Sainsburys - Are you missing 500 Nectar Points?

Are you a Sainsburys shopper and received a set of four coupons through the post ?

Typically - £3 off your first and second weeks shopping when you spend £20 or more in a single transaction, the third and fourth coupon are usually for £4 off your shopping when again you spend over £20 in a single transaction.

It will probably state also that you will receive a bonus of 500 Nectar points worth an additional £2.50 if you use all four coupons.

I have over the past few years used all my coupons and NEVER received the bonus 500 for using all four.

WHY ?? Is the obvious question, Sainsburys and Nectar have no idea, but I have the answer and this could be affecting thousands of customers.

My first thought was to question Nectar, they issued a new Nectar card, in fact they did this three times in one year, never solved the mystery of the missing points. Sainsburys just kept saying contact Nectar. When I do speak to Nectar they deny that I've actually used all four coupons, often saying I've used one of them sometimes none at all. Hence - NO BONUS POINTS

So for the past few years no explanation and no bonus points.

Then I realised what was happening, I'm normally in a rush and spend very small amounts at Sainsburys, sometimes popping in to grab a meal deal for lunch during my break. I always go to the self checkout machines, put all my shopping through, scan my nectar card, then press the option to scan a coupon making sure I've bought additional shopping to make sure I've spent over £20. Now this is where everything goes wrong IMHO,because the coupon is above £1 the till says, 'Sorry the coupon is over the allowable limit a member of staff will come over to help'.

The member of staff comes over and scans their supervisor code and the self checkout machine enters 'Assist Mode' then the supervisor clicks COUPON - Now thinking that the coupon wont scan they then go into MANUAL COUPON ENTRY and enter the amount of the coupon £3.00 and press enter, the coupon is then pushed into the coupon tray.

So what's wrong with that I get my £3 off but never the bonus points. Here's the problem, the coupon was not scanned! I have tested this at my local Sainsburys store Colton Leeds and proved this to be the case, a few of the staff through me advising them understand but the majority don't. This is even the same at a regular checkout, this happened to me just yesterday, the staff member just entered the coupon amount and for some bizarre reason never actually scanned the barcode on it.

Sainsburys so far at head office Customer Services completely deny there is a national problem or even that the problem exists, saying it makes NO DIFFERENCE how the coupon is entered - Well I differ and have done so for years.

PLEASE when shopping at Sainsburys with one of these coupons try to make sure that it's entered correctly, at the self check outs this is Assist Mode Coupon Entry - Then the supervisor should just offer the coupon to the scanner and it WILL be accepted or I believe it also works if they enter the barcode manually, but please try to stop them from entering the coupon amount manually. Same at a regular checkout, it should be scanned.

That way hopefully you should get your bonus, I've never had the bonus because you can bet it will be entered manually over 1 if not all of the four weeks and if you try to tell them how to do it, watch out, most will tell you how long they've worked there and know how to deal with coupons, but sadly in my experience they don't.

Anybody else had experience of this? I've asked around friends and family and it's an issue at other stores and not one of us has had these bonus 500 points.

Good Luck getting them.