Getting Something for Nothing
By Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
Northampton, England
November 7, 2015 4:38pm CST
I'm a firm believer that if something's not right, you should let someone know. If you buy something and it's not what you expected or what you paid for, you're doing a favour to the seller if you let them know. So I give feedback whenever that happens.
I wrote recently about my home delivery of cat food, noodles and stock cubes. Thanks to everybody who commented on it. Today I had a look at the invoice that came with all the food and realised that something wasn't quite right. The retailer, Tesco, had done some so-called substitutions. They had swapped 4 big boxes of cat food for 12 smaller ones. But when I stopped to think about it, I realised they'd got the maths wrong. 4 boxes of 40 sachets is 160 sachets. 12 boxes of 12 sachets is just 144. My poor starving kitties were short 16 sachets.
Further down the invoice I noticed that for some strange reason they'd knocked a further £6 off the bill which seemed to be something to do with the 12 packs but it wasn't clear what and it actually made them slightly cheaper than they should have been.
So I decided to call the customer services line and tell them I was short 16 sachets. I didn't moan, I didn't grumble, I just spelt out the maths and the operator instantly offered to knock £9 (the cost of a 40 pack) off the bill in compensation. I didn't even ask. I wasn't even looking for any kind of monetary pay back. I just wanted to draw their attention to the numbers.
Admittedly I might have said something like "How am I going to explain this to my three little kitties when those final 16 sachets are missing?"
She laughed and processed the repayment and said she'd raise the issue that substitutions needed to be for the same number of items and they'd take more care next time.
Yesterday evening the delivery van brought my online grocery shopping order. It contained about £90 worth of cat food, 6 boxes of vegetarian stock cubes and 6...
16 people like this
13 responses
@celticeagle (158728)
• Boise, Idaho
8 Nov 15
Glad to hear that you had a good experience. I wasn't that lucky recently. Did you get it all straightened out? Kitties are happy then?
2 people like this
@celticeagle (158728)
• Boise, Idaho
8 Nov 15
@boiboing ...Luckily for the grocery people. Free is always nice and it was their mistake.
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
7 Nov 15
Well that seems like good customer service to me even if the kitties come up a bit short. I do like Tesco.
2 people like this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
10 Nov 15
@boiboing Well most of the time when I am in the UK the stores I use as Tesco, Sainsbury or Asda but I think Tesco has lots of choices. I did once shop at a Morrisons.
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
8 Nov 15
I certainly would have been upset that I'd paid for an item I didn't receive. I'm glad you got it all figured out.
2 people like this
@ria1606roy (2797)
• Kolkata, India
8 Nov 15
That seems okay.....it's good you dealt with the situation in a calm systematic manner, and they are bound to notice that way.
1 person likes this
@ria1606roy (2797)
• Kolkata, India
8 Nov 15
@boiboing Yeah right, getting into a fight would not lead to any good. It would only ruin the seller-customer relation. But in this way, they will treat the problem as they are supposed to.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
8 Nov 15
How do you add the box at the bottom with the other post in it? Please share.
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22412)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
8 Nov 15
Simply paste the URL, as it appears at the top of your web browser, for that myLot page into your comment or response. It only works for the first URL in your response/comment. Feel free to experiment on one of my discussions if you like, the comment can always be deleted if it does not work.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
8 Nov 15
@pgntwo Thanks. I put a YouTube URL in my last post. That seemed to work for me,
1 person likes this
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
8 Nov 15
This is one of those times when I can look a bit smug at all the people who claim there was no point learning their 'times tables'.
@41CombedaleRoad (5952)
• Greece
8 Nov 15
Good for Tesco for sorting things out in such a pleasant way. 16 sachets provide five days food for three cats I would guess, or an extra visit to buy more.
1 person likes this
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
8 Nov 15
I think we should check our receipts more often.... I'm glad you got a bit off the bill.... but that you managed to get your point across about substituting too....
@Marilynda1225 (79592)
• United States
8 Nov 15
My son in law works in customer service for a very big "well known" company (I can't say which one here) but he says that most companies are willing to compensate people for almost anything. The company he works for is always sending coupons to dissatisfied or even satisfied customers. They like having feedback on their products. Nice that you were compensated and it proves you don't have to yell and scream in order to get your point across