Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Tesco

There are always people complaining about Ryanair and its lack of customer service. There are times when I find Ryanair annoying, but I've had no serious issue with them. If you want really bad customer service look to Tesco.

I used to actually not mind a trip to the supermarket. Nowadays a trip to the supermarket requires endless patience while customers struggle with Tesco's piece-of-junk self-service scanners. The scanners are too sensitive, too slow, too prone to failure (or "crashing" as the Tesco employees say) and a pleasant experience only for those under 15 years of age. {Kids love scanning and there are often long lines of kids buying chocolate or sodas.}

Only a few checkouts are manned these days and those always have long lines of people with full shopping wagons. As well as the self-service scanners, half the items have no price near them on the shelves (Price stickers? Forget it.) so you only find out what something costs when you scan it.

I know there are people in America who think Wal-mart is the epitome of poor customer service, but Tesco is inferior.

And, yes, I know it's profitable, but I can't help wondering if their whole success is due to the reluctance of planners to allow any new multiples to open supermarkets in areas where Tesco (Quinnsworth before it) has been established for some time. I know I'm considering driving 8 miles each way to avoid going to the Tesco that is less than a mile from my house.