No Tesco New Year For You, Sir! ~ Tesco-Complaint

Sunday, December 31, 2006

No Tesco New Year For You, Sir!

I visited Tesco at Duloch Park on my way home from work as it was the closest supermarket, BIG BIG BIG mistake. I went in, selected all the drink I was going to need for New Years eve as i was working a double shift this day and wouldn't be able to visit another store to purchase alcohol. At the check out i was asked for ID which was fair enough as i am under 21, however my friend who was also with me who was not purchasing any of the alcohol was then id'd. As she wasn't buying alcohol she wasn't carrying her id! DUH! I who had shown my id (driving licence) was then refused my items as my friend didn't have ID. In deep shock i explained that I was the one purchasing the drink and i had shown my ID, they still denied. They then had the cheek to ask if i still wanted to purchase the mixers (great when u've got no drink to mix them with). We politely declined as the whole of tesco looked on we then walked away humiliated. As we walked away we realised that we had been unfairly treated and decided to complain to the manager. The manager took her time to come down and by this time it was too late to purchase alcohol! We asked why this had happened to which she replied 'oh I don't know'. She said that she couldn't understand why this had happened and went to speak to the checkout staff and a higher manager. After a 20 minute wait she came back and said all she could do was say sorry and the staff were confused. There was nothing else she could do as it was past the time for selling alcohol. So we left the 'happy to help' tesco store in embarrassment!!

Tesco-Complaint Comment: To get to speak to a Tesco "Manager" takes ages which is ridiculous. This situation where time becomes a factor preventing resolution of a problem caused by Tesco happens regularly. They cannot sell alcohol after a certain time and apparently cannot give refunds after 11pm (!) yet they will still not rush to deal with problems. Our experience is that good Customer Service does not exist at most Tesco stores and where it does it is due to the good nature of the individual staff members as opposed to good staff training by Tesco. It does not need to be this way and Sainsbury's customer service in our experience is wildly better. Tesco continue in this manner because every penny saved on training and promoting good customer service can be added to the profit forecast: "Every Little Helps"

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Firsty, I am astonished at what happened with the sale of alcohol, seems like a they took the "think 21" policy a bit too far. In any cashier's or managers defence we have has a lot of pressure from local councils sending in undercover people to buy alcohol, and if your job was on the line, a large fine and criminal record then you may be inclined to be cautious. However, these staff seemed to be over zealous to say the least. As for "Tesco-Complaint's" comments, yet again I really don't know where you get your information from. In all the stores I have worked at when we have been called to customer services we go there without delay to deal with any problems. Refunds of alcohol cannot be processed after 11pm as it is classed as a transaction through the till and this action is automatically blocked by the software. Also, the company spends a lot of money and time on training, although I accept some stores will be better than others at delivering this. If Sainsburys was better, then they would be Number 1, wouldn't they?

Anonymous said...

Refunds cant be done after 11pm meaning if you shop at Tesco 24 and get overcharged after 11pm tough luck - they will do nothing to help you.

Cash refund? No! Vouchers? No! Take extra product? No! Compensation for wasted journey to return for refund? HELL NO!

Tesco is the worst supermarket.

Anonymous said...

James, I think you missed the point somewhere along the line. Refunds for alcohol cannot be done after 11pm if the store does not have a 24hr license. Even though stores are open 24 hours, not all facilities are open, ie. pharmacy, deli, cafe, photo lab, customer services etc. Only key areas are open for customers to shop from. Refunds for other items, except usually electrical returns can be dealt with overnight. We dont open 24 hours for the extra money believe me! It's not exactly booming trade at 2am! We trade 24 hours for the convenience of customers who may want to make a purchase.

Anonymous said...

Tesco-Complaint: It doesn't always take ages to get a manager to a customer. As someone who used in work in very close proximity to the customer service desk in Tesco I can say from personal experience that it rarely required more than 5 minutes to locate and get a manager to the customer.

If it did take longer it was because the manager was already dealing with something elsewhere. Imagine if you were dealing with a manager and they left half way through to deal with another customer. You would not be happy then would you.

So many of the problems in supermarkets originate from the "I'm more important than everyone else" attitude that some customers have and the inability for them to wait their turn.

As for the alcohol, if there were two people at the checkout whom I suspected were under 21 I would require ID from both. Yes, it may only be one person who is actually buying it, but can I afford to take that chance. I can't afford the fine with the meager wage Tesco were paying me.

Like the manager said above me, refunds for most things can be done after 11pm, you just need to ask since the customer service desk is closed. Just the same as they will sell you ciggarettes when the kiosk is closed if you ask. They definitely don't open overnight for profit, in fact I would be surpised if they made much at all. Perhaps you should be grateful they don't just lock the doors at 11pm.

tesco-complaint said...

