Boots 3 for 2

DIVEANGEL

I shop at Boots a lot and have never had any problems with them, but something happened in the Peterborough store today that I questioned, so please bear with me as I try to explain...

I had 3 toys (all £10 each) and 3 other smaller gifts (all £5 each) in my basket. The toys were three for two but as the gifts were my mother's I didn't know that which is why I questioned it. The cashier picked out two toys, passed over the third toy to pick up a smaller gift. It then flashed up 3 for 2 offer on the till (3 for 2 for £20) leaving the other 3 for items costing £15.

As I was expecting to save on the third toy, I questioned this and asked her if she could cancel the transaction and I could do two separate ones as the other bits weren't for me. She tutted, cancelled it and started again, but a colleague chipped in and said whichever of the cheapest of the three items scanned in order is the free one, so they could in fact put through the three small gifts, (3 for 2 for £10 total), then scan the larger toys (3 for 2 for £20 total)

In my case it was only a £5 difference, but it could have been a lot more

Littlemiss27

I think that the assistant may have been confused. I'm sure that in the latest boots xmas catalogue it explains that if you buy gifts on the 3 for 2 offer then it doesnt matter what order the items are scanned in, the till auto calculates which two items will be free (I presume this is done just before payment like Tesco do with there offers) so the customer saves as much money as possible.

Eg/

You buy 6 items ranging in price from £50 to £100, then no matter what order they are scanned, they will work out the 3 for 2 as follows (bold prices the ones you would get free).

£100, £90, £80, £70, £60, £50

Hope that makes sense!

Tinyshoes

Have never worried about splitting my 3 for 2 offers in Boots, the till has given me the best possible free items, like OP example.

DIVEANGEL

I've just found this on the Boots website...

For every 3 gifts you buy, you'll get the cheapest absolutely free

We put all your gifts in descending price order, and you get every 3rd gift free - not just the cheapest ones overall."

Charming_Monkey

I found this out by pure chance a few years ago Boots are rubbish at explaining this to customers. I was trying to insist to the SA i wanted to ring 2 seperate baskets through to get the best deal for me and not Boots when the SA told me that it works in decending order and not the 2 cheapest free. She promised to cancel the sale and start again if she was wrong but low and behold she was right!

maria777_2

I too found this when I bought a lot of more expensive things and small £5 gifts and asked them to ring them up separate - they told me it would always work in the customers favour and it did! I was really impressed about this!

sarahg1969

OP, if the SA had just carried on and put everything through, their tills would have worked it out in the right order. It doesn't matter what order they are scanned in.You would not have lost out on £5.

The till would have known, even if the SA didn't. No problem at all.