Bent Society: The Origin of Gonzo Criminology!

This is a fully anonymous blog with several regular contributors and an occasional named guest blogger. The opinions published here are not or may not be those of any employer, member of the Bent Society or other organisation. Looking into the Bent Side of Everything, a Growing Band of Concerned and Dedicated Gonzo Criminologists, Sociologists, Other Academics and Upstanding Citizens, Conduct Ethical Yet Ad-Hoc Independent Research. CLICK TITLE ABOVE FOR LATEST ARTICLE.

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Consumer law change needed

We thought you might like to see the on-going exchange between Mike and Tesco re their "systematic error in their favor" pricing policy.

The emails below are awaiting reply from Tesco Customer Services (we'll publish them/it as soon as we get them/it). First a Tesco supermarket and then Tesco Complaints service have really got our favorite tame criminologist wound up tighter than a rubber band on a toy airplane

As you can see - he is now not only complaining about Tesco's bent "systematic error in their favor" rip-off, he is now complaining to the Complaints Service about the Complaints Service.

££££££££££££££££

I WISH TO REGISTER A COMPLAINT!

I filled in a customer complaint at https://www.tescocomments.com/

Here is what I wrote: and it is followed by what your customer services person wrote back by way of reply. Clearly she never read my complaint – or else failed to comprehend its simple message. I would like to know (1) what Tesco intends to do about its systematically bent practice of putting price reductions on the ticket prices displayed on its shelves before said reductions are entered into its computerised system – since this leads to a systematic over-charging error in its favour at the checkout till and (2) what Tesco intends to do about its appalling complaints service. A reply from someone who has actually read the first complaint and this second additional complaint properly would be somewhat appreciated and appropriate to a complaints service that is set up for the purposes of rectifying problems rather than simply winding customers up even further.

To customerservice@tesco.co.uk - from Dr Mike Sutton

Please read my complaint again. If you do you will see that the problem - as I very clearly stated in capital letters - is that it WAS correctly labelled on the shelf. It WAS NOT (as is so often the case - due to your systematic policy) entered into the "system" that registers the bar code on the product at the till. The excuse we customers always get in such frequent circumstances is the old "I'm sorry it is not yet entered into the system".

So once again, let me advise you how to prevent such systematic "error in your favour" dishonesty in future: (please note my advice is in capital letters once again: ENTER IT INTO YOUR SYSTEM BEFORE YOU PUT THE REDUCTION PRICE TAG ON THE SHELF.

Really - it's that simple. Do you understand this yet?

By the way it was a bottle of Rioja Reserva.

£££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

Dear Valued Customer

Thank you for your email.

I'm sorry to learn that you were nearly overcharged when you visited our Nottingham store. I can understand how annoying this must have been for you.

May I take this opportunity to assure you that we recognise the responsibilities we have to our customers and would not deliberately mislead them and or be anything less than open in our approach with our pricing.

This is a matter I would like to bring to the stores attention, so I would be grateful if you could confirm the name of the wine you noticed was incorrectly priced?

I will then be able to investigate this issue, and to make sure that all of the shelf edge labels have the correct price on them in future.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, and I look forward to hearing from you at your convenience.

Kind regards

Sharon Donnelly
Tesco Customer Service

.................. Original Message ..................

To: customer.service@tesco.co.uk

Received: 05/02/2012

££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

Original email from Mike to Tesco

I filled in a customer complaint at https://www.tescocomments.com/survey/thanks

Here is what I wrote:

Like so many times in the past I chose a bottle of wine that was half price (£6.49p) only to be told at the till that the price is £15.99 - and the member of staff has to walk to the isle and check the bar code and see the ticket to come back and give me the discount. How many people with a basket full of shopping are not picking up on this "accidental" systematic con? You are duping customers (systematic error in your favour) by putting the discount on the shelf BEFORE you enter it into the system. Here's how to stop this error in your favour: PUT THE DISCOUNT IN THE SYSTEM BEFORE YOU PUT THE TICKET REDUCTION ON THE SHELF!!! It's not rocket science - it's called honesty.

Mike Sutton

0 comments:

What is Gonzo Criminology?

Gonzo Criminology employs personal experiences and humor when researching a topic or event.

For the purposes of the pursuit of knowledge, Gonzo Criminology seeks accuracy at all times by telling it like it is.

Loathing of quackery in crime reduction and fearing hidden bias in official crime data - such as that produced by the British Crime Survey - while accepting at all times that genuinely reliable and valid data is better than that which is biased or fabricated, Gonzo Criminologists aim to reveal the whole picture behind claims of independence and sampling representation in the published research, beliefs and opinions of others.

Gonzo criminologists tend to instigate events themselves, often remaining anonymous, and exploiting the connectivity of the Internet in a mischievously creative manner; followed by blogging about their actions and those of others.

Bound by the codes of ethics of the British and American Societies of Criminology, yet 100 per cent unconnected to any university, funding organisations, or other official groupings, Gonzo Criminology projects are empowered to by-pass the workings of research ethics committees.

Gonzo criminology research projects are timely, fast moving and responsive.

Gonzo Criminology takes its name from Gonzo Journalist Hunter S Thompson, but is less than half-inspired by a selection of his methods and philosophy.

What is Bent Society?

This website is about practices that possibly facilitate social harm through eroding the standards and behaviour of others. Bent Society is private, social, corporate and government life where we witness, participate in or else fall victim to strangely neglected behaviours, policies and practices that are illegal, illicit or harmful, are unjust or unfairly predatory and reflect deceit, untruth, duplicity or insincerity.

A major aim of the Bent Society blog is to engage the general public in criminological, sociological and psychological issues and to take on-board their feedback in building a new field of criminology. Namely: Curmudgeonly Criminology

The hope here is that Curmudgeonly Criminology will engage academic criminologists to be more true to themselves and to society in their research, writing and teaching. In other words to really, truthfully, and from the heart as well as the head, tell it like it really is.

Bent Society: The Origin of Gonzo Criminology!

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Consumer law change needed

0 comments:

BENT SOCIETY SUBJECT AREAS

Protest Links, Political Sites and Some Strange Stuff and Some Good Sites