Correct me if i'm wrong but according to Head Office at 11pm apparently the till software goes down for reporting and no refunds at all can be done instore regardless of whether CS desk is open or not. This persists until after midnight.

If this is wrong then three management staff in Tesco in Southgate are lying, two customer service staff in head office are lying and Helen Duke who works directly with Terry Leahy is lying. None of that would surprise to me though: Tesco do lie to get out of situations - such as lying to 'Mummy' Lynda in the other thread about goodwill gestures.

I would rather they locked their doors at 11 than provide a substandard service between 10.50pm and midnight. Perhaps they should have a manual refund or other till system in place to help in this time but that would cost Tesco money for the sake of customer service which ime is not an area they truly value.

Anonymous said...

I can't say for sure about the till software for refunds but I do know from working there that the checkouts will pause for a few minutes between 11pm and midnight to do something or other. Perhaps the CS tills need longer, I don't know. I made those comments based on what CS staff had told me when I worked there. If I am wrong then I apologise and stand corrected.

It wouldn't surprise me though if the Tesco staff you mention were indeed lying. I have been lied to as both staff and customer so nothing would surprise me.

I can appreciate what you're saying if indeed you can't get refunds or mistakes corrected between 11pm and whenever. It would annoying, inconvenient and complete pain in the arse. However, to require the use of these services during these times you have been in there shopping for whatever reason. Be it because it's the only time you can get there that day or because you fancied some late night munchies, you were probably at least a little glad they were open.

I don't know how possible it would be implement another system, but surely something as simple as writing down the EAN number of a product, action taken (refund or overcharge etc.) and the amount in a log book for the CS staff to put through the tills in the morning wouldn't cost anything.

Although the price of that book may be too much for Tesco.

Anonymous said...

I will explain the comments about the 11pm issue. On or about 11pm the tills need to go through an "end of day" procedure, it usally takes a couple of minutes if not less. However, while a till is in use, the "end of day procedure" will not activate untill after that cashier has finished the transcation so as not delay any current transactions. Maybe when you required a refund this end of day procedure was taking place, but it does not last untill midnight. As far as having an additional till system to action refunds while end of day is taking place is a bit far fetched, there's not going to be any significant amount of refunds at this time. I used to work nights, and we would barely get 1 refund a week after 10pm.

Anonymous said...

I didn't think it was any longer than a couple of minutes, but couldn't have said for sure.

Anonymous said...

Tescos are shit and i hate the management and their substandard attitudes and replies.
Awful company to work for, just quit, never felt so good.

Anonymous said...

...Another intelligent comment. His store were probably glad to get rid of that one!

Anonymous said...

You know TM, that was just what I was thinking.

Anonymous said...

it is the law that states (and has stated since 2004, from the Alcohol and Licencing Act of 2003) that an individual commits a crime if "he buys or attempts to buy alcohol on behalf of someone who is under 18". therefore it is the responsibility of a checkout staff member to refuse sale of alcohol if he/she suspects this could be happening. it is not unusual for groups of young adults to be required to each produce ID for one purchase. in your case the manager was wrong and the checkout operator was correct.

Anonymous said...

T-C said: "I would rather they locked their doors at 11 than provide a substandard service between 10.50pm and midnight."

No you bloody wouldn't! If you had to make a mad dash for something in the middle of the night, you would be cursing Tesco on here and saying something along the lines of,

"Well even if they did have to close other areas such as the deli counter, the least they could do is keep the tills open for those who just wish to make simple purchases."

Anonymous said...

hi as a tesco employee on the checkouts i can inform you that it is tesco policy that if we believe alcohol is been bought by someone under 21 to ask for id this is in conjunction with the trading standards Think 21 Policy. however if we believe that a person who is with you may be given the alcohol from youwe can ask for id from the other person also. as for the manager who said that she could not help. that is also because of another tesco policy "you say no we say no" this means no member of staff can override a checkout operators decision. the problem with waiting a long time for the manager may be because the manager was assisting another person at the time.
if the operator did sell it to you and you did give it to a person under 18 and trading standards found out the operator can face a £10,000.00 fine and a criminal record under the reduction of violent crimes legislation.

Anonymous said...

hi, as a group manager (meaning i am in managment of over 15 stores) i am very much aware of this and it is policy all over the uk, even in Asda, Morrisons and sainsburys. tesco is under same law so stop you little petty comments about tesco as if it was not around you would suffer, as 80% of uk population shop in tesco or have shopped a number of times!

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