tesco voucher use. HELP!!!!! (long)

rickshaw500

Hi, i have just recieved a letter from the checkout manager at my local tesco. it reads
dear mrs .....
with regards to your shopping visit to our tesco stores at ................... on date ..............
your shopping bill total was 69.08 this was purchased at 17.56 pm, payment in cash was 4.20 the remainder settled in coupons. you then visited the store and went to the same cashirer for a second time that evening at 18.22pm your shopping on this occasion totalled 138.13, again you presented the cashier with coupons to the amount of 137.47, paying only 67p in cash. as you are aware you did not purchase in either transaction the products relating to the coupons. therefore presenting these coupons could be seen as a fraudulent act.
we have a responsibility to report all transactions of this nature to our head office, who may investigate the matter further to avoid this amount of loss to the company.
i am sure that you were unaware that this may be seen as a fraudulent act, and i am confident that you will want to come into the store to resolve the this issue and pay the outstanding amount for your goods.
please ask for me personally at the customer service desk, i look forward to seeing you at your earliest convenience.
yours sincerely..................

i know this looks as if ive taken the mick with the vouchers but the first time i did my shopping and asked the cashier if he could scan some vouchers and he said yes, he did a pile and then asked if i had anymore, i had a load of the somerfield ones so i gave him some more, he kept going until 4.60 was reached. i was very happy at the time and asked if this was ok, he said yes, so i asked if i did another shop could i use my vouchers again and he said yes so that is what i did, i know i went a bit mad, but now i am panicking, can they make me pay this money back, because i dont have it. i only bought the stuff because id already asked if he would take the vouchers, i wouldnt have bought it otherwise. please can anyone advise. thanks

Jonjulie

My god !! £137 in vouchers against your shop? Lucky you only got a letter and not a summons.
This highlights why so many of the supermarkets are clamping down on coupons,we all love to save money,but in my opinion this is way over the top.

flis21

I do agree that £137 in vouchers is OTT and can see why they wrote to you. Could you offer to return some of the goods? (If it wasn't too long ago).

I thought Tesco had a policy that you could only use vouchers up to 10% of your shop?

Also how did they get your name and address? Maybe if you do this again make sure you don't use your clubcard, as then they won't be able to trace you.

Also I would be worried about the particular cashier, I hope they haven't fired him or something for doing this for you.

ella2002

Rickshaw. You need to talk to them. Hopefully somebody with more experience will be along to advise later

RAMBLER

I second Jonjulie's comments.

ella2002

was this a recent shop

magicmaria

I would go and tell the supermarket manager to do one - at the time of the transactions they legally accepted the vouchers as part payment and as such you are not liable to pay the difference - I would send a letter a back saying you have done nothing wrong and maybe he should look at re-training his staff.

80934

At my Tesco they have a policy that your coupons must come to less than 50% of your bill. Each coupon has to be different, in date, the item stocked and they must be non store specific manufacturers coupons. Pity all the till operators do not know!

I am really sorry to hear about your letter - you do need to talk to them and explain your position I think - but for future reference I wish each branch of Tesco would make it clear to their staff and customers exactly what their policy on coupons is.

Hope you get sorted out soon - but don't hope it will go away - brave it and go and sort it out asap.

coraastbury

Oh wow!!! how did you manage to get away with using that many. I am very happy if I get £10 off. I know that last time I was in Tesco on Tuesday they said that they had changed the policy and now only take 1 voucher per shop. I think it is times like this that spoil it for other people.

rickshaw500

thanks for the replies, the shopping was done on the 13th of december. the first shop was just the monthly shop of food, mostly value, bogof, stuff as the money has to stretch. the second time i did go a bit mad buying meat, sweets and nice goodies for the kids for christmas that we dont normally get and wouldnt have bought if i knew i could nt use vouchers. what do you think will happen if i ignore this letter, i cannot go to see them i just cant i would die. i dont know what to do.

ella2002

Don't ignore it. Ring them if you can't face them and plead ignorance of their policy on coupons. Apologise etc