Page 2 | - to think this was horrible treatment of a 39 weeks pregnant woman by Tesco?

suzikettles · 02/04/2012 19:01

I've never met a tesco delivery driver who didn't take the boxes right into the kitchen of our 3rd floor flat, and we've been using them for 6 or 7 years now.

My front door is the door of my flat, not the communal entrance. I can't see how anyone could argue otherwise.

ElephantsAreMadeOfElements · 02/04/2012 19:02

It's frankly sod all to do with whether or not she's pregnant. As Hecate says, the "delivery address" is the flat itself. Tesco would object soon enough if they were given the block (rather than a flat) as the "billing address". If they won't treat a flat as a delivery address, when their competition will, then they can expect customers to vote with their feet.

suzikettles · 02/04/2012 19:06

Oh and it's not wah wah wah. She just wants what she paid for - her shopping delivered to her door. I guess she could have gone to the store and collected it, but that rather defeats the point of home delivery...

I'm not pg and rtegularly haul stuff up 3 flights of stairs, but I'd not be impressed if tesco tried to get me to do it when I'd paif a fiver plus to deliver to my door

OTTMummA · 02/04/2012 19:09

Well, if he has physical problems then why would he be a delivery driver?
the crates they have to lift off the van are heavy, would taking up her items in bags upstairs been much more trouble for him?

What would he of done if the lady wasn't pregnant, but was recovering from a broken leg, or was in a wheelchair?

I am sure if he told his empolyer that on this occasion it took a little longer deliver shopping because it was a flat, and the customer requested it be delivered to her door they couldn't do anything about it.

I am only 24 weeks pregnant, but have health problems which get worse during pergnancy, towards the end, i am literally housebound, thank goodness for me that i live in a house!
What if the reason the woman got her shopping delivered was because of similar problems?

OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere · 02/04/2012 19:09

Ikea did this to me when I was heavily pg with DC2.
I lived on in a third floor flat
They were delivering a king size bed and mattress
They were going to leave it outside the main door (big block of council flats).
We had a lift and it was working and I had paid £20 (in 1993) to get it delivered.

I did a good impression of a woman about to explode with rage and possibly give birth and they grudgingly bought it upstairs.

Wankers.

Good point about the delivery/billing address. They cant have it both ways.

The delivery is not a courtesy, its a paid for service.

Tesco are crap.

TheSockPuppet · 02/04/2012 19:10

What is she going to do when she has to go out with a baby and a buggy up and down all those stairs...?

OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere · 02/04/2012 19:11

I expect if she was paying someone to carry her child and buggy up the stairs she would complain if they didnt.

GillyMac93 · 02/04/2012 19:12

Not everyone is like this , the drivers in my local tesco are brilliant ,just a one bad driver making a bad name for all the rest ,I think its a tesco policy that if you use your judgment to make a decision they will fully support you in that decision .

TheSockPuppet · 02/04/2012 19:14

But she didn't pay for the delivery man to take the shopping up the stairs, it is in their terms and conditions that it is at the drivers discretion whether they take shopping upstairs or not, they are obliged to take it to the front entrance but are not forced to take it to the front door.

OTTMummA · 02/04/2012 19:16

Maybe she had a healthy start to pregnancy, but at the end has had a complication.
Maybe she is moving soon into a ground floor or a house.
Maybe she has injured herself and has been told to take it easy and not lift anything heavy for x amount of time.
She might use a sling for the first couple of months if she needs to recover, or maybe she will be using paid help, or perhaps she is a surrogate and won't need to be haulling a buggy up and down, or she might get a lightweight pram, or her hallway may have storage space for it,,,,,, endless possibilities there TheSockPuppet

These things don't matter, the fact is that her shopping should of been delivered to her address, her front door, not the communal hallway entrance.

She has paid for a service, and hasn't recieved it, pregnant or not.

TheSockPuppet · 02/04/2012 19:19

She paid for a service to the entrance door, not her front door, there are also endless possibilities why the delivery man didn't haul all of her shopping upstairs for her, if she had told the delivery driver that she had complications, injury, etc, and physically couldn't take the shopping up he may have done it at his own discretion but the article says she asked him to do it because she was pregnant.

TheNightIsDarkAndFullOfTerrors · 02/04/2012 19:19

Well when he has the baby and a buggy to cope with the baby will not be inside her body and she will be able to take them separately.

