Alert! tesco have stopped taking internet printed coupons

chipbeck

I feel I do very well with the old coupons but I can honestly say that if I can manage say £15 off a £50 shop then I'm happy. There simply aren't that many valid coupons around these days.
If people are paying so little for their shopping, then I'm sorry but they must be fiddling. This may well eventually ruin it for the likes of me who admittedly try to get as much off as they can but do play by the rules.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Mine never took internet coupons and never ever a coupon for something you had'nt bought.
I got a £6 coupon from a manufacturer recently(from a complaint)it was watermarked and stamped but when I tried to buy replacement products they refused it and had four members of staff look at it all saying it was an internet one.
In the end one of them noticed a mark on the coupon that convinced them it was genuine.
I would of walked out but they held on to the coupon and to be honest I was very embarrassed.
I won't even use luncheon vouchers in Tesco since they started to shout over supervisor to check every booklet.It's horrible you feel like a thief.

chipbeck

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

Mine never took internet coupons and never ever a coupon for something you had'nt bought.
I got a £6 coupon from a manufacturer recently(from a complaint)it was watermarked and stamped but when I tried to buy replacement products they refused it and had four members of staff look at it all saying it was an internet one.
In the end one of them noticed a mark on the coupon that convinced them it was genuine.
I would of walked out but they held on to the coupon and to be honest I was very embarrassed.
I won't even use luncheon vouchers in Tesco since they started to shout over supervisor to check every booklet.It's horrible you feel like a thief.

I know people don't agree with this but if I hand over a coupon that is valid yet not accepted I am prepared for them to ask fo advice. Should however the result be that they won't accept it I would simply leave and tell them to put the shopping back. I've done this before as I was not trying to fleece them I think I'd given them about £4 of various valid coupons off a £30 shop. I know people will say I'm being an ar** to the poor till operator but as far as I'm concerned rules must work both ways.

tbw

chipbeck wrote: »

I feel I do very well with the old coupons but I can honestly say that if I can manage say £15 off a £50 shop then I'm happy. There simply aren't that many valid coupons around these days.
If people are paying so little for their shopping, then I'm sorry but they must be fiddling. This may well eventually ruin it for the likes of me who admittedly try to get as much off as they can but do play by the rules.

Thats exactly the situation I'm in! I'd love to know where all these different coupons come from - I can usually only manage around 10 or 12 different ones (although I don't bother printing off any that are less than 50p cos I don't think its really worth the ink) . I'd be happy to carry on with those - which do save me a fair bit of cash - but, whether others are fiddling or not the end result seems to be the same ie Tesco are getting uppity and clamping down.

I don't want to get into the rights and wrongs of coupon usage and I know a lot of people reckon its fine to use anything that bears any resemblance to a money off coupon regardless of where it comes from and the T&C's . However, I do believe that, even though Tesco national policy says that you CAN use coupons to pay for your whole 'shop', it isn't sensible to do that week in week out if you want to be able to go on using coupons. Excessive use of coupons in my local store HAS resulted in us all losing out - and I'm fairly miffed about that!

chipbeck

tbw wrote: »

Thats exactly the situation I'm in! I'd love to know where all these different coupons come from - I can usually only manage around 10 or 12 different ones (although I don't bother printing off any that are less than 50p cos I don't think its really worth the ink) . I'd be happy to carry on with those - which do save me a fair bit of cash - but, whether others are fiddling or not the end result seems to be the same ie Tesco are getting uppity and clamping down.

I don't want to get into the rights and wrongs of coupon usage and I know a lot of people reckon its fine to use anything that bears any resemblance to a money off coupon regardless of where it comes from and the T&C's . However, I do believe that, even though Tesco national policy says that you CAN use coupons to pay for your whole 'shop', it isn't sensible to do that week in week out if you want to be able to go on using coupons. Excessive use of coupons in my local store HAS resulted in us all losing out - and I'm fairly miffed about that!

Re excessive use and you now missing out.

