Yet more about Tesco customer service!

[kniteracy]

This is just becoming funny. It appears that no matter how many emails you send to Tesco customer service, you don't ever get a reply from the same person. Not only that, they're either giving automated responses at every possible level ("Send 'We refunded your grocery charges: now are you satisfied?' letter now!"), or nobody at Tesco has actually read and responded to any of the emails I've written. Beneath the cut tag, you'll find the whole paper trail. I apologise if I've left any names in -- there are so many of them, I am sure I missed a few!

Want some background first?

Here's the beginning of the story.
Here's part two...
Here's part three.



My Original Email Complaint

----- Original Message -----
From: "Me"
Date: 20 April 2007
Subject: Contact Us - General query

Customer Name: My Name
Customer Email: My Email Address
Customer Address: My Address
Customer Postcode: My PostCode
Contact Telephone: My Mobile Phone Number
Clubcard number:
Order number: [order number]
Delivery date: 20/04/2007


Problem about: #GR Online groceries | #DEL Delivery
Query Details: My final tesco delivery was scheduled for
4-6pm today, but I was late home from work and so was not here when
the delivery person arrived. My son has accepted deliveries from
Tesco before on many occasions; however, today, the driver decided
to honour a policy we knew nothing about and refused to let my son,
who is under 18, sign for the groceries. I rang customer service
and was assured that my groceries could be redelivered today. His
name was David. He asked me to ring back when I knew what time I
would be home. I did so, as soon as I knew exactly when I would be
home. However, the second customer service person (I hesitate to
use that wording) said there was no note on my account to this
effect, told me I could not have my groceries delivered until the
next day (too late for a Friday evening dinner party, I'm afraid),
and insulted me by refusing to waive the delivery charge when I
asked her to remove the order since I couldn't use it, refusing t!
o connect me with her supervisor, and attempting to engage me in a
pointless discussion about Tesco's policy that only someone over 18
years of age can receive a delivery. She was not interested in
helping me, only in restating the delivery policy over and over
again. I asked her to remove my account; I am happy to see that she
has at least done that. Tesco need to re-examine its customer
service practices. When an unhappy customer asks a customer service
representative to speak to a supervisor, the proper response is,
"Yes, of course." No other response is appropriate. Certainly,
engaging an unhappy customer in a debate is completely unhelpful. I
am very sorry I was too upset to remember this rude little girl's
name. She finally made me so angry that I told her I had a blog
that hundreds of people read, and they'd all know how I'd been
treated by tonight. The URL for that blog entry is here: http://
telynor.livejournal.com/872768.html, and as you can see, I am true
to my word. I'm appalled that Tesco won't refund a paltry delivery charge
after promising one thing and delivering another. You should be, too.

Reply from Tesco

On 23 Apr 2007, at 05:43, Tesco Customer Service wrote:

Thank you for your email.

I'm sorry that you were unhappy with your recent order from
Tesco.com.

Your experience was not typical of our usual standards and I'm
pleased that you brought it to our attention. We'd much rather know
if something's wrong so we can put it right as soon as possible.

Thanks again for telling us about this. I hope you'll give us
another chance to give you the service you deserve.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact
us at customer.service@tesco.co.uk quoting [complaint reference].

Kind Regards


Customer Service Rep #1
Tesco Customer Service

My reply to Customer Service Rep #1

----- Original Message -----
From: "Me"
Date: 23 April 2007
Subject: Re: [complaint reference]

Dear Customer Service Rep #1,

I have asked for my account to be removed from tesco.com, as I said
in the email I sent through the web site. The only way you could
convince me to stop telling everyone I know (and I know a lot of
people) what horrific customer service I got from tesco (and
recommending that nobody shop there or open an online account with
tesco.com, both in person, on the phone to my friends who shop at
tesco, and online via my popular weblog) would be to refund the
delivery charge from the order that a customer service rep at tesco
promised me could be redelivered on the same day last Friday (this
promise was not honoured). Winning me back as a customer would be
somewhat more difficult. What I can tell you is that I've received
excellent customer service from both Sainsbury's and Ocado/Waitrose
since deciding to end my relationship with tesco.com. I suppose it's
possible to look at the bright side: tesco customer service, by being
really, really bad, made me realise how much better service was
elsewhere!

The service I deserved would have been to have my order redelivered
as promised or have the delivery charge refunded. When tesco provides
that service, I will consider re-opening my account.

-Me

The next letter from Tesco

On 23 Apr 2007, at 21:44, Tesco Customer Service wrote:
Thank you for your email.

I am extremely sorry to here this i do apologise for the
disappointing service you have recieved from our Tesco Customer
Service.

We try hard to make sure you receive excellent service every time
you shop with us, so we?re very concerned to hear about your
experience.

I?ve passed on your comments to the Tesco.com Team Leaders and
asked that they look into this and make sure this doesn't happen
again.

If you can give me information of you account if you haven't
already cancelled it, your order number and your postcode please
and I will look into this immediately for you.


If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact
us at [email] quoting [complaint reference].

Kind Regards


Customer Service Rep #2
Tesco Customer Service

[OK, this one might actually have been written by a human being, because of the misspellings-- but then again....]

My reply to Customer Service Rep #2

----- Original Message -----
From: "Me"
Date: 24 April 2007
Subject: Re: [complaint reference] Re: Contact Us - General query

Dear Customer Service Rep #2,

Here is a response to your inquiry tagged [complaint tag].

I have already told this story in an email sent to Tesco customer
service a few days ago, but here we go again. I have asked that my
account be cancelled, and I believe that has already been done. My
post code is [blah], and the order number for this order was
[order number].

