I sent an e-mail to Tesco the other day about the lack of trolleys in their Metro store and the problems caused to more senior shoppers who are unable to bend or lift. I did not expect a reply anytime soon and when I went in there today, again there were no trolleys.
Well, they are not exactly trolleys, more like large plastic baskets on wheels with a 'pull up' handle and most of them are usually filthy with all sorts of sticky unmentionable stuff in them. Because I can't carry anything due to arthritis and I can't bend or lift because I have a few prolapsed discs, I have to take my own shopping trolley and to manage this together with a Tesco trolley basket is quite a feat!
With the small metal trolleys that they used to have at least I could hang my shopping trolley on the handle and push their trolley around but they don't have these anymore.
So today, I went to the customer service desk and asked to see the manager. "Which one?" the woman enquired. "The one responsible for trolleys, or lack of them" I replied. So she dutifully put a message over the tannoy and within 15 seconds the phone on the desk rang. "He won't come down" she said as she picked up the phone. "Please tell him I'm waiting here and will do so until he comes". She relayed the message to the person on the phone and within two minutes this young man who must have been all of twenty something swaggered up to me.
I told him my complaint and told him I wasn't the only senior shopper with difficulty in carrying or lifting. "Just look around you now" I said, "There are at least six that we can see from here and what's more, three of them have walking sticks and are struggling with heavy baskets. So what are you going to do to improve our shopping experience with you because after all, we pay your wages by shopping here?".
I also suggested that they invest in the equipment that some supermarkets use in the USA where some electronic equipment at the door of the store would stop trolley wheels turning if someone tried to take a trolley out. "After all" I said, "Tesco would save money eventually because they wouldn't have to keep on buying more trolleys because people had pinched them. And what's more, there would be fewer dumped in rivers and streams or cluttering up the town and countryside".
All the time he continued to scribble down what I was saying and asked me how they could contact me because he would pass this on and someone would contact me to update me. (I'm not holding my breath on that one!).
Anyway, I think he realised I wasn't going to be fobbed off and he asked one young lady if she could find me a trolley basket. She eventually came back with one and said she would keep mine behind the customer service desk. She told me that she would lift the basket up for me when I had finished my shopping which she did.
Today at least, I did get some good customer service BUT I WILL BE BACK!!!!!!!
Be afraid Tesco, she is one very scary lady!!!
ReplyDeleteYou go grandma! I have a feeling your basket will always be available from now on. I hope they listen to you and others benefit from your efforts. Great job!
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