MSE News: Tesco outlaws 'wrong item' vouchers

zygurat789

Tesco have done this before, just wait a couple of years and you'll be able to use vouchers again.

thelurch

I shopped for "free" at Tesco for 2 1/2 years, rarely paying very much for my shopping.

I did however follow the rules that tesco set down themselves to the letter.

I went once a day, sometimes to more than one store in that day though.

I always treated their policy as a "priviledge" not a right.

I was always polite, even when the SA told me they had a limit on coupons of 5,10 coupons only or 10%,20% off the bill, even though I knew they were wrong/lying.

I too always avoided the trouts purely because I soon found that a lot of these "older" ladies regularly lied, visibly covered barcodes on coupons or not pressing the total button to try to not have to scan the coupons.

On these occasions a quick call to one of the supervisors always sorted it out in my favour.
So it just became simpler to avoid the older ladies for these reasons.

But my store was always really good at accepting coupons ( supervisors all knew the correct rules)

Im not going to shout at Mr Lewis for "exposing" the policy to the masses
Im not going to bycott tesco now either, I will go elsewhere too, to find the best prices now as before it didnt matter as I always knew I would have to go to tesco.

Im weirdly glad that its all over, it removes the hassle from food shopping now. I seemed to naturally run out of all the decent coupons anyway and couldnt really face a coupon run to the Good Food Show at the NEC to re-stock!
The change could not have come at a worse time though, just as my wife's job has finished but I was expecting this policy to last no more than 2 months let alone nearly 3 years!

Luckily, over this period we managed to exchange our legal coupons for just about 11k of food,alcohol,clothes,dvds,electrical etc which enabled us to save up nearly the same figure in the bank.

As with R+R, such a good policy was never going to last, I wont go there!!

We just have to wait for the next legal money spinner!

abjem21

thelurch
MoneySaving Stalwart


Join Date: Oct 2006
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Since June 2007 ( 18 months ) when I got into serious couponing, Ive saved £11,511.40.

I have an Excel document with the tally. Ive also only paid £851 for the same period in actual money.



Initially I was impressed with the frankness your post "the lurch" but maybe you have been a tad modest in your figures. The above is a copy of a post you made last year ! How much more is on your spreadsheet now?

23-12-2008, 5:07 PM #32 thelurch

MoneySaving Stalwart

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Yes MOCs only, from everywhere I can find them.

I avoid the ones like Betty Crocker and Haagen Daz.

My family collect them for me plus the guys at work, as soon as I told them I could get them very cheap beer!

I buy some off ebay, visit all the main shows, ideal home good food shows etc.

Its becoming harder to maintain that level as the lack of coupons available has dropped but 6 months ago I was doing about 10 shops a week, each one I would pay £20-30 a time in coupons.

You said this on another thread the very same day. FYI this is more than a lot of people EARN (At tesco and in the big wide world) in a week. If anybody bothers to look into your past posts they will find fascinating details of how you have helped to protect / prolong the coupon policy by reporting an ebay seller for selling dodgy Eukanuba vouchers. However the following reply to an ex-tesco employee is even more enlightening.



18-11-2008, 9:23 PM #924 thelurch
MoneySaving Stalwart


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D.edna,

Is your middle name Troll by any chance? What I cant understand is that you have left tesco and are still bothered this much by people using coupons in a company you dont even work for! Why so loyal?

My local store is very friendly, I coupon to the max there nearly every day and have done since June 2007 when the policy changed and make no apology for that. I play by the rules set down for me and accept it if a coupon is refused even if I know it should be allowed. I managed to educate the store till supervisors of the new policy and they thanked me for it, I still give them a smile when paying.



Wow that's nice of you. Thank you for perfectly illustrating my point.
At this time I remember what my father used to often say. People fit into one of two groups the needy and the greedy. On the grounds that you have saved the money you would have spent on shopping I would conclude you fall into the second group. I am sure it will come in handy while your wife finds alternative employment.

thelurch

I make no apologies for being modest, I actually felt it better to round figures down for you as I felt it wouldn't help to say that the figure is actually much higher.

I stand by my comments in my previous posts which you so helpfully researched, my store needed a little education when the policy came out but after that it was all good.

As for D.edna, a well known troll in these parts and had similarities to those like yourselves who got the hump with those that followed a policy that, lets face it, tesco thought up themselves ! It wasn't forced upon them!

I couldn't agree more with the greedy comment, that's why I almost feel liberated now the policy has changed,

and yes it will go a long way to help out our financial situatuation in the longterm now

sinw

Wise and "legitimate" shoppers followed and enjoyed Tesco's very own national coupon policy. Tesco loved the extra revenue, including handling charge. Unfortuantly they failed to train some their staff properly with regards to this policy, and in basic customer service skills. Also, like in rivers there are trout, pike, salmon etc...

