Tesco misprice policy discussion area part 8

ben500

Coupon-mad wrote:

Don't forget that in the original TV ads when Prunella Scales played the old grandma, she WAS shown 'actively seeking out misprices'. Wish I could see a copy of that ad, but I remember it quite well, I think she took bread & fruit & stuff to the scanner to see if they were wrongly priced. She was wandering around the store muttering 'oh no that one's right, and that one' (wouldn't happen in your average store now ).

It was the ad that trumpeted about the 'new' refund & replace' policy (as I think it was called then, but it only applied at the time to Tesco own-brands I think). Bet Mr T hopes customers don't recall it but some of us have long memories...

Supports the idea that it's not a criminal activity though, doesn't it!?

It was never restricted to own brands but yes your absolutely right she was a serial r&r'er but this was not the start of refund and replace it actually incepted around four years previous to the ad

bassman

The_Old_Bag wrote:

I thought the entire ethos of MSE as a whole was to SHARE information which can be financially beneficial.

I don't see that using Tescos R&R policy is morally any worse ( and certainly less illegal) than Tesco consistantly overcharging the majority of its customers, who have neither the time to check their receipts, nor the knowledge to get an R&R

Totally agree....I think some of the whingers who try to argue the purpose of this site and this thread should look at the logo to the left of this post which clearly defines the purpose of MSE

CONSUMER
REVENGE

ben500

The_Old_Bag wrote:

I have to put my hand up and admit that I must be lazy...... I do rely heavily on the info others post on the mis-price thread. Equally when I am overcharged for something I post the information for the benefit of others.....I thought that was the purpose of the entire thread, or am I wrong .

Unfortunately I do not have the time to scrutinise every sel and pos, compare bar-codes and read all the TINY print which gives the end of offer date. Neither do I have the time to memorise every £/kg etc. One of my recurring comments has been how time consuming Saving money is....and that is with the benefit of the whole of the MSE site.

I thought the entire ethos of MSE as a whole was to SHARE information which can be financially beneficial.

Surely in the weekly e-mails from Martin he gives us the nod about various loop-holes, such as buying saver stamps by a certain date and get a 10% bonus 2 days later.
Open an a/c with the A & L, recommend a friend/partner/relative/stranger and both earn £, then close the a/c a week later and open one somewhere else.
Surely any of these can be deemed to be "Not in the spirit of the offer". But hey, when you open a saving account because of the high interest advertised, and 30 days later the interest on THIS account falls thru the floor....is that is the true spirit of fair play. Of course not.
Big business is there to earn money for their owners/shareholders. Most I think will admit to doing whatever it takes ( within the law of course) to keep their shareholders happy. So they move their call centres to India, their factories to North Africa, invest in unethical businesses etc. If these businesses failed they and their workforce would be out of a job, and the media would have a field day pointing out how British industries cannot compete in the world of big business.
Well as a parent and worker and tax-payer, I will do whatever I need to do to give my kids the best I can possibly afford. To pay the least for my bills, to get the best interest on my savings, to buy the most and best with my money.
If doing the odd R&R gets my kids a new console game I couldn't otherwise justify buying, or helps make the Xmas shopping that bit easier on the purse.... I will try it.
I shop around for all the BOGOF offers - presumably a device used by stores to get you in their store to do your big weekly shops regularly....again I am going against the principal of why the stores offer bogof. I shop in Asda, Iceland Tesco, Waitrose, Morrisons, everywhere.
I buy newspapers purely for the offers and coupons....and use these coupons in shops when I don't buy the items specified - Not only is this not in the 'spirit' for which they are printed, but it goes against the coupons T&C - But Tescos happily accept them !!

I don't see that using Tescos R&R policy is morally any worse ( and certainly less illegal) than Tesco consistantly overcharging the majority of its customers, who have neither the time to check their receipts, nor the knowledge to get an R&R

I will repeat what I have said many times. I have shopped at Tesco for YEARS, and been overcharged on numerous occasions to my certain knowledge, but untill I read these threads on MSE I have NEVER received an R&R.....or is this because it is only for the benefit of the old grannies ?

I am a great believer in everybodies right to an opinion and to be able to air it. I do not believe that I am right, and anyone who thinks differently is wrong. I have not been involved at all in the Xbx/PSP etc episode.....probably because I haven't the guts to try it. I have not got a great selection of Tescos, and even though I do not believe I am doing anything 'wrong', I am aware that I could be banned if Tesco see fit , and I do not want to risk that.

I do not do R&R because I think I am on a moral crusade to 'punish' Tesco for overcharging little old grandads, or because they put small shop-keepers out of business. They have a policy which offers me an opportunity to benefit from their mistake....would they not take advantage if one of their rivals had a flaw in their armour ?

