written by Glampuss2012 on 16/01/2014
Joined a few days before I started the diet. As with all new things after selecting my choice of diet I found it didn't suit my lifestyle ie two hot meals per day. I therefore changed my plan but there wasn't a great deal of choice and the recipes repeated more than I would have liked. Within two weeks of my diet I actually googled other diets and found the ocado four week diet not only more exciting but also it was free. On the 13th day of the Tesco diet (only lost 1/2 pound in total), I contacted my Tesco mentor to request a refund in full. As it appears there are no mentors over the weekend, when I did get a reply and given the link, I was then told my membership was over 14 days so I couldn't have a refund! Very poor customer services as my email was sent after only 13 days of my diet...pity Tesco didn't look at my account instead of their bank account!
written by Junel21 on 13/01/2013
I'm horrified that after buying into this program, I NOW find out that the path to diet success is 1200 callories a day. Today's lunch for example is a single tomato and 100gr feta salad!! Having had a lifetime of experience with diets, I KNOW this won't work in the longer term, but communicating with the 'help' team is frustratingly slow!!! I can't urge people enough to run a mile from this product!
written by on 21/08/2011
I have a disablity and asked the customer services line whether this diet would be okay for me. She said yes after I told her what my disability was. After starting the diet I felt awful and all my conditions flared up. This is because individuals who are on medication have to go through complicated procedures in order to ensure we are taking the right amount of calories and also our metabolic rates are affected by medication. The diets are designed for bog standard able bodies people and has no allowances for people with disability. There is a question that asks whether your disablity affects your mobility and when you answer yes, that is it. They practically STARVE YOU. It is too basic and this is where the danger lies. It is created by a machine and does not see you as an individual. I wrote a strong letter of complaint and was extremely angered when they took another payment from me when the intial payment was completed. I think they should warn us via email that they are doing this especially when we have stated that we are disabled and their diets create problems for us and are not working. I was in severe pain as a result of taking the diet in the manner subscribed by the website. So they have taken more money which can not be stopped via your bank account because they ONLY use your debit card details. Very cruel. So I have paid for 4 months of useless dieting service that has been of no use because when I take the calorie intake it suggests, I am extremely ill and unable to function, when I take the calorie intake my doctors says I need, I do not lose any weight. Totally useless for my needs and Tesco diets should not be saying this diet is suitable for my disability via their customer services lines because in truth they are ignorant of what exactly this dieting does to people on medication. They need to have a more sophiscated questionnaire that asks what medication we are on so that it will recognise that some of these medications need certain things to make it work. Way too sophisicated for Tesco Diets and more suitable for one to one nutrition experts. It's a con when it states it can help and it can't. I've wasted around £50 so far. Very disappointed. Very angry that my money has been taken and I have asked for it back. I don't think they will have the decency to give me the money back AFTER I complained early into the subscription and months before it expired. It does not work and clients who complain should be automatically stoppped after the initial subscription and not have their money taken from them monthly and having to log in and cancel ONLY via their website. Awful practice. Hate it. Would not recommend to anyone on medication. EVER!
Written on: 25/08/2011
Dear Guest,
It is always a matter of regret when a valued customer remains unhappy with any aspect of our operations. In response to your post I would like to confirm what Tesco Diets do ask potential members in relation to their medical conditions. We would never offer advice about a medical condition from our customer service team, but we do have a Nutritionist who is always available to respond to any medical conditions.
If you take the health assessment sign up option the first question you are asked is about your activity. This is to help us to calculate your energy needs.
The second question you are taken to is the page about medical questions.
Do you have any medical conditions affected by diet?
None, Diabetes Types 1& 2, Heart Disease, High Cholesterol, Underactive Thyroid,
Hypoglycemia, Gluten Intolerance, High Blood Pressure. Other Medical Conditions,
Many medical conditions are affected by diet so please read the information about these specialist plans carefully - on the diets homepage. Our diet plans are not designed to treat medical conditions and following our plans does not replace medical advice.
Due to the nature of certain medical conditions and allergies we may not be able to provide you with a suitable diet plan.
