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

vikingaero

Tim_UU wrote: »

What do you reckon will happen?

For a sub £1,000 claim I imagine they'll pay up. But for them to let it get this far and take so long is a catalogue of incompetence.

Flyboy152

I would love to see a van repair damage to a lawn.





Sorry, couldn't resist that one.

RuthnJasper

Does this issue REALLY matter? I can barely afford to life on a basic level in these hyper-austere times. It's a lawn, it was snowy and icy, and it was an unintentional incident by a driver who did the decent, conscientious, thing and apologised.

Failing a response to this, I refer the honourable OP to the posts made by Flyboy152, Outpost and Gordikin...

Gavin83

I'd be interested to see how a judge would view the extra £160 you've added to the invoice. How did you arrive at the figure of £10 per letter?

I'd imagine they'll just pay up though as it'll be a far easier option for them given their turnover. They really shouldn't have let it carry on this long though, the claim should have been settled long ago.

Have you got any evidence of this £450 quote btw?

Alias_Omega

Simply filling the holes wont make it look like new, it will leave raised areas.

I guess they would maybe remove a 4mx4m square, relay, roll & pack down the top soil, laying new turf, returning to treat it to ensure it blends in well.


All lawn's may have been damaged in the winter, but certainly not big grooves inserted by a car.

paddyrg

It sounds like time for a registered letter before action saying that the proposed bodge would not restore the damage to the original condition, and seeing as they have drawn this out for such an unnecesssary length of time, giving them 7 days to settle before you take it to the small claims court to let the justices decide.

paddyrg

gordikin wrote: »

...Ah your guessing...so blether away.

...how will filling holes leave raised areas?

Different compaction of the ground, I expect, much like roadworks start off raised and settle, often to a different level than the original surface.

gordikin

Just seen the poll (0 out of 10 for observation for me!) any sympathy I had has gone out the window as the choices are unfairly skewed against Tesco.

Tim_UU

Tesco very nearly had a judgement by default issued against them by the small claims court as they did not respond to the court action until the very last day possible.

I had a phone call at home from the original contact at head office saying something about how he was just checking up on some old emails. He asked if everything had been sorted out OK and I told him that it had not. When I asked him if this sudden interest was due to the small claims court he replied that he didn't know anything about that and that must be being handled by a different part of the organisation.

When I checked on Money Claim Online an hour later, it was suddenly showing that their claim handlers had acknowledged receipt and intended to defend the entire claim.

A couple of days later, I received a letter from yet another name at the claim handlers requesting documentary evidence of the repair cost. I replied reminding them of the £450 quote that the Tesco store had told me about but not given me a copy of and also referred him to my quote for doing the work myself. I also suggested that they could send an assessor round at a convenient time to meet me and I would show and explain.


In the end, I received an ambiguous 'global offer of £250.....' It was not clear whether this was on top of the original partial payment or if 'global' meant total (including original). It was eventually clarified that this £250 was additional, with £140 towards completing repairs (as per my quote), £35 for court fees incurred and £75 for 'my inconvenience' which I had originally claimed £160 for my time and £50 for loss of enjoyment. I have accepted that offer as while I still feel that the court would have sided with me, I am just glad that they eventually took their obligations seriously.


The problem is that it's taken so long that I can't re-turf the lawn properly until the autumn because it would dry up to quickly through the summer. Still, at least my temporary repair is far better than throwing compost in the ditches!


If only Tesco had got on with keeping their promises earlier, they could have saved me a lot of stress and themselves quite a bit of time and few hundred pounds. A prompt repair would have been cheaper and everybody would have been happy. It's very disappointing that an organisation that is supposed to be customer focused breaks promises, ignores all attempts to negotiate, ignores formal pre claim letters and only takes a real interest when they're taken to court.

Flyboy152

Tim_UU wrote: »

Tesco very nearly had a judgement by default issued against them by the small claims court as they did not respond to the court action until the very last day possible.

I had a phone call at home from the original contact at head office saying something about how he was just checking up on some old emails. He asked if everything had been sorted out OK and I told him that it had not. When I asked him if this sudden interest was due to the small claims court he replied that he didn't know anything about that and that must be being handled by a different part of the organisation.

When I checked on Money Claim Online an hour later, it was suddenly showing that their claim handlers had acknowledged receipt and intended to defend the entire claim.

A couple of days later, I received a letter from yet another name at the claim handlers requesting documentary evidence of the repair cost. I replied reminding them of the £450 quote that the Tesco store had told me about but not given me a copy of and also referred him to my quote for doing the work myself. I also suggested that they could send an assessor round at a convenient time to meet me and I would show and explain.


In the end, I received an ambiguous 'global offer of £250.....' It was not clear whether this was on top of the original partial payment or if 'global' meant total (including original). It was eventually clarified that this £250 was additional, with £140 towards completing repairs (as per my quote), £35 for court fees incurred and £75 for 'my inconvenience' which I had originally claimed £160 for my time and £50 for loss of enjoyment. I have accepted that offer as while I still feel that the court would have sided with me, I am just glad that they eventually took their obligations seriously.


The problem is that it's taken so long that I can't re-turf the lawn properly until the autumn because it would dry up to quickly through the summer. Still, at least my temporary repair is far better than throwing compost in the ditches!


If only Tesco had got on with keeping their promises earlier, they could have saved me a lot of stress and themselves quite a bit of time and few hundred pounds. A prompt repair would have been cheaper and everybody would have been happy. It's very disappointing that an organisation that is supposed to be customer focused breaks promises, ignores all attempts to negotiate, ignores formal pre claim letters and only takes a real interest when they're taken to court.

LOL. You don't shop in Tesco that much, do you.