adequate at dealing with those customers, need additional, effective, training, if they are to do their jobs satisfactorily.....a poor attitude from a staff member reflects upon the company.....and its workforce, as a whole.  So getting tarred with the same brush is par for the course.

 

In this case, both the bank, and Tesco, had a problem that both of them should have solved....not the customer who is caught in the middle.

 

The debit card readers are there for the  retailer's convenience, and the bank's.   The customer is simply, piggy-in-the-middle.   

But it wasn't Harrods, it was Tesco.  As I understand it, the customers card was rejected and came up as being reported as "stolen or something".  Now I'm going to assume, as there's no suggestion to the contrary, that that Tesco store was not experiencing similar problems with other customers cards.  So they asked the customer to go to the manager's office to discuss it.  What else were they expected to do?  Obviously, faced with the possibility they were dealing with a stolen card, they had to ask some questions.  What would you have done?  Obviously the customer can't be allowed just to carry on without paying for the goods.

 

As for the second ocasion, was this card once more the only one in the store that failed?  If it was, it strikes me that there was quite likely to have been something wrong with the card.  And if it was a different check-out operator, how could she be expected to be aware of the first occasion?  The customer was being noisy and, dare I say it, disruptive.  Sorry, but it strikes me sometimes that "consumer rights" have just swung a bit too far sometimes.  If this lady's card failed, she had no right to start shouting in the way she did and I imagine all she achieved by that was to draw attention to herself and annoy everyone in earshot.

 

DT

[Coppercap]

But it wasn't Harrods, it was Tesco. As I understand it, the customers card was rejected and came up as being reported as "stolen or something". Now I'm going to assume, as there's no suggestion to the contrary, that that Tesco store was not experiencing similar problems with other customers cards. So they asked the customer to go to the manager's office to discuss it. What else were they expected to do? Obviously, faced with the possibility they were dealing with a stolen card, they had to ask some questions. What would you have done? Obviously the customer can't be allowed just to carry on without paying for the goods.

 

As for the second ocasion, was this card once more the only one in the store that failed? If it was, it strikes me that there was quite likely to have been something wrong with the card. And if it was a different check-out operator, how could she be expected to be aware of the first occasion? The customer was being noisy and, dare I say it, disruptive. Sorry, but it strikes me sometimes that "consumer rights" have just swung a bit too far sometimes. If this lady's card failed, she had no right to start shouting in the way she did and I imagine all she achieved by that was to draw attention to herself and annoy everyone in earshot.

 

DT

It was my sister, and I suggest you read my post #54. You don't know her, and you weren't there, so what right have you to say she was being disruptive? It WAS Tesco's at fault, not her bank. I'm sure if you had been in the same situation you'd have kicked up a stink there and then too. She was not being disruptive at all, she was made to look stupid the first time and she wasn't going to have it happen a second time, in the same store. If there was a genuine problem with her card then she would have had problems elsewhere, wouldn't she? I'm sure too, if she had left the shopping there and just walked out of the store, security and then the police would have been involved, despite her innocence. Edited March 12, 2018 by Coppercap

[Ashcombe]

I'm off to Morrisons tonight. Wish me luck.................

 

........ As someone said earlier, it's about having a management team who care, and who make sure the little things don't get messed up. No-one really wants to be there, so if they can make it as painless as possible, all to the good.

Ian and I are very happy with our experience of shopping in Lidl on both sides of the Channel.

 

In Torquay, the branch has the biggest turnover of any branch in the UK. As I often visit the store early in the morning I witness the shelf stacking by the employees, who all seem very good humoured, and the oversight of the plans for the day being shared by the Manager with other members of staff. All seem to have a sense of purpose and the check out cashiers are also

polite and friendly.

 

Good products, fair prices and a motivated workforce appear to be a recipe for success.

[chris p bacon]

Ian and I are very happy with our experience of shopping in Lidl on both sides of the Channel.

 

 

Good products, fair prices and a motivated workforce appear to be a recipe for success.

 

 

And yet if you want surly staff and your shopping thrown on the floor,  head to Bedford Lidl where it's guaranteed.

 

 

I always find it funny that one retailer is singled out for criticism when they're all the same under the hype.

[brianusa]

Surely these are individual rants about Tesco or any other supermarket for that matter.  For all these comments, there are probably plenty more who are content to shop at Tesco and say good things about it.  Rather like restaurant reviews; some will decry one while others give it rave reviews.  Those familiar with US supermarkets dominated by Safeway and Kroeger will know that the same situation exists over here and with Amazon taking over some chains, its unlikely to get better anytime soon.

 

Brian.

[Quarryscapes]

For every one of these bad customer experience comments I'm sure I could recount 10 idiotic, rude or plain ridiculous customer anecdotes from my overly long time in retail. I wouldn't recommend working with the public to anyone, especially in low paid retail jobs. I started out a very positive and charming person, now I feel more and more like Bernard Black from 'Black Books'. 

