I purchased six bottles of wine at Tesco this afternoon. At the checkout I was offered a cardboard wine carrier which I accepted. When I arrived home, I lifted the wine carrier from the boot of my car only for the bottom to fold out and all six bottles to smash on the road.
My wife phoned the store and spoke to a manager. He advised my wife that, as we had left the premises, he could not do anything about it. My wife said that was understandable but would like to point out that maybe he needed to ensure that a check was made on the rest of the wine carriers so that other customers wouldn’t suffer the same fate as us. His reply was astonishing. He said he didn’t need to do that because it had happened before and was due to a new supply of wine carrier. So a Tesco manager knows that his wine carriers are substandard yet still allows them to be offered to customers and then when, like ours, it fails he refuses to do anything about it.
Snotogram on its way to Tesco head office. :ranting2:
For your information â€" the wine carrier is purple in colour so avoid.
Good luck! Hope the letter finds the right person at head office. Can you take your broken cardboard carrier back along with the receipt of what broke to the shop? Depends how much of a rant you fancy ;)
We've got a couple of wine-carriers made out of canvas/plastic (some sainsburys, some branded from a wine show) which we re-use a lot. I'd grab one of those if you can (sometimes free with deals, at wine shows, etc) thought they're not usually free
Very interesting, see this:
http://www.tesco-complaint.blogspot.com/2007/07/do-not-touch-my-box.html (http://www.tesco-complaint.blogspot.com/2007/07/do-not-touch-my-box.html)
And this:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=13481111 (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=13481111)
thats so frustrating,
i worked in the print / packaging industry for over 9 years,
manufactures
http://www.iom3.org/news/retail-ready-packaging-tesco-wine
in short
super cheap packaging company supplying the most agresssive purchasing company(tescos) result = very poor qaulity controlled packaging,
how much more wine and beer must be spilt:taz:
won't somebody think of the chilled-wine!?
Quote from: Browne;246447Very interesting, see this:
http://www.tesco-complaint.blogspot.com/2007/07/do-not-touch-my-box.html (http://www.tesco-complaint.blogspot.com/2007/07/do-not-touch-my-box.html)
And this:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=13481111 (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=13481111)
Thanks Mr B. Both links used :D
Don't stand for it.
You probably spend a few grand in their store per year. Make a fuss and they're give you a credit note and replace it.
Otherwise tell them you've just spoken to your journalist friends and who do they contact for an interview. They think that seeing as the store manager has admitted it's a wide issue then there's bound to be consumer interest and mileage out of it. How many people has this happened to?
Ask them if they'd like to respond or add anything to the phone call you'll be having with Paul Hieney (Reporter with Watchdog 020 8752 5028), and with Rob Unsworth, the editor of BBC Watchdog online (020 8743 8000) on Monday. Retail Week would certainly run with it - if nothing else on their letters and comments page. Nicola Harrison 020 7728 5000 is a reporter or Jennifer Creevy is the news editor on 020 728 3588.
PEN
I think a letter to head office would work. Don't forget to remind them that you are a fully paid up subscriber to Which Magazine ;-) as well.
That being said and bearing in mind I'm a consumer law geek I'd be interested to see what the legal position was about the wine carrier, especially as the store knew it was defective.
If you bought the carrier and it broke you would be in 'easy street' as it would not be fit for purpose and you'd be legally entitled to a refund of the carrier and wine. You'd get the wine refunded as it's loss would be a consequential loss atrributed to the fact the carrier broke. However the carrier was free of charge so technically there was no contract between you and the store. You have to have 'consideration' (payment) for goods or services for a contract to exist. So no contract then no refund.
Then there is the test of 'reasonableness'.
Would it be reasonable for you to expect that the carrier would carry the wine? Yes.
Did the store provide you with the carrier for the express purpose of carrying the wine? Yes.
Was the carrier defective? Yes.
Was the defective carrier the sole reson for the wine being broken? Yes.
