MSE News: Tesco outlaws 'wrong item' vouchers

esmerelda98

chocolady wrote: »

I think Tesco accepting other supermarket's vouchers for use in their store did put them on the back foot and probably made it difficult for them to refuse to take vouchers against branded products but as I say they did not make it a clear policy which left everyone in the dark.

Surely if Tesco decides to 'take the hit' where vouchers from other supermarkets are concerned this is a very different scenario from branded coupons where Tesco goes back to the supplier for the coupon value? In the former case Tesco itself is losing the money, in the latter case it is the supplier.

These suppliers also have low-paid employees, who may well be put in a precarious situation if a company's profits are squeezed (or turn to losses). I sympathise with those struggling to make ends meets, but your problem needs another, more transparent and fair, solution.

spaceman5

1carminestocky wrote: »

This decision MUST have been taken due to 'outside pressure' from the manufacturers. Reason I say that is that, at the moment, Tesco are desparate for sales! Growth of 'only' 2.8% in the last 6 months when rrivals like Sainsburys and Morrisons have seen 7-8% sales growth. This initiative must have been a huge money-spinner for Tesco. The full year results will be interesting indeed. Of course they are still far and away the biggest supermarket in the Uk but the signs are they are on a downward trend. About time they actually concentrated on their prices instead of these silly marketing 'tricks' IMO.

that says it all, whilst i agree with your statement that they are still the biggest supermarket and will be for some time, ther dominance is starting to relinquish, all is not right, when they are bragging about sales growth of 2.8%, when morrisons and sainsburys have been consistently achieving around the 8% mark for the last couple of years, i know some of it is down to morrisons and sainsburys being smaller companies, so have more room for growth than tescos, but you would still be expecting a company of tescos size to be hitting at least 4%, i personally used to love shopping in tescos but dont bother now, when ever i go in there i dont really see any really good offers, and i never really see any great offers posted on this forum with regards to tescos like you do with asda`s, morrisons etc

compmad1

jennytablina wrote: »

Replying here as a Tesco Employee who works on the checkouts

Tesco have been umming and ahhing a while on coupon policy: last year we had a few confusing memos about internet coupons being unacceptable and restricting use of the same coupon to 2 times if the customer hadn't brought it. The amount of use stuck but the internet coupon ban was dropped thankfully!

Though honestly: I feel for people who where using the coupons just to occasionally balance prices, it does suck if you were pretty innocent about it. But I think the policy was changed due to people who used those coupons over and over. They are the minority in my area thankfully, most customers use the coupons responsibly (and it's appreciated! : ) )

I mean as well as the manufacturers getting hit, so do the checkout times, nothing slows down the checkout process more than someone whipping out a mass amount of vouchers and expecting the checkout assistant to scan every single one. From an additional standpoint, if other customers are held up by someone running riot with the rules. Then its a bit of a kick in the bum to the other consumers.

In the company's defence Tesco has offered a lot of decent offers in the past few weeks and currently is doing double Clubcard points. Which I guess was their way of softening the blow of this upcoming announcement.

My Tesco would only accept 5 vouchers so the queues were not really held up.

abjem21

My wife works as a SA on the till at a tesco store, she and the majority of the people she works with have welcomed this change in policy.
In truth what brought it down was the astonishing greed of a very active minority. In her store there were about half a dozen people that she served, in most cases several times per week, (Including one member of staff) that totally abused this policy by taking anything up to £80+ of shopping at a time and paying no more than a pound or two towards it. These half a dozen "so called" customers would often go around twice (Or bring a friend) and use a second set of the identical same vouchers (Photocopiers and colour scanners are wonderfull arn't they?) and do it again on the same trip. (My wife works 4 x 4hr shifts per week) So if you say she works 1/10th of the hours her store is open (24hrs) you could multiply this band of people x 10 and you start to get an idea of the real extent of the proplem. The people that were doing this to this extent all had one big thing in common, abuse. If the SA didn't just quietly take the vouchers they would dish it out without hesitation or restraint.
If you read the threads on here these people would often give each other advice on which SA's to target (Young males) and which to avoid (Middle aged women) which they charmingly call "Trouts". To have your vouchers rejected was to be "Trouted". My wife and I find this use of language very telling, it clearly shows that the people doing this are aware of the total lack of morals of their actions but because they are getting "free stuff" they can turn their backs to the greater issue. The reason a middle aged woman was more likely to question the validity of the vouchers was simple, the middle aged woman is working a 16 hour week for approx £400 per month, but while doing so she is expected, by them, to be complict in helping them take often 4 times or more per week "tax free" from the organisation she is working for! You wouldn't be the only one asking yourself why does she bother? she did every day.

