Mummy, why do Tesco lie? ~ Tesco-Complaint

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Mummy, why do Tesco lie?

I went into my local Kettering branch of Tesco at about 7.15pm 12th Dec,2006. I went to the bakery, chose a nice white loaf that needed slicing. There were no other customers at the bakery. The young chap working in the bakery was standing on the customer side of the counter, engrossed with a little hand held machine. After a wait of about a minute I said ‘excuse me.’ He looked up and glared horribly at me, said nothing, and went back to his hand held machine. I stood there quietly for a couple of minutes, feeling sheepish for disturbing him, but still needing my bread sliced. I was prepared to wait as long as it took. I waited passively and quietly with my son for a few minutes, when suddenly the baker chap lunged towards me and violently grabbed the bread from my hand and flew into a rage into the bakery to slice it.

I called out to him asking him why he was behaving so awfully towards me. He was in a rage. I told him I wanted to see the manager. He said things I could not understand and was swearing and shouting,at me for no reason! My young son was with me and he was as shocked as I was by this odd behaviour! I went to the clothing section and spoke to a member of staff who went to look for the duty manager. In the meantime, the baker came back and literally hurled the bread into my basket from about 7 ft away - and ran off! The duty manager arrived and I told him what had happened. I asked him if perhaps the bakery chap was someone with special needs who may be unable to relate normally, because that it how his behaviour towards me seemed. I sincerely thought this was the only logical reason for his lunge towards me! The duty manager said he was sorry, etc. and that he would have a word with the chap, etc. I was clearly dazed by it all. One never understands why someone would treat them so badly and with such bizarre agression for no reason!

I was very distressed and quite shaken, and tried to carry on shopping. I was bewildered, shaken, upset and distraught! The duty manager caught up with me in the pasta aisle and told me that the bakery chap was sorry. He said something about the chap’s boss leaving him there alone to do so much work and then mentioned something about ‘all the packing’ to do and people kept coming up to him to get their bread sliced and he just ‘took it out on you.’ I asked why someone doesn’t help him so he wouldn’t be so distressed. He replied, ‘Oh you know, targets, cutbacks, that sort of thing.’ It was an unhelpful excuse. As the duty manager walked away leaving us still in a state of confusion and some considerable shock, my son said “But Mum, the sign said; “We are happy to slice your bread”.

I sent 2 letters to Tesco, but did not get a reply. I sent an email to them and got this reply yesterday:

"Thank you for your email.
I was sorry to learn of the problem you experienced at our Kettering store and I apologise for the upset caused.
I would like to assure you that this is not our usual standard of service and I am confident this has been an isolated incident.
I have spoken with the duty manager and am happy with the resolution to this incident. He has advised that the appropriate action and retraining has been implimented at the store.
Whilst there is little that can be done to alleviate the inconvenience that has already been caused, I am very sorry indeed that this has happened.
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.
Kind Regards
Tesco Customer Service"
How's that for customer relations? It's alright for them, the guy has been talked to and has had 'retraining'! Great! In the meantime, the horrendous treatment of a loyal customer means nothing. There seems to be a total lack of care for the customer. I will NEVER EVER spen a single penny in Tesco again. If a customer can go in, shop, spend money and get practically assaulted by an overworked member of staff because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and all you get for your worst nightmare is a pathetic apology.... that is bad bad business. I spoke to Customer Relations today. He said "that is all we can do. Tesco does not give vouchers or any other type of recompense. We only say 'sorry'."

Fine. I'll be keeping my business from them. No business is so big that it can't crumble from it's own overblown incompetance, blundering customer care, cutbacks, targets and poor policies. Hey, imagine if he had hit someone... I guess Tesco would only say "Sorry".

It will all end in tears for Tesco because when these things start to work their way down to affecting customer's well-being, there's no way Tesco can go on like this and prosper. I went to Sainsburys today and spent £98. That would have normally gone into Tesco's undeserving coffers. I was most upset at my appalling treatment, now I am just furious!

Lynda

12 comments:

tesco-complaint said...