You could argue that you were offered the wine carrier for the express purpose of carrying the wine by the store. It was not suitable for this purpose and it broke. There was a consequential loss when the wine was broken. You could therefore claim for consequential damages, for which there are many many legal precedents. But how could you make the free carrier part of the contract? And how could you make it's failure something at would put Tescos in breach of that contract?
You could also rely on a form of estoppel. Estoppel itself is not really relevent here but a form of etsoppel known as culpa in contrahendo might be? culpa in contrahendo translates to "fault in negotiating". Basically it means that one party (you) should be able to claim damages from another party (Tescos) if their negligent actions during the negotiation of a contract (supplying you with a free carrier that was not fit for purpose) brought about it's invalidity or prevented it's perfection (the wine was broken).
Then again it's only a few bottles of wine and a stern letter to the head office should do the trick. :)
Interesting Greg. What would happen if you lifted it from your boot and it smashed spraying red wine across your nice car seats I wonder.
Or the bottles landed on your childs head?
Gosh, what a stupid manager, knowingly supplying defective goods is a criminal offence, you could have the cops nick him if they could be arsed to pull their fat carcasses out of the patrol car.
But in reality, the wine carrier supplied by Tescos at their suggestion was knowingly defective. Your local trading standards should advise you how to claim compensation for your loss.
A reply has been recieved from Tesco apologising for the failure of one of their bags and a £15 Tesco Moneycard on its way to me.
I replied thanking them for the gesture but pointing out that I was actually complaining about the failure of a purple coloured cardboard wine carrier - not a bag. :doh:
Quote from: OldBloke;247400A reply has been recieved from Tesco apologising for the failure of one of their bags and a £15 Tesco Moneycard on its way to me.
I replied thanking them for the gesture but pointing out that I was actually complaining about the failure of a purple coloured cardboard wine carrier - not a bag. :doh:
6 bottles of wine equates to a £15 money voucher?
Either you have a interesting taste in wine or they kick up the jacksy!
PEN
It's a start. One day they might actually listen to the customer.
Single Malt and other dMr alcoholic fuels for the LAN will be sourced elsewhere.:cheers:
Quote from: Lameduck;247412Single Malt and other dMr alcoholic fuels for the LAN will be sourced elsewhere.:cheers:
For a nice pint fresh pint there's the bar offcourse. :flirty:
Quote from: DuVeL;247415For a nice pint fresh pint there's the bar offcourse. :flirty:
Except if it's darker then the shoes I'm (mostly) wearing, had some bad experiences with swamp water.
Hmmm...so I could (in theory) go and buy 6 bottles of decent vintage, take them home, store them away. Smash some glass on my drive take a photo and go back to Tesco...
That would be morally wrong. Yes, I feel dirty.
Quote from: OldBloke;247400A reply has been recieved from Tesco apologising for the failure of one of their bags and a £15 Tesco Moneycard on its way to me.
I replied thanking them for the gesture but pointing out that I was actually complaining about the failure of a purple coloured cardboard wine carrier - not a bag. :doh:
Strangely enough I was a t Tesco two days back and a chap walked in front of my car en route to his own carrying a cardboard wine carrier - and it disintegrated on him as he was in the middle of the road. 6 bottles, smash & splash.
TL.
Quote from: Penfold;246451Don't stand for it.
You probably spend a few grand in their store per year. Make a fuss and they're give you a credit note and replace it.
PEN
I seem to remember many years ago when I was still in the Retail Industry that tesco regarded each customer as being worth around £175,000 upwards (over a lifetime).
Therefore if they treat you bad they are not potentially losing a few pounds but a lot of money.
Everyone, we are worth a LOT of money to the supermarkets and we should make sure they know that when we complain and not be worried if our complaint seems minor or not.
Quote from: Penfold;2474016 bottles of wine equates to a £15 money voucher?
Ooh, way above my price range.