I lived a few flights up when DD was a baby and managed to get all her stuff for the week at childminders (clothes, nappies, bottles, pushchair) down in shifts on a Monday morning. It was much more doable than being heavily pregnant.

Sounds like the delivery driver was an arse.

cairnterrier · 02/04/2012 19:20

But when she has a baby and buggy to carry, she won't be 39 weeks pregnant with all the stresses and strains that that physically puts on your body.

TheNightIsDarkAndFullOfTerrors · 02/04/2012 19:20

He?

She!

TheSockPuppet · 02/04/2012 19:21

I've been 39 weeks pregnant at the top of 4 flights of stairs and managed to take my own shopping upstairs too.

GavisconJunkie · 02/04/2012 19:21

Yes horrible, but not the norm. I've had very friendly delivery drivers who wanted to help me to the kitchen with stuff when I was only just visibly pregnant.

I'm now 41 weeks and could probably do with going up and down the stairs enough times to get this feckin' kid outta me!

OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere · 02/04/2012 19:27

Well so have I. Lots of times. Doesnt mean I think all pg women should be forced to do it.

We all now Pregnancy Is Not An Illness but when you are 39 weeks pregnant your mobility is significantly impaired and your ligaments are much softer than in your non pregnant state.

It is basic civility to assist a heavily pregnant woman in a situation like this.

And she has paid for the shopping to be delivered to her home.

If she lived in a massive house with a long drive would he have left it at the gates because technically that is where her house started?

I do think the over use of the looming stairwell photo in the blog is quite funny though.

In case we all missed the seriousness of the event

seemedlikeagudideaatthetime · 02/04/2012 19:28

I think it's really, really rubbish and I'd be fuming, pregnancy aside - I agree that the delivery is paid to the door of your home, not some random point on the street that happens to be under a roof!? Pregnant or not, that's what she paid for and it just made it extra awful that she was obviously going to struggle after having paid for this service. Not only that, but Tesco's replies were unprofessional - badly written and sloppily worded. All came across and glib and we-don't-give-a-shit.

Voting with feet the only option.

suzikettles · 02/04/2012 19:30

As a perfectly able bodied flat dweller I can assure Tesco that the first time they refuse to actually deliver to my door will be the day I refuse to sign for it. They can take it all back and chuck out £50 of fresh produce if they really want to. Luckily drivers round here (where all their deliveries are to flats) aren't so jobsworthy.

OTTMummA · 02/04/2012 19:33

We are not all exactly alike TheSockPuppet though are we, i fail to see why your ability to manage just fine has any bearing on this?

If they want to start delivering at the main entrance, then why not just ring the bell and leave the shopping at the end of everyones drive, path, garden?

He simply didn't want to make the effort and do the right thing to help a less abled person.
If this was a disabled person complaining, i doubt tesco would of sent such a shitty letter.

TheSockPuppet · 02/04/2012 19:44

But it wasn't a disabled person OTT, it was a pregnant woman, no other complications or disabilities have been mentioned in the article.

Memoo · 02/04/2012 19:46

This is disgraceful. I think I'm going to avoid tesco from now on.

LittleAlbert · 02/04/2012 19:51

In Glasgow practically everyone is in a flat, up stairs and the delivery drivers have to just get on with it. Cannot leave the shopping in the close (stairwell) as it is a fire exit.

I did have a delivery driver (not Tesco) refuse to carry a heavy box up yo my second floor flat. I was heavily pregnant do made the old got take it back to the depot and then got it redelivered.

smoggii · 02/04/2012 19:55

Very rarely do i defend Tesco but I do know someone who works as a delivery driver for Tesco, I have no doubt that he would have done what was asked BUT these drivers are put under a lot of pressure by the dispatchers and get loads of shit if they are late with deliveries and a big order up three flights of stairs will take a lot of time and they are not required to do it.

I also know that people regularly take the piss out of delivery drivers, refusing to help unpack the crates or being really slow etc

I do wonder how she's going to get the pram up and down those stairs. It is harsh but she has chosen to live there.

roundtable · 02/04/2012 19:58

Feel bad for the pregnant woman. Supermarket deliveries brought my deliveries into the kitchen when I ordered online.

I think she was unlucky and didn't get a kind hearted soul.

There are still plenty of them about though. I've just got back from travelling with a huge rucksack, baby and a buggy on my own from my point of origin, through london and to the end of the country.

So many people went out of their way to help, I was very grateful.

It's a shame the delivery man didn't share these people's ethos. :(