Sold out of date chicken

[ThePants999]

We use Tesco home delivery. Just had a delivery that included a number of packs of chicken-based snacks. Half of them turned out to be already four days past their "use by" date, very glad I noticed!

We've been using the service for a while and had a few cases of damaged items, or items that were about to go off when the website promised they'd be good for a week, that sort of thing, and Tesco have always refunded for them, which I've been fine with. Chicken that went off four days ago is a bit more serious, though. WIBU to ask for more compensation than a straight refund, since they'd be in a bunch of trouble if Trading Standards were to find out?

I'd expect a refund. And possibly report it to TS as it's a Use by /highly perishable not a best before.

I wouldn't expect compensation as no harm done besides annoyance

I'm sure you'll get a nice voucher or something.

Why not go to the daily mail op sounds right up your street

Why do you still use them?

This is why I stopped using Tesco online. I was always having the wrong things delivered, out of date stuff and damaged stuff. After my last £25 refund and courtesy voucher I swapped to Sainsburys. Been the best online shopping I've had so far.

Sack Tesco off!!

I can understand why you would want more than just a refund as a goodwill gesture/ apology for sloppy standards. But surely it is more important that you ask them to review their processing so that this doesn't happen again.

I'm pretty sure they won't have done it in an attempt to purposely hurt you.
Why don't you just give them a call and let them know? They will apologise and probably offer you some fresh chicken and some money off your next shop.
I don't think you should start plotting what other things you are entitled to.

People make mistakes op. The chicken didn't necessarily "go off" four days ago you know. Use buy dates are very conservative. Not saying you're wrong to be annoyed but compensation?

Just tell them, get the refund and use someone else for home delivery.

If you're looking for compensation maybe a penny for your inconvenience?

Honestly some people really sweat the small stuff

Almost fed it to my 11-month-old before noticing. That could have gone badly. But yeah, if they offered to refund and replace, I'd be happy. Cheers.

Tesco are good about this stuff.

You'll likely get a refund plus a voucher as a gift of goodwill.

I think you might get refund and a voucher for £20 or similar if you complained. I don't think you would much more.

It is an inconvenience when you order the food and pay for delivery only to get out of date food and now you need to go out and buy an alternative product or go without. I can see why you are annoyed. Particularly as you are frequently getting food with a very short shelf life.

Last week I bought a pack of small cartons of apple juice for DDs packed lunches (Tesco). The first one in the pack was fine but the other 4 cartons where covered in black mold. I didn't notice as the front carton in the pack looked fine but behind that all the cartons had black mold (including the bottoms). I think what had happened was a burst cartons somewhere in the pallet had leaked, the juice had got all over my cartons and dried in and started to go moldy.

I did return them and got a refund - I was inconvenienced as DD didn't have a drink for lunch and I had to rush to the shop before school to get a replacement. I didn't complain as it's a one off but if I was having these issues a few times then I would complain. Not so much to get compensation but to raise the issue further up the line in the hopes it would resolve the problem / make the staff more aware.

I often find things out of date at our local tesco. The staff never seem bothered.

I don't shop there anymore.

You want a refund plus extra compensation? They will probably do it for customer relations but it just shows you as grabby. If they refund you I assume you won't have suffered any financial loss? What's the compensation for? It's more like blackmail, give me more money or I will report you to TS, when in fact you should maybe just report to TS and not seek to gain more than your due.

The problem is that while date are checked by humans there is going to be human error. But I would have thought the picker needs a bit of retraining.

The store should be aware this is happening but going to EH is a bit OTT.

I often find things out of date at my local M&S.

But I never pick anything up without checking the date and I would never open anything to eat or give to someone else (especially a child) without glancing at the date.

You are feeding shop bought chicken based snacks to your 11 month old toddler? wow, you are brave posting that nugget (sorry).

I'd request a refund, but I certainly wouldn't go to the Trading Standards.
Personally, I wouldn't want to contribute to the general hysteria surrounding food expiry dates.

This is human error, no doubt they'd prefer to have chucked it in the bin than take this risk.

I always look at dates when I get stuff out of the fridge. DH is very 'if it looks ok and smells ok it's ok' but I am a bit more picky.

I would agree that the Use By date isn't the date it goes off, it doesn't magically become inedible at midnight.

I usually ring and am v apologetic and talk about how I just want to make sure it doesn't happen again. Then they thank me, refund the cost and give me X in vouchers. (Had a lot of Tesco/Sainsbury's deliveries!)

I'm not talking about some silly sum of compensation. A tenner off my next shop by way of apology, since their inattention put my family's health at risk, is the sort of thing I'm after. (My real preference would be that they found some way of avoiding it happening again, but I suspect that's too much to ask!)

@viques - er, yes, I am. Bit confused by that comment tbh, I'm not seeing any issue.

since their inattention put my family's health at risk,

Not exactly true is it? They didn't cook it and serve it up to your child.

Re: "human error" - yes, of course. But how likely a human is to make an error depends in part on what has been done to prevent them making it. Remember this case? That was human error, too. Obviously there's a gaping chasm between how serious that was vs how serious this was, and I'm not trying to draw an exact parallel, but I'm pretty sure that sentence made some people sit up and take notice. That's why the Government comes down heavily on "human error" where it endangers people, in an effort to get companies to place appropriate emphasis on preventing such errors. If pickers were reminded often enough to check dates, they'd do it - but, companies being companies, that'll only happen when supermarkets are penalised heavily enough that it becomes worth their while to bother. That's why I'd consider reporting to Trading Standards if I felt they didn't care.

Just change who you shop with, I stopped shopping at our local m&s after eating an out of date sandwich while pregnant that I'd just bought! Vote with your custom.
I've never had anything delivered out of date from tesco, it's so store dependent.

You could also return it to the customer service desk - if you want the cash!
Dependent on the manager, you might get a gift card. :)