Tesco - damaged goods, do they let you keep them?

[Onequestiononetime]

I've had Tesco deliveries for years. If something is damaged or a short shelf life they have always refunded the price but we still keep the product
With damaged goods, they can't resell them anyway.

I don't take advantage of their generosity and only mention it if something is pretty obviously damaged or eat by the same day etc. More often they point it out to me when we unpack. I've had deliveries for about 15 years most weeks and this has happened fairly frequently.

Anyway, I had a delivery on holiday (in the UK) recently, and some cream meringues had got squished by products being put on top. So obviously squished, caved in meringues, which I pointed out. The driver gave me the refund but then went to take the cakes away.

I queried this and was told that I could keep the item but then I would be charged full price for it, all get a refund and forfeit it, with the squished product presumably being thrown away (or scoffed in the van...). Firstly he said he couldn't for high value items - they were about £1.50 and then that we are only allowed to keep it if It is an essential item such as milk and bread.

I later got it refunded by the Tesco WhatsApp customer service.

Is he right and I've just always had unusually generous drivers? Is he interpreting the rules overly strictly because he's relatively new (he was.very young, I'm thinking 18-19). Or am I just cheeky and should be happy going without desert as long as we have a refund? Am I being cheeky expecting to eat mangled damaged goods and still get a refund? I'd happily pay a reduced price for them btw, but not an option.

You've been very fortunate in being given food with damaged packaging free in the past, that was a kindness by the supermarket, certainly not a right. This time you had the choice of buy them, or don't have them instead. It doesn't matter what happened to them, you're not entitled to free stuff.

Ok, some people seem to think I'm talking about:

• damaged packaging
• stuff I just changed my mind on/substitutions I didn't want.

That's not what I'm meaning. Examples over the years:

• frozen food that has arrived defrosted and has to be eaten immediately
• a small bunch of flowers with several broken stems/heads fallen off
• bread rolls where they've put drinks on top totally flattening them.
• leaking cream
• delicate puddings that have been crushed, by things being put on top of them.

None of the stuff is in a saleable condition, even with a yellow sticker. It's edible but virtually worthless in terms of £ value.

I’m in Dublin and with Tesco for the last 20 years . Only rarely do the drivers leave the returned items with me .
And I am always super grateful. Would never try to return the items for a refund and then ask to keep it ! Really cheeky .
What Tesco does with the returned products is none of your business .

I think if it was the norm here it would be fine, I'd be expecting it, but it's a change from their normal practice, which I've become used to.

Still I'll be at home for my next shop and back to the usual drivers who seem to use any excuse to refund me. Maybe it's because I give them ice cream in hot weather or something 😂.

I'm puzzled though why so many people are keen to say that it's wrong I should benefit from this food whilst ignoring the question of why I should be forced to decide between inconveniencing myself with an extra shopping trip that I may not have time for or paying full price for goods which Tesco would y even still got a reduced price.

Would you walk into a supermarket with a damaged item and ask for a refund but tell them you’ll keep the product anyway?
With refunds you hand the item back over and get your money back. If your driver offers you the item then great but I think it’s cheeky to expect it

My Tesco driver always lets me keep, bruised fruit, short sell by dates etc.

If I was in the supermarket i could have picked an alternative item.

If I was in the supermarket they wouldn't be selling that item because it's too damaged to sell.

Why should Tesco gain financially in selling worthless goods, because someone doesn't have the time to go to a shop to buy a replacement.

Take for example, an elderly housebound person who can afford one delivery a week. A refund is pointless because they can't easily get a replacement. I guess they should pay full price and get a shoddy service with flattened bread, defrosted food that won't keep, half the eggs they need and the milk leaving, because the alternative is they go without.

It's not so important for me, but I am on holiday, nowhere near a supermarket and don't have access to a car. I'd like to have my dessert that I'm preferred and the shop said they were delivering please. I'm not going to eat money, but equally, I'm not going to be able to buy a replacement.

In all seriousness though, maybe for damaged but not unsafe foods, a compromise of keep it for half the price would be better. Everyone knows where they are and it reduces food waste.

