A big rant about my shopping trip today. I'm a faithful Ocado shopper. I am neither posh nor rich. I shop there as I am vegan with high cholesterol and that's the only place (other than a far away Waitrose) that I can buy plant based Benecol. Also their customer service is outstanding. I bought my border terriers santa suits a few years back and they didn't fit. I rang customer services who said "oh we can see you are a regular customer, we'll refund you straight away. Just hand the suits back to the driver at your next delivery". That's good, right?
Today I went to an area I used to live and shopped in Sainsbury's. Went to a self service till, had to call assistant to take £2 off for car parking. Then as I was scanning items the machine froze a few times so she had to come back to unlock it. Shopping came to approx £38. I had an online blue light card voucher for £20 something so used that then used credit card to pay the remainder, approx £16. Payment seemed to go through, then the machine froze again. Assistant came over, tried to unfreeze it then went to another customer to help them. Then came back to me, tried again. Then went to another customer. This happened quite a few times and it was clear it wasn't sorting the issue and there were lots of customers requiring her attention so she kept leaving me to help them. I asked if she could call someone else to help.
Another, more senior, colleague came over to me. First thing she said was that she should be on her break (not my problem) then said "oh we will have to take your shopping to another till and scan it there" I explained I had already scanned and paid for it and was just awaiting a receipt. She said "Well, we have no proof you have paid, do we?" She did a reboot of the till. This took AGES and came up with a screen that showed I spent £40 and paid £20 with gift card but it looked as thought I still had £16 to pay. I went to my credit card online statement and it showed I had paid the £16 but she said "Well, that might be pending and come off as soon as you get home" She wanted me to pay the £16 again and if it showed I had paid twice to come back to the store a few days later to get a refund. I explained that I did not live in the area so would not do that and that my car park time was almost up so I needed to go. She mentioned her break was due again and called a manager.
After a while he turned up and asked me if I had tried scanning the items. I did get a bit snappy and say "I've scanned and paid for it all and just want to go because I am going to get a parking ticket" He had the right idea, and said if I was happy to leave without a receipt then they couldn't keep me there as my credit card online showed I had paid. So I took my shopping and left.
That took over an hour, just to pay for it. He did say sorry but the woman below him was very rude and talked to me like I was scamming them - no apology from her just a lot of huffing about her break.
I feel IABU as I should have just put the shopping in my bag and walked out. But without a receipt I could have got stopped by the Security Guard. I was a timid mouse!
Thanks for listening to my rant. I do hope the £16 has been charged to my credit card as I hate moral dilemmas, even little £16 ones but if it hasn't been charged then am I right to think they owe me £16 as they took an hour of my time, were rude to me and keep it as compensation?
On the plus side I bought some orange and cinnamon baby beetroot which I have never seen before. Hope they're good.