to advise you that Tesco are liars and have stolen my money....

[SweetSeraphim]

A warning for you all.

My card was declined on Tuesday night in Tesco, which I was puzzled about, as I knew I had the funds. Luckily my partner was with me to pay whole I stood red-faced at the till.

Once I got home, I discovered that they had actually taken the money from my account, to the tune of almost £100.

I called the store within half an hour of getting home, and nobody would help me. I tweeted their customer care team, who were great on Twitter, but 2 days later, and they still have not returned my money.

My bank have told me all the details that Tesco need to fax them to get the money released - I have told the various people that I've spoken to, all of this information, yet still, they will not help me. They have refused to provide the information required, promise me calls back that I don't receive, and are completely useless.

I've spent more than £20 on phone calls to them trying to sort this out, and still my money has not been returned to me.

I know Dum - I thought I might actually explode with rage at one point!

The 'over the weekend' factor would have been the final straw for me!

I despise Tesco. I really do. My OH works nights at our local store. He is over worked, underpaid, disrespected and just treated like a dog. When he first started, there were about twenty five others stacking shelves in his department. Now there's about eight members. Yet they are expected to complete the workload of staff that have left, been sacked, gone on maternity etc. Apparently they won't be hiring any replacements. The staff budget is over the limit!?! That'll be the twenty 'managers' you have strutting around in shirts and ties doing bugger all everyday. Because they rarely have more than 3 out of 15 tills open. Even at very busy periods. Less and less people are shopping there, as less and less stock is on the shelves.

He has to book holiday a year in advance, interrogated when returning from time off sick, threatened with his job daily (or rather nightly), and hasn't had a weekend off in three years. His days off are Mondays and Tuesdays.

Today is payday. Or it would be if they managed to pay his wages into the right bank account. They reckon it could take 7 working days to get his wages to him now. Its ok Tesco, my DS doesn't need to eat this week.

And besides we just got the Xmas bonus for this year! A generous booklet of £1 off when you spend £5 coupons.

That'll see us through you absolute greed filled tosspot of a company.

And breeeeeeeattthhheeeee....

Great news OP. I wish I'd have got a legal team on them when, as with Tiredmumno1, they mucked up my car insurance.

Stay away from their insurance unless you like hastle, broken promises to look into it and not having your calls returned.

They are known to treat their staff really badly. And don't even think about their attitude to applicants with disabilities.

They are taking over everywhere, even in relatively poor countries where they pay their employees a pittance and destroy all the local businesses.

3littlefrogs They make me sick and very

I understand. But we are sleepwalking into living on planet Tesco. I refuse to shop there, but I am only one person.

These posts are making me so angry.

Who the hell do these people think they are?? When push comes to shove, they're just a supermarket! And a shitty one at that!

Floaty, is there anything your dh can do about the wages? And don't even get me started on the bonus.... Is that seriously what their staff get for a bonus?? What a fucking joke!

Another one that has joined your ranks this week though, 3littlefrogs - and I'll be spreading the word at every opportunity I get.

Its difficult to not shop there unfortunately! I'll buy what I can from local businesses, for example ill get fruit and veg from the market. I used to get meat from the butchers untill they closed down
I used to shop at co-op but they shut down too. Tesco destroyed these other shops.

What with Tesco being so close and the 10% staff discount, there's some things I can't avoid not buying from them and the all while hate giving them money. What a hypocrite I am. There's just no where else nearby.

Sorry sweet, posted before I saw your reply. Honest that's what they get for Christmas. And none of the staff are allowed time off in December. Besides Xmas day obviously. Although oh told me the big bosses wanted to get shelf stackers in Xmas day evening to fill up ready for sales that start on boxing day. Now, I know he works in retail, and Christmas is the busiest and most profitable time of the year, but when Mr Phillip Clarke and all his big bosses get at least two weeks off over Xmas, plus nice big cash bonuses...

Tesco were also one of the forthright companies pushing tje government to make Sunday a regular trading day. That would.mean they wouldn't have to pay the staff a premium rate for Sundays. We'd be screwed if we lost that.

Floaty, you can't help your personal circumstances! I'm lucky that I have a few supermarkets in the vicinity, or I'd be in the same boat.

I remember when my friend worked for Tesco she was told she's lose her job if she booked holiday off for a family wedding she'd been invited to (how to encourage staff to phone in sick I guess). I seem to remember she resigned and went to the wedding.

You know, I would rather wipe people's arses than work for them, they sound vile.

saintly Oh yeah that sounds just like Tesco. The bastards. Good for your friend. As soon as jobs and the economy pick up, my OH will be out like a shot!

