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?

Witchend

I said in one of my posts that I was not there. So, no, I wasn’t there.

The OP stated she did not yell.

The OP also stated (as you mentioned) that she gave an earful. That can mean different things to different people. I understood it as a complaint to the company representative.

Nowhere does the OP describe her interaction as being personal or, from my point of view, abusive, to the woman hired and paid to perform a customer service role. It is the role of Customer Service to receive and address complaints, as stated by the customer, and to rectify.

I’m not attempting to be clever, I am reading the thread and responding with my thoughts. As we all are.

I love the assumption that Tesco workers are on min wage. Nobody is at any level.
So patronising!

My Tesco switched from picking and delivering from a local store to picking and delivering from a massive warehouse about 30 miles away near Gatwick Airport. The service has gone right downhill since then. I’ve often been told they have tried to deliver twice and had no answer (I live in a quiet road with just 8 houses and WFM from a desk that gives me a view of the whole close and my own driveway and there is no way even the postman goes in and out without me noticing let alone a Tesco delivery van). I’ve lost count of the times they have tried to deliver outside the delivery slot and there’s been no one home to accept it. And sometimes they just don’t show up.

It’s got to the point now where they sometimes don’t even bother to contact me. I just get the email saying that I have a £10 goodwill voucher and place the order again. I have paid upfront for the service so am persevering but when that runs out I’ll probably switch to a mixture of Ocado or Morrison’s.

I've worked in tesco at minimum wage.
People saying she should be used to this as a face for customer service.
Bloody madness.
I've cried after customers have left with the way I've been treated, all because something outside my control has inconvenienced them.
She probably had 30 people to call and try and get them to collect, get it redelivered and let them know it's not coming when expected.
Being Tesco who do not actually have members of staff sitting around to answer customer queries inside the store, and it was a mobile number, it was probably more like one woman phoning everyone who's slot was being missed.
I've known drivers call in sick last minute, go home ill during a shift, injure themselves on the job, or even get in road traffic accidents.
It is inconvenient for you? Sure.
But phoning back is shitty, she's already said she'd try and fix it for you, and probably has another 30 pissed off customers to deal with.
Some people can't see anything passed their own problems.
Should have wrote something on Twitter, or something, then maybe you would have realised how harsh you were being before you hit send.

*sorry, if we're being pedantic I was on 30p above minimum wage! Still nothing to get too excited about

click and collect would be no good for me as I dont drive

I can’t believe the amount of people saying YABU. She might not have any control over what caused the problem but she rang you, no apology, no reasonable solution and she hung up on you. Completely unacceptable.

Sounds like you were pretty restrained to me.

I think posters might have missed the point that the Tesco's worker was rude and didn't apologise for their mistake and she put the phone down. In this situation, I would have probably called the store and spoke to the manager about it, but I dont think your behaviour was that unreasonable given the attitude of the worker.

I can't see where the Tescos worker was rude. The OP was "really really angry" and swore at her whilst giving her an earful though.

I can't believe some of these replies. The Tesco employee completely escalated the situation with her attitude.. lack of apology, tone, not allowing the OP to respond and not providing a resolution the OP was happy with to the issue that had massively inconvenienced the OP. Ringing with no notice to tell the OP she has to drive to the click and collect location is completely presumptuous that the OP can even drive or leave the house.

I used to work for a similar company in a similar non facing customer service role and we would have been strung up for talking to a customer like that. Sounds like she deserved the roasting she got. I wouldn't feel guilty. Glad you got the outcome you wanted.

How can you tell the tone?

I think I jinxed mine. I wrote yesterday how pleased I was with Tesco deliveries and now mine is an hour late and no one has called me about it. I hope I get to speak to a nice customer services person when I ring them!

You were right to complain but it sounds like you were a bit of a dick tbh.

I think the Tesco lady (she's the face of the organisation, so basically Tesco) were completely U in not immediately offering an alternative delivery very quickly. It does not matter one jot to the customer why the delivery isn't being made - however it does matter to Tesco (or it should) if they are inconveniencing their customers - it is none of Tesco's business why a customer wants a home delivery.

If i ever have to bail on my customers last minute (because of something out of my control that i get late notice of) the first thing i do is work out how to minimise the impact. And that means giving the news, empathising with the problems it causes (and sometimes because it's hugely costly getting an earful) and offering a solution.

OP is a bit U for calling back to give an earful -but then the Tesco employee should then be giving it verbatim to her supervisor.

