Tesco are SO stingy

F.T.B_2

Godders wrote:

Hmmm - as a customer I don't really care if it's Tesco's, Eurest or the Mr Men providing the service. It's branded with Tesco all over it, it's in a Tesco store and therefore Tesco should be taking a VERY active interest in the customers views on the service (Not that this reflects on you personally of course Princessa, it's management who are at fault generally)

It's my pet hate about sub-contracting to large companies, the emphasis is on maximising profit by driving down costs, rather than maximising profit by increasing customer satisfaction and numbers.

Personally I'd rather make 50p from a single customer 100 times because they keep coming back, rather than £1.50 from that person once! To put it totally in context Savvy and I have been back in that Tesco (and others) loads of times since, many times around breakfast and lunch and not once have we considered going back because of the feeling of being totally ripped off.

Wow - that turned into a rant didn't it

Its head offices decision to sub contract out, as a manger myself i hate the idea, as do all managers at my store. When we were informed of the decision that it was to be subcontracted out there was uproar but at the end of the day its all about the money and Head Office make decisions that will expand their profits.

F.T.B_2

Godders wrote:

Thanks for that - I guess it's because they can guarantee(ish) the temperatures it is kept at. Even though they can't guarantee they didn't drop it in a puddle :rolleyes:

We have about £1000 worth of substitutes back each week on average, we could not afford to not put them back on sale.

However, as you said, if you phone later then the items will not be put back on sale, whether it be frozen, chilled or ambient items. If we pick them up they will be binned.

Princessa_2

Godders wrote:

Yeh - we talked about it and thought it must be something like this. Would it have been returned to the shelves if it had been refused at the door rather than returned later? Or are Tesco setting themselves up for lots of wasted products by inappropriate substitutions, in which case they should they have a no substitution policy on refrigerated/frozen goods?

No it would still go on the shelf if it came back with the driver, as he'd put it straight back into the fridge part of his van. There's a time limit for foods to be out of the fridge, but I've forgot what it is. But if you stick in in your car and drive 15 mins through traffic home, and then again to bring it back, then it's already been out of the fridge too long to go back on the shelves, if you see what I mean. So generally they won't take thses products back as everyone says 'oh but I only live right across the road' but it can't be guarenteed and if someone got food poisoning they'd make alot of money, lol.

Godders

F.T.B wrote:

Its head offices decision to sub contract out, as a manger myself i hate the idea, as do all managers at my store. When we were informed of the decision that it was to be subcontracted out there was uproar but at the end of the day its all about the money and Head Office make decisions that will expand their profits.

Oops - sorry, when I meant management I meant the real high level management. (Head office director type people) It must be frustrating for the real Tesco staff who take any flak for it in store to be totally powerless.

Princessa_2

Godders wrote:

Hmmm - as a customer I don't really care if it's Tesco's, Eurest or the Mr Men providing the service. It's branded with Tesco all over it, it's in a Tesco store and therefore Tesco should be taking a VERY active interest in the customers views on the service (Not that this reflects on you personally of course Princessa, it's management who are at fault generally)

No I know what you mean, I used to write down the complaints anyways so that I had a log of them, but it's not that I didn't want to deal with the complaints, I just wasn't allowed. People would come and ask for the store manager, and he wouldn't come and see them as it 'wasn't his cafe' so I'd bring the cafe manager, but they wanted to talk to the person at the top. In this case, the girl on the cafe till was the person at the top, but it's still Tesco's name that is associated with it and Tesco's customers going away unhappy.

Godders

Princessa wrote:

No it would still go on the shelf if it came back with the driver, as he'd put it straight back into the fridge part of his van. There's a time limit for foods to be out of the fridge, but I've forgot what it is. But if you stick in in your car and drive 15 mins through traffic home, and then again to bring it back, then it's already been out of the fridge too long to go back on the shelves, if you see what I mean. So generally they won't take thses products back as everyone says 'oh but I only live right across the road' but it can't be guarenteed and if someone got food poisoning they'd make alot of money, lol.

F.T.B wrote:

We have about £1000 worth of substitutes back each week on average, we could not afford to not put them back on sale.

However, as you said, if you phone later then the items will not be put back on sale, whether it be frozen, chilled or ambient items. If we pick them up they will be binned.

Fair enough, thanks to both of you. Although on the subject of substitutions, is that done by a person or a machine? Some of them seem a bit odd at times.

F.T.B_2

Godders wrote:

Fair enough, thanks to both of you. Although on the subject of substitutions, is that done by a person or a machine? Some of them seem a bit odd at times.

It is done by the picker at the time of picking. No suggestions from a computer, its up to the person at the time.

F.T.B_2

Sometimes they can sound funny but you have to remember that the picker is pushed to substitute SOMETHING rather than NOTHING. If there is nothing really like the product you ordered then they will get as close as possible but may struggle.

If you dont want substitutes just click the no subs button on the net and that solves the problem, however as i said, there are some products that will be subbed anyway.

Godders

F.T.B wrote:

Sometimes they can sound funny but you have to remember that the picker is pushed to substitute SOMETHING rather than NOTHING. If there is nothing really like the product you ordered then they will get as close as possible but may struggle.

If you dont want substitutes just click the no subs button on the net and that solves the problem, however as i said, there are some products that will be subbed anyway.

LOL - fair enough. Your second point of subbing things when you have specifically said "No Subs" confuses me though, I think you referred to them as "Perfect" items. Whats the rational behind this? if I said "No Subs, surely I mean "No Subs" with the understanding that if it's sold out I won't get anything at all.

Sorry this is totally off topic but I'm finding this quite a facinating look behind the scenes.

F.T.B_2

Godders wrote:

LOL - fair enough. Your second point of subbing things when you have specifically said "No Subs" confuses me though, I think you referred to them as "Perfect" items. Whats the rational behind this? if I said "No Subs, surely I mean "No Subs" with the understanding that if it's sold out I won't get anything at all.

Sorry this is totally off topic but I'm finding this quite a facinating look behind the scenes.

OK, if you click NO SUBS then you should in theory receive no subs. Sometimes pickers make mistakes and give subs anyway as they miss the note on their screen.

However Perfect Items as they are known at my store are items such as Milk, Nappies, Baby Milk. These are things that will be subbed whether you click no subs or not. The reason for this is if you order nappies then you are more than likely going to need them and we dont want a single mother having to go shops to get nappies just because we didnt have the exact brand avaliable.

Hope that helps