poor customer service at Tesco

[jolene]

I am just back from an insomnia induced late night trip to Tesco.
My dh bought a pair of shoes there about two months ago. They are light grey suede so he has worn them mostly indoors, and not an awful lot. This morning he noticed deep splits in both soles, so I took them back to the store tonight. He had not kept the receipt but I did not envisage a problem with a company such as Tesco, as the shoes were clearly their own brand, and from this season's range and not particularly well worn.
The assistant ( who was very polite throughout) said the lack of receipt did not matter, but she could not give a refund as they were over 28 days old. I said I did not dispute they were over 28 days old, but would not have had reason to return them within 28 days as thay had only split this morning! I was not returning them because my husband had changed his mind about them, but because they had clearlty developed a fault and were now unwearable.She repeated that she could not issue a refund for goods over 28 days old whether they were faulty or not! So I asked her if that basically meant Tesco guarantee their shoes for 28 days only. She thought for a moment before replying, well, yes, if I wanted to put it like that!
I was astounded to say the least, but did not make any fuss. She really was very pleasant, but surely her interpretation of the store's refund policy could not have been correct? Anyone work for Tesco? I should stress the lack of receipt was not perceived as a problem at all, just the fact that the magical 28 day figure had been passed.
What do you all think of this?
I have taken it up with the customer services department via their website.

Jolene, I hope you get a more positive response from the website - I think you should do, I'm sure she was wrong. It does happen that an individual assistant puts his or her own strict interpretation on a company "rule" like that in order to cover themselves.

You are in the "merchandisable (???) quality" area here which can be a bit vague, depending on what the item is etc, but shoes should last longer than 2 months; a supermarket can't realistically expect you to keep a receipt that long, and she obviously didn't anyway, so I would hope the company will give you a refund and a handsome apology! (And maybe send you a post-paid label for you to return the shoes so they can do a quality control check.)

Good luck!

PS Just noticed you went early Sunday morning - our Tesco closes from 10pm Sat - 10am Sun but it's quite a small one, is yours huge?

Go back, ask to speak to the manager and go just as they are closing on a Sunday afternoon! R.

Thanks ladies.
Jahn, our local Tesco is HUGE, and open 24 hours 7 days a week.( so they never close Rhiannon, but I will remember that tip!) It is absolute bliss to shop there in the small hours. There are lots of staff stacking shelves but few if any other customers. I did all my Christmas shopping there in the middle of the night.It is about half an hours drive from home.
I was such a fan of Tesco and really disappointed by this incident.
Batters , what was wrong with the M&S spray? I am amazed that you got poor service from them initially. I thought good customer service was their big thing.
Actually the assistand DID call a manager, not because I was stropppy( I wasn't) or insisted but "just to make sure". She said to the manager "I have told this lady she can't have a refund on these shoes because they are over 28 days old, that's right isn't it?" The manager was not very pleasant at all and she just mumbled in agreement with the assistant. ALso the whole time the 7 foot security guard who looks just like Jaws in the James Bond film was breathing down my neck!
I will let you know the outcome of the website correspondance.

jolene, they close on a Sunday at about 4.30pm for a few hours. It's to do with the Sunday trading laws. R. Good Luck.

Had an equally annoying incident in Comet this weekend. We bought a video recorder there last October and within a couple of weeks we noticed it was spontaneously ejecting tapes. We took it back and was offered a replacement as it was within 28 days. The replacement now has a faulty videoplus function but because it was over 28 days old we were told it could only be taken in for repair. I was fuming by this point as we had had 2 videos and they both went wrong. I wanted my money back so that I could buy a different brand. The manager was a complete w**r and had no understanding of why I was so annoyed. We now have no video (not an easy situation with a toddler) and have to wait up to 28 days for them to repair the stupid thing. BUT I DON'T WANT IT BACK! IT'S RUBBISH AND KEEPS BREAKING! Only if they can't repair it within 28 days do I get my money back. Just wanted to get that off my chest.

Sorry for hijacking the thread about Tescos but I wanted to spread the word about Comet's extremely harsh refunds/exchanges policy before any of you thought about shopping there. I most certainly will not again.

I must apologise for also hijacking this thread, but I have a consumer rights question, and this seemed like a good place to ask it.
I was in Mothercare today, and picked up a pair of trousers for dd, which had a £10 price tag on, but 2 "sale" stickers on, saying that the price had been reduced to £8. When I got to the cash desk, the sales assistant scanned the trousers, and said, "These are actually £10, someone's changed the stickers". I said I thought that they had to charge the lower price if they had put 2 prices on, and she replied that it wouldn't have been them who put the stickers on, it must have been a customer. At that point, my dds disappeared, so I was a little distracted, and also didn't have the energy to argue over £2, but having discussed this with my MIL, I'm sure I was right. I did say to the sales assistant that it seemed strange that 2 stickers had been moved, but she just said "Yes, they do that". There's nothing I can do about this now, I know, but I like to know when I'm in the right, so I can hold the moral high ground in my head (!), so can anyone tell me if I should have stood my ground for the lower price?