For further information, or if you have conditions not mentioned here (e.g. IBS, gallstones, kidney or gastrointestinal problems, food allergies or intolerances), please contact us on [email protected] before continuing with your registration.
Our refunds policy is that if you have not used the membership within the first 7 days you will receive a full refund. No quibble.
When an account renews and the member has not used the membership we will refund those payments. No quibble.
In relation to your comment about a 121 with a Nutritionist this is something we do offer. I’m sorry that is not clear enough on our website.
If you would like to contact the [email protected] email and request your refund making it for the attention of the Manager I will endeavour to resolve your compliant
Kind regards,
Debbie
Debbie Morrissey
Head of Customer Services
Written on: 29/08/2011
I do believe people on medication have a responsibility to research their own diet restrictions. This person says all her 'conditions' flared up when she was on the Tesco diet. I have not actually seen anything on the Tesco Diet website which gives the impression they are qualified to deal with particular disabilities. Presumably you know which foods disagree with you, so why suddenly give yourself permission to eat different foods and quantities just because they appear on a diet sheet? No one has the magic solution - it takes hard work, a lot of research and enormous discipline to resolve such issues. I am very sorry you are not in good health - neither am I but I learned a long time ago 'no one is responsible for your health but YOU', good, bad or indifferent. You can ask for help from a doctor, or a diet sheet, but the responsibility for what goes in your mouth has ultimately to be our own. The blame culture of this country has become a frightening epidemic. I think Tesco should refund your money and I am sure they will but you need to take some responsibility for the things you CAN control in your life. In my opinion you will not find a more helpful diet website than Tesco Diets but they do not pretend anywhere to be medical experts.
written by slbrook on 03/08/2011
Tried this at the beginning of 2011. First there was confusion over my start date which then couldn't be moved so they add a week to the end. The free weigh scales offered when I subscribed only arrived after approx 9 weeks into the plan after much complaining. How can you diet without scales? Then packages for other people were delivered to my address with their name i.e. books, measuring cups etc. Final straw was being sent a promotional email in January telling me we were just approaching Autumn!! By this point I'd had enough. If you want to lose weight properly and without having to pay a subscription have a look at myfitnesspal it's far better and the encouragement from the forum communities is amazing.
written by on 15/07/2011
I firstly had a Diet 1-21 with one of their nutritionists who recommended following their GI plan. At no point did she tell em that once you have signed up you cannot change your mind within the first 7 days. Once I had signed up I found the plan to be more restrictive than Weightwatchers that I had done before so I emailed Tesco to say can I cancel. There did not seem to be very much detail about the plan online before signing up as well so you could not see full menu plans. I was told that you sign up to a subscription service and do not have a cooling off period like most other sites do. A nice way of making money!
written by gillianskerritt on 03/06/2011
Thought I would try this as they were offering four weeks free. Noticed that they took a payment of £35.00 straight away. Two weeks in and the diet is unworkable if you have a full time job, very costly meals and the site doesnt work properly on the ipad, so cancelled. To my horror am now told I will not get a refund. This is obviously how Tesco make so much profit. DO NOT USE
written by on 18/05/2011
This service is appalling. When you sign up, you waive your rights to a refund even though the service you've signed up to only allows you to get 1 week's worth of meals at a time. The staff at Tesco will continue to quote their borderline illegal terms and conditions with you and have absolutely no interest in issuing even a goodwill refund.
If you're happy to accept meals like "ham omelette" for lunch, which is a completely impractical meals for anyone with a full-time job, then feel free to sign up. If, like me, you're a professional and are looking for easy meals that you can take to the office then this is not for you. Don't bother looking at their sample plans because they're not representative of their actual plans.
written by on 01/05/2011
Why would anyone want to pay into Tesco's already overflowing coffers?
