What's Up With Tesco Lotus Shoponline in Chiang Mai?

[Vogele123]

Is there a pig shortage? A vegetable shortage? A cow shortage?

What is going on with the local Chiang Mai / Hang Dong Tesco Online shopping?

I have been trying since Wednesday to simply order a few of my usual items which I have been doing for months with no problems until this week.

Wednesday it started, there were no longer any onions available!!! ? I held off ordering as I generally use a lot of onions, maybe 3Kg or 4Kg a week - without decent onions you cannot cook anything and Tesco supply the nice fresh white / yellow ones (not those stupid little "pickling onions" you get in the local stores.

Thursday I tried again - This time No onions, and now no celery and no minced pork meat, and also it has escalated to no chicken breasts with the skin on!! again - I have been ordering this stuff for months. All now unavailable.

Friday and today tried another go and this time all of the above are not available, but now I cannot get the Chokrai Fresh milk - it is now unavailable too.

In a last ditch attempt I actually got off my arse and drove to the local Tesco Express to see if I could at least get a bag of onions and maybe a carrot. Well that was a waste of time, the local Tesco Express has completely cleared out all of the fresh fruit and vegetables and replaced the shelves with boxes of beer!

If I cannot get basics like fresh meat and basic veggies like a simple onion, Tesco can go and . I even sadly looked at the Big C (shitshop online) and it seems to sell nothing in the way of fresh meat or veggies, let alone have an online delivery service in Chiang Mai.

Shame really, as Tesco were really good before and we were happy to spend 3-4K Baht every week or so getting the food delivered (saves me a 40 KM round trip in the pick up for the cost of 60 Baht delivery fee ) And another gripe, they often give you a coupon code with your online order receipt that the driver hands over - something like 200 or 250 Baht discount when you spend 2K or so - usually it never works.

The Tesco Express seems to have a policy of setting up shop next door to 7/11, and initially selling quite a bit of variation. Then within about 6 months all of the variety has gone and they end up selling virtually identical produce to the 7/11 - Any variety of canned sardines and Tuna you want, the usual noodles and junk food.

I doubt you could actually pick out a simple recipe and then manage to get all of the 10 or so ingredients from under one roof. Useless!

Edited June 13, 2015 by Vogele123

[CharlieH]

MOVED to Chiang Mai forum

[Vogele123]

The correct attachments are -

[gerry123]

i can foresee an inactive post coming up fairly soon

[Torrens54]

They also seem to have stopped stocking their own TESCO Brand of Frozen Green Peas.

These were imported from New Zealand and packaged under the TESCO Brand. They were EXCELLENT and we used to buy quite a lot.

Couple of weeks ago, I couldn't find any at the Hangdong Road store near the Airport. I asked one of the staff, even pointed at the Sticker over where the product used to live. She reluctantly went off to find out if there were any in reserve.

Came back smiling and shrugging. By this stage my wife had arrived, she went through the whole performance again in THAI, the girl went away and came back with her boss but we were still unable to find out when or if New Supplies might arrive. HOPELESS!!!

[Saan]

No fresh food. That's is the least of my worries.

They regularly run out of SangSom and Coke Zero.

How do you run out of SangSom in Thailand. It is not as if the SangSom or Coke have a very limited shelf life.

I also wonder why their on-line products aren't as extensive as the products in the store.

As for coupons, I've never had one even thought I'm a card member.

I've been waiting for Rimping to start on-line shopping. They promised it would be introduced by the end of last year and still no word. Probably too busy opening new stores.

[paulchiangmai]

Try and use their 'contact us' at their head office in Bangkok. I have tried several times but the form I am required to fill in on their site never goes through, it just sits there telling me to wait. The complaint I wish to make is regarding the lazy a-hole who puts up to five of the Tesco advertisements in my letter box or gate at a time and also all the neighbours gates as well. I want to know if Tesco are happy to pay for four of them to immediately go in the bin.

Edited June 14, 2015 by paulchiangmai

[bangmai]

Try and use their 'contact us' at their head office in Bangkok. I have tried several times but the form I am required to fill in on their site never goes through, it just sits there telling me to wait. The complaint I wish to make is regarding the lazy a-hole who puts up to five of the Tesco advertisements in my letter box or gate at a time and also all the neighbours gates as well. I want to know if Tesco are happy to pay for four of them to immediately go in the bin.

You are correct, Paul. My complaint wouldn't go through last week. Complaint was involving scanner accuracy, multiple employees sitting on their asses doing nothing, and health/safety issues with the packaging/care of pork/chicken (always leaking the added solution all over the place). Oh, and if it is on sale; it's old. I am carless, so my choices are a bit limited, but I am not a fan of Tesco, at all. Their "Fresh and Queasy...er I mean Fresh and Easy stores were laughed out of the US. They had to give people 5 us off of 15 us purchase to get people in the stores to buy the one or two items they were selling at a loss to also get people into the stores. Very sloppy with the chemical additives, too, like in the frozen seafood. I wish I had a Makro close by.