emsiewill, I THINK they can refuse to sell them to you at all when there is a dispute about labels. (Otherwise people can and do change stickers for their own benefit. When she said "they do that" I assume that's what she meant - the kind of people who do change stickers think that putting 2 on will strengthen their case. I work in a supermarket and it happens there too - they will take reduction stickers off 2 different small things and stick them both on a large piece of meat.)
debster's VCR thing is equally annoying. Once you have accepted an exchange it does alter your situation but I'm not sure Comet are right about this either because it's still only 2 months (I get Which? magazine, can you tell?). Have you tried quoting the Sale of Goods Act at them? You could ask your CAB for details - I am fairly sure that this 28 day-thing does only apply if the thing isn't faulty.

Or it might be worth you signing up for CA/Which? and then asking their legal experts about your situation?

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debster, I just copied this from a Sale of Goods Act page from google:

"If you have accepted the goods you can't claim a refund, but if they are faulty you are entitled to compensation (called damages). You can either ask for a discount if the goods still have to be paid for or claim compensation. You are entitled to the difference between the value of the faulty goods and what you paid (or expected to pay) thinking they were in good condition. If you claim damages you must try to minimise your losses, for example, by accepting the first offer of free repair or a replacement."

The last sentence seems to imply that accepting a replacement doesn't alter your legal position? You could try going back and quoting this at them! (And threaten them with a Small Claims Court?)

Batters funny you should say that,my friend bought a jumper at M & S this week for £1.50. It was marked down in the sale but should have been £15.00. They realised the mistake but still sold it to her. She's very happy as you can imagine. R.

Judging by Rhiannon's and Batters' stories, M & S are much keener to please their customers than Comet! (I don't know if our local one is typical but it's scruffy and gloomy and has the usual semi-trained assistants who make it up as they go along.)

Getting back to Tesco... I enjoy late night shopping, or at least I did. Foolishly I went earlier than usual one week (I usually go after Midnight!), and arrived at the tills at 10pm. Bad timing... the staff closed the tills, leaving only a few open, with lots of customers around (it was just before Christmas).
Has Tesco stopped it's policy of opening a till if there's a person in front? Seems like it... at least, at 10pm it seems to be opposite... lots of customers, lets close the tills!

From the sounds of posts here... I should have gone to M&S next door!

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Thanks Robin,
Problem with the Tesco shoes is they are completely non repairable. They have a fancy moulded rubber sole which is completely split , a deep split about three inches wide. The sole has a kind of decorative inset rubber piece at the ball of the foot which is where the split starts form - would seem to be an obvious point of weakness, ie a design fault.
As for Debster's video problem at Comet, I had a similar thing with my dishwasher which I bought from them. It broke down when six weeks old. Like Debster says, their policy is to replace within 28 days, thereafter to repair if the fault develops after 28 days but befor a a year, only replacing if the item is not repairable. If that is the stated store policy could Debster (or myself)nonetheless have insisted on a new replacement (I realise Debster did not want this) or a refund?

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We bought dd a pair of sandals from Next at the beginning of July, and about the middle of August the top of the sole split from one side to the other. We didn't have time to take them back before we went on holiday at the end of August, and couldn't find any other sandals as everyone seemed to be stocking up for Autumn/Winter. Anyway, we kept hold of the sandals and took them back to Next at the beginning of September, not really thinking that they'd do anything about it, to my surprise we got a FULL refund, not in cash but in gift vouchers as we'd lost the receipt, but dh had a visa statement to show them. Well done to Next. By the way, the sandals were really grubby when we took them back as they'd survived two weeks in Benidorm and half of the summer holidays, but they didn't care, as far as they were concerned they should have lasted longer than they did. If my maths is correct, (the sandals split after 6 weeks, and we didn't return them until a further two weeks had passed) this is more than 28 days!!

I had a pair of shoes from Cable & Co and the heel just came right off. After some absolutely awful customer service in Reading (don't think I'll ever go shopping in Reading again) where the only words the assistant said to me were I had obviously worn the shoes and so couldn't have a refund (there wasn't even a hello or anything) I took the shoes back to Cable & Co in the Metro Centre in Newcastle where they were the complete opposite. They gave me a new pair of shoes plus the extra money the style were having off in the January sales. So the upshot is that I think it depends who you get on the day.

This months Good Houskeeping has information on customer rights etc, might be worth a look.

A friend of mine bought a jacket in Next today, the price label above the jackets said £29.99 when he took a jacket to the till he was asked for £49.99. He pointed out the sign above the jackets and the Manager tore down the sign, threw it behind the tills and said £29.99!!!!

Latest from the Tesco website line of complaint. They have asked me to send the "slippers" (sic) to them at a freepost address and they will inspect them presumeably to check whether dh has been using them as triathlon training wear...

Jasper (Jolene???) - good luck with the "slipper" inspection! I hope they don't come back with the classic shoeshop response "you've been wearing these!"...