Sorry to hear about this incident and whilst the severity of it may be somewhat of an exception the poor service is par for the norm at Tesco. I think you will find Sainsbury's staff are friendlier - certainly that has been our experience.

As for Customer Relations telling you that Tesco does not give vouchers as a goodwil gesture that is complete nonsense. Two of my friends received £50 goodwill gesture on a Tesco Moneycard (electronic voucher card) for something similar to you.

Anonymous said...

I agree in part with the last comment, Tesco do normally send a voucher out under these circumstances. At the store I work at, all of the staff who work in and around the Bakery are trained to slice the bread, and I will often slice bread myself if I see a customer waiting.

Anonymous said...

The whole "we only say sorry" thing is a load of crap.

Anonymous said...

I have also been verbally attacked by a tesco's staff member at the till for my 2 year old crying. I made a complaint and was also offered a simple appology. I too will no longer spend another penny at Tesco's. I have also cancelled my tesco's credit cards, pet insurance and mobile phone credit. Anonymous from East Anglia.

Unknown said...

What is it with you people? Do you want a blood sacrifice everytime you get slightly offended by a member of staff?

At the end of the day, Tesco staff are human. If your two year old was screaming and screaming at the top of his/her lungs, it might cause a little bit of tension. If an apology isn't good enough, and you have to go ahead and cancel everything to do with Tescos, then quite frankly, thats just a ridiculous over-reaction.

When we get get sworn at, ridiclued, belittled, shouted at, and generally abused, do we get an apology? Do we b*ll*cks. So why should we be forced to apologise to someone who can't keep their kids quiet?

As for the original poster, the guy was obviously running a department on his own, and probably trying to do about eight things at once. The bakery requires skilled trained staff, so it's highly likely there wasn't anyone available to help him out. You got an apology, what did you want? Compensation? Ridiculous. The fact you immediately assumed him to be special needs also highlights a worrying persnality trait in yourself. Could it just be that he was a little bit busy?

I also doubt you shouted "Excuse me young man, why are you behaving so awfully towards me?" to him. In my experience, it was probably "Who do you think you are to behave like that?" or "What the hell do you think you are doing?". Something like that.

In summary - don't join the compensation culture by demanding money because people have been horrible to you. An apology should, if we actually think about this, be enough.

Anonymous said...

Yes, there are quite a large number of us out there who have been on the receiving end of some aggressive and rude behaviour at the hands of Tesco’s staff. And like the posters here have cancelled all dealings with them. Pretty soon Tesco’s will realise that hiring people like old “Timmy” here, who are hostile and have no interpersonal skills will see the company out of business. For all you people, who are unhappy with Tesco’s for whatever reason, vote with your feet. I actually discovered that the alternatives generally have a nicer shopping environment, fresher food and are cheaper too.

Anonymous said...

Lynda,
I am sorry to hear of what happened,I hear things like this happening up here in scotland too,it is shocking.
Just think what it will be like when there is only supermarkets left and no choice of real local small shops? that scares me.

6 years ago i broke away from supporting any supermarket of any kind,I support ONLY local shops and you know what?
I am content and i am happy,I do my bit for my community and they know my name;-) the stuff tastes better and i actually spend a lot less because im not lured into buying what i do not need.
My £££s circulate into the local community and the local man can go home and feed his family,everyone is happy,there share holders don't get the local money.
Take some time to sit back and laern what ALL supermarkets are doing or going to do,
You may just learn a thing or two;-)
Anyway you take care of yourself Lynda
and please remember the small local shops;-)
Remember every little hurts!

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about the isolated incident.

T-C, you think she would find that Sainsbury's staff are friendlier? There's tens of thousands of staff working for both companies, each having their own crumblies on the tills, and sixth formers filling the shelves.

You seem to take every opportunity to make Tesco's name dirty, and make accusations about the company based on your own personal opinions. Sort your life out!

Anonymous said...

I used to work in the bakery in Safeway. Every time i was asked to slice bread i really, really wanted to shove the bread up their arse. If you want sliced bread, buy sliced bread!

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