Ok, you shop online right? How long would you reasonably wait for an item to be delivered from a well known supermarket, 3 to 14 days sounds quite rational. How about one month? That would be pushing it right, well you haven’t heard nothing yet.

Right lets set the scene, I need a present, a present for my father. Now I always find buying gifts for him difficult, normally he is blunt and specifically states what he wants. Together with that present, I always like to buy him a few extra gifts, nothing really expensive just little surprises for him to open. I had decided to buy him a collection of Elvis Movies, nothing spectacular in terms of world cinema, but he likes them. After shopping around, I had selected the right box set and found the best retailer. I had decided to go with Tesco online, on the basis of their cheapness (yeah I’m a student you know) and I already have an account. OK – everything was going fine, but after 7 days, still no DVDs. I then received an email saying your item was out of stock and they were waiting for a delivery. I didn’t mind, the occasion was still a few weeks away so there wasn’t really any rush.

OK I’ll come clean, the occasion was Christmas 2007, I placed my order on Tuesday 6th November 2007. After the 20th notice came that my order was delayed (auto generated), I knew my order would not arrive (they came every few days). I ended up buying him something else in its place, but I became intrigued in how long my order would run unnoticed. It ended on the 16th July 2008, that’s 253  days (I think) since I placed the order. Here is a copy of the email I got;

Dear Mr Mayne,

Re: Your Tesco Jersey order placed on Tuesday 06 November 2007 (order no. 15406589)

We are sorry to inform you that we have not been able to obtain an item in your order. Don’t worry, we won’t charge you for this item, but this may affect some of the promotions in your order.

Your new order summary is shown at the foot of this email.

The item that we were unable to obtain is: 1 x Angela Lansbury Elvis Jukebox Movie Collection 

Cancelled on Wednesday 16 July 2008  We apologise that we have been unable to fulfil every item in your order on this occasion, but hope that you will return to shop with Tesco Jersey in the future.

Kind regards, Tesco.com

I must admit, this is quite disappointing. To think a company of Tesco’s caliber doesn’t have the appropriate computerised checks in place, to stop this error occurring. I’m also disappointed in the email above, which I find quite careless since I have been waiting such a long time. Is this the real face, of Britains largest supermarket?

I was trying to keep it going for 1 year, shame it ended when it did!

Come on, this must be some kind of record!

- Kyle

-Kyle