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Original poster

Terrible customer service - this time it's TESCO

111 replies

wasntlikethisinthegoodolddays · 04/06/2024 08:52

Totally fed up of bad customer service! What do you make of this?

On 22 May, I bought a reduced meal for 2 at Tesco - a "Finest Chicken in Prosecco sauce". Checked the packet to make sure it was okay to freeze. Went home, put it in the freezer. Sunday night, I moved it from the freezer to the fridge to defrost, with the intention of eating it on Monday night for dinner.

So, Monday night, I look at the back of the pack for cooking instructions, and I notice on the back, in tiny letters it says “not suitable for home freezing”. Very odd, because it says the opposite on the front.

Husband and I decide it's not worth taking a risk and eating it, especially with it being chicken. The local Tesco is only 5 minutes up the road, so a pain in the bum, but I get coat and shoes on and drive up there to take it back.

Fully expected Tesco to be shocked at the conflicting instructions on the packet, but no, the woman on the customer service desk, immediately says they can't take it back because :

It's not fresh.

It's been frozen.

They don’t know if I froze it on the day I bought it.

They don’t know whether I defrosted it properly.

I got it reduced anyway (it was still £4).

The date on it is 22 May, so I didn't buy it recently.

How any of the above is relevant, I don't know. No apologies for the inconvenience. In fact assistant was quite snappy.

I asked assistant if she would be happy with this if she were me, to which she replied that she wouldn’t have brought it back, because she would have realised that SHE had made a mistake!

How is this my mistake? Ah, apparently I should have not taken the sign on the front at face value, and I should have read all of the small print on the back of the packet before purchasing. Hmm.

After arguing my point, I eventually got my £4 back on a gift card. Which didn’t work at the check out. Brilliant.

I'm pretty sure that some people (we have a lot of elderly people here) may have walked away £4 down, which could be quite a chunk of their daily shopping budget.

OP posts:
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5
Shefliesonherownwings · 04/06/2024 16:48

I just couldn't get worked up about something like this. Surely there are more important things to worry about and take action on.

Rosebel · 04/06/2024 16:45

wasntlikethisinthegoodolddays · 04/06/2024 10:30

I'm not really asking whether other people would have eaten it, or taken it back or complained etc. The fact is that I did. It's 5 minutes up the road. Yes, I took the whole thing back. If I had just taken the packaging, it may have looked like we had eaten the product. After deciding not to risk eating it, I had to buy something else for dinner anyway.

The issue is how the staff member treated me. She actually said that if she had been the customer, she would not have returned it, as she would have realised that the mistake was hers. How can that be right, when the packaging has an error on it? A simple sorry and a refund would have been great. Not all the arguing and belittling.

I will be complaining. I got her name. She was horrible.

Is there anything you don't complain about?

Tlolljs · 04/06/2024 16:21

I probably would have eaten it too tbh. But that’s not really the issue. The issue is incorrect labelling. Seems like the best thing to have done was contact customer services via e mail but again why should we.
Incorrect labelling can be fatal don’t forget.

ThatMother2024 · 04/06/2024 16:07

If OP rocked up to the till and was £4 short, Tesco would give her short shrift. They wouldn’t say don’t worry. It’s only £4. She wouldn’t be able to purchase what she wanted. So why should people not expect Tesco to refund £4?

Katemax82 · 04/06/2024 16:04

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Rude

ThatMother2024 · 04/06/2024 16:01

Their customer service is crap - I spoke to them recently after being charged 118% increase for a meal due to my child having ASD and they defended their policies to the hilt. There was no apology or finesse either.

So stupid as when customers take against you for something minor, you are going to lose out a lot more profit than if you had just been pleasant & put it right.

nettytree · 04/06/2024 15:56

I work in tesco, and we have a colleague on our csd who will argue with customers about refunds like this. Its like the money is coming out of her personal bank account. Its embarrassing.

Needmorelego · 04/06/2024 15:46

@parkrun500club by the customer emailing head office directly it's probably quicker though.
Cuts out the middlemen (ie the staff member in the shop).

parkrun500club · 04/06/2024 15:36

ouch321 · 04/06/2024 09:23

She was in the wrong but you shouldn't have gone back to store. Should have emailed customer services head office with the pics. In store assistants won't be in a position to organize changes to the packaging for future batches.

They can escalate it upwards. And supermarkets have customer service desks - to erm provide service to customers! There's no obligation on a customer to contact head office at all!

timenowplease · 04/06/2024 15:20

Honestly OP, what a palaver over nothing. It would have been fine to eat. If you wanted to make the point it would have been more useful to email head office.

shearwater2 · 04/06/2024 15:20

I wouldn't bother about getting my £4 back from the store nor would have bothered going in. It's a product labelling issue so I would personally Just send a picture of the conflicting instructions on the packaging to them on X or email, or on their website if they have a "Contact us" link.

I started getting deliveries from Sainsbury's and they were pretty reliable except that sometimes they didn't notice, say, that I had ordered 400g of something and only substituted it for 200g worth. I wrote them a note about it in a general feedback form and thought it probably wouldn't have any effect but the substitutions have been incredibly reliable ever since.

LakeTiticaca · 04/06/2024 13:04

As long as it was piping hot throughout it would be fine.
I would have eaten it 😋

Original poster
wasntlikethisinthegoodolddays · 04/06/2024 12:51

jeomeollibyeoldul · 04/06/2024 12:24

from the responses the shop assistant gave you in your first post it sounds like maybe you didnt get the point across properly--ie that the packaging was the issue? is that a possibility? there may be policies where they arent allowed to take back food within certain amount of time/if it has been frozen etc which regardless of your complaint why would they break? you would not have gotten sick from it, why would you be any more likely to get food poisoning from this than from any other ready meal? anyway you got your money back in the end so i think its time to move on.