Please dont get me wrong, I do feel for anyone living on a restricted budget, but the people that ended this were the same ones that used to brag about what they got for free on here time after time after time.
To those of you that have said "I will no longer shop at tesco" news flash YOU NEVER DID. People who dont pay for their shopping are not called customers, they have a completely different name.
To you I say simply "Dont let the door hit your A*SE on the way out"

Lastly did you know that the SA's in tesco are monitored for how many customers are served and how many items scanned in a given time. To be given a fist full of vouchers as payment too many times (which take ages to process) means they will eventually have to have a "little chat" with a supervisor and are then viewed as being poor at their job. Fair?

Martin Lewis has taken a lot of flack for this on the chatrooms. If you want to see how utterly charmless these people are look on them and judge for yourself.
I for one thank Martin for an excellent site that has saved me, my family and my friends money. Please keep up the good work and ignor the idiots.

gabyjane

Thought id'e add to this now i have seen it and will prob get shot down but hey!..

In responce to my sisters posts (freakyogre) she has a point and people have obviously been taking the mickey tbh, so therefore it is no suprise the 'Privilege' has been taken away. I have never understood the using of a coupon unrelated to what you are buying and have therefore never done it as seems very odd to me!
When i told dh he said 'well tescos made £x billion profit last year so i have no sympathy for them!'..still we will not use them but he has a point..BUT i am guilty of using the voucher codes (as i'm sure many of you are!) on this site and others and getting things cheaper/half price/free delivery etc when at times maybe i shouldn't..this is kind of the same thing but i am purchasing that item not something else unlike what is happening in Tesco's.

jenniewb

gabyjane wrote: »

Thought id'e add to this now i have seen it and will prob get shot down but hey!..

In responce to my sisters posts (freakyogre) she has a point and people have obviously been taking the mickey tbh, so therefore it is no suprise the 'Privilege' has been taken away. I have never understood the using of a coupon unrelated to what you are buying and have therefore never done it as seems very odd to me!
When i told dh he said 'well tescos made £x billion profit last year so i have no sympathy for them!'..still we will not use them but he has a point..BUT i am guilty of using the voucher codes (as i'm sure many of you are!) on this site and others and getting things cheaper/half price/free delivery etc when at times maybe i shouldn't..this is kind of the same thing but i am purchasing that item not something else unlike what is happening in Tesco's.

But the problem is, Tesco don't get the money back from their profits to pay for the coupons, they simply send the coupons back to the manufacturer who reimburses them for the coupons. Tesco don't lose any money, the manufacturers do. Tesco have apparently been told off/complained to by the manufacturers, and its taken until now for them to do something.

Maybe its not such a bad thing- the sheer volume of companies 'going under' whilst Tesco retain their nice little (or mega £1.4 million- down apparently a few percent on last year) profits whilst other companies have to make cut-backs and change the way they do things to re-coup the few who abuse the coupon systems. I would say its partly Tesco's fault, but come on, how many people abusing the coupon system are well over the age of 18, know right from wrong (wouldn't shop-lift or steal someone as they know its wrong for example) yet feel its OK to abuse the policy to such an extent that, as the poster above states, 'shoppers' are using coupons to get a 99% discount- now name me a coupon that gives you 99% off, no? then my conclusion is that is clearly coupon abuse!

dnomyar

abjem21 wrote: »

