I called in at my local Tescos with one of their new 10p carrier bags which is meant to be reused,

had some price marked PG tea bags with a large price mark on it I'd brought from a local shop in this bag.

I was shopping around and I had a basket,

I went to the till,

handed the bag over to be filled and without consent the person serving me took these tea bags out of my bag and had held them up even though they had the yellow price on them and said loudly "Are you paying for these?"

I was gobsmacked the fact not only did she go into my bag without consent but pretty much accused me by saying I'd got them from there...

I turned around and there was a queue,

I felt everyone's eyes on me.

I got no apology although I pointed out the fact they had a price mark within the packaging.

I'm self employed and I live local to Tescos and so do my 400 customers,

Tescos is a place where I often see my customers and I've even been paid by customers in this store when I'm shopping.

The staff seem to do nothing but spy on me when I'm using the self option till or they are either on crafty ciggy breaks or patting customers puppies.

I've requested cctv footage but was told it would be £10 then was told I could not access it.

I was hoping on your advices as I'm thinking about legal advice, especially if any my customers was in the queue.

Thanks.

"Are to paying for these?" (which is what you have quoted!) is a question. You put the question mark in, and everything .......

It is a question, and one which you could have answered by "No, no need to, as you can see they were bought elsewhere"........

It is also a question, and far away from an accusation of "You were trying to steal these!".

By all means go and take legal advice : I suspect it will be "you have no grounds on which to sue - you haven't been defamed, nor is checking on an item in a bag which you handed over to be packed a breach of privacy".

You clearly don't like your perception of the behavior of the staff there (what with them spying on you, taking ciggie breaks and patting puppies).

You can choose to vote with your feet : if you want to go shop elsewhere. If it is convenient for you to continue to shop there, then do that instead.

It is up to you, based on what your priority is, but you don't have a cause of action to sue. Make your decision about if you want to continue shopping there and move on with your life.....

Hello and welcome to CAG.

If I've bought items elsewhere before going into another shop, I make sure I keep the receipt so there can be no misunderstandings. And I point out the items when I get to the till.

The till lady sounds quite polite - what do you think she did wrong?

HB

Hi and welcome to CAG

This is difficult. On one hand, the cashier did the wrong thing by holding the tea bags up and stating loudly (?) How loudly? Higher than her normal voice? Holding them high above her head to purposely attract attention?

The cashier also did the right thing by alerting others to the fact that you had some tea bags already in the bag irrespective of where they were purchased elsewhere but didn't know for sure.

All in all, you could write to the store manager and complain but in all honesty, I don't see it going far at all. If you were to start getting stopped for no reason or followed around the store then that is something to complain about.

I would just carry on shopping there and if any of your customers mention this to you, just explain the mistake.

It really depends on how the Tesco cashier behaved. We were not in the store, so cannot judge.

Any CCTC might not be helpful. Just complain to the store manager in writing about how the Tesco employee came across to you. Enclose copies of receipts so they can see firstly which Tesco employee dealt with you and also which other shop you bought the teabags in.

I occasionally buy items in say Poundland and then go into a Tesco store with the Poundland items in a Tesco reuseable bag. I am very aware of Tesco selling the same items at a higher price, so make sure i have the Poundland receipt. I have never been challenged about the Poundland purchased items by Tesco staff, but if i were, i would just tell them Poundland showing them the receipt.

The shop assistant was doing their job and was right to ask the question however probably could have bene a bit more discreet when asking.

Nothing you can do sadly. Sure, you can write a complaint and might get a couple free vouchers and that staff member gets retrained, but thats about it.

No

Nobasis for claim, slightly hurt feelings are not a valid ground for a claim, now if Tesco security had intervened and took you to a back room and rummaged everything else then you had a Civil Recovery invoice for investigating the non crime then maybe. Otherwise forget it and move on.

receipt for the said stated item did you have????