This is the thing, I live in a small dead end working town. It was a London over spill town back in the sixties. Was not an appropiate town to do it. If interested youtube 'man alive, haverhill, 1960'.

Its an old bbc documentary imvestigating why hundreds or thousands of families were dumped here with zero jobs amd high poverty. They were promised jobs, bright futures for their children etc. When they got here, nothing they had been told was true. We used to have a rail station but that was closed.in the late sixties.

No rail to this day, despite being one of the largest towns in the UK not to have one.

One hour, and six quid later by bus to nearest city (which may I add is only fifteen miles away, crap bus service!) Neither of us drive (can't afford it). So he is restricted.to finding work here. But there is nothing secure and stable and that pays enough for him to be able to come off night shifts. So, Tesco it is and will be for some time. Vicious cycle.

Big corporations know what they're doing when they bring their stores.to these types of towns.

I wonder if a lot of retail is the same? My DDs have worked in retail during gap years. The way they have been treated shocks me.

Dd2 has just texted to say she's been told she "has" to work until 6 tonight, an extra hour may not be much but she had plans this evening. This has happened numerous times.
She was told she would be till trained, she's been there 6 weeks and hasn't. She's using the tills but has just watched others and worked it out herself.
They are asked every couple of hours if they've got any store accounts, if not they are told off.
She's asked for an hour off for a drs appointment this week and was told no.

I could go on and on.

The supervisors and managers seem under so much pressure from Head Office that they take it all out on the floor staff. Suffice to say that the turnover of staff is awful. 2 women have walked out during their lunch hour of their first week as they thought it was so awful. It makes me so angry that people are treated this way and it seems to happen a lot.

DH and I run our own company and we would never in a hundred years treat staff like this. You should nurture you're staff so they are happy and they want to stay with you

Oh FloatyFlo, I know Haverhill.
I once went to watch a selection of old films in Cambridge from the East Anglian Film Archive. One of these was an infomercial from the 60s trying to get employers to move their businesses to Haverhill. One of the arguments the film made was that Haverhill was a new town without a strong sense of community because everyone had moved there from different places. Therefore, the argument went, there wasn't much union organisation, unlike in the old mining and industrial towns, so you could treat your employees however you liked without them organising any industrial action. (Cynical bastards )

. Dd has just texted again, the manager has said that she had told all staff in that department that they would have to work until 6 tonight, and that they must have forgotten!!!

So that's 5 people who have forgotten they were working late? I don't think so!

bastards

glad you got your money back, OP.

wrt to the posters saying they'll use indies instead of supermarkets - it doesn't happen enough.
and it's you, the consumers, that have made it like this - you believed them with their "ooh, aren't we lovely and convenient and cheap?" and you all flocked to them like pilgrims.
now all the british farmers are out of business, people are being arsed about left right and centre, and small businesses are closing, and you all say "oh, well, maybe they're not so great after all" but most of you will continue to line their pockets.

Tunip That is really interesting! I'll have a bit of a hunt and try and find that video. Haverhill had a strong sense of community before the Lomdon overspill. It was quite rural and agricutural.

In the man alive doc, one family are talking about how big companies were meant to be bringing employment to the town but how they didn't come. When the interviewer asked why he thought they didn't bring busniess, he said they (meaning him and other Londoners) had a good idea why, but he didn't want to be the one who said it on camera.

here it is
If you watch it you can tell me if I've remembered it correctly.

quicklookbusy I would imagine alot of retail is like that indeed! Especially bigger companies! Id put money on sainsburys and asda being just as unfair and greedy. Just look at all the retail companies involved im tax avoidance!

nickel Thanks for that input

Floaty, you've said it yourself!
You are stuck in the middle of it - I have basically said what you've said, but from the other side of the coin. I'm one of the small businesses that the big supermarkets have pushed down.
and yes, I have had to work for the large corporation because there's nowhere else.

the whole country is screwed by it, but the whole country is to blame!

I don't think the whole country are to blame nickle

I put the blame firmly with every Goverment and local council who has failed to legislate in order to stop supermarkets getting bigger and bigger.

They could stop them opening out of town, so that no one bothers going into towns any more. They could stop them screwing producer, specifically farmers. My PIL were farmers and saw it happen to them. The supermarkets drive the price down and down, so they can charge less in supermarkets.

There's lots goverment could do, but they haven't.

You can't blame the public, who may be living on a tight budget, from going to the cheapest place to buy their goods.