[JDW]

Agreed, working with the public can be "fun" and "interesting".  As far as cards go, we now accept contactless payments on our buses and have had a few issues with cards being declined.  Now of course unlike Tesco we have the option to allow travel anyway if that is appropriate given the driver's assessment of the situation, eg the passenger has no other means of payment.  Just like the person above, I've had no end of people tell me that their card worked last time and my reader is faulty, and at the same time I know that my reader worked last time and the fault is likely to be their card or their bank.  It is worrying how many people would rather argue about it than contact their bank and make sure their account is OK and their money is still there!  One cause is that some (all?) cards will only allow so many contactless transactions in a row, and then will "lock" to contactless untill a chip&pin transaction is made, to prove that they are still in the posession of the owner.  For those who only use them for, say, buses, that can cause a problem after a while.  After the first few times I became very careful how I worded it - along the lines of "It hasn't been accepted, you should contact your bank to check that everything is OK" rather than "it has been declined...", and then explain to them that there are many reasons, from the chip & pin one to a suspected fraudulent/unusual transaction which has prompted the bank to block it for their protection.

[flubrush]

It was my sister, and I suggest you read my post #54. You don't know her, and you weren't there, so what right have you to say she was being disruptive? It WAS Tesco's at fault, not her bank. I'm sure if you had been in the same situation you'd have kicked up a stink there and then too. She was not being disruptive at all, she was made to look stupid the first time and she wasn't going to have it happen a second time, in the same store. If there was a genuine problem with her card then she would have had problems elsewhere, wouldn't she? I'm sure too, if she had left the shopping there and just walked out of the store, security and then the police would have been involved, despite her innocence.

 

What did you expect the Tesco staff to do on both occasions?   Remeber that a minute fraction of the population of the UK know that your sister is innocent and that the rest of us don't,  including staff at Tesco.

 

Jim.

[chrisf]

I have had quite a few spats with Tesco over the years.  Of the four branches in Bedford, the one I visit most often is the one which is quickest to withdraw my favourite own-brand products, or, as the person who replied to my most recent complaint put it, "derange" them.  It seems that my cherished pollock fish cakes are lost and gone forever but the own brand custard powder is back!  If I have a yearning for value plain yogurt I know where to find it - practically everywhere but my regular outlet.  A couple of years ago I could not obtain my favourite cut of bacon and found myself asking the butchery manager when it was that the pig had been redesigned.   It was not long before it was back on the shelves.

 

Those coupons generated by the tills make rods for Tesco's own back.  One I had offered a discount on healthcare products but when I proffered it with two tubes of Savlon the computer said  No.  The harridan at the Customer Services desk seemed to think that antiseptic was not a healthcare product but could not tell me what was.  An e-mail to Tesco HQ resolved the dispute in my favour and I was sent a voucher which I would have waved under the harridan's nose if I had felt at all vindictive.

 

Chris

[Enterprisingwestern]

I found Tesco to be the best place amongst supermarkets for obtaining free products due to shelf edge pricing irregularities, wine, toothpaste and bread to mention a few, but perhaps that was back in the days of ropey IT systems and is better now.

I had a mate who woeked for trading standards and tipped me off about boning up on shelf edge pricing, it got me some free petrol once, although I didn't realise the error until after I'd fuelled and didn't put a full tank in!

 

Mike.

[Steadfast]

Speaking as someone who started as a weekend lad on a till and left eight years later after a stint as team leader, the last thing anyone wants to be doing when a card gets declined is to further agitate the customer. 9 times out of 10 the customer is flustered, worrying about their card or account security. Never did a shift go by that this didn't happen to a customer and the best thing to say to them? Reassure them it's not just them, it happens several times a day, they've nothing to be embarrassed about and that we'll do what we can to get it sorted for them. Whether that's putting the shopping out the chiller so they can nip home to find alternative cash or card, try the cash point, let them use the phone to call their bank or whatever. Believe me, if it's someone with a shoddy card, they'll have left before the colleague on the till has even said "let me call over a supervisor". The moral of the story, keep calm and don't feel embarrassed, unfortunately technology has it's moments for everyone and the staff won't think you're trying it on. Remember, they've seen it, and much worse, before!

 

Edited to add, some of these stories really made my skin crawl. I may not have worked at Harrods or the Ritz and perhaps I expect more due to my customer service background (if I can do it, anyone can!) but I really do despair at what some people offer as customer service!

 

Jo

Edited March 13, 2018 by Steadfast

[The Stationmaster]

I seem to recall reading somewhere about a scouts or guides group who went to buy a load of baps and sausages for sale at an event (or something like that) and were refused when questioned as to why they were buying so many. That was probably a Tesco. If they'd said they were having a party they might not have been refused. I trust that you've spent the £10 voucher?

 

There was a Chinese bloke in our local Tesco on Sunday filling his trolley with reduced price whole chicken - we wondered if he had a restaurant?  If the stuff is there on sale then there can be no argument about you buying it except possibly in times of shortage when only so many per customer would be allowed by any sensible retailer.