As far as I am aware the only coupons that they could refuse to take are internet ones as these are at the managers discretion. If I was in your position I would still insist they took any magazine ones etc. It's company policy! If they have problems with people taking the pee then they need to act against these people.

Fire_Fox

tbw wrote: »

This is true but unfortunately Tesco staff are human and, like everyone else, they do sometimes get a bit green eyed when they see others getting a real bargain on their shopping. Especially so if they can't quite get the hang of how its done and so can't do the same themselves. A percentage of them also do genuinely feel that its just plain WRONG to use coupons against incorrect products and get uppity over that. When some people are getting say, £100 worth of goods for less than a couple of quid week in, week out, its hardly surprising that a fair bit of !!!!!ing goes on behind the scenes - and also face to face with unfortunate customers ! Eventually the Store Managers will cotton on and take notice and then is likely to clamp down really hard, label even moderate coupon use as abuse and restrict it so much that it just isn't worth bothering with.

I can quite see this happening all over the country sooner or later. Its called Sour Grapes!!!

I think you are underestimating store managers: you don't get to that level without being a lot more on the ball than the average till operator. :rolleyes: Internal audits will pick up abuse of coupons by the same individuals, tracked via their Clubcard.

I worked a Tesco till in my teens and, being rather heavy on the oestrogen, it was a total b*tch-fest. It was rarely about the customers tho - usually about the supervisors, shift patterns/ wages, the store managers latest crackdown and each other's private lives!

bulgariafairy

one thing that a lot of people who criticise tescos policy to accept a coupon without the product being purchased is the following....tesco get a handling fee, per coupon used, between 2p and 5p for processing the coupon.

profit much, considering how many people use coupons these days! if you think about it, you can see the brains behind this part of their policy, from a management point of view. thats a lot to give up. plus, if they change it too much, people will go elsewhere. eg asda has a bigger range and is cheaper. i'll be off to asda if they change it for sure!

chipbeck

To reiterate.
If you spent an hour looking at the checkouts how many customers will be handing over a wad of coupons. Not very many. Most of the people I know may on occasion use a coupon for something they have bought. We the crazy coupon users are in the minority have no doubts about that. If the number of coupon crazy people suddenly trebled then there may be a problem. But remember the problem would have been brought on by Tesco's as long as, like me, people were adhering to the rules.

tbw

chipbeck wrote: »

Re excessive use and you now missing out.

As far as I am aware the only coupons that they could refuse to take are internet ones as these are at the managers discretion. If I was in your position I would still insist they took any magazine ones etc. It's company policy! If they have problems with people taking the pee then they need to act against these people.

That won't work Chipbeck. I think you will find that HQ will quote the standard policy if you ask them - but then add the rider that its really down to individual managers to vary the policy if they see fit. My local store HAS acted against the people that they had an issue with - I know they have banned at least 3 people (2 of them post on here regularly and their ban has been widely discussed). 'Insisting' has got me nowhere - I've even written to the Store Manager pointing out all this and suggesting that, never mind shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, by stopping coupons AFTER he's banned the so called 'offenders', he's actually shutting the door after he's shot th B*****horse!

Needless to say, it appears that he is not even going to answer my letter as I'm still waiting well over a week later. He is aware that one of the banned customers has taken it up with HQ and says that it won't make any difference, its his store and he'll do what he likes. Some of the staff have also told me that HQ are backing him to the hilt. I know where I'd like to back him!

tbw

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I think you are underestimating store managers: you don't get to that level without being a lot more on the ball than the average till operator. :rolleyes: Internal audits will pick up abuse of coupons by the same individuals, tracked via their Clubcard.

Agreed - but its down to what is classed as 'abuse'. I don't think my 4/5 at a time was abuse and the people who regularly use 20/30 clearly don't think their useage is either. The staff and Managers may well have different opinions. I know the staff do talk about customers using a lot of coupons - they've even moaned to me on frequent occasions about this or that person who 'comes in with great wads of coupons and gets all their shopping for next to nothing!'(their words, not mine) so, if they moan to other customers I'm sure they also moan to each other.