What a good post, your absolutely right if it wasn't for a select few of us who initially promoted the thread and provided the information and counsel to enable others to confidently seek out the misprices the vast majority of people availing themeselves of r&r would still be obliviously trekking in and out of Tesco with their overpriced goods on a daily basis, for those of you who wish to keep your finds to yourself that's fine, you can even come here and increase your benefit by taking information and advice without supplying in return, but ask yourself this, how long before others think like you and YOUR source of information dries up, how did you find out about r&r? How did you become sufficiently confident to actually carry it out? where did you get your skill at identifying misprices? Had those before you chose to act in a similar manner would you even be aware of the fact that r&r exists let alone benefitting from it? Do you honestly think that you are so successful that you can manage without the information and advice supplied by others on this thread to go it alone? because alone you will be if everyone adopted the same attitude, try to take a look beyond your own selfishness and to the bigger picture, by keeping your finds secret you merely enlargen the window of opportunity for Tesco to correct the error and reduce your opportunity of further r&r, to display a misprice in this forum enables the maximum amount of exposure and opportunity. A post in this forum alerts the whole country instantly to a misprice whether it be identified in Scotland, Wales or England if Tesco wished to they could rectify a misprice within two hours but they don't need to so they don't, they will make far more from overcharges than they will lose on refunds as only a minute number of their customers will notice the overcharge, a post in this forum alerts thousands instantly who will invariably attack their local store with gusto!

Personally I would rather see Tesco et al invest the necessary funding and deployment of labour to GET IT RIGHT!

I have exploited r&r since around a month after its introduction, far before I even became aware of this site if I and others like me had adopted the same attitude and kept our knowledge to ourselves you wouldn't even be having this conversation today.

Look back over the threads see where your first post lies, is it anywhere near the beginning? if not then ask yourself, what do I have to gain by not sharing with those who have previously and even currently share with me? Then ask yourself the question, what do I have to lose by undermining the source of my knowledge and good fortune?

bassman

ben500 wrote:

What a good post, your absolutely right if it wasn't for a select few of us who initially promoted the thread and provided the information and counsel to enable others to confidently seek out the misprices the vast majority of people availing themeselves of r&r would still be obliviously trekking in and out of Tesco with their overpriced goods on a daily basis, for those of you who wish to keep your finds to yourself that's fine, you can even come here and increase your benefit by taking information and advice without supplying in return, but ask yourself this, how long before others think like you and YOUR source of information dries up, how did you find out about r&r? How did you become sufficiently confident to actually carry it out? where did you get your skill at identifying misprices? Had those before you chose to act in a similar manner would you even be aware of the fact that r&r exists let alone benefitting from it? Do you honestly think that you are so successful that you can manage without the information and advice supplied by others on this thread to go it alone? because alone you will be if everyone adopted the same attitude, try to take a look beyond your own selfishness and to the bigger picture, by keeping your finds secret you merely enlargen the window of opportunity for Tesco to correct the error and reduce your opportunity of further r&r, to display a misprice in this forum enables the maximum amount of exposure and opportunity. A post in this forum alerts the whole country instantly to a misprice whether it be identified in Scotland, Wales or England if Tesco wished to they could rectify a misprice within two hours but they don't need to so they don't, they will make far more from overcharges than they will lose on refunds as only a minute number of their customers will notice the overcharge, a post in this forum alerts thousands instantly who will invariably attack their local store with gusto!

Personally I would rather see Tesco et al invest the necessary funding and deployment of labour to GET IT RIGHT!

I have exploited r&r since around a month after its introduction, far before I even became aware of this site if I and others like me had adopted the same attitude and kept our knowledge to ourselves you wouldn't even be having this conversation today.

Not sure about the part about Tescos getting it right..........that would take all the fun out of shopping...... Theres been some excellent posts tonight....

mcdonag

This is how supermarkets manipulate you into buying more than you need.

1. Giving you a basket Supermarket research discovered 75 per cent of those who carry a shopping basket with them while they shop actually buy something, compared to only 34 per cent of those who don’t. So when a supermarket has a member of staff handing everyone a basket on their way in, this is not for your benefit, but theirs.

2. ‘Ripe and Ready’ fruit Because supermarkets want their fruit to last as long as possible on the shelf they make the suppliers pick it early, even though this means it won’t taste as good because the sugars won’t have properly developed. Having got us used to the idea that fruit is always hard when you buy it, they now charge us extra for the privilege of ripe fruit.

