MSE News: Tesco outlaws 'wrong item' vouchers

Former_MSE_Guy · 5 October 2009 at 2:17PM

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"Tesco has permanently banned shoppers from using vouchers for the wrong item. The supermarket giant has overhauled its policy so coupons can only be used ..."

Read the full story:
Tesco outlaws 'wrong item' vouchers

also see similar threads on this topic: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1985379

and

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1986673

skintandsad · 5 October 2009 at 2:24PM

Ah well, thats the end of Tesco shopping for me then!

I only ever used them when I had a nice handful of vouchers to redeem; therefore I tolerated their shopping "experience" (low quality meats etc).

Wonders how many others will now use another supermarket due to this policy

JimmyTheWig · 5 October 2009 at 2:26PM

Archna Luthra, MoneySavingExpert.com consumer products analyst, says: "It's a shame Tesco has decided to enforce the terms and conditions of these vouchers

Why? A shame for people using the vouchers, I guess, but hardly a shame in general. Hardly an injustice, is it?

nickmack · 5 October 2009 at 2:29PM

As much as I dislike some aspects of the Tesco business model and however non-MSE it is, I tend to agree with their stance on this.

After some of the abuse of this system I've read, it should come as no suprise that they have enforced this in line with most other major retailers.

isofa · 5 October 2009 at 2:45PM

Seems fair enough to me, if you haven't bought the item, why should you get money off?

It's always been against the T+Cs of third party vouchers – just that Tesco and some others were happy to ignore these terms, presumably because it was easy for them to recoup the money – and now they are not. I suspect the manufacturers are cracking down on fraudulent claims from supermarkets.

As Jimmy says above, hardly an injustice!

Quentin · 5 October 2009 at 2:59PM

Tesco didn't take coupons as cash out of some altruistic motive to help moneysavers pay less for their shopping.

It was a great profit maker for them. (They make a lot more by taking coupons as cash, customers buy more expensive products when they are paying with coupons, there is no staff "pilferage", the coupons are worth more than their face value due to the handling fee that is added, there are no bank charges for card transactions, cash counting etc).

Tesco get reimbursed for the coupons by the supplier. Buried in the conditions of being a supplier is a clause that Tesco won't "police" coupons at the tills to ensure the conditions are met unless the supplier issues "Tesco specific" coupons meaning customers must use the coupons only at Tesco. Should Tesco not get reimbursed for the coupons via normal channels, their suppliers contract allows them to deduct coupons taken from the suppliers payments.

Up till now, Tesco have had the upper hand over this as it's a buyers market, and suppliers cannot really afford to fall out with them, and at the end of the day the supplier has agreed to the clause in the contract.

But because of the nationwide publicity, things have changed, and suppliers' solicitors have been able to use this now open knowledge of what has been going on quietly for years to put pressure on Tesco regarding their contract and clear abuse they have been subjecting their suppliers to all this time.

The publicity has caused an upsurge of coupons being used and Tesco now have cold feet that they are no longer going to be able to treat suppliers in the previous cavalier fashion and just deduct the value of coupons handed in off their bills without normal proof the coupon has been used properly and the product bought.

Who do you think really paid for the abuse by Tesco of coupons?

Blackpool_Saver · 5 October 2009 at 6:49PM

I still can't imagine offering a voucher for the wrong product...

madmuppet5 · 5 October 2009 at 6:54PM

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

I still can't imagine offering a voucher for the wrong product...

Me neither :rolleyes:

Soubrette · 5 October 2009 at 7:06PM

My local Tesco has always asked if you've bought the product before scanning the voucher - I even had to unpack the bag to show a huge ecover washing powder box once :rolleyes:

I know this is against head office policy but it always seems to have been the case in my branch - a medium sized supermarket.

(I never offer vouchers unless I have bought the product so don't think I could be on any kind of blacklist

)

Sou

eslick · 5 October 2009 at 8:28PM

at the end of the day like most offers at the supermarkets its the manufacturer who pays for these, so if they are not selling the product it will be us that ends up paying for it in the long run with higher prices.

EssexHebridean · 5 October 2009 at 8:40PM

Goodness, there is a lot of "moral high ground" being taken on this thread!

I certainly have used other than products purchased coupons in Tesco - their policy was that they took them, in our store they limited to three, comprising no more than 10% of the total value of your bill. If that was their policy (and a well publicised one, at that) I can't for a second see any problem with it. The reason things have changed would appear to be down to a relatively small number of idiots abusing the system totally - sadly I suspect from other threads that some of them probably are members on here - I hope they realise that their greed has spoilt it for many others, possibly including those who relied on the use of vouchers to reduce their food bills to a level they could more comfortably manage.

MSE News: Tesco outlaws 'wrong item' vouchers

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free