They should be able to adapt, when it is THEIR mistake. This "Computer says no" business is tedious. I showed her the packaging and the "suitable for freezing" logo on the front, but she was having none of it. It was, in her words, MY mistake for not reading the back and then somehow knowing which statement was correct.

Imagine buying a gluten free product, for example, and finding in tiny words on the back "may contain gluten". It's not good enough.

I agree that it was probably okay to eat, but I didn't want to risk it quite frankly. And why should I?

Incidentally there were 2 identical meals in the fridge, but she wouldn't let me take one of those as a replacement. I mean, why?

She wanted to "win" the argument at all costs. She spoke to me like shit actually, and said it's YOUR mistake.

I've sent in complaint, which they are taking seriously.

OP posts:
Original poster
wasntlikethisinthegoodolddays · 04/06/2024 12:42

IncompleteSenten · 04/06/2024 12:16

You mean the big label on the front of the pack that says "Suitable For Freezing"? That one. She read that.

So your argument is that she is at fault because she read the front of the pack where it said suitable for freezing and she thought that meant it was suitable for freezing whereas she should have thought hmm, maybe suitable for freezing means it is not suitable for freezing so I should read all the small print on the back to ascertain whether the big writing on the front that says suitable for freezing means it's suitable for freezing or means it's not suitable for freezing.

Good to know. 👍

Show quote history

This is pure genius. Thank you, gave me a great laugh, and just about sums up the ridiculousness of the situation!!

OP posts:
RiceCrispyCakes · 04/06/2024 12:41

wasntlikethisinthegoodolddays · 04/06/2024 09:25

Really didn't want to risk food poisoning. I had to go back to the shop anyway, as there was nothing else in for dinner (all other main meals are frozen and wouldn't defrost in time). I know it's only £4. We aren't short of cash. But it's the principle with things like this. I actually bought something from Asda in the end. A lovely beef dish. It said £4.95 on the shelf, and it went through the till at £5.50. Yes, I went to customer services and got my 55p back. It clearly wasn't my day yesterday 😂

Show quote history

You wouldn't have risked food poisoning as you froze it straight away it would have been the same freshness.
It just means freezing it may affect the quality/taste of the meal not that it wouldn't be suitable for eating.
I would have just eaten it.. Waste of a meal.

jeomeollibyeoldul · 04/06/2024 12:24

from the responses the shop assistant gave you in your first post it sounds like maybe you didnt get the point across properly--ie that the packaging was the issue? is that a possibility? there may be policies where they arent allowed to take back food within certain amount of time/if it has been frozen etc which regardless of your complaint why would they break? you would not have gotten sick from it, why would you be any more likely to get food poisoning from this than from any other ready meal? anyway you got your money back in the end so i think its time to move on.

DappledThings · 04/06/2024 12:18

Load of fuss about nothing. Nobody needed to lost £4 or waste their own time going back to the shop. It's a bit annoying the information was conflicting but it wouldn't have been dangerous to freeze it.

Yes anyone in the shop should always be polite but it's only your own time you've chosen to waste heading up there in the first place

IncompleteSenten · 04/06/2024 12:16

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

You mean the big label on the front of the pack that says "Suitable For Freezing"? That one. She read that.

So your argument is that she is at fault because she read the front of the pack where it said suitable for freezing and she thought that meant it was suitable for freezing whereas she should have thought hmm, maybe suitable for freezing means it is not suitable for freezing so I should read all the small print on the back to ascertain whether the big writing on the front that says suitable for freezing means it's suitable for freezing or means it's not suitable for freezing.

Good to know. 👍

LookItsMeAgain · 04/06/2024 12:08

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Customer read the front of the package which stated that it was suitable for freezing.
Bought product.
Took product home.
Customer reads the back of the package where it states in very small font that the product is not suitable for freezing.

So the customer is wrong here???????????????????????????

Rubbishconfession · 04/06/2024 11:55

My local's Tesco's is very good with food refunds, they don't quibble at all. They just bin the returned item.

I was shocked to see this behaviour on YT by a staff member though. Not good.

Caught on Camera: Confrontation over Alleged Unpaid Items Escalates!

in this video a tesco worker makes accusations the customer hasn't paid for thier items. The customer records the interaction To then be assaulted By the Tes...

https://youtu.be/Bf4eIrFRTPo?si=Xn39nz2gfBGHdnCb

mitogoshi · 04/06/2024 11:51

In these cases you contact customer services by phone or email, they refund automatically. Though personally I would have eaten it anyway

CassandraProphesying · 04/06/2024 11:28

Yes the no freezing issue because of texture and taste compromise not food safety but that’s irrelevant really, the food labelling error is far more serious for all the reason Jc2001 points out. Tesco should be thanking you not dismissing you.
Send it to their X profile maybe - they seem to take that more seriously.

PissOffJeffrey · 04/06/2024 11:11

It sounds as though the Customer Service Assistant you met has been to the same charm school as the Customer Service Manager in our local Tesco Extra. You need to be made of strong stuff to have the audacity to trouble her with a complaint of any sort.

FWIW, it's not whether your complaint was valid that matters, it's the response you received.

Disturbia81 · 04/06/2024 11:07

EmilyTjP · 04/06/2024 09:35

This is so pathetic it’s depressing. £4. To actually come on mumsnet to complain about it too. Do something with your life OP 🤦🏼‍♀️

Fucking hell read the room, £4 is a lot to waste for many, many people. The point is the OP shouldn't have had to face an argument from customer service, just apologise and refund.