Tesco rant - if you shop online you need to know!

[gigglinggoblin]

Couple of weeks ago I ordered Tesco shopping to be delivered as usual. Got a call to say van broken down, cant deliver. Rearranged for 2 days later which was bank holiday Monday. Shopping arrives.

Following day payment is taken from my bank account not just for one lot of shopping but also for the one they didnt deliver. Rang them as I assumed it was a mistake and its not, IT IS THEIR POLICY TO CHARGE YOU TWICE THEN REFUND YOU IN 3 - 5 DAYS!!!!

I spoke to 3 people to rearrange, none of them warned me about this. The guy who told me it was policy just stuck to saying there was nothing he could do, thats the way things are, I wrote to them and they have said sorry I didnt know (not sorry their policy is shocking) and its the banks fault it takes so long to refund. I am absolutely fuming and speechless. This left me with over £100 less than I should have in my account for the best part of a week.

I think it is a disgrace they are allowed to get away with this and even worse that they think they have the right to do this to people. So as they dont care enough to do anything about it I am spreading the word so if anyone else is in this situation you have the opportunity to say you dont want to rearrange delivery incase you cannot afford to pay for your shopping twice - you will still be charged for the stuff you dont get but if a second charge leaves you with nothing its nice to have the choice!

We must have the best Tesco in the country! We very rearely get subs and when they do they're mostly sensible (although I did get a weird one last week) I've never had a cancelled delivery either. I've had my delivery charge refunded for minor problems too. The extra £15 for the same stuff from Waitrose is definitely not worth it for me.

Thank you for sharing this with us, OP.

Tesco failed to deliver for me during the big white-out in Jan. They then failed to deliver the same shopping which they rashly promised for a couple of days later, but unlike in your case they didn't take payment either time.

So I think the Tesco staff you have dealt with are lying about policy and just trying to cover up personal inadequacy - very stupidly.

I suggest you go straight to the top and email Terry Leahy on [email protected]

I shall do the same, saying that I was going to do a big online shop today but now I'm not so sure, after reading this thread.

Wow, I usually never speak up for the big businesses - stick it to the man I say, but IME Tesco don't charge you - and say they don't, until you actually sign for the shop.

In the past if I have had parts of my shopping missing, or perhaps a sell by date that is too close, they have always refunded immediately.

The nice scottish man on the phone always says 'that's refunded back on your card for you.'

And it has been.

(But yy boo to the big profits and blanket monopolies and all that.)

For me Ocado is about £50 more for two weeks shopping, that is a lot of money. I go to a supermarket comparison site which gives me the info, i go to Sainsburys so far so good.

We only shop occasionally at Ocado, for a treat.
A few months ago I did a big order with them, but I got the delivery day wrong, so I was at work when they tried to deliver the shopping.
When I realised what had happened I phoned them up in a panic and they were lovely. They said 'don't worry' and they arranged a new delivery for later on that evening, at no extra charge
I'm not sure Tesco's would have been so understanding.

It must depend on the area. When they did this to me I got the whole delivery first thing next day, they assured me they would only charge me once, they refunded the delivery charge and sent me a voucher. They are also very good at getting orders right. Asda are worse, they take your payment when you order, not on the day of delivery, and then they charge you again and twice failed to release the first payment. They did refund my bank charge they caused to be fair.

Seems to depend on the area you live in. Here Tesco is the only reliable and friendly delivery service. My dh was admitted to hospital at 3 am one morning and I phoned Tesco later that morning from hospital to cancel my delivery while the van was on its way. No problem and they certainly did not charge.
Tried a few ithers and things went wrong every time. Worst one was Sainsbury where fridge stuff arrived warm, frozen food defrosted and eggs broken...

Hi
I read your thread about this on the Childmindng Forum.
I have been thinking about doing a weekly shop online but I often see threads moaning about wrong items sent, non-delivery, money taken out of account etc, so I've decided to abandon the idea.

I hope they sort your refund out ASAP!!!

This happened to me when my delivery was cancelled because of the snow in January. Fortunately there was enough in the bank to cover it, and the refund did come through fairly promptly. I think it's disgusting though, some people on a tight budget could end up with no shopping and no money for several days.

Well I've emailed Terry. Let's see if he comes on here and explains himself.

OP - have you emailed him?

I havent emailed him, have never heard of him actually. I complained over the phone to the central help line and I wrote to head office. Both said it was policy so its not the individual store. I was given a discount voucher because they messed me about with calling me back to rearrange but nothing has been offered for taking the extra money. My next letter will be going to the office of fair trading. I do not believe this has to happen, too many people now have said they cancelled deliveries at short notice and werent charged so it sounds like pot luck. The biggest issue I have is that I wasnt even warned, if I had been told I could have cancelled the order so I would have only been charged once. I can probably live for a week on what we have in the cupboards but if I need the money for something else and it isnt there it can be a big problem.

