Vanessa Rossi

The Tesco Cockroach

Day: 13 October 2007 Time: around lunchtime Mood: a happy camper In my happy holiday  mood I decided to take a tour to Tesco following my calorie burn-off at the gym. A salad would suit my healthy day perfectly. Unbeknown to me, this salad would be the start of a long and sorry tale of disgust, complaints and a significant lack of customer service. I had bought a pre-washed salad pack and simply poured it in a bowl with a little vinagrette and added a little onion and a can of tuna and I muckily chose to eat from the bowl directly... why dirty a plate when I knew I would finish the salad. As I reached the end of my bowl, I looked down and noticed something brown and animalesque.... no, no it couldn't be... oh but it was! A cockroach of about 1.5cm in length was staring up at me all shriveled and dead!!!!! All these horrid thoughts raced round my head... was that crunchy bite another? How many were there in that pack? how disgusting was this?!!?? Having tried to 'get over it',  I called Tesco Customer Service and asked them what I should do. So, I drove: myself, a picture of the cockroach and the empty packaging back to the Tesco store in Lewisham. First I requested a refund... which I got immediately. Second I requested that a complaint be made to head office as, in my opinion it was unacceptable for a store the size of Tesco to have a free cockroach in their pre-washed salads! The complaint was made and a response assured within the next 6 weeks max... yeah right!!!!! The weeks went by and not even an apology from the biggest chain of supermarkets in the UK. So I called Customer Services again.... I was told I should wait till the 6 weeks were over and I would surely get a response as the item had already been sent to HO for investigation... how much can you investigate a dead cockroach in a bag is beyond me. But anyway.... So 6 weeks had gone by and no reply. So I called Tesco Customer Services a third time. This time I was told that no such complaint had been forwarded to them. Yes it was clear one had been made form their records but the form had not been sent form Lewisham store so there was nothing they could do. What?!?!!? so they can see you are unhappy, you found a foreign matter in your salad, but cause a separate form hasn't also been sent they can't do anything about it, just stare at it and hope you give up your complaining!!!!! So I called Lewisham store directly... This time a aldy picked up and apologising for the delay informed me that they had made the complaint and that the cockroach had just then been sent to the supplier for, further investigations..... So the complaint had gone forward but the store was to wait for the correct envelope to be sent from HO so they could then sent the little cockroach to one of their suppliers. I don't care what the suppliers think, I didn't contract with the suppliers... the cockroach was there, I just want to know this isn't going to happen again!!! and why the hell is there only one envelope worthy of cockroach sending?!? So, trustingly, or perhaps stupidly I gave Tesco a little more time to sort my query out.  But again, nothing! So back to calling Tesco Customer Service and again, the same, no no your complaint has not been received... so someone is clearly lying!!!!! Thats teh best customer service ever! Serve them a cockroach and then lie to them when they complain... they will surely get bored and give up! No I haven't given up I will continue to call until someone returns my calls. its amazing how many lunches the person dealing with my case can have! To be fair to them, they did send an apologetic letter and said would answer my complaint within 14 days... I am still waiting!!! Well I decided that the lack of care shown by the Tesco staff was abhorrent. So, I called Lewisham council to see what I could do. The result is this... nothing. As they are a big company they will most probably have themselves covered just enough so that it is not worth complaining to them. My only option is to just not purchase from them any more... yes thank you, cause that hadn't crossed my mind yet!!!! Its great that health and safety compalints prove to be so useful! Ill continue with my calls and complaints and maybe one day someone will think it is worth correcting the problem.