To think my friend is wrong and this can't be classed as stealing?

[Keyansier]

Whenever I order a home delivery from Tesco I always get a refund on stuff that they have substituted in exchange for what I originally ordered to get money back and to keep the food, sometimes when I genuinely dislike their substitute choice or sometimes when I just want some money back.

My friend said "that is what is known as stealing". I replied "HOW can it be stealing when I call up and ask for a refund and it's at their discretion if they give one or not?" Also, I used to work in a few call centres and so probably speak to people who work at call centres politer than most other people, so that might factor their decision to give me refunds.

Unless someone tells me that they work for Tesco on the call centres and they are obliged to give everyone a refund that asks for one but they will later be punished or sacked for it if they say yes, then I can't see what the issue is if they say yes? I don't shout, or threaten or rant. I ask nicely and they say yes. If they were to ever say no, I'd simply say "okay then" and that would be that. So how is it stealing?

I just can't believe in this day and age someone would begrudge someone free food. Their tagline is "Every Little Helps". This is helping me. If they didn't want to help, they can easily say no. Or AIBU and out of touch?

Thank you. This is exactly my line of thinking. THEY are choosing to do this.

I'm not sure if emailing is an option but I personally call each time and it's a freephone number.

They did. It's up to you whether you believe me or not. They send bizarre replacements all the time. A poster upthread said they ordered fish and Tesco sent meatballs instead. Are you accusing them of lying too?

*I don't think people should have unchallenged lies without rebuttal from me explaining though? When it's especially lies.

Lol I do see your point however, and will not be looking for a while at this thread again (or if ever)*

A 2 hour flounce!

Thought you weren't coming back for a while @Keyansier .... 2 hours!

Oh look, OP is back. Let’s see what gems they have in store.

It’s obtaining money by deception, is what it is.

If you want free food, visit the local food bank or community larder. You might find a lot of the stuff there has been donated by Tesco. That doesn’t mean anyone can turn up at the shop and help themselves.

For all those who think it comes out of their profits directly, that's not how businesses are run otherwise if it happened too much, am otherwise viable business would go under.
What actually happens is it comes out of the budget or target for this. As the budget is monitored any change or spike would be noted and action taken.
The action might be banning certain customers, reallocating the budget, changing the scheme, or something else from their imagination.
Most of those things would ultimately come from customers one way or another.
Only things that actually discourage profits would reduce the profits directly, eg a tax on profits.

Of course it comes out of their profit! Such a fundamental lack of understanding.

Profit is revenue less costs. For each item the OP gets refunded Tesco’s lose the revenue. They don’t get the item back to resell but still have to pay the supplier. They lose their profit margin on it - reducing their profit before and after tax.

Don't be ridiculous!

Stolen food comes out of profit, so you're saying that if food wasn't stolen that profits wouldn't be more?

How can you actually think that?

Aaaannnnndddd
he's back in the room
maybe as well as "looks young enough to be mistaken for a foetus" "drama llama" and "goady chancer" you could add "shit flounced" to your CV

Let's not argue about who lacks understanding, as you are right on a theoretical level, but not in a practical level.,

every business I've ever worked in, this kind of stuff is budgeted and carefully monitored with targets or key results. Any deviation would be noticed and reported and action taken ages before it became significant.
So yes if it were ignored or insignificant, literally speaking it would come out of profits, but any business poorly managed enough for that to happen by default would be out of business extremely quickly(or bailed out by the government)

They factor cost of this into there cost still keep same profit margins
they just up the price of the goods so it’s cost us the consumer not Tescos profit

Shit flouncer
stupid auto correct

@johnd2 why say let's not argue, then bang on about I'm being right?

Are you mansplaining for a reason?

Op, you're coming across as a total thief aswell as a massive dickhead. Hope that helps 😃

Actually working in a business where theft is common can be more profitable. This is why banks had to be regulated by government to have chip and PIN and the new online payment regulations. Because the theft was ridiculous but the profits were greater.
If it weren't profitable due to the theft then the business would go under, and if it were more profitable there would be more competition. (Whether the big supermarkets form a monopoly is another question admittedly!)

You weren’t in the finance function were you .

Just out of interest OP, do you ever make 'pairing suggestions' toTesco? Chips, drinks, that sort of thing...?

It’s not theft because they offer you the option. However, they do it to be helpful in the hope that people will try and like the substitution, not so cheeky people like you can take the piss by deliberately choosing to keep the food knowing full well they plan to pretend to dislike it and pocket the refund. What you are doing is unpleasant.

I said let's not argue about who lacks understanding, the point of my post was Tesco's profits are not a reason to steal as in reality the money isn't ultimately coming from where you think it is.
And this is because there are loads of people working there whose job it is to make them have more profits.
I'm trying to avoid to turn it into a personal argument.

Theft by deliberate deception. Shameful behaviour.

Oh. The thief is back. Only flounced for a couple of hours. Was probably on hold to the Tesco call centre getting a bit more cash through dishonesty.

Threads like these you hope that someone with a bit of clout who works at Tesco is reading and manages to track down the account from clues on their MN posts. Would be amazing 👌

You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about do you.

No finance are basically recording what we are doing financially, but honestly we have to be well ahead of the finance team on what the trends are, so my team would be doing something about it based on metrics visible well before the actual revenue is recorded.
But yes if we are struggling, the finance would not lie about what happened!