I got assualted in Tesco!

Poppy9

smartsuit wrote: »

There is no law stating that you cant remove an item from the packaging. It is not as if the OP left the open package thee for someone else. THey opened the package to remove a bad item that as it was priced by weight would have made the purchase more expensive, that is tescos wrongdoing and rather than create a fuss the OP removed the item.

The OP was wrong to remove the banana as the whole bag was reduced to reflect that some/all of them were of poorer quality than normal or near to their shelf life. You cannot cherry pick the best bananas, remove the ones you don't like and still pay the reduced price. The OP should have spoke to someone on the fruit department if he wanted the bag but was concerned that one was not fit for human consumption. The checkout operator acted correctly in refusing to sell the item. The store is not obliged to sell you anything if they don't want to.

The staff member who grabbed the phone from the OP was wrong. They had the right to request OP to not photograph and to advise them that if they continued to do so they would be asked to leave the store. Tesco's were wrong to try to detain the OP and to prevent him from leaving the store. The store did not have grounds to detain him as he had not committed a theft or assault on a staff member.

The police do not decide if they proceed with the matter or not. The CPS do. Seen as the CPS have in the past decided to prosecute a woman for 'forgetting' (there is no crime without intent. If you say you didn't intend to steal the item then it's not theft) to pay for a chicken in Asdas then it may well go to court and we will be reading on another thread here "TESCOS PROSECUTED FOR ASSAULTING CUSTOMER OVER A ROTTON BANANA!" .:p

Poppy9

debtdestroyer wrote: »

For those off you who have missed the plot completely and are talking about the actual banana itself let me humour you and explain. There was a box of 4 or 5 bags (the plastic fruit and veg bags you seal stuff in yourself) of bananas moved to the refridgerated aisle and discounted to 20p/kg. Every one of these bags had at least one foul banana inside. I picked the bag that looked best, opened it, and removed the foul banana (which was unfit for sale). I was then told I couldnt purchase the bag because it had been opened. Essentially what they are saying is you purchase the mouldy banana or you dont get the good ones! I said this was not on, and went to take a picture of the foul banana.

But this is why the bananas were 20p per kilo and not 50p per kilo. If you wanted perfect bananas select yourself and pay full price.

If I buy a reduced box of biscuits because a corner has been damaged and a few of the biscuits are broken I cannot remove the broken biscuits. The price I am paying reflects the substandard quality.

anewman

Poppy9 wrote: »

But this is why the bananas were 20p per kilo and not 50p per kilo. If you wanted perfect bananas select yourself and pay full price.

If I buy a reduced box of biscuits because a corner has been damaged and a few of the biscuits are broken I cannot remove the broken biscuits. The price I am paying reflects the substandard quality.

But if the biscuits have not been put all over a mucky floor, then put back in the tin, then you can safely eat them if they are within the specified best before/use by date.

You cannot eat a banana you think is not safe for consumption, and in fact the sale of such goods is illegal. It may be the case that the banana was perfectly satisfactory to eat as someone else here pointed out, but I would never eat a banana with a soft black skin myself. You don't see black bananas for sale normally do you?! Hence there is something inherently unacceptable about a black banana.

IMO tesco should have foreseen that people may not wish to purchase black bananas rather than try force people to buy black bananas. It's not too difficult to make bags of bananas that don't look too bad and price them up cheap and *THROW THE BLACK ONE'S AWAY*. Perhaps OP was just doing the job some lazy tw*t at Tesco being paid minimum wage should have done in the first place.

ckerrd

I don't think Tesco were "forcing" anyone to buy any bananas - whatever colour they were.

A banana with a black skin is not necessarily unfit to eat.

Did the OP say it was black, I thought it was "bad" or "foul"?

What the staff did appears to be well out of order.

What the OP did was wrong too, but two wrongs do not make a right.

Horace

Maybe it is the OP's attitude that is wrong - getting all huffy over a banana. As said before Tesco were exercising their rights in refusing to sell said bag and a reduced price especially as it had been opened and the OP admitted to so doing. A black banana is a ripe banana and that is how they are supposed to be - they're much sweeter served that way it is just that we are used to eating underripe bananas.

OP if you had a problem with the bag, why didnt you speak to an assistant? We only have your side of the story with regard to the phone but if you were acting in an aggressive manner then it is hardly surprising that you were 'mistreated'. Calling the police is a bit excessive considering the situation which looks to me as though it was caused by your goodself. Tesco or any other store for that matter has a right to refuse to sell goods and to not allow photographs to be taken in their store. I think you have bought the situation on yourself by appearing to be unreasonable.