 

We split our shopping between Waitrose and Tesco partly because of them having different items we can't get in the other, partly to take advantage of one offering reductions on certain items when the other isn't and partly because we don't buy most sorts of meat in Tesco because of their past treatment of farmers.  We usually buy vegetables in Tesco because the quality is better than Waitrose for many items although Waitrose Chestnut mushrooms are better mainly because they grow their own and the place where they're grown means they're generally fresher than those on offer in Tesco.  

 

As far as staff are concerned the folk in our local Tesco are mostly extremely nice, very friendly and polite although there is one checkout operator I will never use because she was once rude to my wife.  Similarly with waitrose checkout folk although some of their shelf replenishers locally are useless p*llocks who keep getting in the way of customers - Tesco shelf replenishment has got more awkward since they dropped the night shift but they seem less likely than Waitrose to end up with empty shelfspace where stuff has not been restocked.  The checkout staff in the Sainsburys Local aren't a patch on either the Tesco or Waitrose equivalents - semi-miserable, sense of humour donating, bunch.  So it's a mixture wherever you go and they all seem to come up with good, bad, indifferent, very helpful, and the occasional useless specimen (the latter are normally removed pretty quickly from our local Tesco branch)

 

I've been to Lidl once - thought it was bl**dy awful so I'm never going back,  also went to Aldi once and it was not an experience likely to encourage a return visit.  Both of them struck me as cheapskate places with little interest in customer service and a major interest in getting money out of you as quickly as they could at the checkout without giving a tuppeny damn about the inconvenience their checkout methods caused the customer (not allowing you any time to pack stuff just shoving it down in a big heap, and wasting my time for me having to sort it out twice).

 

 

I suppose we all talk as we find - we use Tesco for some stuff and the staff are almost wholly very nice, more than happy to help, and are friendly and polite to customers.  Equally the two branches of Waitrose we frequent are similar in that respect - the biggest problem nowadays is their cheapskate supply chain leading to some empty or poorly stocked shelves which can be a nuisance.  I wouldn't give Aldi or Lidl house rom based on my experience with them and I have mixed views about Sainsburys but at least they don't seem to suffer stock problems in their large branch at Calcot although the checkout folk there are pretty good.

[jjb1970]

Shops are as good as the local staff. Just as couriers and delivery services tend to be as good as the people that do the final delivery. I've had dire experiences with John Lewis (to the point I avoid the shop now) yet most people consider them to be a model of great service, you can only form an opinion based on your own experiences. I've been in expensive restaurants and experienced service (and in some cases food) that is shamed by humble fast food joints.

[jjb1970]

A few years ago I took my sister-in-law out to a very high end restaurant in Brussels. She was studying in Brussels at the time and wasn't especially loaded, being a mature(-ish) student and all that. So when I was over there for a meeting I thought I'll take her for a nice dinner. She ordered a steak well done and got told off by the waiter who refused to accept the order, I was in stitches and found it very funny, but in retrospect if a customer likes their steak well done (keeping in mind as well that some Asian countries do not have the tradition of eating rare beef and actually find it a rather disgusting concept) who is a waiter to take it upon themselves to climb on a high horse over it? The weird thing is that I have never felt uncomfortable in properly good restaurants and I've been fortunate to enjoy some excellent meals where the waiters accommodate whatever the customer wants with none of the snootiness.

[jjb1970]

The thing that used to drive me mad was when electrical shops had that obsession with trying to force extended guarantees on customers. More than once I walked out and went somewhere else as they wouldn't give up trying to convince me to spend as much as I was spending on the product to buy a warranty. Car dealers can be as bad or worse trying to sell paint protection etc. When I got my DS5 (before the car I have now) I was very close to buying a Mercedes C Class but walked out after having told the salesman that he'd convinced me that MB obviously made shoddy cars and that I'd be barking mad to go anywhere near them after having been convinced all the paint would fall off as soon as I drove it out of the show room........

[tomparryharry]

There are simple rules when using Aldi or Lidl. Both companies use a different packing technique which British find slightly different. Rule 1: Always use a trolley, unless you are positive you don't need one. Don't pack your bag at the checkout; put it back in the trolley, or basket. Take your basket or trolley to the large shelf, which is found behind the checkouts. This is a far less stressful operation, as you don't need to go rushing the packing.

 

Rule2: Take your time! You will not die for that last tin of beans. You've paid for it. There is not a race.

 

When Lidl first opened, I wondered why it felt 'strange'. Now I know. I had to educate Mrs Smith that the Modus Operandi is different. The fault, as such , is failure on the part of the retailer to educate his clients. "Why should we change?" I hear you cry. This is because that's how certain parts of Europe operate. We don't have tin boxes with glass fronts any more, or butter & cheese cut individually.

 

For some reason, Tesco can't seem to have fresh bread on their shelves. As I eat bread, I prefer to have fresh. That's why I don't normally shop at Tesco.

 

Cheers,

 

Ian.