Tesco delivery van wrecked my lawn - then wouldn't fix it.

Tim_UU

Back in November, an over-ambitious Tesco.com driver tried to make a delivery to our neighbours in the snow. He thought he'd made it to the top of their drive and got out and went to the front door. When we went back to the van it had gone and was sliding down the hill and ended up stuck on our front lawn.

By the time I got home from work, I found the van stuck almost axle deep in 2 huge trenches dug by his spinning wheels trying to get out. The driver was very polite and apologetic and assured me that Tesco would sort it all out with no trouble. I wanted to help tow him out (got a 4x4 and a tow rope) but his van was missing its screw-in towing eye and he'd already been on to his base and a manager was supposed to be on his way. An hour or so later, the pre-warned manager arrived with a 4x4, tow rope and a towing eye for a Merc Sprinter.

I came out of the house to see that the manager had towed it out and was disappearing up our road towing the van behind.

He returned a couple of minutes later and assured me that he'd get their landscaping contractors to come and sort out the lawn as soon as the snow had gone. He took my name and phone number (stood in front of my house, so he already knew the address). I made the mistake of not taking his name and phone number as I already had a photo of the van stuck in the lawn and took him for his word that he'd be in touch soon and wrongly assumed that Tesco took road accidents and customer service seriously.

I didn't hear anything for 6 weeks so decided that I'd better start chasing it up. I contacte Tesco via their online customer services giving postcode, date, time, phone numbers etc. 2 days later received email: 'So we can look into this matter properly, can you advise me of your full address and the store which made the delivery to your area. Once I have this information, I will happily initiate a resolution for you.' I didn't know which store, my postcode and date of accident should have been more than adequate information them. I replied with my full address and told them where the 2 nearest Tesco Stores were.

I heard nothing for 2 weeks so phoned them up, quoted the reference number asked to speak to somebody about it. Again, I was fobbed off. Another week later I emailed them again with photos and the news that if it was not sorted soon, then I'd be charging my time at £10 per half hour / email / phone call or letter. After a few days I got an email with a name and a store and an assurance that I would receive a phone call.

3 months later after more chasing up, excuses, fobbing off about not being able to lay turf in the winter etc. I was eventually told that the quote to fix the damage was £450 and that the store could not authorise that amount so it was going to be handed over to their insurance handlers, Hill Dickinson and that I had to start a claim through them.

I phoned them only to be told that they didn't do garden repairs and that I'd need to send 2 quotes for repair work to them. I explained that Tesco already had a quote for £450 so they could put a cheque in the post to me and I'd sort it out. They agreed to get a copy of the quote from Tesco and would be in touch soon.

After hearing nothing for a couple of weeks I phoned them again and asked what was happening. The woman went to a file and said 'Oh, we've sent a letter to you asking for 2 quotes and you haven't replied.' I explained again about the £450 quote and that they could just get on with it and send the cheque to me. I had to chase them up again 3 days later, and yes, they had the quote but it was only for £96. I told them that there must be a mistake as the store could have authorised a £96 repair. They offered to send me a cheque for £96 and eventually agreed to email me a copy of the quote.

Their quote was from the same landscaping contractors, but dated just the day before and the repair was 'remove disturbed ground, fill in tracks with compost, seed, water, leave clean'. I phoned to tell them that the repair was inadequate and felt that the garden should have been returned to its original condition in a reasonable time not bodged 5 months later. Oh, and the quote was for £96 + VAT so I'd have been out of pocket anyway.

Anyway, they wouldn't listen and told me that their quote was legal and there was nothing that I could do. I sent them an estimate for me to do the work myself £236 but still no response. I then sent Tesco a formal letter from a template that I found telling them that they had 28 days to pay before I took them to court and that I now wanted another £110 for my time chasing up and £50 for loss of enjoyment / anguish caused. I emailed a copy to the claim handler and made sure it had all their reference numbers etc. on it.

I heard nothing after 28 days so I've started court proceedings via Money Claim Online.


What do you reckon will happen?

Outpost

I'd be very interested to see the photo of the van stuck in the garden.

dmg24

Weren't most gardens ruined in the snow? You need to take this into account when considering what would be a suitable remedy.

Barneysmom

Not a bad story at all for a Friday. Where are the photos?

gordikin

You'll maybe get some money....or maybe you wont!

HappyMJ

£96 for a bit of lawn. Take it. Why on earth would it cost £450 to patch it up? good story though... thanks. pictures would be nice.

Tim_UU

Thanks for the responses so far! The photo is pretty rubbish as it was dark and only illuminated by a narrowly missed street lamp. It is clear that it's a Tesco van though and that's what mattered at the time. Tesco did admit liability and maybe they'd have sorted out if it hadn't been more expensive than they'd thought. Perhaps their landscaping contractors would have been short of work in January / February and given a cheaper quote then if only they'd have got on with organising it. And I've since found out that turf is better laid in the winter than the summer as it doesn't dry out.

If they'd have sorted it out at the time I'd have been happy. If they'd fixed it and given me a bottle of wine by way of an apology I'd have been delighted. It's the fobbing off and broken promises that annoy me. That and the trying to con me out a proper repair.

gordikin

You have way more tenacity than me. I'd have fixed it myself long ago...a bit of digging, compacting and light raking and some grass seed and Robert's your Dad's brother. Good luck though.

Outpost

Tim_UU wrote: »

The photo is pretty rubbish as it was dark and only illuminated by a narrowly missed street lamp. It is clear that it's a Tesco van though and that's what mattered at the time.

Lets have a butchers anyway.

Tim_UU

HappyMJ wrote: »

£96 for a bit of lawn. Take it. Why on earth would it cost £450 to patch it up?

I was surprised too, it was Tesco's landscaping contractor that quoted that - or at least that was their excuse on why they were passing it on as an insurance claim. I assume that the quote was for a proper repair was to remove old turf, rotavate etc then re-turf the whole damaged area plus a bit more. I think that the claim handlers thought there was some scope to save money and asked them for 'the cheapest possible repair' quote.

If the van had hit my wife's car (which it missed by a couple of feet), they'd have had to repair it properly using genuine parts AND provide a hire car in the meantime. Their proposed repair using compost would have be equivalent to a bit of PolyFilla and some gloss paint brushed over the top.

We'll see what happens now that that its with MCOL. It had magical effects with 'Freeserve' a few years ago after weeks of getting nowhere with their 'customer service' team' the case was transferred to their 'Customer Action' team and there was a happy ending.

dmg24

Tim_UU wrote: »

I was surprised too, it was Tesco's landscaping contractor that quoted that - or at least that was their excuse on why they were passing it on as an insurance claim. I assume that the quote was for a proper repair was to remove old turf, rotavate etc then re-turf the whole damaged area plus a bit more. I think that the claim handlers thought there was some scope to save money and asked them for 'the cheapest possible repair' quote.

If the van had hit my wife's car (which it missed by a couple of feet), they'd have had to repair it properly using genuine parts AND provide a hire car in the meantime. Their proposed repair using compost would have be equivalent to a bit of PolyFilla and some gloss paint brushed over the top.

We'll see what happens now that that its with MCOL. It had magical effects with 'Freeserve' a few years ago after weeks of getting nowhere with their 'customer service' team' the case was transferred to their 'Customer Action' team and there was a happy ending.

The van didn't hit the car though, did it?