Tesco, Tulips & a very sharp knife

maypole

loves to eat
Hello,

I thought I'd share this story with you.

I bought some tulips from my local tesco store (seacroft leeds) on 25th Feb. I unwrapped them & a very sharp knife about 1in long fell out of the bottom (it was wrapped up the stems!)

Me being me said to hubby wow they have included the knife for me to trim the stems but there is no flower food :rolleyes:

I threw away the packaging (like an idiot) & though nothing of it. Anyway I got talking to my friends at work & they were shocked & said I have to go back to the store. I called tesco customer services & they were shocked & advised me to call the store directly. So I did & the lady there was great & said come & see the store manager as soon as I could. I then managed to hurt my back so couldn't even get out of bed very well let alone pop to tesco. So I called the store again & this time the person I spoke to was terrible she said " we don't sell tulips with knifes" I know I said that’s why I am phoning. "well you can't have got them from this store" "I did" I said "again that’s why I am phoning" "Well you will have to come to the store & speak to a manager" Before I could explain that I had hurt my back & wanted to make an appointment to see the store manager she put the phone down :mad:

I finally got the chance to go to see the store manager (also the grocery manager & the duty manager as they all appeared) on 10th March. I stupidly don't have my receipt & our bins have been emptied :eek: Anyway they all couldn't stop apologising so I handed over the knife as they said that they needed to send it off to head office. They said not to worry as they could see that I have bought tulips from my tesco clubcard

I received this letter from head office yesterday :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:


Thank you for contacting us. I'm very sorry you found what appears to be a knife in your tesco Cherokee jeans. Please accept my most sincere apologies for any upset caused.

Normally I’d ask our supplier to look into your complaint, but unfortunately without the packaging information & the foreign body, I am able to do so.


If you still have the packaging, sample & the foreign body can you please take it to your local store & we will look into it further.

Thank you for letting us know. I hope that you will continue to shop with us in future

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

I gave them the knife & since when did tulips look like jeans

Has anyone get any suggestions on what to do now? It's not as if I want them to give me £100 I just would like them to handle it abit better :mad::mad:
 
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I'd reply to the letter, pointing out you bought Tulips & not jeans & let them know the day, time & who you spoke to when you returned the knife to them. Provide your club card number so they can look up when you purchased the tuplips. I'd also let them know how disapointed I am that they haven't looked into your complaint & how I would have expected better from Tesco.

I wouldn't say you don't want vouchers but what I would say is you expect an explaination as to how this has happened & look forward to receiving a reply in say 7 days.
 
An unbelievable story. I really think it needs a follow up, I would telephone them and ask for an email address. Letters the old fashioned way take so long, I much prefer email.

I agree with happyholidays, you need to tell them how disappointed you are in their response - they clearly have got a couple of complaints mixed up!
 
I haven't got anyones names. I've not handled it greatly myself considering I work in customer services!!
 
I'm sure if you went back to the store the customer service people would remember when you tell them the history.
A knife in tulips is not something you remember and perhaps they logged it somewhere?
 
They filling in a form on the system & took all my details so I guess so. I'd love to know if they have conveniently lost the knife!
 
I thought this was a strange cluedo post intially - but no, its a story of poor customer service on Tescos part!! get on to them Maypole.....they should sort this out and apologise as a bare minimum! x
 
Blimey can you imagine if you'd given them to a child? Tulips are the sort of flowers little girls love!
*shudder* it doesn't bear thinking about!
 
My experience of Tesco customer services is that they muck you about until you get so bored you give up.

I think you should keep pursuing it, and if you still don't get anywhere I bet your local newspaper would just love to hear about it!!
 
My experience of Tesco customer services is that they muck you about until you get so bored you give up.

I think you should keep pursuing it, and if you still don't get anywhere I bet your local newspaper would just love to hear about it!!

Well It's funny you should say that but my brother is a journalist in Poland. Tesco are quite big in Poland now!
 
flipping 'eck!!! I would write back to them & make sure they take you seriously, it could have been a kid buying these for their mum on mothers day or for easter!
 
If you used your clubcard they know exactly what you've bought as it's all on record. You could mention it to them, because it sounds like they are covering up. Mm, I wonder why!
 
Hi, I was a florist in a former life so I know a bit about flowers, lol.

I'm not sticking up for Tesco as they have handled this very badly, but I expect the knife came from the supplier, probably when the tulips were being cut in the fields/greenhouse and packaged. The staff in supermarkets get the flowers in buckets of water in transportation boxes, they just open the boxes and put the whole container on the stand. Stores usually use special box opening tools and not knives.

I think Tesco should have a word with their supplier, as it is a danger to both you and their staff, but as they have many different ones from the UK and abroad, and you don't have the packaging it would be difficult to find out exactly who they are.
I expect the supplier wouldn't do anything about it anyway apart from tell the pickers to be more careful. (The pickers are often casual labour or migrant workers).

Hope that helps, I would say this is an isolated incident and not to worry. Just be aware in future.
 
I must admit that this was a few years ago, but I found a couple of caterpillers in a tin of tomatoes, and enclosed them in kitchen roll and sent them back to Tesco with a remark that they were all good protein, and they sent
me a £5 voucher with an apology. (It was alot of money then!
Of course things have changed since then.
 
Hi

Thought I'd give an update. Last monday I have phoned them up & complained about the letter they had sent & how they had handled my complaint. They promised a call back but I didn't get one but yesterday I recieved a letter from tesco with a voucher for £25 and an apology for how badly they had handled everything
 
Shocking attitude on Tesco's part!! They are the most powerful company in Britain and they don't know how to treat customers!!! I'm surprised they took the attitude they did because I know that for every item returned to them, even if it's a 9p tin of beans, they get £25 from the company that provided it! That's how much power they have over their suppliers! (I don't know whether it was the florist providing the flowers or someone in the Tesco store that was responsible). Shocking behaviour!! As someone rightly said, what if a young child had got their hands on them!! Do you have a local consumer rights programme? If they continue with their blaze response, I would take it to Watchdog, or your local programme (we have 'The Ferret' in Wales) At least threaten them with that- they may change their tune if they hear that! X
 
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