I almost never shout at people working in shops or stuff, but if they are taking the piss they get the cold but friendly seeming treatment that totally rips them a new one but they don't notice until after I've left. That way because it takes time for my complaint to sink in, they do realise it's been a complaint.

You were a bit unreasonable. But I understand, I kicked off a couple of years ago when my shopping couldn't be delivered because of snow. It was a dusting and we were on a main route - i was watching cars whizz by as they told me the drivers had been sent home. I was at home with a newborn and a toddler with no car. The manager drove it up for me.

IMO you were lucky to get a phone call - I've had missed deliveries before where they didn't even bother to tell me it had been cancelled until I rang up to ask why it hadn't turned up.

I think there's a lot of projection going on in this thread though. It seems to me that "really really angry" can range the gamut from icily polite to verbally abusive, and only the OP knows where she falls.

@soupdragon

The OP mentions "intentional awkward pause" and refers to "the way she said it" when the Tesco employee was talking to her.

I don't think YABU actually, if your description of the call is correct and she hung up on you I'd be annoyed too. However I'd probably just write a scathing complaint rather than a call.

She was rude to you first 🤷‍♀️

What a,surprise! It's amazing the amount of people who think shopworkers/ childminders/ hospitality staff/ rtf don't have any thoughts or feelings.
It's not this poor woman's fault your delivery was cancelled. Rescheduling is nearly impossible because it's likely their delivery slots for the next day are full. (I don't work at Tesco but another supermarket so assume it's the same). Sounds like you were rude and demanding and then phoned back to have a massive go when she's already said she'll try and help.
It's likely a member of staff with five million other things to do and dealing with customers like you isn't part of her job. You should have asked to speak to her manager. That's the person who is paid to take the buck and is probably responsible for the short notice.

She was rude to you first 🤷‍♀️

Drogosnextwife An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

You took offence at nothing. Then you made it worse by being ridiculously angry. Probably the Tesco woman was very busy or just a bit short.You are completely out of order.

I hate this sort of thing in our society. It's totally rude of you. Be cool and be firm. You were rude and aggressive totally needlessly.
The person on the end of the phone is a human being. Did you know that? She was only terse and professional. if she was terse that is.Probably you just are so touchy it's untrue.

This is the sort of response that I absolutely love to get. Funguy you don't know me or the person that called me. You've read my OP, seen that I felt ashamed, also that I did not yell, yet decided all of that isn't what happened and the real story is that absolute bollocks above.

What is the point of being on here if you don't read what people write?

She was very rude, clearly annoyed that I wouldn't come get the groceries, told me she would "see what she could do" AND she hung up on me!

In what world is that acceptable customer service? Had that conversation ended with a solid resolution and without being hung up on, I wouldn't have felt compelled to call her back.

I'm not proud of calling her back, I should have just called Tesco customer service straight away and complained. But I didn't.

Regardless, for you to come to those nasty conclusions says a lot more about you than it does me.

Ok, for everyone picking apart my language on the return call, this is one of the most annoying things about MN. I gave a brief recap of what I said using my own thoughts on it (ie. it was a piss-take, come get my shit) but I did not actually say those exact words to her. That is why I put the disclaimer that I could not remember exactly what I said. But I did not use coarse language at all. I have a 2 year old who was sitting right in the same room.

I'm not going to freak out on someone in front of my child. Plus that's just not my style. Normally I just take crap from whomever is dishing it out which is why I started to feel guilty about calling her back.

Since my language is so very important, I said something more along the lines of "Did you just hang up on me? I'm the one with no groceries and this could have been avoided had you not waited until the last minute to call and tell me I'm not getting my delivery! And now you've hung up on me because I won't put my toddler in the car and come get them?" etc. When I said I was on auto-pilot, I meant that I just kept talking and didn't give her a chance to say anything. I just went on about how rude she was and how crazy it was that she hung up without letting me know that I was sorted out etc.

I was obviously angry but in all honesty, she probably hung up and laughed because this woman DNGAF. Not one. She sounded bored and over it. The only time there was any inflection in her voice was when she said "look I told you I would try to get it redelivered" and that was said with a lot of attitude.

I know there are a lot of women on here that love to see the worst in people, but some of these comments are so catty. As though you all have never lost your temper or acted in a way that made you feel a bit bad. I've been very honest about what I said and did and I did not lie about how she spoke to me. If she had been nice, this thread wouldn't exist.

I wouldn't worry OP. It's the usual mantra on MN. "she probably had a hard day". Yeah well tuff. I have hard days, I can't take it out on my clients, I have to paint a smile on and be my usual cheery self, I also don't just get to deal with it over the phone.