Very good idea from someone on money saving expert is to use a credit card and pay off full amount monthly, that way it doesnt affect your real bank account. I wont be using Tesco again but I will be doing that Sainsburys have a nectar offer on their card at the moment so that will help too. I am glad more people are now aware of this, maybe Tesco will start to take notice that they cant treat customers like this and just pretend its ok to do so.

absolutely dreadful - TESCO simply don't give a shit. That is so very wrong & you could really be left in a drastic situation re overspend.

I've had my own nightmare delivery experience and they were pathetic!!

For my 40th birthday friends with lovely big house kindly offered their house for my party. I was 8 months pregnant & not with OH at the time. We planned a tea party later afternoon & into the evening.

So being really organised, I did online shop for all party food, drink etc and arranged for it to be delivered to friends house. All confirmed online etc. Evening before party waiting for delivery - nothing turns up. One hour after slot I called them, to be told my delivery had been CANCELLED as my card had not been accepted. I make the following points (to them & you):

1. Card details were correct, they knew delivery address was not my home address, and I have NEVER had a problem with card, before this point or subsequently (still using same card today). They refused to give any specifics re fault with the card other than to confirm all the details they held were correct (I had previously used service before with success & they saved my details on file)

2.They then REFUSED to deliver order - it had been cancelled at about midday (delivery slot was 5-7pm) so they had no order to deliver!

1. They insisted that they called me to tell me - on my mobile. We checked number they had. I received no call from them, no voicemail, no missed call - ie they were out & out LYING. No message on home or work numbers either.

1. I explained my situation, heavily pregnant, on my own, 40th birthday party order, relied on their service, etc etc expecting a little bit of sympathy, "let's see what we can do to help you" attitude - NOT ONCE DID THE TWAT EVEN APOLOGISE TO ME. He kept insisting over & over that it was my fault. When I spoke to manager - same situation. It was like they were reading from a pre-written response.

1. I did write to complain - never received an apology. Got standard "sorry you are unhappy & we hope we can please you in the future" crap letter. I am still to this day shocked at how badly they handled the situation. As I know there was nothing wrong with my card (I later double checked with bank) I can only assume they messed up & then repeatedly lied to cover themselves.

1. One can only assume that TESCO SIMPLY DON'T GIVE A SHIT about their cutsomers & they have so many of them they don't have to.

1. I returned my Clubcard to them. I do still use Tesco occasionally and under duress (it's most convenient most of the time & I'm a working Mum)but I cancelled my clubcard & opened another under dodgey name so get vouchers. I tell everyone I can about this experience.

1. Party was fab - we all went shopping at 24 hours Sainsburys & the cavalry rescued me - but you certainly cannot rely on Tesco's service, or for them to do the right thing in the event they mess up.

It's very clear they do not care!

#6 is about the size of it, I think.

So Tesco inconvenienced you by a) not delivering your shopping at the alloted time and b) charging you twice for the priviledge?

Nice. I think Tesco are shite anyway but I would definitely fly off the handle about this one!

This happened to me once!!

We were pretty skint (week before payday IYKWIM) and I ordered a shop to arrive on a friday evening between 7 and 9. It got to half 9 and there was no sign of my shopping, rang tesco and the van had broken down...fair enough. They offered to redeliver on the Monday - that was no good to me (a) because I was at work and (b) because a good portion of the stuff I had ordered was needed for the fri/sat/sun.

So I canceled the order.

I went out the next day to get some shopping and I had hardly any money in the bank.

Went back home, rang tesco and was informed that it would take at least 3 working days for my money to be refunded to me (i.e the wednesday)

I explained that I had hardly any food and hardly any money...so could I come to the store and collect my refund in cash. But according to them 'computer said no' and there was nothing I could do about it!!!

It was a nightmare.

I know, what about Watchdog? This would make a good feature for them. OP why don't you send it to them?

How can it take them 3 - 5 days to refund the money? I did a bank transfer the other week to pay for a holiday cottage and the lady receiving it confirmed she had the money in her account within about an hour.

I rather think Tesco were just sitting on the money and blaming the bank. Terrible behaviour.

Bank transfers are not card payments. Card payments take 3-5 days to refund and to avoid fraud the transaction has to be refunded through the card, not the bank.

However, I am still totally shocked that they took the payment twice. Appalling.

but they are not taking the money twice are they. They are refunding the money then taking another payment. Unfortunately credit card refunds do take days to go through.
Were I work we have taken payments then refunded the same day and the refund takes a few days to go through.

OP - Terry Leahy is the big chief in charge of Tesco. I emailed his office and asked what the policy was. One of his flunkies, one Nicola emailed me very politely and explained the policy which is

If the delivery can't be made after the goods have left the store, payment has already been taken from the card, so although they will re-mburse the customer, it will take a few days to go through the bank.

If they then re-schedule the delivery, the shopping will all be picked and packed again (original fresh goods having been wasted) from scratch and will go through the till again.

The reason this didn't happen to me, and perhaps others, is that my non-delivery happened during the snow so the van didn't leave the store.

I told Tesco that if it ever happened to me I would just cancel the delivery now that I know what their policy is.