It's not the same. The driver probably doesn't want to take them back just to throw away. Also sometimes I don't have time to inspect all the dates while the driver is here so I request a refund on WhatsApp. What should I do then, drive to the nearest store to return it?

No, I didn't think it was that you didn't like the items, I get that there was damage, it makes no difference - if you want to keep it, pay for it, if you don't they have every right to take it back.

Can you imagine explaining this in a court of law? "The supermarket very kindly let me keep damaged stuff sometimes in the past, even tho they refunded my money, so I believe I'm entitled to keep the damaged items free, always". I don't think you'd get far...

You did think it was just packaging

"You've been very fortunate in being given food with damaged packaging free in the past".

This has got nothing to do with a court. I'm not dating I'm legally entitled to it, just wondering what Tesco's practice was because I'm this location it was different.

It's clearly good customer service though to give the customer the food that they'd otherwise chuck in the bin. There is no benefit for Tesco in taking to back. Zilch. It's just extra for them to dispose of.

What do people think about offering them half price? So keep them for half price or they get returned? Everyone wins then!

If this wasn't the norm, they wouldn't have the WhatsApp service to request a refund.

No I think they should be free. E.g. I usually have my delivery at 10pm. Last week the peaches bb date was the next day. They were also looking a bit ropey probably because of the heat. There was no way we wanted to eat 4 peaches the next day but we had 2 of them because they were free.

I get that (and agree tbh), but as an alternative to them insisting on full price or you don't get the food.

Well, yes then but luckily I have always been offered the food.

I meant if you bought something in a supermarket and didn’t realise until you got home and had to return it, surely you wouldn’t expect a refund and the item?

In your case that you’ve given it’s a bad example because if you can eat the broken meringues and you really can’t go without them, what’s the need for the refund if you’re going to eat them? They’re not inedible.

What should I do then, drive to the nearest store to return it?

Thats not the same though is it?

They always say if you don’t want something hand it back to the driver for a refund. OP didn’t want the damaged meringues so she should hand them back to the driver

If you picked them up off the shelf and saw they were broken, would you put them back and get unbroken ones, or shrug that who cares and buy them anyway?

I did want the meringues. I didn't want to have the choice between paying full price for products damaged to the extent they are unsellable, or going without my pudding. That's unfair.

What Tesco’s decides to do with them isn’t your business.

They weren’t in a fit state for your intended use, you return them and get the money back.

no further action needed.

If they were in a fit state to be consumed you didn’t need your money back.

They weren't in a saleable state, so why should Tesco make profit out of them because people are pressured into accepting damaged goods by necessity?

I agree with your earlier comment tbh. I think if damaged but you still want them you should get given a partial refund, the same way items damaged that are sold with yellow stickers are cheaper as understand damaged items given for free are a loss to the supermarket. It would be wild to pay full price for a damaged product when it’s not your fault

No one pressured you to accept damaged goods. You are being refunded. The damaged goods were returned.

Our supermarkets donate returned goods that are fit to eat but not to sell to various charities, including places that provide free meals to homeless children.

I honestly think it's a middle ground that could work if they stop giving them for free.

It would need to be a substantial discount though as the level of damage we are talking about usually is far greater than the yellow sticker items. Most of them are either short shelf life or damaged packaging, rather than damaged products, which is what we are talking about here. So things that wouldn't even make it into bargain shelf.

It's also doing Tesco a favour as disposal will cost them money.

And no they can't donate them to a food bank as most won't accept damaged goods (yes I've checked the Trussell trusts policy).

I just don't see what Tesco gets with taking them away, apart from extra work and expense to them to dispose of. Letting the customer keep them is good for customer service and portrait saves them money. It doesn't make much sense to me.

Leaving damaged items with you opens the possibility of fraud.
For example, a driver could deliver a fancy food shop to his mates and "write off" steaks as damaged, wine as leaking, ice cream as melted, cakes squished,at the same time as sorting a refund for those same items.
I imagine some gangs would be on it at a large scale and would resell their loot.
A substantial discount would be abused all the same.
There's too many thieving dickheads around to consider the preferences of the few honest people left.
Staff are not allowed to take anything broken for the same reasons. Damages have to be recorded, discounted if still safe to consume and then put on the shelves to sell where everyone can buy them.