Can I suggest you try sparkpeople.com first. Yes, it is American but it's the largest diet site in the States and it has lots and lots of British content and you can include our products as you go along. There are exercise plans and forums too. Their database is enormous. The best bit though is that it's totally FREE!! No monthly subscription or cancellation costs. Try it and see. You won't bother ever again with Tesco, I promise!
written by on 15/04/2011
I would NOT recommend using tescodiets.com. I signed up for this diet (via Good Morning Healthy Starts) for three months, paying in advance. You can't see how the site is laid out until you have registered, by which time it's too late. I found it a pain to use. It was very labour intensive to change any of the meals. You have to scroll through the list from the top - no way of cutting to meals or ingredients beginning with a letter further down the alphabet - and you can't see what's in a meal without selecting it as an alternative, deleting the original choice, and going back into it. Then you can't go back to the previous option without going through the same rigmarole. Even if you select a meal as a default and ask them to change every day to the same, the next week this change has gone and you have to start again. I would have needed to give up work to have the time it would take to use the site. You seem to spend all your time scrolling up or down to get to the next option. I gave up very early and just did my own thing, just using the site to record my weight each week.
There was no reminder to say that you were coming to the end of the registration. The summary and weight graphs showed future weeks which makes it look like they are still included. I noticed they had taken a payment from my credit card and queried this. I ended up in protracted emails, which were completely unhelpful and just kept referring to the small print. They actually told me that they notify people who have not cancelled that this will happen, but this is NOT true. I wouldn't advise using this site. I think it's deliberately misleading to start taking more payments without the courtesy of a notification that the initial subscription is coming to an end.
written by on 09/03/2011
Tescodiets.com does not offer a free trial, so after looking at the site I joined.
I found the site to be poorly laid out and unable to generate suitable food choices.
I was on the site for less than 1 hour and they refused me a refund!
They have exempted themselves from the distance selling regulations (which required a refund be given up to 7 days after purchase).
I feel like I've been scammed!
DO NOT JOIN this service expecting ANY kind of refund if you don't like it. You have been warned.
written by on 06/11/2010
BEWARE !!!!!!!!!
highly aggressive and even if you sign off they don't want to go away
will keep spamming
this so called "diet" is nothing you couldn't do yourself
you don't need paying for a computer to keep generating a shopping list generating more revenue for TESCO
think twice before turning your life into misery !
I have paid, tried and don't want to hear from them any more
this doesn't work!
written by on 25/10/2010
Although the diet is good, it works and it's flexible, the small-print enables Tesco to continue debiting your credit card way after your membership period is up. When you start to question the payments on your account they tell you it is in the small print, they refuse to refund you even if you have not been using the service and make you pay another month in advance before cancelling. I was relocating and let them know this but they sent emails to my old email address and point blank refused to refund me for the three months I had paid for but not used the service. You have to go into your accounts page and cancel your membership in advance when your subscription period runs out otherwise they automatically take monthly payments ad infinitum. Fiasco-com
written by maylwhitty on 04/10/2010
I joined Tesco Diets at a time when I was feeling quite low. I subsequently could not go on the diet as I was suffering from depression.I contacted Tesco's and they said they could not give me a refund, but would freese my membership until I was better.
When I felt better I contacted them only to be told the person I spoke to no longer worked for them an my membership has expired. I'd lost £30 pound just like that. Even though they had some details of my conversation with their representative they were not prepared to let me go on the plan.
I have to say I am very disappointed with Tesco's and no longer shop with them.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
Written on: 06/10/2010
I found this review not helpful because... This is based on the person, not Tesco. I have suffered with depression but that has not stopped me from trying to better myself. The person who left this review failed to read through the terms and conditions, and by the sounds of it, just changed their mind. This review is not fair in anyway. Perhaps if they had made the effort, they would have felt better in themselves.
written by on 22/09/2010
I would be very carefull of buying this item unless you are 100% sure you are going to use it has you will be charged for 3 months wether you use it or not and even if you cancel within the 3 months you will still be charged for the full 3 months the customer service are not intersted and i will not use any tesco again on principle again i didnt want to leave any stars but you have to to leave a review oh and there are free sites doing the excatly same thing diet tesco do so there is no need to pay anyone.
written by on 30/07/2010
I chose to join for a year on the Low Carb plan.
I found when I started using the plan that I was unable to view the nuritional values of the food or the "delete ingredient" button. I was told that the low carb plan was very restrictive and no changes could be made to individaul meals although I could change the meal or the plan if I wished.
I found early on that Tesco diet is just another way to get people to buy more from their stores. I don't mind a varied diet but I think that all the low carb product they sold were on the list!
