reduced to zero/cleared to zero!? tesco refuse sale

mrpinkeye

ok, to begin with let me say...i know a store can flat out refuse to serve anyone anything for any reason. im ok with that, kinda!

but its the way tesco have dealt with this situation thats left us confused. heres what happened...

i went to a tesco extra because i needed work shirts. i found some reduced with a yellow and white sticker with a hand written £4 price on instead of the regular £8. i took both shirts to the till. the blue one goes through fine as £4. the red one goes through as 4p and things got weird...the lady (supervisor no less!) says "its scanning as 4p, i cannot sell it to you". madness!?

firstly i said im happy to pay £4, just charge me £4. she said she cannot put the price up manually, only make reductions manually.

then i said ok i'll pay 4p as stated. she said she could not charge 4p, it would be illegal. the items are reduced/cleared (i forget which she said) to zero, meaning they are old stock that they cannot sell. she looked at the shirt and said it was spring/summer range and that was why it was on sale previously but now has to be removed from sale.

i asked what happened to the shirts she couldnt sell. she said they were either thrown away, recycled into more clothing or sent to africa.

does any of this make sense to anyone out there? in the past if an item scans as less the sales person usually says wow, youve got a bargain or fixes it to the correct price. i cannot see how this process from tesco is working well with customers. surly its better to get these items off the shelf, or reduce the price to zero than have angry people being told they cant be sold as price scans as 4p!

monty-doggy

Sounds like she was just being awkward to me. I bought my dd and ds Welles from tesco a few weeks ago. Both were reduced on the ticket to £2 but the boys ones went through the till for 4p and the sales assistant congratulated me on my find, and asked if there was any more but I had the last pair

I'd complain to head office see what they have to say.

I don't mean to sound nasty but maybe she wanted to buy them herself?

Al_Ross

Agreed !,,

mrpinkeye

monty-doggy wrote: »

Sounds like she was just being awkward to me. I bought my dd and ds Welles from tesco a few weeks ago. Both were reduced on the ticket to £2 but the boys ones went through the till for 4p and the sales assistant congratulated me on my find, and asked if there was any more but I had the last pair

I'd complain to head office see what they have to say.

I don't mean to sound nasty but maybe she wanted to buy them herself?

we did wonder is she wanted them for her partner, although while we were there questioning the action someone else did come and seem to label them up for removal. we asked for the number for head office but she didnt know it so asked for a supervisor and she said she was the supervisor! she suggested the number at the top of receipt but that was just the local stores number.

quite keen to find out if selling things for 4p is ever illegal! im pretty sure they can sell things for any price they want...would only make sense for the price to show as zero and then say we cant sell it for zero, we must remove the item

monty-doggy

It's not illegal! I've worked in retail management for 15 years and never heard such rubbish! And a supervisor who doesn't know how to contact head office???

Tesco customer services
0800 50 5555

You never know they might send you some vouchers or something by way of an apology. I would if I was receiving this kind of complaint!

SailorSam

In law when shops are selling things they offer what is known as 'an invitation to treat' you then make an offer to buy it and they can even say yes or no.
That's why you can't force them to sell at whatever price comes upon the till.
It seems though you were a bit unlucky, a different cashier may have let it go.

jacques_chirac

When Tesco items are earmarked for return to the warehouse they show on the tills as 1p/ 2p etc, I'm not sure whether the different numbers means anything or if they are just random. Some stores will sell the items, some will not. Nothing sinister about it, and the supervisor would not be able to buy it herself.

Sounds like the illegal comment was a slip of the tongue. It is against company policy, but she would not have been breaking any laws by selling it to you.

mrpinkeye

but i dont see how that process of earmarking items at 4p etc is better than 0p or actually removing the items from the shelves. surly its easier for them to say i cant sell at zero pence than explaining (badly) the situation! i

99% of times when iv had an item scan at less than marked price iv been offered it at that price or at least had the price adjusted to the marked price. both of which i dont mind. but to have a perfectly good item taken away for "disposal" is very strange!

earthstorm

If items are earmarked for return to the warehouse then why are they still on the shop floor, stick them on a stock trolly and then box them up to go back to warehouse on next available lorry. Yes tills wont let you set anything to £0.00.
What I do in my shop with anything that does not sell or a bit worse for ware, is place them in a wire basket and sell them for donations to the local Air Ambulance and its amazing that things that wont sell suddenly sell with donations

mrpinkeye

well they could have made £4 or 4p. instead the only thing they made was one customer very confused and angry!

mattyprice4004

This should be in Praise, Vents and Warnings as there have been no consumer rights broken here. It was probably taken home by the staff member - the same thing happened a few times when I worked for a competing retailer.

I got a good few bargains back in the day!