Tesco delivers Portsmouth woman 'ludicrous' two tins of beans in advent calendar substitution

Civil servant Trudy Burton, 54, from Milton, ordered a £5 giant Celebrations advent calendar from Tesco online only to receive two 400g tins of Branston beans costing £1.30.

Mum-of-two Trudy posted on a local Facebook group showing the substitution paperwork and said: ‘Really? This has to be the most ludicrous substitution ever. Hope this puts a smile on your face.’

Bewildered Trudy, who lives with her partner and bought the calendar for her 19-year-old daughter, said the store manager called her after the bemused delivery driver raised a complaint on her behalf.

She told The News her reaction at the doorstep was one of ‘hysteria and laughter’.

‘Obviously I sent the beans back,’ she added. ‘I didn’t make a complaint, the delivery driver did because they were so embarrassed about the situation.

‘I thought it was really, really funny. I couldn’t think of anything more ludicrous.’

Trudy received a phone call from a Tesco manager apologising, and a £30 goodwill voucher.

Later she posted a photo of a bunch of flowers, a replacement Celebrations advent calendar and a Lindt chocolate calendar too.

An e-mail from Tesco said: ‘We value our customers’ feedback, which helps us to monitor and improve our services.

‘As an apology for the inconvenience caused, we would like to offer you coupons worth £30 with our compliments, to spend on your next grocery order.’

Following Trudy’s post dozens of people revealed their worst grocery substitutions.

‘My sister-in-law ordered a lemon and got a bottle of lemon Jif as a substitute,’ said Barbara Proud on the Keep Milton Green group.

Kay Frampton added: ‘I ordered tuna once, they sent me parsnips.’

Another woman said: ‘Few months ago I ordered tampons and got false eyelashes.’

Natasha Tolfrey added: ‘We used to get so many weird substitutes during lockdown (the first one) I ordered a thank you card and received a pack of kids birthday invites.’

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But how did any of these happen?

Former shop worker Daniel Bishop said: ‘I used to work at Tesco in Fratton as a picker and not even I can understand how or why that was chosen as a substitute.

‘If there was no appropriate alternative then it should have been marked as such.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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