Tesco Direct & Nintendo DS "Lost" Order

enigma368

I ordered a Nintendo DS with brain training last Tuesday, the 9th of Dec, with delivery promised to Ealing Broadway Tesco for collection from Thursday the 11th Dec. I was busy all weekend and didnt get around to collecting it. Earlier today I got a voice message from Tesco saying my item was in store ready for collection and asking whether there was a problem with me coming to get the item.

After work, I made my way out from central London to Ealing Broadway Tesco to collect it and am informed in store that my order has been lost and that they would have to refund my order.

As I had been phoned earlier today to say my item was ready for collection, I am pretty angry. I rang their helpline and was told that the item was marked as "delivered to the store but not signed for", and now has been marked as "lost in delivery". Needless to say I asked the customer rep whether the item was still in stock and of course it wasnt. It sounds to me very suspicious that an item that is highly sought after and sold out nearly everywhere gets lost in transit in this fashion.

The customer rep basically said she would look into it but she would probably just have to refund my order.

Any advice on what, if anything I can do about this? Am I being paranoid in thinking that something fishy happened here and my order was marked as "lost" just so some tesco employee could take it instead.

I can get the same items separately on amazon.co.uk but for £16 more. At the very least should I demand a £16 tesco voucher to make up for the inconvience and higher price(including a 2 hour round trip to collect it including the time I had to spend waiting for them to look for it)?

Any consumer rights advice here is appreciated. If I am sounding unreasonable or silly, just say. I can take it.

Ivory_Tinkler

Surely you would have had to make the same 2 hour round trip on whatever day you collected so I don't really think you could demand a voucher on those grounds. Maybe they thought you weren't going to collect it seeing as it was in store from 11th December and if they are in high demand, then it was sold instore to someone else. I would just get hunting for another one quickly!

enigma368

Maybe they thought you weren't going to collect it seeing as it was in store from 11th December and if they are in high demand, then it was sold instore to someone else.

Thats what I suspect happened. But you make it sound like thats acceptable.

I ordered and paid for an item and I am under no obligation to collect it as soon as its available for collection(in fact they state I have 14 days to collect it). Legally I'm sure they are fine but its a terrible way to treat a customer. Im now going to have to buy it at a higher price because of the urgency of getting it in time for Christmas.

missingink

Tesco let me down in a similar way to you a couple of weeks ago with the holy grail(DS!), so I know how you feel.

As a result, I have had to pay £40 more to get exactly the same item, which means I've gone way over my budget & couldn't afford to get all the things I'd planned to get.

I am bitterly disapointed with Tesco's sever lack of customer service.

Apparently, I have nothing to complain about.

Takoda

It is shabby I admit. They obviously had it when someone pressed the button(or whatever they do) to send the telephone message to you. I remember ordering some large furniture from Argos and because we were unable to take delivery straight away they then sold it to someone else and I had to wait another few weeks until another came in. Meanwhile they kept my money.

I think there are always going to be problems with premium consoles at Xmas time. Demand outweighs supply.

I don't think they will compensate you but I'd keep on at them for an explanation of why you received that phonecall when the item was never in stock at Ealing! How could they know you hadn't picked it up when it was apparently never there!

Ivory_Tinkler

enigma368 wrote: »

Thats what I suspect happened. But you make it sound like thats acceptable.

I ordered and paid for an item and I am under no obligation to collect it as soon as its available for collection(in fact they state I have 14 days to collect it). Legally I'm sure they are fine but its a terrible way to treat a customer. Im now going to have to buy it at a higher price because of the urgency of getting it in time for Christmas.

I think you misunderstood my post - I don't think it is acceptable to sell to someone else if you ordered and paid for it I just suggested that this could have happened and knowing Tesco, it probably has.

Nikkisun

I ordered and paid for a laptop from Tesco Direct to be delivered to me, on the day of delivery when I logged onto my account to check the status of my order it said that there was a problem with delivery.

I phoned CS who finally (after trying to persuade me that a. I had already received the laptop and then b. that I had arranged to collect it even though he had only just confirmed the delivery address) admitted that they had 'lost' my item!

When I asked what they were going to do about it I was told that they had plenty of the laptops in stock so I needed to order and pay for a new one and in the meantime they would refund me for the lost one!

I queried this - surely as they had lost the item and not fulfilled my order then they should just send me a new one - apparently that's 'not tesco policy'!!

Needless to say I told them where they could stick their policy and bought elsewhere!!

bestpud

We ordered a NintendoDS back a while ago and were told it was ready for collection. When I got to the store they said there had been a problem with the payment (card rejected they said) and I should never have been informed it was ready.

I said it is the same card I use to do my online shop evey week (details stored online) and I had no problem with the grocery shop but they said, no, it had been declined and I'd have to ring them and re-order if I wanted the console - that was the only option.

When I got home, there was a message on the phone to say there had been a problem with the payment, the order had been cancelled, and they could not re-oreder unless I rang them to start again.

Meanwhile we had been to Asda and picked one up in store so I just left it at that.

Three days later, they left another message to say my DS was ready for collection!!

I rang and they said it was all paid for and ready to be collected. They had no explanation for why they were suddenly able to get the payment for a cancelled order, and without authorisation from me. I then had to claim a refund as we alread had a console.

But in fairness, we ordered a laptop two weeks ago, and that was delivered to the store and collected without any problem.

enigma368

I think we all agree that the most likely chain of events here is that my [highly sought after] item was delivered to the store without problem and was ready for collection but my lack of haste in picking it up or getting back to their voice message, led them to assume that I wasnt going to actually come and get it and that they should re-sell it or let some employee buy it instead.

If I had thought for a second that this could happen, I would have collected it on day one. I just assumed that ordering and paying for an item meant that I had the right and luxury to collect it at my leisure. I have since ordered the same items off amazon for a tenner extra(and a slightly less preferential colour) so its no major loss. Its more the principle of how they can treat the customer so shodilly and especially how they lie so blatently and unapologetically to cover up their actions - i.e. faking a lost delivery.

fizzlebottom

Nikkisun = have also had this problem see my post on page 5. Will never use Tescodirect.com again they give you a delivery date and then change it to suit themselves. BEWARE

DCFC79

fizzlebottom wrote: »

Nikkisun = have also had this problem see my post on page 5. Will never use Tescodirect.com again they give you a delivery date and then change it to suit themselves. BEWARE

ive ordered an item from tesco direct and had no problems