Tesco & So-called Customer Service

mathepac

In October I bought an HP 2050 SE AIO Printer/Scanner/Copier form Tesco store A. It was on special offer at €39.99, cheaper than replacement cartridges for my current AIO.

As the printer with the expensive ink only ran out on Monday last I did nothing with my new 2050 until Monday when I un-boxed it took out all the useless bits n' pieces, installed the inks and fired her up. Disaster! The black cartridge only worked haphazardly and the computer gave odd messages about black cartridges installed and missing - blah, blah blah. I installed the second black cartridge, free with the 2050 SE bundle, and away she went like a good thing.

As I live close to Tesco store B, I rang the "head-office customer service for Southern Ireland" number and was told "Tescos is Tescos, if you have your receipt any store will do".

I went in to Tesco Store B and explained my problem to the customer service clerk, who immediately rang a number spoke to a colleague over the phone. Based on what she was told on the phone, she then paged another colleague over the PA. Paged colleague arrived, said it was nothing to do with her and suggested she page a second colleague, who eventually arrived and suggested she talk to "Vincent", who I was told was in charge of "non-food lines", or some such.

After conversing with Vincent at length, the clerk announced that Vincent had informed her that only Karen, the store manager, could authorise the replacement of a faulty product. And so it came to pass that the clerk phoned Karen who apparently referred the sad saga back into Vincent's lap. Another call to Vincent commences.

The outcome of this call as relayed to me by the customer services clerk was as follows : Vincent stated that the ink cartridge was "an accessory" and as the "product" Tescos sold me i.e. the printer was working, that was the end of their responsibility and I should contact HP directly.

I now became rather more animated than I had been heretofore and asked if I could speak with the invisible Vincent and Karen. I was given a categoric no. I then unloaded with Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act etc, etc. The clerk pointed out that my receipt was from Store A and had nothing to do with them. I said I knew that and that it had been printed legibly across the front of the receipt from the start of our interactions 20 minutes earlier and replayed for her the "Tescos is Tescos" bit from head-office. AT this she took the cartridge, receipt, and sample pages I had printed out and disappeared for a few more minutes with a new cartridge.

My questions are :

• why have a Customer Service Desk where the people on the desk cannot supply Customer Service?
• Does Tesco pay their staff to lie to customers or are people in senior positions in their stores truly ignorant of Irish / European consumer law?
• Why not train Customer Service Staff properly and give them a decision-making discretionary limit of say €50 without the need for further referral?

All-in-all a poor customer experience. The value of a HP 301 Black cartridge in Tescos? €19.99

wmpdd3

Heap of crap, they should have replaced it on the spot, end of story.

Tesco do train their staff fully in all aspects of the consumer law and in their own 'reverse logistics' returns process. I have no idea why they decided to go down that route with you.



Call here:

Tesco Customer Services
Telephone 1850 744 844
8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday
9am to 4pm Sunday

Email: customer.services@tesco.ie. (I wouldnt bother with the e-mail with the week thats in it, better to call)

Also write down your experience here:
www.tescocomments.com

You will get a result.

mathepac

I did that using the link you provided. Thanks

foggy_lad

The staff you dealt with in that store were just bone idle lazy and did not want the associated paperwork that goes with replacing a faulty item for a customer. I got the same thing in the Carlow store when I had an issue about a year ago, customer service desk woman rang someone else who came from the store and paged someone else who went off to check and came back stating it was not his department.........none of them were any use or wanted to sort out the very minor issue. I then asked if there was a manager around at which the second woman who had shown up said she was an assistant manager:D

wmpdd3

OP, did you get anywhere? Did you call customer services?

mathepac

No word yet, but in fairness its the weekend. I sent them the stuff above. I suppose the issue has to go up the hierarchy and back down to the local manager before anything happens. I'll keep ye posted

It'll be easy to contact me - by sheer coincidence I have a Tesco PAYG mobile for the last couple of month; very cheap to run, service very good. Sshhh! they might be listening

Ooops - sorry no I didn't ring, I sent the stuff via the website

wmpdd3

Did you give them your mobile number?

mathepac

Yes, all means of communication, digital, analogue & snailmail, communicated.

wmpdd3

Well, did you get your replacement cartridge?

Nonoperational

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Well, did you get your replacement cartridge?

