# Tescos & Poor Customer Service



## mathepac (16 Dec 2011)

On October 4th last 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 December 12th I did nothing with my new HP 2050 until then when I un-boxed it, installed the inks etc. and fired it 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, included with the 2050 SE bundle, and away we went.

As I live close to Tesco Store B, I rang customer service 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 and spoke to a colleague. Based on what she was told, she then paged another colleague. The paged colleague arrived, said it was nothing to do with her and suggested she page  yet another colleague, who eventually arrived and suggested she must 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. The clerk phoned Karen who apparently referred the saga back to Vincent as yet another call to Vincent ensued.

The substance 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 that was the end of Tesco’s responsibility to me 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 an emphatic no. I then pointed out my rights under the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act etc, etc. The clerk pointed out that my receipt was from Tesco 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. She said it was unfair that Tesco Store B should be out money when they hadn’t made the original sale. At this she took the cartridge, receipt, and sample pages I had printed out showing the fault and disappeared for a while, reappearing eventually with a new cartridge.

My questions are :


why have a Customer Service Desk where the people on the desk cannot supply Customer Service?
I think it’s safe to assume that Tesco Ireland doesn’t pay their staff to lie to customers but are staff in senior positions truly ignorant of Irish / European consumer law?
Why not train Customer Service Staff properly to be independent and give them the initiative, decision-making authority and a  discretionary limit of say €100 without the need for further referral?

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

I forgot to mention that I also posted this on www.tescocomments.com to give Tesos right of reply using the actual store ids.


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## wbbs (16 Dec 2011)

I would be surprised at the 'Tesco is Tesco' type answer as I know from past experience that you can only return stuff to the branch it was bought in.  There are 2 branches in my town and they have told me they are totally separate and cannot accept returns unless purchased in that store.


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## Crunchie (16 Dec 2011)

It seems to be down to local store attitude and staff training. I have regularly changed or been refunded on goods bought in Maynooth, Clare Hall or Tallaght in other branches without difficulty.


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## mathepac (16 Dec 2011)

I got the impression that the "wrong shop" argument was only introduced when all other avenues for getting rid of me were exhausted. I'll keep ye posted on any outcome / response from Tesco Comments.


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## pudds (16 Dec 2011)

I have always been wary of buying any medium/large pc/tv stuff from them as always believed that after sales service would be very poor.

Biggest thing I bought was a 'bush' dvd recorder, which was very iffy but got an exchange on it and that was a few years ago.

Still feel the same about buying from them in this regard as its clear they only want to get goods in and out as quick as possible and with as little hassle as possible.

Would trust Aldi before Tesco any day in this regard.


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