Systematic overcharging on Tesco online

jej_SE15

I had a Tesco delivery a couple of days ago and noticed some prices were higher than I had expected. This led me to go through the receipt and I found that I had been overcharged for 5 items out of the 49 in the basket. The maximum overcharge was 147% of the correct price.

This was not a case of offers having expired. The products were still on sale at the lower price the day after the delivery and remain at the lower price today. Incidentally, I was not undercharged for any items.

An overbearing man at Customer Services acknowledged that there was a problem with their systems, and will refund me because I noticed, checked and raised the issue. However, despite the fact that I was overcharged for 10% of the items in my basket, he was totally dismissive of the idea that Tesco should take responsibility for checking whether other customers ordering those items were also overcharged.

How many people really check their bills carefully comparing to see whether prices for individual items have changed? Very few, I'd have thought. Yet, Tesco are unwilling to take steps to identify why there is systematic overcharging or which customers have been overcharged and refund them appropriately. It seems Tesco are unwilling to do anything proactive to refund customers leaving it entirely up to customers to request refunds.

For the record the items I was overcharged for were:

TESCO SWEET CELERY HEARTS
PAK CHOI 250G
MARKET VALUE BROCCOLI CATCHWEIGHT
TESCO SALAD TOMATOES 1KG
TESCO GOODNESS APPLE PACK

juliedotcom

I would assume they are trying to correct the issue and stop further errors.

Suggesting that the cashier analyze every item in your basket/trolley in case you have any of the offending items is a bit much. they'd be there all day. you checked your receipt and got a refund. i wouldn't lose any sleep over anyone else's case.

jej_SE15

There was no suggestion from the customer service operator that they were intending to look into why this problem occurred in order to solve it.

As this was an online order, it would just require a query to search through their database for other customers ordering those items on those days. It wouldn't take their IT department long at all, and it is the sort of thing they are doing regularly for their own research.

If a major Tesco's online delivery hub covering south London had this problem for just 1 day and it affected perhaps 5% of items ordered by customers, that would affect hundreds if not thousands of customers and Tesco's will be benefiting financially from each of them.

trukdiver

jej_SE15 wrote: »

There was no suggestion from the customer service operator that they were intending to look into why this problem occurred in order to solve it.

As this was an online order, it would just require a query to search through their database for other customers ordering those items on those days. It wouldn't take their IT department long at all, and it is the sort of thing they are doing regularly for their own research.

If a major Tesco's online delivery hub covering south London had this problem for just 1 day and it affected perhaps 5% of items ordered by customers, that would affect hundreds if not thousands of customers and Tesco's will be benefiting financially from each of them.

In what way were you overcharged? Were you charged the full price rather than the offer price or were they just random prices?

Identifying which customers were affected would not be that simple. Customer details are supposed to be kept separate from sales data. For market research purposes they may want to know the demographics but not name, address etc.

jej_SE15

The items weren't on special offer. The prices charged were random, except that in that they were all above the price on the website.

You are right that identifying details would likely be removed from data used for market research. However, that doesn't mean the information isn't linked in the first place and, while I can't guarantee it, the sales department should be able to use and search this data in the way I suggest. I imagine this is what they would be compelled to do if there was a scare about product tampering, food contamination or other safety concern. But it seems there is no motivation to correct pricing errors. After all, the errors are to Tesco's benefit and customers that don't notice won't know they've lost out.

In the end, this is just a cautionary tale reminding people to check receipts and make the effort to claim back the money as well as a change to vent of my irritation at Tesco for their poor customer service.

deanos

this has been mentioned recently on here

abee77

I have tonight had a Tesco online delivery and been overcharged by £13.70. None of the offers had come off my total so I was overcharged for 9 items out of an order of 49 items.
On top of that, 1 item I ordered wasn't delivered and I was charged for it. When I rang to complain the girl was very nice and refunded the money but told me that Tesco have been having problems with their computer system over the last few days and a lot of the promotions weren't working so a lot of people have been overcharged. She said if people ring to complain they will refund them but they're not informing customers about this problem. Surely this is illegal if they know it is happening but are relying on customers to check. At the very least Tesco have a moral obligation to their customers.
It actually shows some promotion savings at the top of your online receipt so looks as if it's worked, but if you add up all the items on your bill, you'll find the savings haven't been deducted from it.

Hootie19

I wouldn't expect Tesco to check everyone's orders. BUT, I don't think it would be unreasonable for Tesco to alert their customers to this issue and urge them to check their own receipts. It can't be that difficult to add a note to the printout that comes with an online order, or for the delivery driver to mention it when the goods are delivered.

And I know there will be those on here who scrutinise every item, every time, but not everyone has the time to do this. When it is a known Tesco problem, then I think Tesco ought to be a bit proactive in making their customers aware.

trukdiver

jej_SE15 wrote: »

The items weren't on special offer. The prices charged were random, except that in that they were all above the price on the website.

You are right that identifying details would likely be removed from data used for market research. However, that doesn't mean the information isn't linked in the first place and, while I can't guarantee it, the sales department should be able to use and search this data in the way I suggest. I imagine this is what they would be compelled to do if there was a scare about product tampering, food contamination or other safety concern. But it seems there is no motivation to correct pricing errors. After all, the errors are to Tesco's benefit and customers that don't notice won't know they've lost out.

In the end, this is just a cautionary tale reminding people to check receipts and make the effort to claim back the money as well as a change to vent of my irritation at Tesco for their poor customer service.

For online orders, they could probably get the customer details relatively easily but for in-store customers they would have to rely on the clubcard (if used).

I always check my receipts when leaving the store. I was "overcharged" last night - £1.30 for something that should have been 36p. I went to customer services and they gave me £1.68 refund, i.e "double the difference". They "paid" me to take it away!

For online orders they charge the price in force on the day of delivery. This can cause problems with offers. Sometimes they terminate the offer before the original end date. This won't matter in store but if somebody ordered online for delivery the customer may end up paying more than they expected. Another thing that happens is that a mistake is made entering the offers on the computer. For example entering an offer for a month then correcting it to a week a few days later. Anybody who wanted delvery after the original (wrong) end date would be caught out.

Azari

I remember Sommerfield were particularly bad for charging more than the ticketed price. After being overcharged several times during successive weeks I asked to speak to the store manager. When the 'duty' manager appeared I reiterated I wanted to speak the store manager. I made my complaint, speaking at normal volume and got the usual 'well, these mistakes do happen'. So I then asked why it was that on every occasion I'd found a mistake it was in the store's favour. By this time a small group had gathered with several people nodding and voicing agreement with what I was saying. In the end I asked him if he could think of any good reason why I shouldn't call the police when it next happened, bearing in mind that I had kept a log of all the instances of overcharging for the past few weeks - given that the supermarkets are very happy to involve them when it's they who are being stolen from.
.