Tesco misprice policy discussion area part III

Pepe_2

The tesco in New Oscott, Birmingham has a couple of XBOX games that are mispriced as in the previous threads. I had no fuss in getting the money, she only left me waiting for 2 mins and gave me the money no questions asked. She said she would tell the manager about it but didn't seem to be in a rush, probably worth a try.

philb120

I have been reading that verylittlehelps forum for Tesco employees (not an employee myself but sister in law was)

They are not happy chappies at the moment but it seems its the attitude of the management thats one of the major bugbears. I enjoyed reading about the one word customers ! Everyone seems very stressed but it is still no excuse for what happened to flufff.

rdwarr

go4it wrote:

talking of screwing customers, when is the Tesco Sport promotion back? My local school needs a new football, and apparantley if we collect 10,000 vouchers we can get one free.

But remember, if it scans through at 10,001 vouchers you can get it free

Liverbird

Outtathaway wrote:

So they are 'screwing customers' by offering clubs and schools free equipment for people shopping there, note, they don't force people to shop in their stores, or to spend more money during these promotions. I'm sure if that was generally the opinion of the sport and computer schemes Tesco would happily stop 'screwing customers' and make the schools buy their own equipment for normal prices.

And infact, next time the promotion is on you could just say you don't want the vouchers so that you're not being 'screwed'

I think the original post was tongue in cheek....your reply to them was a little harsh!

Remember the rules.......Be nice to all Moneysavers.

ben500

Tars wrote:

And your allowed your opinion I just think your quite mistaken. Can I ask how you know the scan guides are frequently disabled in store?

. You may .

letsgobilliejoe

right, this should explain all, even if it is addressed to head office. i'm sure you can make sense of it.

i'll post this letter tomorrow and keep you updated as to how i get on..

if i've made any mistakes or if you have any suggestions, PM me!



Dear Sir / Madam
Whilst in your Tesco Baguley store this evening (31/01/2006), i happened upon your XBox games shelf, above which was a chart poster claiming "XBox games under £29.97". However, after going through the till, I noticed that i had been charged OVER this price for ALL FIVE games! Knowing this, i headed over to the Customer Srvices desk, where the nice assistant set off trying to track down said poster.

After waiting patiently for 15 minutes, she returned with the poster, and was straight onto the phone to who i later discovered was the Duty Manager, *****. After her phonecall, she approached me explained that because the poster did not state that ALL XBox games were under £29.97, but merely hinted that some were below said price. She then proceeded to offer me what her Duty Manager termed 'generous', in offering me the difference between the price charged and the poster price. This puzzled me somewhat, for two reasons. Firstly, he was ignoring the price promise in not offering me a full refund and letting me keep the product (a policy which is set up by his superiors and therefore it is not his decision whether or not to enforce it); and, secondly he was admitting that the price displayed was the lower price for the items bought, and yet still refused the refund.

We then used our knowledge of consumer rights according to The Trading Standards Institute (i.e. that a misleading price displayed had lead me to purchase a product thinking that i would be rightly charged this price, and that if this was the case, it is illegal to refuse a customer's rights to a refund based on the company's own policies (i.e. the price promise). He then proceeded to take numerous phone calls on his portable/mobile telephone (to whom we later discovered was the store manager ******), after which he changed his stance on the price promise, stating that the poster didn't state that ALL XBox games were under £29.97, rather just saying that XBox games were under £29.97. He then 'supported' this by saying that the price on the Shelf Edge had the correct price displayed, and therefore somehow overrode the lower price displayed on the poster. He seemed to think that it was acceptable to misleading display a lower price than was actually charged (he said that he was unwilling to let us take the games for free, even though that is the price promise).

My point is that the poster would make a consumer believe that all XBox games on that display were under £29.97 (as it did to me), and that this is therefore misleading, and that also i was overcharged on my items.

