MSE News: Tesco Orchard product testing freebie site to close

Supermarket giant Tesco has announced it will be shutting down its product-testing website 'The Orchard at Tesco'...
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'Tesco Orchard product testing freebie site to close'
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Comments

  • Makeandsave
    Makeandsave Posts: 3,789 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post Photogenic
    I will miss this site, I got to test so much through it and get rewarded in clubcard points, I loved it when you got your packs with money off coupons and one for free products, I used to use them all and even better when the item was on offer you got more for your vouchers, I used to share my goodies with my neighbours. I remember one year i got a £10 voucher and 3 £5 vouchers for Tesco finest xmas puddings and they should have been £10 but where £5 so i got 5 free!
    Jan Wins: .
  • Doc_N
    Doc_N Posts: 8,268 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post Photogenic First Anniversary
    I signed up for this, just out of curiosity, and had a few free trial items from Tesco.

    They were OK, invariably much the same as the Aldi/Lidl versions, but at considerably higher prices.

    What used to hack me off though was the constant badgering by Tesco to 'talk' about, and promote, the products on Facebook, Twitter etc - the constant threat being that if you didn't the vouchers etc would stop.

    It all left me trusting Tesco even less than I had done before, so from my standpoint it backfired pretty badly.
  • I dont trust tesco as far as i could throw them. They opened a store in the village where I grew up. Bye bye local businesses. They did however heavily invest in play parks and the local schools - for the first few months. Then that all disappeared. I signed up for tesco orchard, but not using much social media made the whole annoying your friends about it and advertising Tesco for the fee of a bar of chocolate was difficult, hence i never really got anything from it after Tesco decided to hate me even more and axed my account. They are a vile and nasty bunch of rob dogs, and I sincerely hope that the difficulty they are currently suffering really does damage to thier brand. And wakes up the people who think its a wonderful place and everything they own or use comes straight from them.

    Same quality as the discount supermarkets at hugely inflated prices in order to pay for club card and not bothering putting doors on their stores then cranking the heating up. That makes sense for customer service! they even threaten to clamp your car when the carpark is half empty, if you pop in the shop next door without a carpark - even if you have a receipt from 5 minutes ago! Avoid Avoid Avoid!
  • madderrose
    madderrose Posts: 211 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Doc_N wrote: »

    What used to hack me off though was the constant badgering by Tesco to 'talk' about, and promote, the products on Facebook, Twitter etc - the constant threat being that if you didn't the vouchers etc would stop.

    It all left me trusting Tesco even less than I had done before, so from my standpoint it backfired pretty badly.

    Totally agree with this. I won't miss it - they seemed to want an awful lot of interaction for a few freebies.

    I've had Christmas pud, cheese, flowers and finest puddings over the last year or so but it does make you doubt the genuineness of the reviews you see when you know Tesco are pushing the Orchard panel to review favourably.
  • nkkingston
    nkkingston Posts: 488 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    I was always a bit half arsed about it - they usually got one tweet out of me on the deadline and a couple of 'reported' conversations, and I still got sent the vouchers pretty regularly. I don't usually shop at Tesco's, so it worked in terms of getting me in there occasionally and spending more than the voucher. Food was all decent enough, but nothing to make me change my shopping habits (which, let's be honest, is what they were hoping for - word of mouth is all well and good, but what they wanted was for the orchard users to become regular Tesco's shoppers). What I am annoyed at is I haven't received the email about it closing!
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