Tesco

Mister.G_3

Has anyone else noticed that Tesco have upped the price of SMA white (for hungrier babys) by 70p per tin over the last 7 days. I e-mailed them saying i thought it was way over the inflation rate and got this (slightly patronising) reply:-

Thank you for your email.

I was sorry to learn that you are disappointed with the recent price increases in our store and I appreciate your views.

Unfortunately, some price increases are often out with our control. We do try to hold these back as long as possible, because our aim is to offer our customers the best service, quality and value for money that we can.

It can however be slightly misleading to look at the prices of a few selected products. We are confident that we offer highly competitive prices throughout our extensive range of products and excellent value for money overall.

Our buyers work very hard to negotiate the best prices available and when we do obtain any price reductions, we pass them on to our customers immediately.

I hope this has reassured you and I would like to thank you for your comments.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us at customer.service@tesco.co.uk quoting TES719421X.

Regards

******* ******
Tesco Customer Service

Does anyone think there are grounds to take this further as i fail to see how they can justify increasing the price so significantly!?!

Rex_Mundi

The only way you would have any grounds for complaint is if all the other big shops upped their prices too. Then there may be a (small) chance of price fixing. Which is against the law.

Shops can and do charge what they can get away with. They are there to make a profit. Not keep our shopping bill down. Part of your job as a consumer is to find the best prices for you. If you don't like the price of a product in one place. Go somewhere else.

I think it's nice that you got a reply to your email at all. For sure, a lot of companies wouldn't have even bothered to reply.

Mister.G_3

Thank-you for taking the time to reply - however i have a couple of small discrepancies with what you're saying.

Firstly - if all supermarkets had increased their prices by the same amount this wouldn't so much be an indication of price fixing as an indication of a genuine price increase by the manufacturer of the product. Tesco talk about holding off their price increases for as long as possible yet when using their price checking software all the other major supermarkets have the same product at the lower price of £5.74.

Secondly - whilst shops can and do charge what they want i find it slightly patronising that Tesco expect the average young family to swallow an increase of this size as an offset of (for example) 5p of a carton of orange juice. Information published recently shows that Tesco take £1 in every £8 on the high street - not just the supermarkets - the ENTIRE high street. They will continue to do so whilst people like yourself have the blase attitude that 'they can and do charge what they want'. You also talk about 'my job as a consumer' yet the entire purpose and ethos behind this website is to give consumers a collective voice to speak out with.

Lastly - It's 'not nice that they replied to my e-mail at all' - it's my right as a consumer which is why all businesses are obliged to provide some means of contact for problem, query and complaint resolution. People talk about Britain being a nation of complainers but when it comes down to it (as it's been said on here before) the average person is more prepared to lie back and shoulder any service or product compaint they may have than to actually stand up and complain about it.

Just as an aside - although i may have a low post count now this is the first time i've used the board in some time. I did post for some time before the forum software was updated so any belief you may have that i'm some 'newbie' purely here to create waves is incorrect and unfounded.

To show this i'll finish this post the way i started it by saying thank-you - i may not agree with what you said but you're the only person that's taken the time to reply to me.

Rex_Mundi

My main advice to you was and is. If you think one shop is too expensive on a product. Buy it elsewhere! I can't think of any more simple answer to this problem. Writing to Tesco will not do any good if they can still see the product selling well.

We take my nan shopping in Tescos every 2 weeks for her regular shopping. We used to think that to save another trip that week (we like Asda), we'll do our shopping as well. Our bills at Tesco were on average £20/£30 more expensive. Now we could have written to Tesco and received the same standard reply that you have. Or, we could just help nan at Tescos and do our shopping elsewhere (this is what we do). We voted with our feet. If more people did this, I think you'll find prices change faster than if everyone just wrote to them complaining at the prices but still shopped there.

I have written to quite a few companies (email and letter) in the past to complain. I still think it was at least nice of Tesco to answer, even if you didn't like what they said. I can tell you from experience, not every company will reply.

Just as an aside - although i may have a low post count now this is the first time i've used the board in some time. I did post for some time before the forum software was updated so any belief you may have that i'm some 'newbie' purely here to create waves is incorrect and unfounded.

Sorry you've lost me on this bit. I didn't look at your post count untill I came accross this part of your message. Everyones view is just as valid, whether you have posted once or a thousand times (IMHO).

Now to be constructive (hopefully).

Why don't you ask in the I wanna buy it or do it board if anyone knows of a cheaper supplier of this milk. You never know, it may be available out there for cheaper than you've been paying up to now.

Turning_into_scrooge

Hi

Just a thought but can you not buy the powdered milk from the local health center? I do know that years ago you could buy it here and at allot lower price too than in the shops, you could pre order it and bulk buy too. Maybe worth a look. Its hard on the finances when you've children and its even harder when prices go up. I agree with you that the price hike Tesco has set does seem rather high

heather38

just a suggestion. next time you are in a pharmacy (doesn't matter which one) as the counter staff to look up the price of the milk in the chemist and druggist. it is a book producted monthly by the pharmaceutical companies and it will tell you the rrp of the milk, also the price fixing thing rubbish, by law companies are not allowed to promote powdered baby milk either with special offers or advertisements (to stop women giving up breast feeding) so you may find that the milk has been put up in price by the manufacturers not tesco and everybody else may soon follow suit.
hope this helps

Rex_Mundi

also the price fixing thing rubbish

The only reason I mentioned that there is a (small) chance of this is because I had not long read THIS story. I should have mentioned after that the manufacturers could have raised the price, but I thought this was obvious.

Melissa22_Mum

In our local tesco they have reduced the prices of some baby milks and baby products, they've probably upped the price of the others to suppliment this i'll keep my eye out for this though...........