to be raging at being accused of thievery by Tesco?

[BlessYouToo]

Rushed round Tesco yesterday after school as DD was not feeling well and I had left her sitting in the car. Found a self service till empty and quickly scanned my items. Made the payment by debit card and stood waiting for my receipt to come out of the till.

It did'nt, then the till screen went blank. So I called over a till assistant and said I needed a receipt. She checked her computer and said that the payment could not have gone through as it was not showing on her machine. I insisted that the payment on the chip and pin went through fine but she would not have it. She called over the checkout manager who went out to the back office to check the 'mainframe' computer.

I was stood there at the tills for over 20 minutes at this point. Whilst waiting for the checkout manager to come back, I said to the till supervisor that I needed to get going because my DD was in the car and could they please leave my receipt at customer services and I would pick it up later. She puts a hand on my trolley to prevent me from leaving with it (cue blood boiling) and says that I would have to wait!

Anyway the checkout manager comes back and says that I could not have put the items through the till as it is not showing and I would have to put them through again and pay for them this time .

I was rather irate at this point and dumped the trolley there and walked out. I get home and ring my bank and yes, the amount of money has been taken out of my bank but will not show on my statement until Monday. So I came out of Tesco accused of trying to walk out with items I had not put through the till and had not paid for although I have paid for them after all and not got them!

There was a massive queue all listening in to this and I was mortified. I have shopped there for over 6 years week in, week out. I am bloody furious. OK there was a problem with their computers which can't be helped but don't treat your bloody customers like scum!

AIBU to go apeshit in there on Monday (when I can print out my bank statement)?

YANBU.

How old is your DD?

It's not Tesco's fault that you left her in the car, or that you were busy, or whatever.

What do you expect them to do?

Raise hell!

This same thing happened to me at Sainsbury's - I had melting ice cream on my hands whilst they dicked about in the back room trying to check things out. Meanwhile, the queue is tutting at me and my husband thinking we're clearly shoplifters.

Make a scene and get a load of compensation!

YANBU. How awful. I would phone the manager today rather than leave it until Monday. Don't go apeshit. Controlled fury will achieve more.

YANBU at all. I would make sure that Tesco know you are going back just in case they try to say you took the stuff with you.

Yes YABU

Of course you couldn't leave the store with the shopping if it was showing up to them that you hadn't paid for it.

It's not their fault you left your DD in the car and you could quite easily have left the shopping, got your DD and continued to sort it out.

It must have been annoying for you (and them) but not something to go ape shit about considering the payment won't show up for a while for them either.

Computers sometimes fuck up. It's shit for everyone, for the customers and for the staff.

You didn't know that the money had been taken and the transaction had completed.

You weren't accused of being a thief, you were treated as a person who didn't know if they had paid or not. Because you didn't.

i feel for you id be mortified i dont use them machines i dont trust them i cant stand them. i went on one of them machines once i had this cocky assistant to help me and it was at tesco. never again

why didn't you go to the car , get your dd and go back in and ring your bank?

It is their fault that their system is so unreliable that it cannot properly record transactions though. I'd be livid if they tried to make me pay for my shopping twice.

YANBU. Payment issues aside they treated you like a thief in public, to an audience. There are much better ways they could have handled it

sorry, but if they don't see the payment (system error or not) what are they supposed to do?

Oh those self service tills.
A much lesser issue than yours op but still irritating.
I was paying for my shopping and decided to tip my purse full of change in machine as part payment. [Ages ago told this was ok after being spotted putting money in one coin at a time].
Machine just went haywire and then blank. Anyways lovely guy at self service so couldn't get cross but took about 20 min to sort out and I did lose money because they asked how many coins did I put through. Well no bloody idea but probably less than a fiver. Got given back 3 quid and couldn't be arsed to ask for more. Staff lovely though and I wasn't in a hurry.

What is "so unreliable" though DID? How many transactions do they handle a day, and how often does this happen? One time in a million? One in ten million? You can't call something "unreliable" just because something happens once.

How on earth was she treated like a thief?

She was trying to leave the store with shopping that no-one could be sure she paid for because she wanted to rush off to her DD in the car instead of staying to sort it out.

Stopping her from leaving with the goods at that point is not treating her like a thief, it's just common sense.

YANBU

Tesco "Customer Services" accused me of shoplifting when I took a nativity costume back that I wanted to exchange for a smaller size on Monday. I was stood there being made to feel like a criminal (security guard I had just walked passed said I hadn't just brought the costume in with me) with people I know from nursery watching. I couldn't find the receipt but didn't think it would matter as wanted an exchange on a item with tags etc still on. They eventually changed it "as a goodwill gesture". So I will now be shopping at Sainsburys "as a goodwill gesture". Bastards.

The system is unreliable if it cannot reliably record every single transaction. If you cannot rely on it to be correct, then it is by definition unreliable.

I am probably BU but Tescos are bastards. Its not their fault that their pc was on the blink (nor yours) but they have a habit of treating you as a theif first rather than accepting it may be a mistake.

I speak as someone who was arrested and questioned for 4 hours in a police station due to a genuine error on my part. As soon as I realised my mistake (the second I was tapped on the shoulder by security) I offered to pay (as I'm sure many actual thieves do!) and DID pay, I was called a theif and a liar in front of my two small children and the security man said if I 'fessed up' I'd get a 6 month ban from the store, as I didn't (as I hadn't intentionally left without paying for some goods) I was banned for life!

Anyhoo.... I wasn't charged, just questioned and the CPS decided no further action would be taken, but my details will forever be on file in 'connection' with this incident. I'm still cross 3 years on!

Not about the ins and outs of what happened but the treatment I received so for that OP YANBU to be seethingly angry. Even though it was probably a genuine mistake.

Wait until Monday when you've cooled down, them arm yourself with the evidence and go back to speak to them. Drop a few hints about compensation, and you might come out with some vouchers. Righteous indignation and cool fury, rather than frothing and screaming, should be the strategy, I think!

YABU. Things go wrong sometimes, and you were unlucky.

You could have left the trolley, gone and got your daughter and then paid for the shopping when you returned.

The issue was that you had left your daughter in the car. If you hadn't, it would have just been a minor inconvenience having to re-enter your items.

Don't write to them, it would be a complete joke to the office staff.

They handled it very badly - what they should have said is "madam, we are very sorry that our system is down at the moment and we are unable to verify the sale. Rather than risk charging you twice please take the goods but we just need to take some details in case the transaction has not gone through. Please come with me while we take your name, address and card number. We will call you later to let you know if the transaction has shown on our system - if it has then we will print out the receipt and post it to you. If not we will charge your card here and then send you the receipt from that transaction."

There system crashed (which can happen to any system) it didn't show it had gone through, at that point you couldn't prove it had gone through yet your angry they didn't let you walk out with the shopping?

You should have just contacted your bank there and then and sorted it!

sam100 Maybe if the OP hadn't told them that she needed to get going because her DD was in the car, that's exactly what they would have done?

She expected them to simply leave the receipt at customer services for her to pick up later.

Tesco deal with shoplifters day in day out. People are always trying it on. How are they supposed to tell the difference between a shoplifter and an honest person who has experienced a computer error ? It's not tattooed on peoples' foreheads. Try to see it from their perspective. It sounds to me that you were rather shirty and the staff have reacted in in a similar vein.

Go in when you have your statement and get a receipt. I presume you have got some sort of record from them of who to contact ?

refund, not receipt