Eventually **** the Store Manager arrived, and proceeded to support ***** point that the poster is not misleading, and therefore did not constitute a misprice (although in a more threatening and aggressive manner). They seemed to be at ease with laughing in a concerned and irate customers face when Trading Standards legislation was quoted. This is unacceptable behaviour from thos people who are, on the face of it, the public managerial arm of Tesco Stores.

After much debate (and a futile hour of being told that **** was 'unwilling' to hold up his employer's policies), we decided to take **** up on the offer of a full refund (without the products), whilst we put the complaint through to both your head office and Trading Standards using the hard evidence we have available, including videos and photos of the poster (which they allowed us to photograph following a long debate over whether a third party (the magistrates) should be contacted to repossess the poster in order for us to ensure that it would not be destroyed in our absence), and a copy of my till receipt displaying the prices i was charged at the till.

This incident has truly shaped the way that i picture Tesco. To me, Tesco signifies excellent value, superb product quality and fantastic customer service. This latter view has now been marred by today's events, and although the customer service assistants i spoke to and who refunded me were extremely pleasant, efficient and polite, your managers were rude, crass, threatening, uncooperative and (worst of all) failed t perform their duty as a manager - to uphold their parent company's policies, to provide a service to consumers, and, ultimately, to not break the law! I am seriously considering changing my method and place of shopping, and most definitely will not involve Tesco.

In a nutshell, my points are:
I am not happy with the arrogant and aggressive manner in which i was dealt with by both *********** and **********.
I know that i was charged more than a displayed price for numerous items, yet was refused the company's policy on refunds. This is illegal on the part of Tesco Stores for two reasons: a misleading price was displayed, and a 'Price Promise' policy is in operation which was denied to the consumer by the enforcer of such regulations - the manager.
I believe that other consumers rights were put at risk by the managers' refusal to recognise the mistake, to rectify the problem and the fact that they placed the poster back in its original display stand before we left

I believe that i am (at the very least) entitled to my good being returned to me in accordance with your displayed 'Price Promise', due to the fact that i was made to leave the store with just my refund, and not the products.

I expect a full explanation and solution to this problem from yourselves. Failing this, i will use my rights as a consumer and contact Trading Standards as per the diabolical way i have been treated as a customer of Tesco Stores.

Yours Sincerely,




Bryan Roberts.


****** individual names edited out by Board Guide redfox to protect MSE

EDIT: thanks board guide, didn't quite realise what i was doing, i just copied and pasted.

Poppy_P

Oooo errr Bryan!

My local store seem to have posters that say from £xx.xx on CD's, DVD's and games, so very little chance of catching them out

hokers

Bryan, I'd take the specific names out of the version posted here if you can still edit it. There's at least one typo as well.

I think this is a reasonable letter to send to Tesco, I'm sure they'll sort it out for you themselves, and give it to Trading Standards if they don't.

flufff

Good luck with your letter.Noticed your Cheshire.Which store was it?Not Handforth Dean by any chance?
If its alright I may also base a letter along lines of yours to head office cc to customer services cc trading standards to claim for my inconvenience a full day wasted and anxiety it caused me over game I purchased and extra cost and time involved having to drag myself and kids back to store i was treated appallingly in......same cs on desk...security were given the "nodd" as i entered and left to make me feel like a criminal.I'm sure he had a little button to push under his desk to take our photograph.I'm going to ask for my time and upset to compensated with threat to sue them as I have filed police reports on being manhandled.
Ive had chance to calm down and think clearly now.

flufff

Put cc on the letter and list who copies are being sent to.this way a copy can be sent to trading standards at same time with a covering letter.Point it out too......hopefully put wind up them.The refund policy is a sham.Admittedly you had a lot of games but at end of day its up to the store to get things right.I think the amount of R&R is an accurate indicator of overcharge in the store.
My gripe is with my local Macclesfield store.
Everything gets "marked up" thats wrong in other stores so your being overcharged without knowing and difficult to proof.I'm contemplating telling trading standards that they arent consistent with prices of other local stores.