3. Irrational Pricing. Irrational pricing is putting the price of items at say £4.99 instead of £5. The reason is based on memory processing time. Rounding upward involves an additional decision compared with storing the first digits. Furthermore, due to the vast quantity of information available for consumers to process, the information on price must be stored in a very short interval. The cheapest way to do so, in memory and attention terms, is by storing the first digits. Customers think they are getting a better deal than they in fact are.

4. Buy one Get one free ('BOGOF') Has been shown to increase purchases by up to 150 per cent. Unlike 50 per cent off, which actually does save money, 'BOGOF’ deals accustom us to consuming more of a product than we normally would, so that when the offer ends we are more likely to carry on buying more. And besides encouraging us to buy more than we really need – these offers hide a hidden cost to the producer of the product, as it is they, and not the supermarket, that is paying for this promotion. Supermarkets use it as a way of shifting stock that's not selling.

5. Children When Sainsbury launched cooking classes for children (for which parents pay £5) during the 2003 school holidays in selected stores, it pegged them to its Blue Parrot Café children’s brand which features self-styled healthier versions of children’s junk food such as chicken nuggets and pizza. Participating children went away with a Blue Parrot ‘goodie bag’ and a Blue Parrot apron, reminders that if they didn’t feel like cooking, they could always get their mother to pick up something ready-made at Sainsbury’s.

6. ‘Eye level is buy level’ Products positioned at eye height sell twice as well, so the more expensive products will often be put there. Look lower down the shelves and you may see cheaper alternatives. Likewise look where the unhealthy children’s products are positioned – at children’s eye level – it’s them they are selling to, not you. Adults are far more likely to buy something unhealthy their children pester them for, than something they see themselves.

7. Hard to compare weights. Similar products will be sold in differing weights making it hard to compare prices. 28p a pound for loose carrots may not seem much. How about £1.39 for 300g of crisp baby carrots in a sealed pack? As the weight of one is given in grams and the other in pounds, it is not easy to compare prices. (The 'crisp baby carrots actually cost £2.09 a lb, over 10 times as much as the loose carrots. Do they really taste 10 times better?)

8. Celebrity endorsement If a chef as fashionable as Jamie Oliver is approving your food, or an actress as beloved as Prunella Scales your prices, it lends credibility to a supermarket’s claims. Since starting work for Sainsbury, Oliver is reckoned to have boosted the stores profits by over £1.2 billion. Prunella Scale’s TV ads, meanwhile, have added over £2.2 billion to Tesco’s worth.

9. Known-value items Known Value Items such as bread, butter, milk and sugar bring customers into supermarkets and are invariably sold below cost to try to beat the competition (Tesco usually have 160 items for sale below cost). Also known as loss leaders, they sound like a good deal for customers (who know roughly what they cost and so notice any discounts). Don't be fooled. Supermarkets make up for this by raising prices on other items that we can’t remember the cost of.

10. New box, old product Tired of Chicken tikka massala? Why not try new regional speciality Keralan Massala chicken? The difference is all in the packaging.

11. Free samples You may not buy the product after tasting the sample offered to you, but your stomach will start releasing gastric juices, making you feel more hungry. And if you feel more hungry, you are more likely to buy more food, especially over-priced food you can eat as soon as you leave the store.

12. Reading habits People who read from left to right also scan shelves from left to right. Therefore the most expensive varieties of a given product will be found on the left, the cheaper on the right.

13. Music Over a two week period, French and German music was played on alternate days from an in-store display of French and German wines. French music led to French wines outselling German ones, whereas German music led to the opposite effect on sales. It’s not only music type that affects buying – the tempo matters too. We walk at approximately 90 paces per minute. Music slower than 90 beats per minute slows us down subconsciously, making us spend more time in the aisles.

14. Fake bargains Supermarkets promote a product at a price, alongside a higher price that you assume it’s been reduced from. They never actually sell it at the higher price – but because it appears to be a bargain, we buy it.

15. Value added products An apple costs 9p. But slice the apple, put it in a bag and sell it as ‘Apple bites’ and it costs 49p for less than half an apple. Who has so little time that they can’t slice and apple?

16. Walking distances In order to maximise shopper and product contact time, shops place the most popular items and brands in the middle of aisles, ensuring that from any direction the customer has to walk the furthest to reach them. Likewise, essentials, such as bread and milk are often found at the back of the shop. People have to walk past the rest of the produce to get to them, increasing the chance of impulse buys.

17. Savings schemes Since 1991 Tesco has run the Computers for Schools scheme, whereby tokens on certain products can be exchanged for computer equipment for local schools. However, as Ben Laurence wrote in the Observer: ‘Whilst the cost to Tesco is modest: customers have to spend £110,000 on groceries for a school to get a basic PC.’

