OxBowBusiness

All...or only part?

All…or only part?

I was in Tesco’s this morning – I often pop in after my 6 am session in the gym. They have just started a campaign to encourage people to buy more fruit. They have big notices saying ‘Special offer on all packaged fruits. Buy five fruits and the cheapest one is free!’

Many packets have special stickers on announcing this.

Then I noticed something. Not all pre-packaged fruit had these stickers on. In fact the cheaper versions did NOT have stickers on. So a bag of Tesco apples was 70p but a bag of apples with the sticker on was £1.29.

This seemed wrong. It seemed to be coercing people into spending more money than they wished simply to take advantage of the ‘fifth one free’.

But…the notice said ‘all fruits’ and as I know what ‘all’ means I knew there would be no problems. Just to be sure I spoke to a floor manager Jo Liu. “Excuse me, “said I (I am extra polite when I want to complain) “but this package of fruit without a special offer sticker on, if it’s the lowest price of five, will it be free?”

Mr Liu said ‘no as there is not sticker’.

I then drew his attention to the big posters.

He still said ‘no’.

I then asked him what he thought the word ‘all’ meant.

Reluctantly he agreed on my definition of ‘all’ and said that it would be OK to buy the cheaper fruit (with no sticker on) and all would be well at the till – and if not then I should see Customer Services for a refund.

I carried on round the store and saw some oranges packaged in a string net. I asked one of the assistants whether this meant they were ‘pre-packaged’. They said ‘yes’. I then said that this means the oranges must be in the ‘buy five fruits’ scheme.

‘Oh no’ said the staff, ‘it doesn’t have a sticker’.

By then I was somewhat pigged off so with a slight raising of tone I asked the member of staff what they thought ‘all’ meant and why Tesco was lying and deceiving the public.

The member of staff blushed a bright red and admitted that I was right all along and yes, the cheap oranges should be in the deal.

I continued with my shopping, paid for the goods and then went to Customer Services to complain.

They wanted me to fill in a form but I refused as I wanted to see the Manager immediately rather than fill in a form and then await his return call.

The Manager came down and I asked him why Tesco’s were deceiving the public. He said they weren’t – until I asked him what ‘all’ meant.

He then explained that not all the packages had stickers on as ‘it’s a new scheme and we haven’t quite got round to putting stickers on everything BUT each tray of fruit has a sticker on informing the public of the scheme’.

I suggested to him that someone less pushy than me (ie most people) and especially shy, retiring pensioners with poor eye sight wouldn’t see this and certainly wouldn’t complain. Did Tesco’s have a special policy of targeting their deception at pensioners?

He explained that it way merely a matter of time ie hours, before the stickers were in place?

I then asked him why the staff didn’t know whether the fruit without stickers were in the scheme – was this example of his poor management or was it done deliberately to make sure shoppers were given the wrong information.

He explained that not all staff would have been briefed as some staff – the ones on the fruit counters - might not have been at the briefing last week when the scheme was announced.

I suggested to him that it was his job to make sure customers were not given wrong information and the scheme should not have been launched without at the very least, all members of staff knowing about this. I also suggested that it would take only perhaps 20 minutes to ensure all fruit had stickers on and this could have been done first thing in the morning.

He said he’d take my comments ‘on board’ and would remedy the situation.

It’s important to complain when there’s a ‘mistaken deception’ going on – I’ll be returning to Tesco’s the end of the week …

Chris Sivewright

posted by Duncan Williamson @ 6:15 PM