Vent - Tesco customer services

trukdiver

This is purely a vent as there is nothing I can do about it....:(

I ordered some shopping from Tesco for delivery to my dad (who's 90 and basically housebound). They had a half price offer on wines starting that day. The following day, I noticed that there was a £2 delivery slot a few days after my original choice and changed my order. I didn't notice that one of the wines was no longer on offer as from the midnight before the new delivery date....

The order was delivered to my dad who accepted it without checking it. When he told me how much it had cost, I rang Tesco customer services who said they would forward my complaint to the shop and they would ring me within 48 hours. Alternatively, they said I could have a £10 voucher (which I didn't accept, hoping to get a refund for the excess). I explained that if I had been there myself I would have refused it!

When the 48 hours had expired, I rang customer services again. They said they couldn't do anything unless I had the actual receipt in front of me (ie, not the online order details). As I live in London and my dad is in Cheshire, I had to wait until I get get the receipt.

When I had actually got the physical receipt, I rang customer services again. They said they would contact the shop. Nothing happened.....

I rang customer services again (4th time). He told me to take it back to the shop and they MIGHT give me a refund. He said I made a mistake on my order so it's not their problem, and they won't do anything. My dad can't take it back and I won't be able to return it within the time limit, so basically he's stuck with three bottles of overpriced wine. This stuff is on offer so often that "half price" is clearly the real price!

There's no cross checking between delivery date and offer expiry so it's easy for dozy p****s like me to forget! I'll just put it down to experience and stick to Asda in future! (even though they are probably just as bad!). I know I should have checked the end date on each item and with hindsight I should have accepted the £10 voucher! And If I hadn't been such a cheapskate going for the £2 delivery the offer wouldn't have expired! :o

Tropez

In my experience with Tesco's online shop, if you select a delivery date and then add orders that are on a time-limited special offer it will alert you if your delivery date is outside of the offer period on the product.

However, I will say that I have never changed a delivery slot before so it may well be that in cases where an order is confirmed yet the delivery slot is then rescheduled that you have the problem that you have encountered.

trukdiver

Tropez wrote: »

In my experience with Tesco's online shop, if you select a delivery date and then add orders that are on a time-limited special offer it will alert you if your delivery date is outside of the offer period on the product.

However, I will say that I have never changed a delivery slot before so it may well be that in cases where an order is confirmed yet the delivery slot is then rescheduled that you have the problem that you have encountered.

I did add some items the day before delivery. The "guide price" increased by the value of the new items and I had to re-enter my card details, but there was no warning that any of the original items were outside the offer period. Unfortunately, returning the items within 28 days isn't possible.

Tropez

trukdiver wrote: »

I did add some items the day before delivery. The "guide price" increased by the value of the new items and I had to re-enter my card details, but there was no warning that any of the original items were outside the offer period. Unfortunately, returning the items within 28 days isn't possible.

Hmm, that's odd. I constantly add things to my order from the time I make it to the time of the cut off for adding things (indeed, I have an order coming today and added something at 11:37pm last night) and I've never had to re-enter my card details.

I wonder if the Tesco website was having a senile moment at the time?

Blobby8_2

Can anyone tell me what Tesco did wrong ?

SnowTiger

Blobby8 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me what Tesco did wrong ?

Nothing.

But the OP has made a blunder by not putting scam or con in the title. :rotfl:

trukdiver

SnowTiger wrote: »

Nothing.

But the OP has made a blunder by not putting scam or con in the title. :rotfl:

Did I say Tesco was scamming? They're not doing anything illegal - they're just not as consumer friendly as they could be. It took four calls to Customer Services before somebody said they weren't going to do anything about it. They did say they would get back to me within 48 hours on two occasions but didn't on either occasion. That's not a scam but it's not particularly efficient.

They could cross check the offer end date with the delivery date but they don't. They rely on people manually checking it themselves, so any errors are likely to be to Tesco's benefit. Changing the processing to warn people if the delivery date was past the offer end date would cost money - with no advantage to Tesco. They are just the same as any other business in that respect.

As I said, If the order had been delivered to myself, I would have rejected it. The delivery note says "If you're not happy with any items, for whatever reason, just hand them back to your driver or call our UK-based Customer Services on 0845 722 5533 for a full refund". Customer Services said take it back to the store, but as he's housebound, that's not really feasible. They are just being somewhat inflexible about an offer that expired a few hours earlier.

molerat

SnowTiger was jokingly pointing out that most of this type of post have scam / rip-off / robbed / con in the title and you have broken the norm by not using any of those terms

trukdiver

molerat wrote: »

SnowTiger was jokingly pointing out that most of this type of post have scam / rip-off / robbed / con in the title and you have broken the norm by not using any of those terms

Sorry, I'm just having a bad day!:(

They are following the rules to the letter. In the past, they have been more flexible about customer errors (ie, mine). If the first Customer Services rep had said what the fourth one said, then I might have been able to do something about it. It's too late now...
I was also stupid in not accepting the £10 voucher they offered!!:rotfl::rotfl:

Edit:
I rang them again...

The fifth Customer Services rep said they can collect it but the call was cut off.

The sixth rep I spoke to said she would arrange a collection.... She also said that the first rep hadn't logged my call properly!

trukdiver

After the 6th call failed to get a response from the store, I emailed customer services.

Within minutes, I got a call from a CS manager. He'd reviewed the trail of calls and , as the store had had ample opportunity to collect the items but hadn't responded, he was giving me a £20 refund. He apologised profusely and said this was well below their expect level of service..

QuackQuack_2

You think they are bad, you should try Asda customer services. It's the worst I've ever found. I've had different, but mostly bad, experiences instore, never managed to get anywhere on the phone and emailing them is something else. You are lucky if you get a reply, and if you do it always takes exactly 7 days to hear back (each time).

Mind you, they are clearly cheaper than Tesco - I find it every week.