To cut a long story short - but if you really want to read about it, you can do so in Tuesday's post - I had to purchase my father a new television so I had to look around a number of websites on Tuesday morning to find a suitable replacement.
I came across a decent looking TV on the Tesco Direct website for £395. The website stated that it would cost an extra £3 to deliver, but it warned that stocks were low. I had to purchase it more or less on the spot to ensure I got what I wanted.
So, I did.
I paid up and everything, but noticed that I wasn't charged the three pounds for delivery. I was concerned that the company had signed me up to their subscription delivery service as they were offering a free thirty-day trial whereby I would be billed at the conclusion of this period when I was making my order. Therefore, I sent an email querying why I wasn't being charged to have my order sent to my door. I stated in this email that I would rather pay the three pounds delivery than pay whatever amount it is every month afterwards. Fair enough, right?
Well, a few hours later, I received a phone call from Tesco Direct. The lady on the phone assured me that I was not paying anything extra as it was free delivery on all televisions. She laughed - and she was laughing - 'I'm sorry you have to pay less than you were expecting'. I'm unsure whether the joke was between me and her or whether I was the joke, but left it as it was. After all, I was getting a TV and not having hidden strings attached.
After putting the phone down, I thought to myself that that call was cheekier than I thought considering the website did not tell me at the point of sale that postage was free for television purchases. All I saw when purchasing the item was a plug for this free delivery subscription service. Of course it's misleading and I had every right to query it. And the staff had no right to think of me as some comedy figure because I wanted to pay £3 on top of what I ordered rather than be tied into some subscription service I would never use.
And now we get to the final insult to the paying customer.
As I've written above, the website stated that there was limited stock and to order immediately. I did that. I paid up 11am on Tuesday. The website informed me that the television would be delivered no later than Tuesday August 30th. All I had to do was sit back and wait until the item was delivered.
Not so fast.
Not so fast.
I received a phone call a little before 9am on Saturday morning with the news that the warehouse had just been informed that stock has run out and that they would be refunding me the £395.
That is not good enough. The company had £395 of my money sitting in their account for four days before they figured out the item that I ordered was unavailable. That's not on. They should have sorted the stock as soon as the money left my account and entered theirs.
The entire sale was poorly handled right from the start with the misleading postage costs, the apparent lack of communication between the stock levels listed on site and at the warehouse, the sarky customer service phone call, the four day delay once payment was processed to inform me the item was unavailable.
All-in-all, Tesco Direct is abysmal. The service is shocking.
I had an email from Tesco customer services about this problem. Their excuse behind the stock being out of sync with the website is because the site isn't live. Wow. If a small business website can keep its levels in check, you would surely expect a major company like Tesco to do so. They closed by stating 'this is not the level of service we aim to provide'. If the staff are aware the website isn't working to the best of its ability, then the company isn't aiming high enough to satisfy its customers.
The entire sale was poorly handled right from the start with the misleading postage costs, the apparent lack of communication between the stock levels listed on site and at the warehouse, the sarky customer service phone call, the four day delay once payment was processed to inform me the item was unavailable.
All-in-all, Tesco Direct is abysmal. The service is shocking.
Update
I had an email from Tesco customer services about this problem. Their excuse behind the stock being out of sync with the website is because the site isn't live. Wow. If a small business website can keep its levels in check, you would surely expect a major company like Tesco to do so. They closed by stating 'this is not the level of service we aim to provide'. If the staff are aware the website isn't working to the best of its ability, then the company isn't aiming high enough to satisfy its customers.
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