My wife works as a SA on the till at a tesco store, she and the majority of the people she works with have welcomed this change in policy.
In truth what brought it down was the astonishing greed of a very active minority. In her store there were about half a dozen people that she served, in most cases several times per week, (Including one member of staff) that totally abused this policy by taking anything up to £80+ of shopping at a time and paying no more than a pound or two towards it. These half a dozen "so called" customers would often go around twice (Or bring a friend) and use a second set of the identical same vouchers (Photocopiers and colour scanners are wonderfull arn't they?) and do it again on the same trip. (My wife works 4 x 4hr shifts per week) So if you say she works 1/10th of the hours her store is open (24hrs) you could multiply this band of people x 10 and you start to get an idea of the real extent of the proplem. The people that were doing this to this extent all had one big thing in common, abuse. If the SA didn't just quietly take the vouchers they would dish it out without hesitation or restraint.
If you read the threads on here these people would often give each other advice on which SA's to target (Young males) and which to avoid (Middle aged women) which they charmingly call "Trouts". To have your vouchers rejected was to be "Trouted". My wife and I find this use of language very telling, it clearly shows that the people doing this are aware of the total lack of morals of their actions but because they are getting "free stuff" they can turn their backs to the greater issue. The reason a middle aged woman was more likely to question the validity of the vouchers was simple, the middle aged woman is working a 16 hour week for approx £400 per month, but while doing so she is expected, by them, to be complict in helping them take often 4 times or more per week "tax free" from the organisation she is working for! You wouldn't be the only one asking yourself why does she bother? she did every day.

Please dont get me wrong, I do feel for anyone living on a restricted budget, but the people that ended this were the same ones that used to brag about what they got for free on here time after time after time.
To those of you that have said "I will no longer shop at tesco" news flash YOU NEVER DID. People who dont pay for their shopping are not called customers, they have a completely different name.
To you I say simply "Dont let the door hit your A*SE on the way out"

Lastly did you know that the SA's in tesco are monitored for how many customers are served and how many items scanned in a given time. To be given a fist full of vouchers as payment too many times (which take ages to process) means they will eventually have to have a "little chat" with a supervisor and are then viewed as being poor at their job. Fair?

Martin Lewis has taken a lot of flack for this on the chatrooms. If you want to see how utterly charmless these people are look on them and judge for yourself.
I for one thank Martin for an excellent site that has saved me, my family and my friends money. Please keep up the good work and ignor the idiots.

So because I used maybe 2 or 3 pounds worth of vouchers each week on a £30.00 shop of market value and low branded products and now have decided to shop at Lidl, Aldi or Netto because of living on a very tight budget, you say I was never a paying customer at Tesco...WRONG. I for one never abused the policy, never photocopied and only printed off the amount of vouchers I was allowed (like I presume the majority of people who did this). So just because I can no longer afford Tesco, you get abusive to me what does that make you?

Its no wonder the checkout assistants got abuse as most I came across didn't have a clue about tesco policy on vouchers and gave me as a PAYING customer who was always polite and never abusive lots of grief and abuse if tried to use any kind of vouchers and most of the time would have to speak to a supervisor or manager and point out the policy in the store handbook. This is always the case with the DTD policy on overcharging and the assistant on the customer service desk would treat you like dirt if you pointed it out to them on the board behind them and yes sorry but they all seemed to be middle aged sour faced woman. I agree that customers being abusive to any assistant isnt on and if they didnt work for greedy Tesco, maybe they would have a policy of kicking these idiots out and banning them! But no they didn't as any inclome is income!

With regard to The idiots and active minority who abused this system being responsible for its demise, I beg to differ. For one, Tesco made a lot of money from the vouchers they received and secondley, Martin Lewis went on TV and advertised the tesco voucher policy. The next day Tesco were inundated (as admitted by Tesco) with lots more than usual customers using vouchers and then Tesco decided to change the policy Coincidence...no as these "active minority" have been abusing the system for years, why didn't Tesco change the policy sooner if it was only down to the abusers?

And lastly, its no wonder the sourfaced "trouts" are monitored on the checkouts as they are always slow, always chatting and always aggresive if presented with any vouchers and never no one Tesco Policy from the next (I never used to use the word trout before but glad you pointed it out as is a very good description!).

I have no anamosity for Martin Lewis and agree with you on the much help this site has given and long may it go on.

abjem21

So because I used maybe 2 or 3 pounds worth of vouchers each week on a £30.00 shop of market value and low branded products and now have decided to shop at Lidl, Aldi or Netto because of living on a very tight budget, you say I was never a paying customer at Tesco...WRONG. I for one never abused the policy, never photocopied and only printed off the amount of vouchers I was allowed (like I presume the majority of people who did this). So just because I can no longer afford Tesco, you get abusive to me what does that make you

Oh Dear
If you read my post again you will see the people I am talking about are the "shopping almost totally for free bunch" not the ones who used a reasonable or modest percentage towards their shop. I thought I had made that crystal clear in my post, if I hadn't I wholeheartedly appologise.