[Vogele123]

Try and use their 'contact us' at their head office in Bangkok. I have tried several times but the form I am required to fill in on their site never goes through, it just sits there telling me to wait. The complaint I wish to make is regarding the lazy a-hole who puts up to five of the Tesco advertisements in my letter box or gate at a time and also all the neighbours gates as well. I want to know if Tesco are happy to pay for four of them to immediately go in the bin.

You are correct, Paul. My complaint wouldn't go through last week. Complaint was involving scanner accuracy, multiple employees sitting on their asses doing nothing, and health/safety issues with the packaging/care of pork/chicken (always leaking the added solution all over the place). Oh, and if it is on sale; it's old. I am carless, so my choices are a bit limited, but I am not a fan of Tesco, at all. Their "Fresh and Queasy...er I mean Fresh and Easy stores were laughed out of the US. They had to give people 5 us off of 15 us purchase to get people in the stores to buy the one or two items they were selling at a loss to also get people into the stores. Very sloppy with the chemical additives, too, like in the frozen seafood. I wish I had a Makro close by.

Agree with you about the "Contact Us" - my complaints went through, just don't expect a response.

As for the lazy assed shop workers, please drive another 15KM down the road to Big C Hang Dong, this is an absolute goldmine for the study of sloth like behavior. It is almost a micro climate of lazy useless B@ST@RDS!

Thailand is almost like Yugoslavia 35 years ago when it comes to customer service - only at least here they smile!

[Vogele123]

They also seem to have stopped stocking their own TESCO Brand of Frozen Green Peas.

These were imported from New Zealand and packaged under the TESCO Brand. They were EXCELLENT and we used to buy quite a lot.

Couple of weeks ago, I couldn't find any at the Hangdong Road store near the Airport. I asked one of the staff, even pointed at the Sticker over where the product used to live. She reluctantly went off to find out if there were any in reserve.

Came back smiling and shrugging. By this stage my wife had arrived, she went through the whole performance again in THAI, the girl went away and came back with her boss but we were still unable to find out when or if New Supplies might arrive. HOPELESS!!!

Luckily we haven't got to the point of running out of Tesco Peas at the Hang Dong branch, give it time though.

You are indeed correct, the New Zealand peas they sell are second to none here, and it would be a tradgedy if they were to slip into the ether too!

I buy a few bags at a time just to make sure I have some in. I once had to resort to a tin of those NFC or UFC Thai brand..... my God, you would have been better off painting marbles green, disgusting!

[Langsuan Man]

It is useless to try and contact Tesco Corporate via the "contact us" option in the online area, since if you read it carefully all it does is let you make comments on the web site, not on their products selection, availability, or anything else. They just want feedback on how you like the web site and will not even respond to questions about their policies

The problem with their stocking or inability to keep things in stock is country wide and not specific to CM. Keep this up and they will end up like Carefour, selling out to another chain here in Thailand

I always just follow the old Army and Air Force Post Exchange rule, see it, buy it, because it isn't going to be there next week

[gerry123]

It is useless to try and contact Tesco Corporate via the "contact us" option in the online area, since if you read it carefully all it does is let you make comments on the web site, not on their products selection, availability, or anything else. They just want feedback on how you like the web site and will not even respond to questions about their policies

tesco.png

The problem with their stocking or inability to keep things in stock is country wide and not specific to CM. Keep this up and they will end up like Carefour, selling out to another chain here in Thailand

I always just follow the old Army and Air Force Post Exchange rule, see it, buy it, because it isn't going to be there next week

i believe CP have already made an offer but tescos only want to offload their uk operation

[Saan]

Try and use their 'contact us' at their head office in Bangkok. I have tried several times but the form I am required to fill in on their site never goes through, it just sits there telling me to wait. The complaint I wish to make is regarding the lazy a-hole who puts up to five of the Tesco advertisements in my letter box or gate at a time and also all the neighbours gates as well. I want to know if Tesco are happy to pay for four of them to immediately go in the bin.

You are correct, Paul. My complaint wouldn't go through last week. Complaint was involving scanner accuracy, multiple employees sitting on their asses doing nothing, and health/safety issues with the packaging/care of pork/chicken (always leaking the added solution all over the place). Oh, and if it is on sale; it's old. I am carless, so my choices are a bit limited, but I am not a fan of Tesco, at all. Their "Fresh and Queasy...er I mean Fresh and Easy stores were laughed out of the US. They had to give people 5 us off of 15 us purchase to get people in the stores to buy the one or two items they were selling at a loss to also get people into the stores. Very sloppy with the chemical additives, too, like in the frozen seafood. I wish I had a Makro close by.

Agree with you about the "Contact Us" - my complaints went through, just don't expect a response.

As for the lazy assed shop workers, please drive another 15KM down the road to Big C Hang Dong, this is an absolute goldmine for the study of sloth like behavior. It is almost a micro climate of lazy useless B@ST@RDS!

Thailand is almost like Yugoslavia 35 years ago when it comes to customer service - only at least here they smile!

The service I get from Tesco delivery men is exceptional. The food that needs to go in the fridge or freezer is placed there by them. They smile, they are not lazy.

I don't know what is wrong with the rest of the system but the men on the road are fantastic.