• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Family Life
  • Family Travel
  • Family Home and Hygge
  • Technology for Families
  • Home-made birthday cake
  • Work with us

Mum on the brink

Motherhood - the ups, downs and lifehacks

  • Tiny Family Home
  • Family Christmas hacks
  • Microblogging on IG
You are here: Home / Family Life / How NOT to treat customers- special note for Tesco customer service

How NOT to treat customers- special note for Tesco customer service

by Mumonthebrink 11 Comments

.

On Wednesday evening, after postponing it the whole day, I left kids with Oh-so-lovely-Daddy and headed out to out local Tesco superstore to get some last minute sweeties for the advent calendars. I got to the Tesco at 6 pm sharp. … I know, I’m 12 weeks pregnant, I shouldn’t be doing anything other at dinnertime than eating!

I got my mission done quickly- picked up some other bits and pieces and got 6 packs of sweets, one set had 3 for £1 offer, the other were all sitting in 3 for £2 offer boxes. This all took about half an hour. Having made my choice of sweeties  I went to the self checkout and paid. However the tally seemed too high and on checking it through I realised that the 3 for £2 offer had not been applied, in fact one of the packs was charged at £1.47! My total bill was around £8 for everything I spend so I thought a 10% plus overcharge was worth the complaint.

….then I looked- there was 1 person serving in the customer service queue, which was also the fag queue. (A fact I already detest)… and it was long. …but I thought I will queue up…out of principle! In the queue I ate one of the blueberry pies I bought…. thankfully!  And in the meantime another customer service rep showed up too. Yeay, things were ok at this point.  10 minutes later, I put forward my complaint to one of the ladies at the customer service point. The lady said she’d check it out and left.

…and I waited

…and waited

…and waited.

During this I had several heavy smokers walk past me or stand next to me with the other lady serving them….I held it down and didn’t throw up, despite feeling the anti-peristaltic movement in my tummy from the smell (cigarette smell is an instant trigger at the moment). At one point I needed to hold on to the trolley and the side of the counter to steady myself and was thankful for the energy the blueberry pie was releasing. “I am not going to pass out! I am not going to pass out!”, I kept telling myself. I kept thinking about Christmas, what I’m going to cook, just to distract myself. I was very close to asking for a chair to sit down when the woman FINALLY returned… 15 MINUTES later!!! (though it might’ve been 20 or more, my mind was pretty hazy by then from the lack of blood sugar and standing so long.)

She said chirpily- “yes, you are right those are all in boxes of 3 for £2, so I’ll do you a refund”.   To which I asked, very politely, “Can I ask what took you so long?”
Her matter-of-fact response- “ another customer asked my help while I was there!”

This really, really upset me, but all I could muster up the strength to say was, “you could’ve apologised and said you were in the middle of help a customer already.”   I certainly have been told that a lot of times in this particular Tesco especially.

Her actions made me feel utterly unvalued as a customer! I did not see any emergencies, any ambulances that would’ve warranted this so-called customer service representative to make me wait for so long, other customer or not. Who was more imporant than the customer she was supposed to be dealing with at the time, namely me?  In fact, I had thought she’d actually gone to the loo or had a fag break in the meantime.

By the time I finished, I was totally appalled and needed to know this was not condoned by the management of the store. So I decided to talk to the store manager. The security guy called him, he came in about 5 minutes. When I explained the situation, all he said was “I’m sorry and if you want to make a formal complaint please write a letter and bring it in to the customer service manager here” …so here I am writing my account of the events, but I don’t want to go back to that store again.

Tesco, if you want real customer feedback, make it easy for customers to give you feedback, don’t put hurdles up! I feel the duty manager and the people on the desk handled the whole situation completely wrong. I will certainly be avoiding your store and spending my pounds at the three other local stores – Sainsbury, Asda and Lidl from now on. Thank you for showing me how “Every little [person] [doesn’t] counts”

By the time I finished (7:29 pm) I was shaking- partly from upset, partly from bloodsugar hitting rock bottom and my body not coping too well with forms of stress due to pregnancy. I sat in the car in the carpark for about 30 minutes nibbling and laying across the seats to try to get my feet in air to get back to a state that I could drive the 5 minutes home.

