...to think Tesco should have done more?

[Cookerless]

Just over two weeks ago, a Tesco delivery driver dropped a bottle of wine as he was unpacking it, and it smashed the glass door of my 89 yr old father's oven, making the oven unusable. The oven is very old, and consequently it's not possible to find a replacement part. It's a standalone cooker, the oven isn't separate, and so the entire thing needs to be replaced, at a cost of around £400, including delivery and fitting.

It took two weeks for the local Tesco depot to get a form to their claims department, but within a couple of hours of receiving it, Tesco told me that they would not be offering us anything by way of compensation, as the oven 'had no intrinsic value' due to its age. When I pointed out that if we were to claim on Dad's home insurance, we would be £150 out of pocket for the excess, they offered me £75 as a 'goodwill gesture'. I'm afraid I told them where to stick it.

My father has dementia and cancer, and - when I'm not here - his carers use the oven to heat his ready meals - so the oven does have some value to him - I really thought that Tesco would do more to rectify the situation, given that it was entirely the fault of their driver, who readily admitted that (poor chap was very upset, but it was an accident). We've been Delivery Saver customers for over 4 years, and - until this happened - have been spending an average of £150 a week with them. I'm now boycotting them.

After Tesco told me they weren't going to make this good, I had no choice but to contact Dad's insurers, who were very good, and immediately sent out a cheque to the value of a replacement cooker, less the £150 excess.

We'll be getting a new cooker in the next week or so, but the more I think about it, the more I think that Tesco should have agreed to claim on their insurance - they're a huge company, Dad's a pensioner - why he should end up out of pocket is beyond me.

AIBU about this? TBH, am so angry with Tesco that I may be being a little unreasonable, so thought I'd ask. Bracing myself, 'cos it's a bit scary posting in AIBU, but that's what I'm asking!

Did you deal with the store or head office?

Yanbu at all. They sell cookers ffs!

I'd be upset too. Your poor dad doesn't neee that stress. Tesco are very difficult to claim from. Sending you both big hugs.

Oh god, I'd escalate this, certainly.
How far did you go -to the store manager?

Poor your dad. As well as everything else, the sheer faff of having jo oven /dealing with insurers / getting new oven delivered and fitted would be a huge task.

No intrinsic value! That's awful. Can you tweet the issue?

Tweet them, the chief executive too if you can find him or her. They will hate negative publicity. Write to the customer servoce director too. That is absolutely rubbish!!

I'd be all over their social media with this, while writing to head office. It has a value, they could replace it very easily!

You should be claiming under Tesco's public liability insurance. That covers damage to property caused by their business activities. You need to escalate it with Tesco.

This is awful, get on fb and twitter and make your voice heard over this. Good luck!

Is there some way that your Dad's household insurance company can speak to Tesco's Public Liability Insurance Department? Call them and ask, is what I would suggest.

I'd be all over Facebook and Twitter with this one. Surely their delivery service has insurance for this very reason

Post on their facebook page!

I tweeted, I Facebooked - my friends also Facebooked (obviously, this totally outs me, but I have namechanged to post this), saying that they will be boycotting Tesco too. I'm really glad you don't think I'm over-reacting - I get very defensive when it comes to Dad. I was planning to write to Dave Lewis tomorrow, letting him know how shamefully I think we've been treated - but before I did, I wanted to make sure I wasn't being - well - unreasonable :)

I'm quite shocked by this as I've normally found their customer service to be really good. Definitely take it further!

Crossed posts with Stickerrocks.

This is awful.

I'd absolutely take the social media route here!

Chief Executive is Dave Lewis - [email protected]

Fuck me. What a set or arseholes.

That's awful, surely Tesco have insurance for this type of thing.

Try speaking to your insurance company too, they could pursue a recovery against Tesco.

This is appalling, the cost of a new cooker is a drop in the ocean to them, in fact your decision to boycott them will cost them more in the long run.
I would contact the chief exec.

A disgrace..Tesco should be ashamed

Disgusting behaviour from Tesco. Utterly shameful. An 89yo cancer patient with dementia . They should have sent one of their own cookers that they sell the very next day. Evil and a terrible indictment of our society that they didn't sort this out immediately. This is one of those threads that really should end up in the DM to give Tesco a public shaming.

Shame on Tesco. Horrible company.

I forgot to mention that Dad's insurers did say that they'd try to get the £150 excess out of Tesco - but couldn't guarantee anything. I hope they do - but even if they're successful, I don't know whether this claim will affect Dad's future premium costs - and I still think he shouldn't have had to make it.

I originally contacted the local depot, and I think I must have spoken to them a dozen times over the past 2 weeks, because they never called me back when they said they would, and when they did call me, it was either to ask whether anyone else had called me, or to promise me that someone would call me - but they didn't. Eventually the Tesco Facebook team gave me the number of the head office claims department, who said they'd only received the claim form that morning (this was last Friday), and then told me that they weren't going to offer us anything.

It's been a horrible, disappointing experience. I've since cancelled our Delivery Saver renewal, and switched to Ocado.

Thanks to all offering advice and sympathy - it really helps - and makes me feel better!