Supermarket complaint

[tobeee]

A few weeks ago my wife had an incident at a supermarket, and so I complained to Head Office. The local store wrote back to me with an unsatisfactory response, and, after a chat, it was still unresolved so I wrote back to Head Office. This time nobody responded to me, so I wrote to the Chief Exec., and he too ignored me! In all my letters I spent more time suggesting (genuinely) how their processes could be improved as they really were in a mess dealing with my wife's issue, so I'm a bit peeved to say the least. Clearly they're not going to respond, so I thought I'd write once more to the Chief, copying all the previous letters, and also copying all MY previous letters to his main competitors! I imagine they'll all respond to me saying how much better they'd treat me if I were to shop there, and he'll feel like a bit of a chump!

I've written loads of such letters, being a bit of a Meldrew, but this is a new tact to provoke a response!

None of my letters are abusive, all being quite constructive, though pointing out my view that they don't seem to be too fussed about their customers. So, is there any legal danger in this course of action?

[SamHH]

As long as you're not being threatening, I doubt it.

However, I suspect that if they've got to the stage of not answering your letters, you're wasting your time. And they won't care in the slightest if you CC your letters to other supermarkets.

[Olf]

Tell us about the incident and we'll give you an honest opinion on whether you're wasting time.

[Menguin]

Look at it Richard, just look at it!

[Romanymagic]

Perhaps you are being too polite in your correspondence?

[Slaav]

I think this one could be good......

[Lurking Lawyer]

4291...

[skip_1]

Fight the Man, but definitely copy in the rest of the Cartel.

[stifler]

Sorry, can't form a reasonable response without knowing what happened in the original incident and what the supermarket's response was.

[Jasandjules]

With your next letter you can advise them that you'll be providing copies of all correspondence to the local (and possibly national, depending on circumstances) papers in the event that they fail to reply.

[sonic_2k_uk]

which supermarket?

Got to be tesco or asda

[AlpineWhite]

Menguin said:

Look at it Richard, just look at it!

Have a

[Ayahuasca]

Need clarification on the alleged 'incident'.

[Nurburgsingh]

I'd have thought if you didnt get a decent response from the local store manager then you're st out of luck. The bottom line as far as head office is concerned is Profit, not customer service.

But good luck!

[tobeee]

Ha Ha! You're all getting excited that the incident might involve underwear or some other sexually interesting item which might then lead to me posting up some pics of my naked wife spread across the bonnet of a Ferrari munching her favourite biscuits... or something... am I right so far?! OK, the incident is not really of any consequence, but the Head Office should have responded out of courtesy, and they didn't, which is why I want to pursue it for my own entertainment now!


OK, the dull story... she bought some stuff, was short-changed a tenner, and told the checkout chappie who said that it was company policy not to hand back any cash until the mistake was proven. Didn't give her any receipt or such like - just told her they'd call if they found in her favour. All very humiliating for her, and not really what she needed two days before giving birth! Anyway, they didn't call back so I called the store to check their policy, and ask what their investigations showed, which kick-started a comedy of errors! Not telling the supermarket name yet!

[Ayahuasca]

I was visualising some unfortunate slippage on wet flooring in the fresh produce section whilst holding a large cellophane-wrapped cucumber that resulted in being helped out of a compromising position by a shelf-stacker of afro-caribbean origin.

Hey ho.

[Simpo Two]

tobeee said:

OK, the dull story... she bought some stuff, was short-changed a tenner, and told the checkout chappie who said that it was company policy not to hand back any cash until the mistake was proven.

How do you prove it?

[Maxf]

Fair enough - I'd be pissed off at that as well.

I thought it might be something rubbish we could have taken the piss out of. Shame.

[Poledriver]

Sounds like Tesco! Had a similar incident, it took them a week before they gave me a call to say that the till in question was £10 over on the day in question and I could go in to get my money back.
Obviously, no offer of compensatory vouchers to make up for the 5 phone calls and 2 extra visits!

[MentalSarcasm]

Simpo Two said:

tobeee said:

OK, the dull story... she bought some stuff, was short-changed a tenner, and told the checkout chappie who said that it was company policy not to hand back any cash until the mistake was proven.

How do you prove it?

He should leave the note she paid with on top of the change drawer while getting her change, and not put it in the till properly until she had left the checkout. He should also give a receipt, which would then show that he had put through the ten pounds, and how much change he should have given.

If she had moved away and he was already on to the next customer then it is more difficult. It would probably involve working out how much money should have been in the till at the end of the day, using transaction records, and then counting up how much money was actually in the till at the end of day, and seeing if there was a difference. But for something like that a manager would have to be notified at the time so they could get her name and phone number and make a note of how much change she was missing, if they didn't take any of that information then they probably didn't give a toss TBH.

It's also a manager that would have had to do the checking, there's no way checkout staff will be allowed access to till records.