Looks like it?

mathepac wrote: »

In October I bought an HP 2050 SE AIO Printer/Scanner/Copier form Tesco store A. It was on special offer at €39.99, cheaper than replacement cartridges for my current AIO.

As the printer with the expensive ink only ran out on Monday last I did nothing with my new 2050 until Monday when I un-boxed it took out all the useless bits n' pieces, installed the inks and fired her up. Disaster! The black cartridge only worked haphazardly and the computer gave odd messages about black cartridges installed and missing - blah, blah blah. I installed the second black cartridge, free with the 2050 SE bundle, and away she went like a good thing.

As I live close to Tesco store B, I rang the "head-office customer service for Southern Ireland" number and was told "Tescos is Tescos, if you have your receipt any store will do".

I went in to Tesco Store B and explained my problem to the customer service clerk, who immediately rang a number spoke to a colleague over the phone. Based on what she was told on the phone, she then paged another colleague over the PA. Paged colleague arrived, said it was nothing to do with her and suggested she page a second colleague, who eventually arrived and suggested she talk to "Vincent", who I was told was in charge of "non-food lines", or some such.

After conversing with Vincent at length, the clerk announced that Vincent had informed her that only Karen, the store manager, could authorise the replacement of a faulty product. And so it came to pass that the clerk phoned Karen who apparently referred the sad saga back into Vincent's lap. Another call to Vincent commences.

The outcome of this call as relayed to me by the customer services clerk was as follows : Vincent stated that the ink cartridge was "an accessory" and as the "product" Tescos sold me i.e. the printer was working, that was the end of their responsibility and I should contact HP directly.

I now became rather more animated than I had been heretofore and asked if I could speak with the invisible Vincent and Karen. I was given a categoric no. I then unloaded with Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act etc, etc. The clerk pointed out that my receipt was from Store A and had nothing to do with them. I said I knew that and that it had been printed legibly across the front of the receipt from the start of our interactions 20 minutes earlier and replayed for her the "Tescos is Tescos" bit from head-office. AT this she took the cartridge, receipt, and sample pages I had printed out and disappeared for a few more minutes with a new cartridge.
My questions are :

• why have a Customer Service Desk where the people on the desk cannot supply Customer Service?
• Does Tesco pay their staff to lie to customers or are people in senior positions in their stores truly ignorant of Irish / European consumer law?
• Why not train Customer Service Staff properly and give them a decision-making discretionary limit of say €50 without the need for further referral?

All-in-all a poor customer experience. The value of a HP 301 Black cartridge in Tescos? €19.99

mathepac

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Well, did you get your replacement cartridge?

Yes I did thanks, as previous poster pointed out in my mangled post (:o sorry guys) but the issue is about Customer Service or what passes for Customer Service with Tescos senior branch staff rather than the replacement of low-cost item.

I haven't heard a dickey-bird from Tescos via any of the means of communication I used to convey my original message to them.

Interesting.

mathepac

OK no response from Tesco, so I repeated all the steps by wmpdd3 above.

We live in hope.

Hey @17:31 hrs I got a stock "thank you for emailing us" email from tesco. Life away from the tills!

wmpdd3

Jesus that is desperate, your store really doesnt give a crap.

mathepac

"Thank you for your email.

I am sorry to learn that you have experienced problems with the ink, which was provided with the HP printer/scanner and copier. I appreciate how annoying this must have been for you, especially as you purchased this from our XXXXXXX store last year.

May I begin by assuring you that we know how important it is to provide our customers with an excellent service each time they visit our stores. I am therefore very sorry for the problems you had encountered at the Thurles store.

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

In addition, I have passed your comments to Karen the Store Manager of the ZZZZZZZ store, who was also disppointed to learn of your experience. She has advised me that Vincent the Non food Team Leader, was trying to assist you with your complaint and also trying to advise you that many printers come with a small amount of ink as a gesture from the manufacture's.

Further to this, I am also concerned that after sending us a comments form regarding your experience instore, you have not received a reply. I am at a loss to understand why we have not responded to your comments and for this I offer my unreserved apologies.

We find all customer feedback incredibly valuable as this helps us when we are looking at ways to make our service better. I would like to assure you that I have logged the points you have made. These will be directed to the correct area of the business.

Thank you for contacting me and for bringing this to my attention."

What a load of rubbish. The whole point of my complaint missed, very conveniently, and typical corporate "spin" put on it by someone who wasn't there. Waste of time, but there be other ways, Jim lad, arrgh ...