Tesco piss-take!

[BoronationStreet]

This is a WIBU since I've already done it and now that I've calmed down, shame is creeping in.

I was meant to have a Tesco delivery tonight and 9 minutes before my delivery slot, a woman called from a mobile number and said they had a driver call in and my groceries would not be delivered.

Before I could respond she said that my groceries had already been packed and were ready for me to come use Click and Collect to pick them up.

I admit this immediately made me angry because if I wanted to go pick them up, I wouldn't have scheduled a delivery! Also the way she said it, as though it was basically the same thing as home delivery.

So I said no, I've got a toddler and I'm not getting back out and I'd rather reschedule the delivery for tomorrow in the same time slot. She sat there for an intentionally awkward pause then said she would try to do that but the only way to guarantee I got my groceries would be to come get them.

I said no, I'll take a delivery tomorrow night and she said "fine, I'll see what I can do and call you tomorrow to confirm." Then she hung up without letting me respond.

I sat there for a minute then got really really angry, so I called back and pretty much gave her an earful. 🙈

I don't even remember exactly what I said because I was just on auto pilot. I said it was an absolute pisstake to wait until my delivery slot to tell me they weren't coming when surely they knew for hours that they were short a driver. I told her I could have arranged to get them had I had more time and I also said her attitude was rude and instead of apologising and offering me choices, she just called and told me to come get my shit then got rude when I said no. At that point she interrupted me and said "I TOLD you I would try to get them rescheduled" and I said it was terrible customer service and I would be complaining to Tesco head office etc then hung up on her.

I didn't yell but I still feel embarrassed that I called her back and went off on her.

Should I feel bad? Or should I just find a more reliable home delivery service?

Going against the grain but if this woman needs the job to pay her rent she could have tried being apologetic and offering you a solution. Maybe she shouldn't work in a customer facing role. She sounds rude. I would have been angry too. Don't feel bad, just remember next time it made you feel bad to react to someone being unhelpful and rude and maybe take a different approach.

OP states she didn’t yell, and from what I can see everything she said was simply giving feedback about her dissatisfaction with the experience, that the customer service rep should have noted and passed on to management.

Again, even if it’s minimum wage ((which we don’t know), it’s the job. It’s not rude to inform companies about ways they could improve their services. We all probably get emails with surveys regularly. They don’t always ask the questions customers want to answer or discuss.

YABU. The delivery driver could have called in sick at very short notice or gone home from their shift because they were taken ill. They offered you collection or rescheduled delivery

^as above.

All employees represent the organisation. It doesn’t matter if OP took it out on the wrong person.

It really does matter. It isn’t acceptable to be verbally abused no matter where you work.

Funnily enough, they managed to get the delivery out to me only 3 hours later at the end of the morning deliveries by offering overtime to one of the drivers to do so

In reality they would have pressured someone, who wanted to end their shift and go home, to stay extra. They may have paid overtime, they often just offer time in lieu. They are shits for doing that.

That sounds like the job from hell but I understand your frustration too.

Well she’s not going to try very hard to get you a slot tomorrow. Poor woman.

Poor lady said she would do what she could do to help you and you rang back and chewed her ear off? Hang your head...

Hmmm so someone has to repick your order tomorrow and another customer has to be told her order won't be delivered at the time she chose because you can't be unconvinced..

Well, yeah. I run my own small business and if I fuck up (don’t deliver what has been agreed to and paid for), I find a way to make it up to the client, in the hopes of retaining their custom and keeping a good reputation.

Also, the people who pick the orders are paid to do that. They might not know or care if it’s a re-pick. And how in the world do you know someone’s missing a delivery slot? Are all delivery slots everywhere always full?

Tesco is a massive business. They can do better.

OP states she didn’t yell, and from what I can see everything she said was simply giving feedback about her dissatisfaction with the experience, that the customer service rep should have noted and passed on to management.

Except she also says I don't even remember exactly what I said because I was just on auto pilot

She wasn't "simply giving feedback" she "gave her an earful" in a fit of anger. To the person who was trying to help her by rescheduling the delivery.

It isn’t acceptable to be verbally abused no matter where you work.

Was the OP yelling? No. Did she get personal? Not that I could see. Was OP making a litany of complaints about the way this company handled the situation? Yes.

It’s a business. The Tesco lady gets paid to handle this. I don’t see that she was subjected to abusive behaviour.

And, no, I don’t think the customer is always right —far from it—but I worked in the service industry for a long time, for very little money, and the customer has a right to express dissatisfaction with more than a passive-aggressive tut. Otherwise, nothing will change. (Things might not change anyway, but never mind.)

She won’t be on min wage. Nobody in Tesco is.
You should be ashamed. She did her best.

She wasn't "simply giving feedback" she "gave her an earful" in a fit of anger. To the person who was trying to help her by rescheduling the delivery.

Fair enough, and I wasn’t there, but I’m surprised by all the posters assuming the Tesco rep is hard done by and stressed and a wage slave etc while OP, with a toddler and who knows what else, is some sort of demon.

Again, Tesco is a massive business, they ought to provide a Plan B for missing drivers and train their customer service reps to know that saying “I’ll see what I can do” then hanging up is a) quite rude in itself, and b) not a satisfactory resolution.