But thank you for this comment
And lastly, its no wonder the sourfaced "trouts" are monitored on the checkouts as they are always slow, always chatting and always aggresive if presented with any vouchers and never no one Tesco Policy from the next

Maybe you could be accused of showing your true colours here, you certainly sound like one of the lets shop for "free" bunch. I cant believe anyone that was only using the tiny amount of vouchers you claim you were would bother changing where they shop when they cant use them. I CAN believe that someone who was abusing the system would quickly jump to defend their actions, And for your information ALL SA's scan rates are monitored young or old, male or female. The younger ones that got singled out by the couponers could also consequently get picked on by the management FACT.
Ultimately the coupon policy was applied at the discretion of each individual store manager, it could and would change if too many people abused it on a local scale, this is why the ones that took it to the limit often used several stores to shop in, if you dont believe me look at the earlier posts on the chat rooms where they are presenting themselves as heroes for what they have done. Then read the same posters screams of anguish when the policy changed.
God alone knows how much (of tescos suppliers money) they got away with. These are the people I am talking about, not the reasonable and responsible majority.

dnomyar

abjem21 wrote: »

So because I used maybe 2 or 3 pounds worth of vouchers each week on a £30.00 shop of market value and low branded products and now have decided to shop at Lidl, Aldi or Netto because of living on a very tight budget, you say I was never a paying customer at Tesco...WRONG. I for one never abused the policy, never photocopied and only printed off the amount of vouchers I was allowed (like I presume the majority of people who did this). So just because I can no longer afford Tesco, you get abusive to me what does that make you

Oh Dear
If you read my post again you will see the people I am talking about are the "shopping almost totally for free bunch" not the ones who used a reasonable or modest percentage towards their shop. I thought I had made that crystal clear in my post, if I hadn't I wholeheartedly appologise.

But thank you for this comment
And lastly, its no wonder the sourfaced "trouts" are monitored on the checkouts as they are always slow, always chatting and always aggresive if presented with any vouchers and never no one Tesco Policy from the next

Maybe you could be accused of showing your true colours here, you certainly sound like one of the lets shop for "free" bunch. I cant believe anyone that was only using the tiny amount of vouchers you claim you were would bother changing where they shop when they cant use them. I CAN believe that someone who was abusing the system would quickly jump to defend their actions, And for your information ALL SA's scan rates are monitored young or old, male or female. The younger ones that got singled out by the couponers could also consequently get picked on by the management FACT.
Ultimately the coupon policy was applied at the discretion of each individual store manager, it could and would change if too many people abused it on a local scale, this is why the ones that took it to the limit often used several stores to shop in, if you dont believe me look at the earlier posts on the chat rooms where they are presenting themselves as heroes for what they have done. Then read the same posters screams of anguish when the policy changed.
God alone knows how much (of tescos suppliers money) they got away with. These are the people I am talking about, not the reasonable and responsible majority.

Ok, fair point and apologise for the "trout" comment. With regard to the voucher policy, this was head office policy and was only down to store managers discretion on the level they allowed you to take in percentage of vouchers to shopping. This goes to show that if a store was allowing customers to use vouchers to the value of 95% or 100% of value of shopping when most other stores would only allow 10, 20 , 30 or 50 percent and that these stores accepted photocopies, then no one can really have a moan about people who abused the system. If Tescos wanted a system that couldn't be abused, then surely they could have informed all the voucher companies like couponnet and the likes to get together and come up with some kind of universal usb card that held coupons on that when swiped on a till would take the coupons off that it could, not only iliminating paper waste but duplicate vouchers also. The technology is available. But no Tesco wanted the abuse as as long as they were concerned it is garanteed income. The manufacturers had been lobying Tesco for years to change there polocy but they never did and only changed it when they had no other choice as an expert had gone on TV and blurted it out! I am not defending or condoning anyones actions.

KimYeovil

A "cue Nelson Muntz" on all your houses.