Here is the full text of my original email to Tesco customer service
again. I think it's pretty clear. It already appears, along with my
name, address, order number, and contact telephone number, at the
bottom of the reply list to the email I am responding to now. The
email address attached to my account was [my email address].

[I won't repeat the original complaint here for you guys, since unlike Tesco Customer Service, I suspect you read it the first time.]

(One thing I did not mention in my original email was that the
timestamp on my mobile phone shows that I did ring Tesco back before
6:00, the end of my original delivery slot.)

And so today, I receive the following possibly smug letter from yet *another* person at Tesco Customer Service. Did he actually read any of the emails he's letting fly behind this message like, oh, I don't know, a giant papertrail of stupid?

On 27 Apr 2007, at 12:38, Tesco Customer Service wrote:

Thank you for your email.

I'm very sorry that you didn't receive your grocery order from our Dot Com Only Store. I can appreciate how annoying this was for you.

We work hard to make sure the service we offer our customers is the best possible.

I can confirm that your account has been closed. As the order was never delivered the full amount will have been refunded by the store onto your account.

Thank you for taking the time to let us know about this. I hope that you'll give Tesco.com another chance.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us at [email] quoting [complaint reference].

Kind Regards


Customer Service Rep #3
Tesco Customer Service

OK, now I'm angry. This guy thinks he can surprise me by telling me that Tesco of course refunded my grocery order? (Well, not until 25 April, but that's another story.) If they hadn't refunded my grocery order, I'd be seeking legal advice.

Dear Customer Service Rep #3,

Thank you for noting that the charges for my undelivered groceries were refunded to my bank account. I knew the price of my grocery order had been refunded.

However, the full amount charged to my account was not refunded. There is an outstanding delivery charge. It does not appear on the receipt I received in the post today. According to my bank records, I paid Tesco £85.90, and only £81.11 was refunded. That's a difference of £4.79, which may not mean a lot to you or to tesco, but means a lot to me. It means I paid tesco £4.79 for the privilege of having someone at tesco customer service treat me rudely and refuse to transfer me to someone who could help me.

When the difference is refunded, I will stop telling everybody I know, in person, via email, and through my weblog, what rotten customer service I have received from tesco.com, and not before. Just think: if the telephone customer service person I spoke with a week ago tonight had only forwarded me to a supervisor who had the power to refund the additional delivery charge then and there, I would still be a Tesco customer right now, and your company would be a few hundred pounds richer. I know the charges for the groceries were refunded: if that money had not been refunded, I'd be being much more persistent than I am about this issue, which is not and never has been about the price of my grocery order. It is about being promised one thing and having that promise not honoured, and then having a tesco customer service representative insult me and refuse to let me speak to someone who could help me about a delivery charge.

As it is, I've discovered that Waitrose's policies and deliveries are more efficient, as are Sainsbury's, and both of them have more reasonable delivery rates. In fact, if I'd spent as much money at Waitrose as I tried to spend with Tesco that night, there'd have been no charge at all for delivery.

Again, this is not about the price of my grocery order. It is about the refusal of Tesco customer service to honour promises made to customers who spend their money at Tesco and pay the salaries of Tesco employees. When I see that charge refunded, I will stop tirelessly reminding everyone I know (and I know a lot of people) what rotten customer service they can expect from Tesco. As I've said in one of the many emails I've written to customer service before now, winning me back as a Tesco customer will be somewhat more difficult, particularly since I've now tried the competition.

Blog entry at http://telynor.livejournal.com/879385.html.

Me

Comments

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

They actually wrote you "I am sorry to here??????? *is appalled* Insult, injury, much?

[telynor.livejournal.com]

Yes.

Except for where I have changed names and identifying marks to protect the guilty, this entry is directly cut-and-pasted from my correspondence with Tesco.

Sad, eh?

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

Dear god.

On the plus side - best icon ever!

[telynor.livejournal.com]

I snagged it when I was reading and posting to grammarpolice a lot. ;)

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Alright, for future reference, refund first, then delete account. Since the incentive to make you happy is to *keep* you as a customer, and you've taken concrete steps to not be a customer any more, you can end up as a "lost cause" who is not worth their effort or expense. When you had the account deleted, you gave away your biggest bargaining chip. "I'm a regular customer, but I won't be if you don't correct this" is a much stronger to be in than "I used to be a regular customer, and I won't be now, so correct this".

[telynor.livejournal.com]

Good advice. I never claimed to be any good at actually getting results. Of course, most people I'm talking to who've complained to Tesco haven't gotten any results either, and many of them are still customers.

[fionnulaharp.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they realize that you've made sure that people in the U.S. know not to do business with Tesco if they go to the U.K.?

My pledge

[shag377.livejournal.com]

I, hereby and hereon, upon a stack of first printing Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a copy of The Hobbit signed by Tolkien and upon the grave of His Majesty King George III (The fine state I live in is named for him) and will take back the five tons of fertilizer to boot, swear never to shop at tesco.com. I shall not spend nary POUND in that place.

Huzzah!

Oh, btw....


*POUNCE*

[silme.livejournal.com]

Hey, I tend to boycott Tesco regularly just on principle (kind of the same way I boycott Asda since the evil that is Wal-Mart took them over). I dislike the way they intrude into towns, taking over. (Locally, there's been trouble when they bought out the little independent family-run shop in Brockenhurst and converted it into a Tesco Metro. One of the biggest complaints was that they changed the entire shop front and it's very much out of character with the rest of the street.)

But now I'm really not buying there!

stick this complaint on tesco-complaint

[(Anonymous)]

just noticed this complaint and thought it would be suitable for the tesco-complaint website:

http://tesco-complaint.blogspot.com/