Is it just me who thinks it is totally unacceptable to keep customers waiting for so long?

How interested is Tesco in getting feedback if they make it difficult to give feedback?

 

.

.

Related

Filed Under: Family Life Tagged With: Rants and Faves

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Greta says

    at

    That is awful customer service! You should have passed out (or pretended to)…I bet they would’ve moved faster!

    Reply
    • Mumonthebrink says

      at

      LOL! You are probably right, but there’s a small matter of pride. Silly isn’t it that we just pretend to be ok & not let others see our weakness.

      Reply
  2. Scottish Mum says

    at

    Sorry you had such a horrible experience hon and hope you are feeling better. Much of this type of thing depends on the person serving you and I hate being kept waiting for ages for things too. Take time to get yourself feeling a bit better and it won’t feel so bad. I had a bad experience at our local Toysrus and it put me off them for life.

    Reply
    • Mumonthebrink says

      at

      Thanks to this incident I discovered the local Sainsbury superstore last night. It’s recently refurbished & super! Fantastic selection, well laid out, even has school uniforms.

      Reply
  3. Glenda Shawley says

    at

    Shocking behaviour. An apology costs nothing and will usually resolve the problem. There seems to be a culture, at least in this branch,of a lack of respect for the customer. If the Duty Manager doesn’t set the right example it’s hardly surprising that the sales assistant doesn’t do the right thing. In my 20 years in retail management I always found actively listening to the customer and then making a genuine and appropriate apology would resolve most problems.

    Reply
    • Mumonthebrink says

      at

      It is true in retail as much as in other services. Yet it seems that they rather pretend all is ok & put hurdles in from of the customer providing feedback ( whether that’s good or bad). Just so short sighted!

      Reply
  4. The Mad House says

    at

    Sadly I have come to learn he who shouts loudest is often the one who gets dealt with. I hope that you get some decent feed back

    Reply
    • Mumonthebrink says

      at

      It is a pity that we have gone down that route! It leaves the ones politest the most vunerable. 🙁

      Reply
  5. accidentally, kle says

    at

    Customer Service has reached some appalling levels, it’s very sad actually. If I were you, I’d print out this blog post as is, make the link address visible and send to Tesco Head Office. Just to see what they have to say then.

    Reply
    • Mumonthebrink says

      at

      That’s a great idea! The Tesco twitter team have been in touch several times and reassured me of feedback via the appropriate channels. I hope they do do that and this silly queuing system stops!
      Stores like Asda have realised it is the most important position in the store, and have never had to wait more then 5 mins to be served promptly.

      Reply

Leave a Reply to Mumonthebrink Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Don't miss another article again! Sign up today!

Join 7,087 other subscribers.

Motherhood is the ride of your life! Our chosen path is to live small to allow us to spend time and money on travel and experiences as a family.
We love new technology and gadgets that make parenting easier.
Mum on the brink is a lifestyle magazine built on the experiences of our writers.
Read More…

Just 700 square feet / 65 square meters for a family of 5? That's a very small apartment for all of you! ...we hear this quite often! How do you fit? How do you make it work? There … ... more about Renovating & Decorating a Small Family Home for a Family of 5

Tags

Baby Blogging campervan camping Camping and Caravanning Campy Van children Christmas cooking and baking days out diy Europe family family fun family life garden health Home improvement Homemade & homebaked house House and Garden Learning Life Hacks Lifestyle moments Multilingual and multicultural Mum on the brink's tips Natural Childhood Out and about outdoors Oxford Oxford and around Parenting Pregnancy Rants and Faves Review sailing small family apartment Sweden Technology Time Tested Review tips toddler Travel UK

© Mumonthebrink 2010- –2021