Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

My moan (and perhaps some advice) for today is Tesco... and that is Tesco with a capital 'F'...

Some months ago in the car enthusiasts circles, we became aware of a situation that had arisen where a woman had been subjected to severe domestic violence, seeing the husband jailed and her then of course single with a child. We thought it would be a nice thing to do to have a bit of a 'whip round' to give them a bit of a Christmas lift... we raised a few pennies short of £352.

As the collection pot was in my name, it was down to me to buy the gifts, which I set about doing last night, and they were to be 1 x Xmas Hamper (£60) 2 x £100 Amazon vouchers (one for her, one for her son) and 1 x £100 Tesco voucher to help get something really nice for Xmas dinner etc.

Amazon bits were done first, and all was well as you'd expect... then on to Tesco to get the voucher. I put in the details for £100 gift card and attempted to pay on my debit card, authorising on my bank app... failed. Tried again, knowing there was sufficient funds available), authorised on the app... failed. Checked my bank to see 2 x £100 pending, that of course I had just authorised with my paw print..) and thought better of having a third shot with that card, so tried my credit card, authorised on the app... failed. I messaged on the contact form on the website, but as it was past 9pm, I knew I wasn't getting a reply until today.

All this time, I was messaging with another lady that I was organising this with, so between the two of us we decided to abandon the Tesco voucher idea and send an Iceland one instead. That was sent no trouble.

This morning, I get up to two emails saying that £100 voucher had been sent!

Worse still, when they did reply this morning, they simply said that they had re-sent the vouchers, as if that resolves the problem.

Here is where it gets really murky...

I replied to their email, asking if the eVouchers could be cancelled and a refund arranged and heard nothing. I went on to social media and got hold of Tesco customer service who said they couldn't help as the vouchers were handled by a third party company (BlackHawk) and bounced me back to them. I have tried again to contact them, but as it stands, I am personally £200 out of pocket on this one.

Be warned - DO NOT buy Tesco eVouchers in the belief that they are being supplied by Tesco.. as they are NOT. You won't be buying from Tesco, despite the branding of the website and even the web address showing as Tesco, you will be dealing with a third party company who seem to have little more than zero customer service!

 

If you purchased through the Tesco website then surely the contract is with Tesco and they're required to sort it?

 

It is not Tesco - as soon as you go gift cards, it directs you out to another site:



The only indication that it is not, is right at the bottom:


BlackHawk are apparently a US company that specialise in gift cards, but I can't find much more than that.

If they think I am going away, they've got another think coming.. I am quite happy to tell everyone on every social media channel I can think of, and indeed I am also quite happy to be emailing their CEO.

All they need to do is cancel the eVoucher (they haven't been used) and refund it. Instead, they are choosing to ignore me. Bad look for Tesco.

 

Ordinarily, I'd agree with you, but you'd reckon you'd be fairly safe with a big company like Tesco. Besides, I was dealing with donations from a good chunk of folks, hence it was in my bank account.

I can't even do a chargeback as they have actually supplied the vouchers - only, because they told me three times it had failed, we went elsewhere.

 

I agree that they could, fairly easily, notified everyone affected. They find it easy enough to send out unnecessary information each year.

I didn't complain about losing my winter fuel payment, although they didn't notify me, as I didn't need it and used to give it to a disabled person that I look after.

What I was annoyed about was receiving the waste of paper and effort of them sending me the good news that I was going to get an extra, massive, 25p a week increase in my State Pension (taxable) when I reached the age of 80.

I also received a waste of paper and effort letter telling me that elderly people are more susceptible to the 'new' virus that affects the lungs and that people from the age of 75-79 are entitled to have it free. Being over 80 it didn't apply to me because they don't care about us old fogeys . Mrs Shiney also received the letter, she just fits into the category, so they could have sent it to both of us to save the postage - even though I wasn't eligible.

The taxman still manages to send me an annual letter saying that I don't have to fill in a tax return - adding 'unless your circumstances have changed'. Wouldn't that last section suffice to pass on the message the first time and not need to be sent every year?

So sending a letter once to each WASPI should have been a simple matter.