Just my shopping bill alone for the week would have been twice as much as the bill for my family of three!
I told them I wasn't happy with the diet or able to afford the ingredients and I would like to cancel.
I got a cheery email back saying "Sorry to lose you, you may be contacted by our team to talk about why" Great, I thought, but realsied some days later I had not had a refund. I had only been signed up for week and asked them why no refund. I was told it was in the terms and conditions that there would be no refund. Not in the first 4 paragraphs it wasn't!
They did say that I could still use the site for a couple of months though. So I mailed them again and asked them to re-instate my account because if I was to be charged for a service for a year, then I wanted to be able to make use of it!
They told me that cancellation was irreversable.
Every Little Helps?
I think NOT!!!
written by on 17/06/2010
I will not use this service again nor can I recommend it with any confidence to others. It seems to me that they are only interested in money. Remember: this is not a charity but a business making money out of people who are overweight. If you want a good diet and need to lose weight see your GP fro a referral to a nutritionist. I signed up for an 8 week plan. Despite believing I was only singed up for an 8 week plan I nevertheless attempted to cancel the diet (I WAS NOT SENT A REMINDER unlike someone else who has commented below - so BE WARNED!). However this cancellation was never actioned by tescodiets. I later found out that I had been charged for a further 8 weeks. For the past month I have been trying to get tescodiets to refund the amount taken from my credit card but they refuse to do so. They have not even responded properly to my complaint that the cancellation was not actioned by them. All they repeat is that I signed up to them taking my money - they do not address my complaint). From what I have read below it seems that others think they too are owed money by tescodiets. It seems that tescodiets do 'catch' people out (although this is not my issue). I wonder how much money they have accumulated in this way?
Also: I WAS STARVING while I was on the tesco diet - not good really. I too would like to give No stars but I could not post this review without ticking one of them!
written by on 01/06/2010
tesco have duped me for twelve months charging my credit card i thought it was junk mail it wasnt it was monthly charges I have paid £200 for something i dont want there must be others who have paid out for nothing i have to tick a star to go forward i dont want to give the con men a star id like to give them a warrant
written by on 13/05/2010
I tried this diet several months ago and found it was difficult to find the way round the site. It is very clumsy site and difficukt to alteer the diet and add foods to make your own foods count. I di manage to cancell my subscription but only after emailing customer service to find out how to do it. I never got confirmation but no monies wqere taken from my account.
written by on 17/03/2010
COMPLETE RIP OFF!! The promised services in their agreement include adding groceries from the menus to Tesco on line shopping accounts. This facility was suddenly withdrawn without notice to all Tesco customers. When I complained, they immediately cancelled my diet plan and advised me that I would be getting a partial refund. If you don't want to be treated like this, keep well clear. Tescodiets.com even refused to provide details of their complaints department to take the matter further
written by on 11/03/2010
Don't believe the pledge - I managed to loose 5lbs but not the stone. Because I hadn't filled in the comment on my weight record on one week I hadn't meet all the conditions and so they wouldn't give a refund. The sight is pretty clunky as well and takes ages if you want to make any changes to the menu. The person who responded to my weekly comments was helpful, but overall I wouldn't recommend.
Do you have a question about this product or company? Simply type it in the box below and one of our community will give you an answer
Once we've checked over your question we will put it live on the site and our strong community of experts will hopefully give you some great answers that you find useful.
We will email you when the question is on the site
As rated by our community of reviewers
Tesco_Diets's Response to Junel21's Review
Written on: 16/01/2013
Thank you for leaving your feedback regarding your meal plan.
Unfortunately as you have not left your username on your Tesco Diets membership I can’t see meal plan or your activity level to explain why you have allocated that amount of calories.
Your age activity and personal details are what the nutrition team uses to calculate the amount of calories you need to lose 1-2lbs a week safely.
If the calories you get are too low it’s simple for us to increase them if you are feeling hungry.
We also have a list of free foods you can eat to bulk out your plan without reducing your weight loss each week.
If you would like to drop the team an email or pop onto our live facility we can do that for you today.
Kind regards,
Debbie Morrissey
Head of Customer Services