I am getting a bit fed up. Not with blogging – although my recent lack of blogs would suggest otherwise. No, my recent discontent is with Tesco – mainly their online delivery service.

We buy our groceries online every week, as going to the supermarket on a regular basis is not an option. One of the reasons for this is Claire’s shifts don’t always allow us to go shopping when we would like. The other reason is that the main supermarkets near to where we live are in Bristol. It is always a risk going shopping in a superstore, as our fellow customers are a liability. I try to forget the number of times I have nearly been mowed down by a trolley, being pushed by someone who is more interested in a special offer on Laughing Cow Cheese, than controlling their basket-on-wheels.

We’ve all heard the horror stories of doing an online shop too, and laughed at the jokes about a lemon being substituted for citrus washing up liquid. I get it. Mistakes happen. Products go out of stock. What annoys me is when there is an issue almost every week with our online shop.

It isn’t even the substitutions – Tesco can’t help that. It is when they think they have delivered a product and charged us for it, but when coming to unpacking our groceries, we find the said item missing. Then there are the ‘use by dates’. Tesco kindly warn us on their invoice if a product has a short shelf life. A nice feature. Except it would be, if it was accurate. There have been a number of times where we have been warned that a sandwich (for example) is out of date on Thursday, although on closer inspection, discovering that it has to be eaten by Monday.

Every time there is an issue, we ring, email or Tweet Tesco. Every time we do this, we get the usual response. “We’re sorry”. Followed by. “We will advise the store manager”. Before issuing a refund on the missing or unsatisfactory item. The apology would be fair enough in most circumstances – as I have already said, mistakes happen – but it keeps occuring, so much so that “sorry” doesn’t really matter anymore. In fact, the people making the apology are the poor customer service staff, who, to their credit are always excellent, polite and helpful.

I don’t want an apology. I don’t want to be contacted about the issue, and I don’t want my product refunded. I want this to stop happening. Therefore, to highlight how much this does occur, I will be blogging about it, each time Tesco cock up. Hopefully, this will be the first and last blog on the topic.

By the way – the latest missing item which triggered this rant was fresh country ham. It was supposed to be delivered yesterday. We paid for piggy, but no piggy was to be found. I now have nothing to put in my cheese topped rolls.