Offensive Customer Services at Tesco and 19 Months out of date food.

Dreamnine

hollydays wrote: »

Perhaps they are avoiding you;)

Well, not really. I have to pass the tw@ts and breathe in their smoke also.

hollydays

Dreamnine wrote: »

Well, not really. I have to pass the tw@ts and breathe in their smoke also.

..mmm..perhaps you should shop elsewhere?

taxiphil

uktim29 wrote: »

Another example. People have been complaining for things for years, it's nothing new. So why is everything the same? It's not got worse as people will claim, thats just ageing. People will say "well look at Watchdog" things like that never used to happen, well they did. Didn't Esther Rantzen present "Thats Life" about 20 years ago which was more or less the same thing?

Yes, hundreds of things have improved because of the likes of Watchdog and That's Life. These improvements have undoubtedly enriched all of our lives - including yours, Tim, although I doubt that you'll admit to it.

So you've created a circular argument here, which shows that there is a point in complaining and kicking up a fuss.

Were we having this discussion 30 years earlier I can imagine you'd be sneering at the "whingers" and "screamers" who lost their loved ones in car accidents because seat belts weren't compulsory. "Why are people trying to blame car manufacturers for making unsafe cars? It's their own fault for having a crash", I can imagine you'd be saying.

There are numerous other examples of consumer power - do you remember my post about Which magazine (who you had earlier derided?)

taxiphil wrote: »

Here's a little quiz for you Tim. Do you approve of any of the following...?

1. That cars have seat belts fitted as standard
2. That children's toys don't have poisonous lead in them
3. That new cars in the UK no longer cost vastly more than in the rest of Europe
4. That property sellers are no longer allowed to tell barefaced lies in the descriptions of their properties
5. That when you send a cheque crossed "account payee only" the bank is liable to refund you if it pays it into the wrong account by mistake
6. That a travel agent isn't allowed to increase the price of your holiday by however much it wants after you've booked it
7. That tobacco companies have to print levels of tar and nicotine on packs
8. That you can shop on a Sunday

If you answered 'yes' to any of the above, they are all changes in the law which happened because of investigations and intensive lobbying of the government by the Consumers Association, a.k.a. Which magazine, over the last 50 years.

I'm sure that deep down you're glad that improvements such as these are made as a result of consumers "whinging" en masse.

codger

Dreamnine wrote: »

What is difficult about checking stock regularly for out-of-date items? Half the staff of my Tesco in Edinburgh seem to be having a fag outside whenever I go there...

Apparently it's Tesco's idea of ensuring tobacco products are not left on the shelf after their sell-by date.

Dreamnine

hollydays wrote: »

..mmm..perhaps you should shop elsewhere?

Last Sunday I visited Sainsbury- it's twice the distance as Tesco and only marginally better. Their fruit and veg was a lot fresher, though.

Honeydog

codger wrote: »

Apparently it's Tesco's idea of ensuring tobacco products are not left on the shelf after their sell-by date.

Bet the booze doesn't go out of date either!!!

uktim29

taxiphil wrote: »

So you've created a circular argument here, which shows that there is a point in complaining and kicking up a fuss.

Why do you think it's to do with complaining? Why do you not think it's about the UK law aligning itself with similar European laws?

uktim29

Dreamnine wrote: »

What is difficult about checking stock regularly for out-of-date items?

Depends if they're given the time. Retail tasks are often calculated to the minute and then the staff budget is then worked out around this. Often companies decided they might not hit their end year results then in response reduce budgets to try and hit the end year target. That then results in there not being enough time to get everything done.

Thats how it happens.

uktim29

Dreamnine wrote: »

I have to pass the tw@ts and breathe in their smoke also.

Why specifically are they tw@ts?

Seems a bit of a sweeping statement.

taxiphil

uktim29 wrote: »

Why do you think it's to do with complaining? Why do you not think it's about the UK law aligning itself with similar European laws?

Because new laws don't just "happen". A need has to be identified.

This is achieved by people communicating information to other people.

If nobody "whinged", as you put it, by contacting Watchdog, That's Life, Which Magazine, Trading Standards, MPs, or whoever, how do you think these campaigns would come about (leading eventually to new bills being passed)?

Law makers and law enforcers don't magically "know" there's a problem unless someone actually tells them there's a problem!

If we all taped our mouths shut when things went wrong (as you think we should do), we'd be living in the dark ages.

The "whingers" have enriched your quality of life almost beyond measure, Tim. I could follow you around in a typical day and point to 100 things that have given you a better life, all as a result of people "whinging" at some point in history (even such basic things as your right to vote, or your right to enter a hospital and have an injury treated free of charge).

N.B. It's a red herring to say it's all a case of the UK aligning itself with European laws. In many of the laws I mention in my previous post, the UK led the way long before other European countries made those things compulsory. And even when we did follow the lead of other countries, the same principle still applies - those other countries got those laws thanks to "whingers".