AN Aylburton man says he is the latest victim of a mobile phone top-up issue where payments made at Tesco are not crediting customer’s phones.

Tony Evans visited Lydney Tesco last month to buy a top-up worth £10 to find it didn’t credit his pay-as-you-go phone.

Realising he was unable to make contact with Tesco – or anybody for that matter – Tony spoke with his neighbour who allowed him to use his landline to call his network service provider, O2, to see if they could rectify the problem.

He said: “O2 informed me that it was the responsibility of the store where the credit was purchased to track the transaction. I returned to Lydney Tesco a week later only to be told by the manager ’due to the Data Protection Act, there is nothing Tesco can do and I should contact O2’.

“I couldn’t believe it – still to this day I haven’t had the top-up credited, despite my receipt confirming it was successful.”

He added: “I was speaking to my landlord the other day and he said he knows eight people who have also had the same problem. I went back to O2 and managed to top-up my phone successfully, but I’m still out of pocket and am disappointed with the way that I have been treated by Tesco.”

A spokesman for Tesco said: “We can confirm that we offered Mr Evans use of our facilities in order for him to call his network provider, which he declined.

“Unfortunately we were not able to process the complaint on his behalf, as his provider advised us that, for security reasons, they would not speak with third parties.

“We do not tolerate abuse of any kind towards our colleagues and asked him to leave on this basis.”

The company also said in the last three months there has been one other recorded incident in its Lydney store, in which a customer’s phone was not properly credited after they purchased a top-up for their mobile phone.

Have you had top-up issues at Tesco? If so, call us today on 01594 841113.

• A SUBSTANTIAL amount of food was thrown out at Chepstow Tesco last Tuesday morning after a fridge packed up.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We can confirm that there was a power outage at our Chepstow store early on Tuesday morning. We worked hard to reopen the store as quickly as we could, with customers able to shop with us again that afternoon.

“Unfortunately, some food had to be disposed of for health and safety reasons.”