Tesco Coupon policy Complaint thread

Evie82

TBH I think the sudden influx of coupons in the last few days - caused by the GMTV advertising as made Tesco sit up and put a stop to it. From what I have read on other forums from tesco staff, its a ploy to get the people who have just "discovered" they can use coupons to give up and forget what they heard. Hence why its said to be temporary. MSE Martin has saved me a fortune in the past but he has cost me a whole heap now too.
My tesco still took coupons this morning.... im in the South West but a friend of mine near Newcastle has the signs up already saying no coupons. boo!!

________________________________________________________________

MSE Insert from MSE Archna:

Martin is away at the moment but has asked me to post this message from him...

“I'm saddened to hear of some nasty posts on here about Tesco's change of policy (see the Tesco changes coupon policy and would ask those whose vitriole may’ve overtaken them to step back a second and think about it.

• Do you want MSE and I to become a discrete users club?
  
  Is this what people want. A small club of those in the know pushing the system. If we did – who would be in the in-crowd, when would we’ve locked the forum down so only existing members could share hidden info? How many is enough?
  
  The policy of the site (and I) has always been to reach as many people as possible and spread information, both on hard and soft financial subjects. I believe we’ve done it well and the vast range of users is a great credit to that. We’re very proud of it and don’t intend to change it – this will never be a private members club only for those in the know.
  
  Yet of course, with some of the techniques, which mean perhaps a disproportionate amount of money going into people's pockets and out of companies, there comes a critical mass reached where it ends (and here it's only for one supermarket so far).
  
  We’ve had it with countless issues before – intro bank account freebies with no need to change salary – balance transfer bonuses payments – cashback on 0% deals – bonus points boots on low costs goods. People use them then at some point someone in an organisation realises that financially it doesn’t add up.

• There’s been a push from manufacturers for this to happen
  
  The change of policy by Tesco has been a long time in the coming. There has been a huge amount of pressure put on the supermarkets by the Institute of Sales Promotions – they originally contacted us making threatening noises equating people using the wrong coupons as theft (See the ISP theft news story).
  
  The trade press who cover this have made a splash of the use of these coupons for the last year, and the manufacturers displeasure. The ISP has undergone a lobbying change to stop supermarkets accepting them for non-use – as it's the manufacturers who pay.
  
  This was targeted as I remember at the users of the MSE forums and some individuals who pushed the boundaries on it as well as our coupons guide – where the possibility of being upfront and asking if vouchers were accepted has always been a part.
  
  From that moment there has been strong lobbying on the ‘misuse’ of vouchers to the supermarkets – as it is the manufacturers who bear the brunt.
  
  Of course we robustly defended the forum users. To start trying to point the finger at anyone isn’t of any use at all – and it certainly isn’t what this site or this forum is or at least should be about.
  
  However at that time my aim was to try and hope that those who used the ‘non-purchase’ coupons route would do it within limits and not go overboard. We worked hard on the prose used on the site to about it – i’ve been consistent in my broadcasts on it – as well as doing the story about the ISP to try and stop mass abuse e.g. multi-using the same voucher or using self-service tills – or anything else which breaks terms or is dishonest.
  
  Apparently in the last week there’s been a specific high value voucher that’s been used and from what I understand – quite substantially abused – and sadly when these flood through the tills – someone sits up and takes notice – Tesco is a bottom line organisation after all.

• Growth and publicity has of course contributed to it.
  
  The growth of easy to print online coupons means that voucher repeatability has grown rapidly. There are now a wide number of coupon sites as Im sure you’re aware – and of course our own Grocery Coupons page. There are also a wide number of forums big and small, where people discuss the use of coupons for non bought products.
  
  As apparently some vitriole was aimed at my GMTV appearance, before doing so it is worth watching what was said (watch it yourself) – all of it is balanced about how and whether you should do it rather than a big encouraging factor.
  
