Tesco: Fawlty blue ladybird bag is not a bag for life. Is Tesco policy !!!

2sides2everystory

Some of the Tesco bags on sale as an alternative to the free ones or the bags for life have actually been quite attractive. I have over the past couple of years bought a number of them and given them to friends and family when they have noticed I've been using one.

Quite recently Tesco introduced a mid-sized blue ladybird bag to match the large one. I bought it, and when my gf saw it she immediately decided it was a nice size for her to keep in the car glove pocket.

It was faulty - the stitching on one handle completely let go the first time she used it which was only the second time it had been used (and no we had not been using it round at Halfords to transport car batteries )

No drama - I put the bag in my car and resolved to swap it when I was next in Tescos. Wouldn't anyone?

Take a guess at what happened?

I'll give you a clue ... it was the third Tesco I visited where I achieved what I set out to do.

Tesco 1. Was a certain Tesco Extra in East London and my simple request involved no less than 4 supervisor/manager level people with only the Duty Manager having the authority to deal with it but each of them having a policy view about it that apparently I needed to know about.

Tesco 2. Was the next nearest standard Tesco superstore I happened to be passing on my journey that day but who simply didn't stock that particular bag.

Tesco 3. Was the store at the other end of my journey and which I most certainly wished I had resolved to visit first.

Customer Service and friendliness scores on the day:
Tesco 1: 0/10 ... up to and including Duty Manager
Tesco 2: 10/10 ... no Duty Manager consulted just a very friendly attempt to find an exchange by the first customer service person.
Tesco 3: 10/10 ... no Duty Manager consulted just a very friendly exchange by the first customer service person.

I conclude that the people they have running their most challenging stores are easily the least friendly. I do hope their challenged ways don't get them promoted to any job which dictates policy generally before they get re-trained in the type of civility that works best other parts of the UK.

At Tesco 3 I got the replacement I wanted and together we noted how some from an earlier batch looked like the handles might be weak. I chose two and paid for an extra one as they are a nice size and then I got the biggest shock of the day .... 37p ! I thought it might have been one pound something ... or could have been a hundred pounds for the amount of stonewalling I had received at Tesco 1.

That meant Tesco 1 were prepared to make a song and dance over 37p and to involve 4 employees with no smiles and no discretion including the manager in charge of the store :rotfl: Or perhaps they didn't imagine I would make a song and dance when they stonewalled me.

As I made clear to them, they must be mad, and that manager off her rocker . After I explained I wasn't interested in a bag for life just a bag that lasted more than 5 minutes which was of merchantable quality I was first hit with "We only exchange if the batch was faulty, and no-one else has complained". Then "Have you got the receipt? We don't exchange without a receipt." I hadn't thought to hunt out the receipt. "But you can see it is new" I said. "Doesn't look very new to me" the contrarian said. "If you bring it back with the receipt ... "

I asked them if they had any idea what proportion of a typical customer's disposable income might be spent in the major supermarket of their choosing. No idea.

I asked the manager are you really in charge of the whole store today?

The manager had by then had enough of my insults she said (i.e. the earlier you must be mad/off your rocker parts coupled with my final enquiry which apparently she also found insulting).

I promised them a write up on MSE, a website which they seemed to recognise instantly :money:

I was warned not to use the managers name in this post as that would be slander apparently so I shan't shout it out loud, nor even write it here

I appreciate that my views were diametrically opposed to those of the Duty Manager at Tesco 1 and I would be the first to admit that there are at least two types in this world who create a song and dance in a Tesco Extra i.e. people who are
(a) mad/off their rocker and wish to make a point which might be taken as an insult
(b) mad/off their rocker and wish to make an opposing point which might be taken as an insult

Or maybe it was just the new moon on its back, or our star signs that were incompatible ...

dmg24

You were very rude. I am surprised they did not ban you from their stores.

2sides2everystory

Is that a fact, dmg ? Thank goodness my communication skills are not failing me when I try to get a message across

Money_User

dmg24 wrote: »

You were very rude. I am surprised they did not ban you from their stores.

Sounds like a know it all as well!

2sides2everystory wrote: »

I asked them if they had any idea what proportion of a typical customer's disposable income might be spent in the major supermarket of their choosing. No idea.

And then this:

2sides2everystory wrote: »

I promised them a write up on MSE, a website which they seemed to recognise instantly :money:

Op you haven't done a very good job of making Tesco look bad in your write up. However your write up has done a good job of making you look bad.

zppp

OP, has anyone ever told you to get a life? :rotfl:

wealdroam

OP, so you visited three stores just to get a free 37 pence bag?

Is that right?

How much petrol did you use?
(please don't say you don't know, because that is a far more reasonable question than "what proportion of disposable income... blah... blah...")

2sides2everystory

Money_User wrote: »

Op you haven't done a very good job of making Tesco look bad in your write up. However your write up has done a good job of making you look bad.

There are two sides to every story and I was just fulfilling a promise not attempting to be any more judgemental than I had been already

Glad to know I can still be bad when I put my mind to it. I'd hate to think I must internalise all my experiences - that wouldn't be good for my health.

Edit for wealdroam: I wasn't thinking much about the price which no-one mentioned until I bought an extra one at Tesco 3. I guess I drove a total of two miles off my planned route to visit the three stores including the distances run in the two extra car parks and nearby roundabouts, so yes I expect that with three stops and starts I spent more than 37p on extra fuel. Very clever of you to notice wealdroam. No doubt the Duty Manager was also thinking I would rationalise not to darken her doors again for the price of the fuel and inconvenience it would take to return home and hunt out the receipt. She was indeed correct, wasn't she? However, my overriding task for that day (should I have wished to accept it - and I did) was to get an exact replacement bag for my OH who had expressed a keen preference. When my OH expresses a keen preference that's an opportunity for me to excel ... and so I did. Are you familiar with the notion ?

Money_User

zppp wrote: »

OP, has anyone ever told you to get a life? :rotfl:

They've got them on a special offer at a Tesco Extra somewhere in East London, the op will have to go back and get one lol!

With the petrol question my cheap to run car I recon comes in at about 14p per mile so I'd have lost more money after 3 miles. At least we know that if any staff from that store come to look for this thread on here the subsequent comments will probably make their day.:rotfl:

lynzpower

I think you have done well OP,. It is well known that shops sell items that they know will only last a short time while charging for them. Never used to be a problem as people didn't take them back.

As the OP says the bag could have been worth 100 quid and the handles stitching still comes off first use then they shouldnt be selling them if they are faulty or not fit for purpose. I think most people on MSE know that this statement is jsut not ok! "We only exchange if the batch was faulty, and no-one else has complained". Unacceptable!!!!

Personally OP Id be letting trading standards know that this is how Britain's so called favourite retailer treats those it sells faulty goods to! Looks like someone needs a little bit of training

Ps if you mean beckton I fear for you

xoxo_2

Wow. All that over a 37p bag.

Money_User

lynzpower wrote: »

Id be letting trading standards know that this is how Britain's so called favourite retailer treats those it sells faulty goods to!

Since when are Trading Standards going to be interested in someone returning something faulty worth 37p with no proof of purchase? Do you send them money to do these things? Because god knows how they'd have the funding to look into this (seeing that they couldn't do anything anyway as no proof of purchase was given).