When my wife-to-be moved in with me, one of her daughters took up the residency of the family home while it sat on the for sale boards (and got precisely nowhere - thank you, you financial pocket-liners).

Because she's a sweetly honest person my wife changed her house insurance and informed her insurers TESCO that she was no longer the resident but that instead her daughter was now there.

Following long phone conversations with Ms TESCO-Salesperson they changed the policy to a buy-to-let insurance which, my wife was informed, was what she now needed to cover the building, contents et al.

This was done and the payments were set up by direct debit.

All (apparently) was hunky-dory.

We move on just over a year and the property has found a buyer so my wife's daughter has found herself a flat.

During March the insurance premium fell due and was paid by direct debit. Then at the beginning of April my wife contacted TESCO insurance to inform them that the property was now empty prior to sale completion and to check that it was still covered for the month before completion took place.

She told them that the policy was a buy-to-let one and was informed that TESCO did no such policy....

My wife, who is incredibly well organised had the documents and her notes made at the inception of the insurance all in front of her and was able to quote chapter and verse regarding the situation.

But no, according to the TESCO-ette the policy was NOT a buy to let policy because they had never done one and the term buy-to-let was only on the document as information (Er?) She then informed my wife that the policy was in fact a second home policy and that if she wasn't the person resident in it then.... bye bye insurance.

She cancelled the insurance on the spot (7:30) in the evening and told my wife to contact them IN WRITING to arrange a refund of the latest direct debit payment.

The TESCO-nobrainer then simply hung up.

This was on March 30th although apparently MS TESCO-berk then back dated the cancellation on their computer to having occurred on March 19th. Clever one that but, I suspect, decidedly illegal!

So there we are with a house suddenly uninsured, with no chance of arranging emergency cover and with TESCO having pocketed a years premium for an insurance which, knowing the slimy way these companies are, would have been declared invalid should a claim have been made.

What the TESCO-ette didn't realise was that she'd started the ball rolling and my wife is like a terrier with a bone when her dander is roused.

I suspect that TESCO now have a note pinned on every phone saying that if my wife calls then try to stall her until she gets bored and hangs up...... bad move.

So far, despite her having written to them enclosing copies of everything including her original notes (which include names, dates and times of conversations) TESCO can't be a*sed to even acknowledge receipt of anything.

Oh and at a similar time she had been trying to get the TESCO-morons to understand that she had got married and now had a new name.

That required a copy of the marriage certificate. Not a photocopy but one of the bl**dy expensive hand drafted originals you have to shell out for.

And what do TESCO-moronics do with it while they have it?

THEY TEAR THE THING IN HALF! They even have the nerve to return it, poorly stuck back together with sellotape with out as much as an apology.

This too is now part of the ongoing battle with the company who insist that every little helps.

It's just shame that they feel it beneath themselves to do so very little for the customer when as a company they have effectively taken money under false pretences for a whole year and then destroy an expensive legal document.

And are they bovvered? Do you fink they're bovvered?

Let me put it this way, the wife has already been onto the insurance ombudsman and the insurance regulatory body.

Perhaps TESCO need to take a better standpoint on customer complaints especially as one of the TESCO-ettes claimed that they review incoming customer complaints only once a month!!!!!

Yet another of the telephone answering sub-humans didn't even know what, if any, the complaints procedure actually was.

And what department did she work for? Customer liaison.

You have been warned - check any policy you have with TESCO just in case it quite literally isn't worth the paper it's printed on.