Tesco are my current bete noir. The way they handled my being charged for a service I never received, is nothing short of shocking.
Counter that against the guy from Alliance and Leicester who rings me up to help me sort out a service that I suggested I might be interested in. Help me out. Not bulldoze me into buying. But offer a common courtesy in the way he spoke, a nice warm sense of humour and no pressure when I told him I was half way out the door to the pub.
Counter Tesco against Asda; I went in to buy some rib eye steak from the meat aisle, and decided to go to the in-store butchery instead. Am I glad I did. The butcher was not only incredibly helpful (he chopped the steak into tiny pieces as requested, and even helped offer an alternative to rib eye for a Cornish pasty because he was out of stock) but he also suggested recipes for oxtail when I asked what you’d do with it. In detail he went into how you could create a delicious slow-cooked stew based on oxtail and skirt beef. I’ve never salivated in front of a display of raw meat before, but he was both cheery and charming and I walked away wondering why everyone who works in retail wasn’t as passionate about what they do as this guy.
The thing is, there’s nowhere else where it counts as much to love what you do as at the sharp end of retail. Your customers need, crave, demand and deserve it. If you don’t love it, don’t do it. Believe me when I say there are jobs out there where you can enjoy what you do. And if you haven’t found one yet, consider your assets and consider your likes, and find a perfect match that pays.
Tesco did get back to me. They not only spelt my name wrong but said they could not reimburse my account so offered either £15 in Tesco vouchers (come ON! You really think I want to use you fools again?) or put a cheque in the post. Good job they didn’t send it straight away since my bank would have rejected a cheque in the name of Thakeray…
So let me get this right. I spend about 75 minutes on the phone to Tesco from my mobile (not with a Tesco Mobile SIM in it, thank fuck) costing me in the region of £9.50. 75 minutes of my time – that’s about another £85. And about the same time in knocking out emails, increasingly desperate ones trying to elicit any kind of non-monkey response.
And I am graced with a cheque I have to go pay in, and the offer of £10 in vouchers as compensation. For them taking money out of my account, unlawfully. And all this wasted time…
I’ve replied asking for a name I can correspond with at their head office, and suggested they look again at their ridiculously paltry offer of recompense. I’ll of course keep you updated every step of the way.
And at the same time, ask you to boycott Tesco for the company being utterly deprived of morality and having a customer service team comprised of dumb chimps.