Appalling customer service

[jakeneilson]

Im sorry this is so long but i was struggling to convey upset i was with a synopsis

so found it easier to just post the e mails ive already sent/received. any advice will be greatly appreciated

 

 

 

 

 

.......................

 

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

 

To whom it may concern,

I tried to write to you recently in regards to the poor "customer service" i received in your store at the Swan Center in Birmingham.

However your customer service form only has a 1000 characters on it so you only received part of the complaint and a request to contact me ASAP.

 

I will outline my original complaint:

 

Approximately 4 months ago we were doing a weekly shop at your store and noticed that you were running a promotion for Alessi Cutlery.

Collect the coupons and save 85% on the original price.

We needed cutlery, you had the offer running thats where we shop it all looked good

so we saved the coupons over the next couple of weeks and then bought 4 sets and 2 serving spoons a total of 25 coupons and £24.95

 

Id forgotten all about it until last Sunday when i went to lay the table and noticed sizable rust spots on 2 of the knives

and markings on various other parts of the set.

I don't expect my cutlery to go rusty in 4 years let alone 4 months.

 

I had some shopping to do that morning and so, armed with a carrier bag of cutlery i approached your customer service desk and explained the above.

 

Melissa couldn't find the relevant bar code for the promotion as it had ended and so called Raj the duty manager. I explained the situation again.

 

After inspecting the cutlery carefully i was asked for a proof of purchase.

I explained that if it had been a TV id bought from you id of kept the receipt

but seeing as it was a set of 18 bits of what i thought was "stainless steel" "dishwasher safe" metal

i didn't feel it necessary to retain my shopping bill from 4 months ago.

 

Raj seemed unable to offer me a refund but i assured him i simply wanted my family and guests for the afternoon

to eat with cutlery and not their hands so a reasonable replacement would be satisfactory.

 

I looked over your selection of cutlery all priced at £12.50 and wasn't taken by any of them.

One set did catch my eye however.

A Tesco's own brand that were virtually identical to the Alessi i had previously purchased.

Whilst i was considering my options Melissa approached me and i was informed that the duty manager would allow me an exchange to the value of £15.

 

That was not acceptable and more importantly not fair.

 

With that in mind i selected 2 sets of cutlery priced at £12.50 and 2 sets of steak Knives BOGOF at £10

and returned to the customer service desk where i was told that i was not being reasonable and Raj would only exchange like for like.

 

Seeing as you don t have like for like any more i asked him how that exchange was going to happen

and why i would want to exchange a faulty item for another potentially faulty item.

 

He didn't have an answer.

 

i explained that you had received hundreds of pounds worth of my money in exchange for a discount on a "quality" brand of cutlery

and if i was simply given another set of "stock" cutlery at a normal price then i had in fact not benefited from the original deal at all.

 

I also added that i believed us to be good customers of yours spending at least £150 a week in store which im sure you can calculate to at least £7200 per annum.

( i say at least because i haven't included the lap tops and various other electrical devices we have purchased in your store)

 

He told me he understood.

 

I told him i understood that you have protocols in place but there was a large discrepancy between what i had paid overall and what i was being offered in return

 

What i take from him saying he understood and not doing anything about it is that your managers are unable to think for themselves.

 

Seeing that the conversation was going no where i left with your customer service details and did my weekly shopping somewhere else.

 

Today i have spoken to a member of your customer service team for 25 mins from my mobile.

I have explained all of this to her ,

she informed me that a separate company is dealing with refunds and exchanges for this line of goods and that i would be refunded what i paid.

 

i once again explained that if that happened i would not benefit from anything infact only tescos would benefit

from having had my money in the first instance to get 25 coupons and all the money we ve spent with you subsequently.

She put me on hold whilst she spoke to her line manager and when she came back to me said that was all she could do.

 

In summation:

I Paid £500 for coupons that entitled me to give you £25 for cutlery that was shoddily made. (£130 RRP apparently)

I want a fair exchange / appropriate refund or compensation

I dont want a "stock" response

This letter and the ill will i feel could of been avoided by giving me £35 worth of cutlery.

 

Your autonomous management team seem unable to tear their eyes from the standard response sheets .

 

i hope that this email finds someone that embraces keeping customers happy and treating them fairly

and i would ask simply to know how you plan to rectify the situation and re assure me that this farcical manner in which i have been treated

is a one off occurrence and that you do actually value me as a customer.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Jake

 

 

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Hello Jake

 

My name is Matthew and I’ll be responding to your email about your Alessi cutlery problem; I appreciate how annoyed you are at what has happened.

 

From reading your email I wish to advise that my colleagues in store and on the phone have acted in the correct manner in terms of trying to resolve the matter. I understand that you’re unhappy with what they have advised but it is the case that these options are the ones we need to follow.

 

Before I continue as well; it is always advisable to retain your proof of purchase for goods in case of a problem. This helps us help you when returning goods so we can make informed decisions on rectifying matters.

 

I wish to explain that whilst the offer for the Alessi Cutlery did involve receiving vouchers to be used to get money off a cutlery set, whatever problem you encounter with the cutlery we will resolve this based on the price paid for the item at time of purchase. The goods you purchased to receive the vouchers are superfluous in relation to the problem with the cutlery.

 

With any purchase made, should something go wrong we will rectify the matter as best we can.

With any refund we will refund the amount paid;

therefore as vouchers were handed over to get a discount

we’ll refund the amount back to you as you’ve not paid the full price.

 

Alternatively we can offer an exchange which is like for like;

ideally this will be the same product or something to a similar value of the payment made.

 

From reading your email, this was attempted when you returned to our Swan Centre store.

I don’t know how much cutlery you returned but if only one full set was returned,

then I can understand Raj’s decision to alter his decision on a like for like exchange.

I appreciate your view that had this been granted then we could’ve avoided all that happened afterwards but I can also understand why Raj did this.

 

Since then, the email you send us and the phone call to us has seen my colleagues provide you with the correct information;

any quality problems with the cutlery need to be directed to the manufacturer who will review the problem and get back in touch within 28 days.

 

I leave the decision to you as how you wish to continue.

I can either arrange for you to return the cutlery to our Swan Centre store and have the Customer Service Manager review problem

with all the cutlery you have and see if an exchange can be offered.

 

Alternatively, you’ll need to contact Alessi Cutlery (details below)

who will send you a returns envelope for you to send the cutlery back for them to assess the problem and offer a resolution...........

 

 

 

..............Kind Regards

 

Matthew Davies

Tesco Customer Service

[dx100uk]

sadly In this instance tescos are correct

 

I would take upi the offer of the involvement of the manu

 

as you would at least get the 'correct' standard of cutlery replaced.

 

dx

[Liam_Kent]

Okay, so technically tesco are doing what they feel is right, but, like you have said, all they had to do was cough up £35 and everyone would have been happy....its craziness.