  In fact the influence of that appearance is no where near as big as you may assume, certainly it doesn’t even register compared to the traffic from putting the grocery coupon note in the weekly email.
  
  Yet of course it is publicity for the issue, and there is a chance that it had an effect, though if you do a press search you can see the issue of coupons and vouchers has grown from zero about 18 months ago to a regular stream now. All the newspapers have got in on it – with most now running their own voucher sites.
  
  All of this combined of course changes the critical mass of voucher usage and quite possibly played a role.

So who’s to blame? Is it the site and I for telling people? The people who abused the high value vouchers? Forum users for sharing tips which the ISP monitored? All the new people who’ve started doing this who want to save money? The manufacturers for protecting their bottom line? The supermarkets who did it in the first place?

Why do we need to blame someone... the fact is Tesco has changed its policy, the issue is one that’s obviously grown for the supermarket. We know there’s been inconsistency branch by branch in the past – we’ve even asked and helped intervene for forum users about this.

Now there is consistency and we don’t like the answer; but frankly in the same way you can’t blame the shop that says no to haggling; this was always possible. Hopefully we can stop pointing the finger and carrying on looking how people can save.
[FONT=&quot]
Martin"[/FONT]

veggiecar

Evie82 wrote: »

Apparently there is a briefing flying around Tesco stores called a Team 5 or something. It states that from Monday they will only accept coupons if you buy the product. No ifs or buts. A few people I know across the country have seen signs up at the tills to state this too. Its meant to be a trial but not sure how long the trial will be for. Apparently its indirectly related to MSE Martins appearance on GMTV stating about using coupons without buying the product but Im not sure how much truth is in it.
We shall see what happens come Monday i suppose.

:rotfl::rotfl:Can you imagine the queues at the customer service desk, when we all take back for a refund our whiskas, our pedigree, our carlsberg, our energiser, our quattro razors........................................................:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Princess_Coupon

If this is true I'm really upset and annoyed, Martin Lewis and his team do great work with Council tax, mortgage, PPI etc reclaiming, but coupons were not his baby, his team do not spend hours searching for them, helping with coupon quieries and maintaining this thread.
It seems to me that he has gone on tv with this (all our hard work) and screwed us over. It's pretty obvious that a policy that is not on Tescos posters, leaflets, and the website is not for national advertising.
We never tried to keep it a secret and all for ourselves, we have welcomed and helped newbies and shared all finds, but instead of just being satisfied with it being on the site, and appearing in the newsletter periodically it appears Martin was determined to give it the widest audience possible and kill it.

rosebud982

Princess_Coupon wrote: »

If this is true I'm really upset and annoyed, Martin Lewis and his team do great work with Council tax, mortgage, PPI etc reclaiming, but coupons were not his baby, his team do not spend hours searching for them, helping with coupon quieries and maintaining this thread.
It seems to me that he has gone on tv with this (all our hard work) and screwed us over. It's pretty obvious that a policy that is not on Tescos posters, leaflets, and the website is not for national advertising.
We never tried to keep it a secret and all for ourselves, we have welcomed and helped newbies and shared all finds, but instead of just being satisfied with it being on the site, and appearing in the newsletter periodically it appears Martin was determined to give it the widest audience possible and kill it.

I agree wholeheartedly. He doesn't do all the work, but is claiming the credit for letting people know. Well if my tesco's stop it I'll be switching to the nearest Waitrose that has just opened near us.

This is a shame as I really love tescos.

R

Quentin

Princess_Coupon wrote: »

If this is true I'm really upset and annoyed, Martin Lewis and his team do great work with Council tax, mortgage, PPI etc reclaiming, but coupons were not his baby, his team do not spend hours searching for them, helping with coupon quieries and maintaining this thread.
It seems to me that he has gone on tv with this (all our hard work) and screwed us over......

You have no real beef at all with Martin Lewis. This was the wrong forum to use if you didn't want him to take advantage of what you post and use it.

