Co-op savers card club - not all stores accept them

GhostHunter_3

Hi

Sorry not sure where else to put this.

I have had a Co-operative membership card since they were first issued. They act a bit like a Tesco Clubcard (but not so many benefits just cashback on a 6 month basis).

I use mine each time I shop at our local co-op - Food. Yesterday however they didnt have something I needed as their freezers were half empty so I walked a little further down the road where there is another co-op which has a slightly larger selection. Thankfully their freezers were better stocked so I picked up what I wanted and took it to the till.

Here I paid for the item and was speechless when on handing over my savings card I was told by the assistant rather unpolitely "we dont accept them as its nothing to do with us here, its the other end that takes them not us" :eek:

So I just accepted it in so much confusion

Wondered if anyone else had had this experience? They are deffinately the same chain (so not some local independant trader happend to call themselves Coop) The store who didnt take the card has been there for longer than the one who does, the one who does used to be Alldays but the stores or the site was obviously taken over by Co-op.

Is it worht me writing a complaint letter to Co-op? The item in question was a bag of frozen ovenchips. :rotfl:

LittleVoice

Poor customer care at the second shop!

If you have a card like mine (which has a honeycomb pattern on it), you need to check the shop for a "bee" symbol which shows they take the card.

Have you registered with the co-op website? You can probably check more about the scheme there.

GhostHunter_3

LittleVoice wrote: »

Poor customer care at the second shop!

If you have a card like mine (which has a honeycomb pattern on it), you need to check the shop for a "bee" symbol which shows they take the card.

Have you registered with the co-op website? You can probably check more about the scheme there.

Many thanks for that helpful tip, I was unaware of that. Yes my card is white with a Honeycombe design.

I have never noticed a Bee at the store that takes the card, I will ask next time.

Have just returned from there today and commented to the staff about the unhelpful store down the road and they said "our shop is the only one that accepts it, the other store is owned by different people" so I stated they were both called Co-op and got the reply "the other store is not owned by co-op but by somebody else!".

Ans I always thought Co-op was co-cop.

In this case not very Co-operative! :rotfl:

pgt67

we had a similar thing in our village with the 2 stores only 1/2 mile apart.

The thing is that one co-op company was registered in Rochdale (I think) the other Manchester with the Manchester one giving out points on the Divi card.

Not sure what happened though as both now give out points on the divi card :beer:

bubblesbonbon

Hi

I agree that the Co-op membership can be confusing and I have not been able to use the "Co-op card" in several Co-ops, particularly in the South Devon area.

It took me a while to discover that the Co-op is a movement based upon several principles based upon self ownership etc. and that there are many independent Co-ops who share these principles.

If you look at the list here

http://www.cooponline.coop/about_links.html

you can get an idea of just how many there are in addition to the Co-operative Group who run the yellow card membership scheme.

The only way to tell if the yellow honeycomb card is accepted is to look for the bee in the window

(A sticker not a real bee)

brightonman123

there are different co-op groups around the UK, totally independant from each other- enen though they have similar branding.. probably a franchise thing?

v confusing i agree.