Offensive Customer Services at Tesco and 19 Months out of date food.

luridhue

Thought some of you might want to read this and if anyone knows who I should be addressing a reply to I would be grateful.

Well, my other half and I were on holiday in Cornwall and we went shopping at the Tesco near Redruth. Along with other things we bought a packet of Beef Jerky from the Reduced to Clear section, although it wasn't reduced. In the car, just before eating some, I noticed it was 19 MONTHS out of date. We went to the Customer Service desk and were offered a £5 voucher for the inconvenience. We ask to see someone more senior about it because of the seriousness of the situation (we weren't after money). We were told that all they could do was give us a £5 voucher and they would check the reduced to clear section that evening. We asked to take it further but were happy with the outcome as we were assured the section would be checked. (The only person available was a section manager.)

We went back a couple of days later to have a quick look at the section and within a couple of seconds found a packet of nuts 10 months out of date. We were disgusted that this wasn't checked and demanded to talk to a store manager, the assistant manager came out (badges hidden in his shirt pocket) and almost rolled up his sleeves looking for a fight. He was aggressive and rude.

We were then sent a letter a week later by customer services apologising for 'the inconvenience and oversight' and had 'included a £5 voucher to thank us for our custom'. They completely failed to see the reason we were disgusted. We were promised that it would be checked and it wasn't and quite clearly there is no real stock checks/takes had been performed for at least 19 months.

I have drafted a letter outlining our complaint but no idea who I should send it to... any ideas?

(thanks for reading such a long winded post :T)

kiera123_2

I don't know about the letter, but you should probably contact your local trading standards about it.

DJFearRoss

that's terrible. i don't much about this, but maybe someone could advise if you could also write to some kind food standards agency or local council. If a restuarant sold you dangerous food there would be grounds for a complaint!

Garry2

Call a newspaper.

Errata

Environmental Health that covers Redruth.

OwtForNowt

These guys should sort it out;

heskpesk

OwtForNowt wrote: »

These guys should sort it out;

OwtforNowt is right.. if you have a problem and no one else can help...call the A Team!!:rotfl:

JAG

The nuts were probably "Best Before" rather then "Use By" date so if that was the case then they are not selling anything "dangerous" and trading standards/food agency would not be interested.

tigerlily

Sorry but I had to have a chuckle........it's Redruth after all!! I live in Cornwall and the Redruth area does have somewhat of a reputation for having not the sharpest tools in the box!!

dazzer68

they were probably in date when they left the warehouse, but went through the cornish timewarp that goes back to the 1970's so they are actually in date!
not knocking cornwall, just got back from a weekend there and i love it!

bmth123

Although a best before date and not a use by date, with 19 months involved most trading standards/environmental health departments(depending on area) would still be interested as this shows a lack of stock rotation and suggests there could be problems elsewhere in store .
In addition as one of the products was nuts they may wish to consider the storage conditions and the effect this may have on the aflatoxin (or other contaminants) levels.
If as suggested in your post you are interested in this being put right rather than any monetary claim then I would suggest either contacting the local trading standards or environmental health department or just filling in the online form on the consumer direct website which will then forward the information onto the appropriate Authority.