Poppy9

anewman wrote: »

But if the biscuits have not been put all over a mucky floor, then put back in the tin, then you can safely eat them if they are within the specified best before/use by date.

if the packaging is damaged they could have been contaminated by human hands etc.

anewman wrote:

You cannot eat a banana you think is not safe for consumption, and in fact the sale of such goods is illegal.

so if the OP thought it was unfit for human consumption why didn't he point it out to the store?

anewman wrote:

It may be the case that the banana was perfectly satisfactory to eat as someone else here pointed out, but I would never eat a banana with a soft black skin myself. You don't see black bananas for sale normally do you?! Hence there is something inherently unacceptable about a black banana.

and that is why Tesco was selling it at well below the normal price. Because it was of inferior quality. You can see it's not practical to have reduced fruit loose for self selection as crafty shoppers will put full price fruit in the bags so the fruit has to be bagged up. You then decide whether you are happy with the quality at the reduced price.

anewman wrote:

IMO tesco should have foreseen that people may not wish to purchase black bananas rather than try force people to buy black bananas. It's not too difficult to make bags of bananas that don't look too bad and price them up cheap and *THROW THE BLACK ONE'S AWAY*.

Tesco were not forcing anyone to buy the black bananas. They bagged them up cheap because they were old and poor quality/appearance. They obviously know that people will buy black bananas so why send them to land fill if someone is happy to pay a few pence for them? Just because they are not to your taste doesn't mean they are not to someone elses taste.

anewman wrote:

Perhaps OP was just doing the job some lazy tw*t at Tesco being paid minimum wage should have done in the first place.

that is a bit harsh. Perhaps the employee was instructed to bag up a box of old bananas making sure that each bag was of similar quality.

The OP, like all customers had a choice. If you don't like the way Tesco try to sell off their 'old' food, don't shop there or don't buy it. If he wanted a bag of reduced bananas he could choose whether to accept their inferior appearance/quality of the whole bag, as that what it was priced up at. The OP wasn't being forced to buy them. As I said in the earlier post, if OP thought it unfit for human consumption then he should have brought it to the stores attention or left the bag on the shelf.

He should not have tried to buy a bag of decent bananas for the price of non-decent bananas. IMO that is fraud.



Ps - black bananas are great for adding to a curry as the sugar in them sweetens the dish.

elljay20

smartsuit wrote: »

There is no law stating that you cant remove an item from the packaging. It is not as if the OP left the open package thee for someone else. THey opened the package to remove a bad item that as it was priced by weight would have made the purchase more expensive, that is tescos wrongdoing and rather than create a fuss the OP removed the item. Then was "assaulted" well, treated wrongly at least.
Then the op makes a reference to ethinicity. I read it as a way of describing a member of staff, you cant tell the police what clothes they were wearing as they all have the same uniform on! SO the next best way is to tell them the colour of thier skin. Unfortunatly in this over PC world, this is seen as racism by some narrow minded bigots!
Rant over

i agree fully with this, it's a descriptive word, the op clearly says that they had copy and pasted their statement.
calm down everyone and stop being so mean.

mishkanorman

Poppy9

surely your argument/point is only vaild if the OP went and added edible bananas to his bag after removing less than perfect ones ??

He hasnt really 'cherry picked the best' as he has ended up with less bananas in a bag than he would have done if he kept the nasty one ?? the price was calculated with more weight in it that he was actually getting so in effect he was paying too much money.

I think the reaction from tescos was wrong, he attempted to buy something and was refused, he then commited the awful sin of photographing it ! Even without the others wading in that guy had no right to lay his hands on a shopper.


mishka

elljay20

Poppy9 wrote: »

The OP was wrong to remove the banana as the whole bag was reduced to reflect that some/all of them were of poorer quality than normal or near to their shelf life. You cannot cherry pick the best bananas, remove the ones you don't like and still pay the reduced price. The OP should have spoke to someone on the fruit department if he wanted the bag but was concerned that one was not fit for human consumption. The checkout operator acted correctly in refusing to sell the item. The store is not obliged to sell you anything if they don't want to.

The staff member who grabbed the phone from the OP was wrong. They had the right to request OP to not photograph and to advise them that if they continued to do so they would be asked to leave the store. Tesco's were wrong to try to detain the OP and to prevent him from leaving the store. The store did not have grounds to detain him as he had not committed a theft or assault on a staff member.

The police do not decide if they proceed with the matter or not. The CPS do. Seen as the CPS have in the past decided to prosecute a woman for 'forgetting' (there is no crime without intent. If you say you didn't intend to steal the item then it's not theft) to pay for a chicken in Asdas then it may well go to court and we will be reading on another thread here "TESCOS PROSECUTED FOR ASSAULTING CUSTOMER OVER A ROTTON BANANA!" .:p

why not? the other ones are still reduced bananas, it's not like he put full price ones in instead and they were charging by weight anyway. it's not like here we have a mixed bag of bananas for 50p.

superscaper

mishkanorman wrote: »

Poppy9

surely your argument/point is only vaild if the OP went and added edible bananas to his bag after removing less than perfect ones ??

He hasnt really 'cherry picked the best' as he has ended up with less bananas in a bag than he would have done if he kept the nasty one ?? the price was calculated with more weight in it that he was actually getting so in effect he was paying too much money.

I think the reaction from tescos was wrong, he attempted to buy something and was refused, he then commited the awful sin of photographing it ! Even without the others wading in that guy had no right to lay his hands on a shopper.


mishka

That's a good point, he's not gaining anything from it and Tesco's aren't losing anything. It's absolutely no different than the people who choose to leave excess packaging at the supermarket rather than throwing it away when they get home.