Amongst the MSE ts + cs which you agreed to:

Just so that you know, you own any copyright in the text that you post to our chat forums. However, when you post text, you expressly grant us a perpetual, unlimited free license to republish that text on our site and to redistribute/make available and/or sell that text in print or electronic form anywhere in the world as part of an edited compilation or otherwise

shazzle

Coupon Princess you are so right, I have valued your imput for a while and as a £5-10 coupon redeemer each week I am happy with this discounted shopping. It should have stayed low profile
But seriously the greed I witnessed yesterday was incrediable, I have never seen anything like it.
I shop wherever is best quality and cheapest but I do expect to pay something..the less the better
I saw loads of folk with the £25.00 ish worth of vouchers for pedigree buying everything but paying nowt.
Someone will pay eventually with their jobs if it continued so I guess its spoilt for all now...

Princess_Coupon

Quentin wrote: »

You have no real beef at all with Martin Lewis. This was the wrong forum to use if you didn't want him to take advantage of what you post and use it.

Amongst the MSE ts + cs which you agreed to

redistribute/make available and/or sell that text in print or electronic form anywhere in the world as part of an edited compilation or otherwise

True, but technically you agree he can reprint text not blab on TV

veggiecar

moneysavinglurker wrote: »

Team 5 is an A4 piece of paper which is divided into 3 sections. The 1st section is written by the department manager, the 2nd section is written by the store manager and the 3rd section is written by head office and is the same for every store.

Since Martin Lewis was not on TV until Tuesday, and some stores hit after that, this sounds like another knee-jerk reaction.....and in the hard-hit stores a necessary one:T
I think we can safely assume (for the moment) that it sounds like the national team5 is a Monday briefing...MartinLewis :money:was on GMTV on Tuesday, stores have been hit after that....any team5 briefings that folk are talking about, must be the store manager or department manager part and NOT the HO part.

So rather than mass hysteria, and finger pointing.....just lets's wait and see what happens in our own stores, and lets not waste dozens of posts on ifs, buts and maybes;):beer::beer::beer::beer:

techspec

I have previously said that we were lucky to get away with Martin telling people on the radio a while back, but GMTV - now thats a step too far for the policy.

Martin is a hero, but i did think he would realise the fragility of this policy if all and sundry knew.

Having said that, its probably the ones who are abusing it with fake coupons etc that have increased the problem, not the good folk like us, that Martin was trying to help. Unfortunately, most people just want to make a quick buck.

Is it all coupons and not just internet?

techspec

bham-dave wrote: »

I think you're clutching at straws there, PC.

If it's on his website, he can do what he wants with the info.

I agree - he has every right to tell anyone what is on this site. He set up this site to spread the word on ways to save money - and thats what he's doing.

Just wish he hadn't done it with this one

sher60

Princess_Coupon wrote: »

If this is true I'm really upset and annoyed, Martin Lewis and his team do great work with Council tax, mortgage, PPI etc reclaiming, but coupons were not his baby, his team do not spend hours searching for them, helping with coupon quieries and maintaining this thread.
It seems to me that he has gone on tv with this (all our hard work) and screwed us over. It's pretty obvious that a policy that is not on Tescos posters, leaflets, and the website is not for national advertising.
We never tried to keep it a secret and all for ourselves, we have welcomed and helped newbies and shared all finds, but instead of just being satisfied with it being on the site, and appearing in the newsletter periodically it appears Martin was determined to give it the widest audience possible and kill it.

All I have to say about Martin and his BIG mouth is what goes around comes around and I'm afraid he will lose a lot of traffic & members from this site/forum. I basically come on this forum for coupons, newspapers, magazines, freebies and occasionally the competitions and if coupons stop then I don't need to come on here for coupons, newspapers or magazines anymore and I have other sources for freebies and competitions. So it was a very stupid thing for him to do. I just wonder if he understands how many people he has hurt by his actions. No more steak for us, it's back to eating cheap food I'm afraid.