As they say - "all good things come to an end"

stebiz

Well I've used coupons in Tesco since I joined here in 2006, and saved thousands of pounds. But the truth is I probably wouldn't have shopped there, if I didn't have the extra discount. I find them extremely expensive compared with certain other supermarkets. So now our affair is over. I can't see me shopping there, unless other places are closed, or they have offers that will benefit me.

I can't help but think that the constant publicising of the fact that Tesco accepted coupons without buying the product, and boasting by members (which I never did), helped bring this good thing to an end. I can't really moan though, as if it wasn't for this site in the first place I wouldn't have known!! Although I do blame the boasters out there (prior to the decision). I suppose we can all boast now as it won't make a difference!!

Stebiz

look_after_the_pennies

I agree, I wish it hadn't been constantly publicised either but oh well, it was good while it lasted. I think it is wrong to blame Martin though. Wasn't there a piece in the Daily Mail about Tescos and coupons earlier this year?

stebiz

look_after_the_pennies wrote: »

I agree, I wish it hadn't been constantly publicised either but oh well, it was good while it lasted. I think it is wrong to blame Martin though. Wasn't there a piece in the Daily Mail about Tescos and coupons earlier this year?

I agree in relation to not blaming Martin. He is on a mission to helping others save money, and publicise his own forum and his company. I have found out many different loopholes using this site, and find it fantastic.

However you cannot under estimate the 'media publicity' he creates on TV, Radio and this site and there have been many occasions I've found myself say 'well that's the end of that, everybody will be doing it now'.
But like I said before I often found out about these 'loopholes' through MSE anyway, so what is he meant to say 'oh Stebiz knows now, let's not publicise it any further'. Of course not. However frustrating I find it!!

Keep up the good work Martin.

Stebiz

ben500

Quentin wrote: »

Tesco didn't take coupons as cash out of some altruistic motive to help moneysavers pay less for their shopping.

It was a great profit maker for them. (They make a lot more by taking coupons as cash, customers buy more expensive products when they are paying with coupons, there is no staff "pilferage", the coupons are worth more than their face value due to the handling fee that is added, there are no bank charges for card transactions, cash counting etc).

Tesco get reimbursed for the coupons by the supplier. Buried in the conditions of being a supplier is a clause that Tesco won't "police" coupons at the tills to ensure the conditions are met unless the supplier issues "Tesco specific" coupons meaning customers must use the coupons only at Tesco. Should Tesco not get reimbursed for the coupons via normal channels, their suppliers contract allows them to deduct coupons taken from the suppliers payments.

Up till now, Tesco have had the upper hand over this as it's a buyers market, and suppliers cannot really afford to fall out with them, and at the end of the day the supplier has agreed to the clause in the contract.

But because of the nationwide publicity, things have changed, and suppliers' solicitors have been able to use this now open knowledge of what has been going on quietly for years to put pressure on Tesco regarding their contract and clear abuse they have been subjecting their suppliers to all this time.

The publicity has caused an upsurge of coupons being used and Tesco now have cold feet that they are no longer going to be able to treat suppliers in the previous cavalier fashion and just deduct the value of coupons handed in off their bills without normal proof the coupon has been used properly and the product bought.

Who do you think really paid for the abuse by Tesco of coupons?

What a perceptive post.

Tesco I'm sure are panicking at the thought of the lost turnover that will result due to this policy change that they have been [STRIKE]humiliated [/STRIKE]forced into implementing. The 2nd October was a momentus day for the manufacturers, and will result all sorts of problems for Tesco not least in dealing with adjusting previously artificial stock levels to accomodate the drop in sales, people far underestimate the abuse of coupons, more importantly they almost always misunderstand just exactly who the abuser was, for information it was Tesco not the consumer, it was Tesco that deliberately and wilfully deprived the manufacturs of income by knowingly redeeming coupns against products for which they had not acceped them in express contravention of the conditions under which they were issued.

If you want to have a rant then rant at Tesco not those that took advantage of its questionable practice.

To Tesco I say and so endeth the second lesson.

property.advert

One thing life has taught me, thought I sometimes feel difficult to follow it through, is that you cannot just stand back and collect your piece of silver each week by doing "the right thing" because someone else is going to come along, fill their pockets and screw it up for you. You are then left with neither the weekly piece of silver nor a pocket full of loot.

You have to jump in and fill your boots and then buy some more boots to fill and then, sitting atop your pile of silver, look down on those who are complaining about not filling their pockets because they were too shy or too slow or just didn't have enough balls to see it through and put another cherry in your mouth.

Why ? because the real choice is not to pick up a little each week as you go along the way or screw it up filling your boots. The real choice is either to fill your boots or not because someone is going to screw it up and that person might as well be you !