Thread by @Andrew__Kennedy

Hi @Tesco

On Good Friday I experienced the most awful and humiliating experience in your Hurst Park (Surrey) store. I popped in to pick up groceries on my way to visit friends. I used “scan as you go” as I always do, and paid £75.92 for my groceries, using my Apple Pay.

As I left the store, an assistant ran after me and said “I am afraid you haven’t paid for your groceries, and I must ask you to accompany me back into the shop”. She did this quietly and discreetly and thinking there was an error I happily went back inside.

My banking app which evidenced the payment had been made and I showed this to your assistant. She was apologetic and called her supervisor, who was busy. Another Assistant came over, and I again explained the situation and showed the payment. At this point things went wrong.

The second Assistant than shouted across the self-checkouts, “This guy hasn’t paid for his groceries.” The supervisor came over, and for a third time I showed the payment on my phone. She then turned to the other Assistant and said, “you need to watch out for this.....

...quite often they do two identical shops, pay for one then use the payment to avoid paying for the second.” I don’t know if this happens, but in this case, there was no evidence to suggest I had done such a thing and your assistant was openly inferring that I was a shop lifter.

The supervisor then dismissively said to me “it’s a pending transaction, it won’t go through. If you want your groceries you’ll have to pay again.”

At this point I was angry, humiliated and running out of time, so I agreed to pay again as I just wanted to leave.

Fortunately NatWest were suspicious of two identical transactions and blocked my card. I was then told, “if you want your groceries you will have to pay another way.” At this point I was so angry at how I had been treated I just walked out, leaving my full trolley behind.

I have waited all weekend to see if the transaction was refunded. Guess what – it wasn’t. This morning it was paid (as I knew it would be). I called the store to ask for a refund, only to be told I would need to provide evidence that I hadn’t taken the groceries.

How do I do this? I was also told I would have to visit the store with my card. This would involve a 120 mile round trip and three hours of my time (I live in Kent).

So to summarise: (i) you accused me of shoplifting, (ii) you humiliated me in front of other people, (iii) you wasted my time and forced me to be late for a reunion, (iv) your incompetence led to me card being blocked, (v) you took £75.92 from my bank account...

...and now you are expecting me to travel three hours and spend £35 on petrol to get back the money you took from my account in the first place. At every level on this Tesco you and your staff have comprehensively failed.

Had I been emotionally vulnerable or had some form of learning disability, or being old and confused, this appalling treatment could have resulted in trauma. You should actually be ashamed of yourselves.

I am now giving you an opportunity to redeem yourselves as follows:

1. Immediately refund my money
2. Issue a comprehensive written apology for my treatment
3. Retrain your staff at Hurst Park on how to treat people with respect
4. Make a donation of £100 to Young Minds charity which supports young people dealing with mental health issues

PS – if you need evidence, all of this will have been captured on your CCTV cameras at the checkout. The incident happened at around 1pm on Friday 18 April.