That's happened to me before and I also pointed out that more notice would have been useful, as I didn't get the call until half an hour into my reserved time slot. But I don't know how their shift patterns work, so maybe the person who was off sick was due to start off with my slot and was very late calling in, or maybe they had spent the time trying to find another driver but were unsuccessful. In any case, these things happen. It's annoying and an inconvenience, but I think how they handle it makes all the difference. I was pleased that they apologised as it felt like they weren't taking the mick, and I was given a £10 voucher. The person I spoke to was pleasant and patient and made me feel like she was genuinely trying to help. I think I had to rebook and shop again, which was a bit of a pain but I guess they can't reschedule the delivery if all slots are full.

I think the OP going nuts at the customer services person was probably a bit OTT, but it sounds like she could have handled it a bit better too.

I think she should have apologised that your groceries weren't turning up and the fact that it was such incredibly short notice.
I think some people really lack the understanding that if you work for a company and they don't fulfil their obligations to you they should apologise for their cock up.
It's all part of customer service and its pretty much all people want. An apology goes a long way.
Yanbu to complain.

Oh that’s odd, that happened to us recently too.
They’ve been nigh on perfect for over 12 months before, I hope it’s not indicative of a bigger problem.

I just had my delivery scheduled for the next day. The problem for me came when they Had to charge twice, once for each delivery. They did refund me for the first, but unsurprisingly it didn’t reach my bank before they tried to take the second.

Total pain, luckily I was able to transfer some money to the right account but I understand that’s simply not possible for a lot of people.

They gave me £10 voucher to apply by way of apology for the cancelled delivery, and I think they must have applied another discount after I explained why my payment had bounced because there was another tenner off the final amount that came out.

I do understand your frustration OP. I think you just accept that the Tesco woman probably thought you were a bit if a dick, feel a bit embarrassed then forget about it.

That's Tesco for you, I've had the same happen with them. I switched to Ocado and happy with them (they price match to Tesco as well).

YABU to be rude to the woman. I used to work in retail and it is the shittest job, especially when customers shout at you for something that's out of your control.

However, Tesco do seem to be a bit hit and miss with their delivery service. I ordered some food for DS to be delivered to his uni halls after he'd been off with some MH problems, thinking that it would be one less thing for him to worry about whilst he was feeling a bit vulnerable. They delivered it to the side of the road, and left it there with some random stranger. Poor DS was running round in the dark trying to find out where they'd left the shopping. I was really cross because I'd paid for it to be delivered to his address, he wasn't able to check it as the driver had gone, and I got a half hearted apology and a £5 voucher.

Aww, some of the PP's are being a bit harsh. Click and Collect isn't like Delivery at all. I, too, would've been annoyed at her attitude about rescheduling.

Maybe it wasnt warranted but she didnt sound very helpful-when my dsis delivery was cancelled they jsut said you ve to rebook it yourself no offer of rescheduling on the phone

I think you should phone back to an actual Tesco number to find out what is going on. If it was a mobile calling you then maybe it was the delivery person trying to get away with something. It doesn't sound like usual business practice of Tesco ; but maybe it is how they do things

Decide what you think is fair from them mucking up and tell them you want that.
Some would let it go, some would be happy with a discount some jwant it delivered with a credit,
Be vocal

YABVU. You had absolutely no right to take it out on her and rant and rave at her. I would have refunded you your whole delivery at that point; nobody deserves to be spoken to like that.

We stopped using tesco delivery when they substituted my Christmas 3kg turkey for 6 500g packs of turkey mince the day before Christmas Eve.

Terrible customer service, we changed to Sainsburys and have never had an issue.

Yes your anger was misdirected but she was rude and purposely difficult, if you had wanted click and collect your would have ordered it.

You shouldn't have berated her but you were right to say that she was bloody rude!

Very interesting and varied responses. I'm not surprised that I've been painted as an OTT monster who goes around bullying helpless minimum wage workers by some posters, so I really do appreciate those that actually read my OP and gave more constructive feedback. I concede the majority think IWBU.

I know I handled it badly when I rang back. I did not shout at her but I was certainly not at my best. The entire 2nd conversation lasted 3 minutes at most. When I said I couldn't remember exactly what I said, I meant that I couldn't quote myself verbatim. I pretty much said what I posted in my OP, but I was slightly more dramatic about it.

I feel like my real mistake was not saying most of it when she called the first time. I should have been more assertive and pointed out that it was last minute and I was not given options or even an apology. But I didn't then I made myself look and feel like an asshole by calling back and telling her off.

Live and learn I suppose.

But I still don't have my fucking shopping.

(Sighs) Ok you were not unreasonable to be annoyed at the short notice. But you were unreasonable to call back just to give an earful. For all you know the driver in question could have had a family emergency or even crashed his/her car on the way to work. In that case the van load would have been divided among the other vans departing on the same time slots if there was room in the vans. If there wasn’t room and if all other drivers had reached their maximum driving hours for the day then of course the run is cancelled. And, something that may surprise some of you, it isn’t that easy to switch a order to another day. And I speak as someone who has actually worked in Dotcom.

I think her attitude and lack of apology was what made the red mist come down so I think you were NBU. If she had said "It's Ann from Tesco, I am extremely sorry but we've had a driver call in sick at short notice. We understand how annoying this is as we can't make the delivery but if you can possibly get to us, the click and collect option is available as your shopping has been packed ready for you" . You might still have been annoyed but not AS annoyed and might have opted to go and get it. Her unhelpful attitude and lack of acknowledgment of how maddening this was would have annoyed me too!