When Tesco called the police when a HfP reader bought 3V cards ….

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• squillion says:

  15 Dec15 December 09:23

  Bad luck that man & thanks for the story.

  In terms of number of cards to buy in 1 transaction, 10 is on the high side. 6 or 4 would appear to be better:
  1. Tesco have issued instructions not to sell more than 5 in one go (this limit is generally but not always ignored);
  2. 8 caused problems for me several times;
  3. They don’t seem to have a problem doing say) 3 x 6 ie 3 transactions one after the other;
  4. You can optimise till slips with a smaller number than 10.

• What's the Point says:

  15 Dec15 December 09:28

  I had an issue when I tried to buy 2 lots of 10 at one Tesco. After processing the first batch, a person of authority (cue senior checkout person) tells me in the middle of a very busy queue that I wasn’t allowed to use my credit card to buy the second batch. I asked why, they said due to fraud issues. So I paid with my bank debit card.
  The checkout person then asked me why I was buying so many, I tried to explain why….but as usual I just got the “poor sad man” look of someone who doesn’t understand POINTS!

• thomas trautmann says:

  15 Dec15 December 09:59

  Aside from Tesco, and not getting too political here, but it just goes to show the ineptitude of the average beat policeman. with not a single working thought process or imagination.

• James Ward says:

  15 Dec15 December 10:04

  Wow. What a horrible experience. Thanks for sharing.

  I always ask them to scan them in batches of four so that it’s easy to spot which one(s) haven’t activated and replace them before paying. Yesterday, however, I found that even four was too many, causing continual failures so the assistant scanned them all in batches of two for me.

  My approach is always to be extremely sensitive to the pressure that they’re under, especially if a queue builds up behind me. If it does, I offer to step aside for a few minutes whilst they deal with other customers and then resume my transaction. I also keep up a friendly chat, even explaining why I’m buying so many. On event occasion that I’ve bought them so far, I have had fantastic service and felt that the assistant is ‘on my side’ by the end.

• Simon says:

  15 Dec15 December 10:07

  That’s just awful. Don’t give up complaining, Tesco shouldn’t be allowed to treat people so badly. Where I live Tesco staff seem to be very badly trained, and very rarely do Clubcard promotions go through without one or two protracted calls. I think Tesco really need to get their act together. Shame on the police officer, as well, for demanding your PIN number.

  • Calchas says:

    15 Dec15 December 10:29

    I assume that is the “mother’s four digit birthday” Amex ask for on the phone and not the actual PIN. Nonetheless, inappropriate.

• John says:

  15 Dec15 December 10:51

  I’ve had a similar bad experience at Tesco several months ago. I usually buy in quantities of 8 but on this occasion I was passing a Tesco I don’t normally pass so just grabbed the lot off one spindle. It was quite late into the evening and there was only customer services and the self service open so went to customer services and asked if they minded me purchasing this quantity of gift cards and if not, could they split them into different transactions. The customer service lady told me wait there. 5 minutes later the store manager and a security guard showed up. The manager proceeded to interrogate me as to why I wanted to buy so many cards. I explained that it was a way of using my amex where amex wasn’t accepted. He didn’t buy it and told me that someone had recently come in purchasing a similar amount of these cards using a stolen credit card. He asked to see proof of ID which he checked then said I could buy a maximum of 4 cards and only if I used cash. I declined and left empty handed. Whole ordeal took about 30 minutes and made me feel like a criminal.

  • Mr Bridge says:

    15 Dec15 December 12:08

    if tesco have stored your details, i.e copy driving license, and you did not sign a consent form, you should complain to the information commissioner http://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public

• Mr Bridge says:

