Once upon a time, a maiden in distress (stop laughing at the back there) stopped at a filling station, in desperate need of assistance. She had accidentally driven too far with too little fodder and had discovered, to her horror, that she had not brought her sack of everlasting gold with her 🙁
Being an honest soul, she put the £5 worth of fodder she could afford into the noble steed and then went into speak to the guardian of the gate. He, a good man and worthy of better things, was kind and wanted to help, so called the ‘duty manager’, saying that he could do nothing without approval but he was sure they would try to do something.
The duty manager came and the maiden explained that she was 40 miles from home, had forgotten her purse and the fuel her noble steed required was pitifully low. She said that it had seemed dishonest to fill the car and then pretend to have forgotten her gold but since it was dark, very cold and she had 40 miles to go along lonely country roads and a fast main dual carriageway and that she feared she would break down, either alone or in a place that might cause an accident.
And the duty manager of Tesco at Melton Mowbray on Sunday 21st November 2010 at 8pm said…
“Not our problem, we’re not here to hand out money to people just because you’ve forgotten your gold. You can either phone to get someone to rescue you or hope you get home.”
In vain did the maiden beg for the same form that is given to people when their card fails or they genuinely realise after filling their steed that the gold is not with them. In vain did she explain that the only help was 40 miles away and had only a motorbike and would have to leave 4 young children home alone.
The manager, an ogre serving a huge multi-national company that you might think could afford to risk £10 in order not to leave a woman risking breaking down alone in the dark, was deaf to her pleas.
Luckily for the maiden, at that moment a knight in a shining Vauxhall cantered into the station and, hearing the fear and despair in the voice of the maiden, offered to buy her enough fodder to get safely home.
One up to the goodness of human nature. One BIG FAT FAIL to Tesco’s duty manager.
Thank you to my knight. I sincerely hope your kindness rebounds on you tenfold.
urgh to the ogre (I’m hoping you mean ogre!) and yay to the knight, but having been in the position of filling the car and then going ‘oh crap!!’ I think I would have gone for the not-entirely-honest method, it’s not like you wouldn’t have gone back and paid at some point anyway…
Yay to kind man!
too little fodder for the steed and no gold is something I have done a rather embarrassing number of times. Once I told them my card number which I know by heart and they did a “customer not present” card transaction, but once I was fortunate enough to encounter a very kind lady at the fodder station who let me put in enough to get home and trusted me to come back and pay…which of course I did.
Oh – em- gee ! As they say! You need to complain – when I worked at Tesco Petrol filling station back in the days of yore – we had a form to give people to fill out for exactly that reason – he was in the wrong. Complain complain complain.
Hurrah for nationwide chains and not-my-problem-itis. Hmph. I’m glad someone with a heart showed up; ogres keep their hearts in jars, I believe.
Do make a complaint. And DO get green flag recovery service – I’m sure roadside assistance covers petrol 😉
And hurrah to all those knights in shining armour who really DO come to the assistance of us (married) maidens when they see us broken down. Physically or mentally 😉 They really do exist and they really do make the world a better place.
Glad you got home safely
I did complain about it and in fairness to them, I did get a phone call to apologise for a poor decision from the manager of the store.
I still think it was a major screw up for a store that knows that “Every Little Helps”.
Hurumph.
Grumble grumble at the manager, but so glad a knight rescued you! I’m glad you got home safely.
Hurray for the knight. Hope the ogre gets his comeuppance!!
Our local Tesco Petrol staff are so well known for being miserable that they have actually been reported in the local paper!