An angry shopper claims she has been banned from returning strawberries to her local Tesco after repeatedly claiming they were "mouldy".
Maria Cavalier buys fresh fruit in bulk due to running an independent mobile crepe stall in Cornwall but claims the healthy treats regularly go "mushy" before the best before date.
She has returned a number of punnets to Tesco in Truro but claims the superstore will now no longer refund her, reports Cornwall Live.
"I recently bought 20 punnets of strawberries and I had to return 15 of them," said Maria. "They had all gone mouldy.
"I'm losing sales because strawberry and chocolate is my best seller.
"Instead of dealing with it [and] saying there is a problem they say that I can't bring them back.
"I'm not interested in the refund at all. I'm interested in trying to solve this problem and demonstrate that there is a problem.
"Most people who buy one or two punnets won't be bothered to drive into Tesco, park up and take the time out of their evening to get refund for a couple of pounds."
The businesswoman says she was refunded earlier this year after returning several punnets.
But claims that recently the store manager, Matt Rolland, told her that they would not be refunding her in future and advised her to go to a wholesaler.
The decision was upheld by Tesco's customer service team.
In an email to Maria, a member of the team reportedly wrote: "He [the store manager] has informed me that you appear to [be] buying strawberries for your business and that you are trying to get a refund on fruit that will not sell.
"As we are not a wholesaler, we do not sell goods on buy or return and this is why they are refusing to refund you further."
Maria has taken several pictures showing the "mouldy" fruit and says she has raised the issue a number of times before.
"I don't see how they can deny there is a problem when I have literally gone through all the punnets on the shelves and they are often mouldy before you even buy them so they must be disposing of them," she added.
A Tesco spokesman said: “We always want our customers to be happy with our products and we have issued full refunds to the customer when she returned items.”