  15 Dec15 December 11:31

  there are many points of law here:
  1. they can not detain you against your will ( i note you use the word ‘invited’), if force is used that is assault and you should call 999 yourself and report the assault, it is also false imprisonment.
  the law states that anyone making a citizen’s arrest “must get it absolutely right” Even making a reasonable mistake about someone’s guilt does not provide an excuse if a person is wrongly arrested – or falsely imprisoned, as it is legally known.
  2. Tesco may not copy or store your personal details without your ( written) consent, this is contrary to the data protection act
  3. tesco stores are private property so they can ‘ ban you’ , the implied contract of you entering the stores is that you will buy / browse and not do anything illegal, and tesco consent to you being on their property, and a breach of this contract makes you a trespasser.
  4. you were caused undue distress by tesco acting in a way that was likely to do so, and you did not act like a criminal, ( i was using a nicked card, but i stopped to pick up my clubcard points to- makes no sense).
  5. You may have a legal case against tesco, but be cautious tesco have more money than you!, however check with your financial providers, and you insurers to see if you have any legal cover, or a legal helpline, they will advise you if you have a case and how best to proceed.- you may even find that one of these personal injury no win no fee companies might take this on.
  6. contact the police, and ask for a letter confirming that you were interviewed by an officer, and that they found that you were going about your normal business.
  7.there is no legal obligation to let store staff inspect one’s bags or to produce a receipt.
  8.Supermarkets have every right to prevent theft from their stores, but the law requires them to enforce that right only by employing competent, vigilant staff who can distinguish between shoplifters/ fraudsters and honest shoppers.
  9.forward a copy of everything to tesco head office telling them that if they do not rectify this matter of wrongful arrest, defamation of character,, etc. that you intend on suing the store manager, the store, and Tesco…and you will be asking for punitive damages. They should come back with an offer that will need to be reviewed by a lawyer before you sign anything. The lawyer will explain about all the little clauses that big companies put in there to protect themselves and screw you over

  most supermarket managers have a small compensation fund, if you slip on a wet floor etc, they can pay out at their own discretion, try and calim against this first

  tesco have a habit of this see daily mail:
  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2029808/Tesco-branded-shoplifter–happen-YOU.html
  see also this article from the guardian (year 2000) http://www.theguardian.com/money/2000/sep/02/jobsandmoney

  • Mr Bridge says:

    15 Dec15 December 11:56

    see also law on arrest by other persons:
    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/60/section/24A

    • Brian says:

      15 Dec15 December 13:58

      Now here is the issue, if you asked ordinary members of the public about a “citizens arrest” they would not have the first idea of legislation, but some romantic idea that if someone was committing a crime they could arrest them. The majority cannot differentiate offences that are summary only, triable either way and indictable offences. The “citizens arrest under PACE (Police And Criminal Evidence Act 1984) was amended under SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Act) in 2005, to what you see in your link. I would suggest that Tesco staff would have a defence that if they thought (even incorrectly) that someone was part of a large fraud they would detain that person until the arrival of a constable. Hopefully on the arrival of the police the matter would be sorted out, and when the police inform Tesco that everything is in order that Tesco would then apologise. For the police you have to realise that Fraud is complicated, those criminals out there that do commit fraud have brain numbingly complicated schemes at times. You cant expect police officers to know about Tesco clubcard points and bonus points, and 3v visa cards and moving the money through NSI etc

      • Mr Bridge says:

        15 Dec15 December 22:27

        the point being made by an early commentator, why would a fraudster return twice for a single un activated card, you dont rob a bank and go back tomorrow for the tenner you dropped…do you?? It should appear to any normal person that this was not a case of fraud, and therefore Tesco have reacted in an over zealous manor.

        • Brian says:

          16 Dec16 December 01:09

          Mr Bridge- I fully agree that it should not have got to the stage whereby the police were called in, it could have been sorted long before that if some one at Tesco listened to the customer and the matter should have finished there.

          Sadly some criminals who are involved in fraud do go back, and some even want every extra pound they can squeeze out of people or companies. Some take great pride in bragging that (lets use Tesco for example) they returned to the same Tesco store X amount of times and got away with fraud. Some will only take small amounts of cash or in this case gift cards, but will visit several dozen shops through out the day making their haul add up when you see the bigger picture. M&S where victims several years ago with receipt frauds, where small items were returned that had been stolen and the offender used fake receipts. At first everything seemed innocent enough as the returned items were only around £5. However the suspect was visiting several dozen stores each day, every day constantly until they were caught!

          But as I’ve said handled incorrectly by Tesco!!

• Mr Bridge says:

  15 Dec15 December 11:37

  the emails just go to a upper customer service level, which is just as bad and uninterested as the normal level

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.