18. Freshly baked bread (the smell of) Supermarkets don’t really bake their bread in store, they just finish it off. All the kneading and proving is done somewhere else. The supermarkets only defrost the dough and heat it up – at the point when the warm, comforting bread smells start.

19. Loyalty cards Or as the supermarkets want us to call them ‘Reward cards’. We do our shopping and they give us discounts off future purchases. What could be more generous than that? If it is such a giveaway why has Tesco managed to run its card scheme for the last eight years at no net cost to the supermarket – because we spend more money once we are loyalty card holders. First, 42 per cent of us spend more once we own the cards, perhaps under the mistaken logic that the more we buy, the more discounts we will get, and therefore the less we will spend. Second the purpose of the discount vouchers we are awarded is not to save us money, but to get us buying products we don’t normally buy. It’s like a drug dealer giving us a free hit to get us hooked.

20. Zone specific television Tesco’s new ‘Tesco TV’ plays different adverts at you depending on what zone of the store you are in. As 75 per cent of shopping decisions are made in the 10 feet before the product, this is marketing at its most powerful.

21. Pester power When you get to the till at Tesco (and other supermarkets, although M&S seem to be the worst) the shelves around the till are filled with sweets. Apart from tempting adults, they prove irresistible to children. As the parent is trying to sort out paying and packing, the child pesters them for sweets. Tired at the end of a stressful journey around the supermarkets, parents often succumb.

Constantine

Nice post mcdonag. Take issue with a couple (I wont quote or all our wheels will wear out from scrolling )

13. Music - rarely used in UK supermarkets these days?

18. Freshly baked bread - that is not true for the majority of Tesco stores. Smaller stores may have a bake-off, but any average sized or above and certainly every Extra will produce their own bread from scratch.

21. Sweets at the till - a big no-no in Tesco and has not been policy for quite some time. I'd be surprised if there were stores that still had them (in the style that there were when I was a lad )

bagand96

el6724 wrote:

Tesco did not implement this policy out of Kindness – or to be ‘nicer’ than the other supermarkets! Neither will they withdraw it anytime soon.

It was implemented as a deal with Trading Standards as they were constantly being flooded with complaints about Tesco over charging – Tesco insisted that they had got their act together and that only the odd human error would occur in future and that they were so confident they would offer this policy and advertise it nationally in return for Trading Standards no following up on several cases that were due to go to court!

That is why they have this policy!

That is quite a revelation you have there. I (and I assume many others) would be interested to hear how you know that and what proof you have.

The official line was that it was introduced when the new systems were launched integrating SEL's and barcodes etc, to assure customers that prices would remain accurate.

el6724 wrote:

Now they may have got stung recently with theses games consoles but on the whole they seem to have decided it’s better to pay out on r&r’s than to:

a)Employ enough staff to get their pricing right or,
b)Be taken to court

I would not disagree with that. But I would disagree with the accusation/assumption that it is a deal with Trading Standards.

el6724 wrote:

Waitrose, Morrisons ect do not have this policy because they do not have to – there over charges are much rarer and they have not had to make a deal with TS

Asda will give a £2 goodwill card to anyone over charged – but there is no thread about Asda miss prices as they are rare.

Sainsbury's did have the policy at one time I believe but dropped it. As for other supermarkets pricing being more accurate I'd be interested to know what that claim is based on also. Certainly we don't hear about them on MSE. But that's because its not lucrative, theres nothing to gain from reporting misprices in Morissons/Sainsbury's etc... And £2 from Asda is hardly life changing...

ben500

Constantine wrote:

Nice post mcdonag. Take issue with a couple (I wont quote or all our wheels will wear out from scrolling )

13. Music - rarely used in UK supermarkets these days?

18. Freshly baked bread - that is not true for the majority of Tesco stores. Smaller stores may have a bake-off, but any average sized or above and certainly every Extra will produce their own bread from scratch.

21. Sweets at the till - a big no-no in Tesco and has not been policy for quite some time. I'd be surprised if there were stores that still had them (in the style that there were when I was a lad )

I'd agree with you on point 21 only as to their credit Tesco is the only store to remove sweets from its checkout areas, if you still want to see examples of this visit your local Asda they actually pack out their checkout area with sweets and other impulse buys.
As for point 18 freshly baked bread what you actually fail to mention is that Tesco still actively "Scent" their stores, (or until recently did) with various cooking and food odours to encourage impulse buys.

Point 13 yes the use of ambient music has decreased though not as you would say desisted but this is only because of the advent of "shelf talkers" which are far more effective and descriptive enabling the store to induce impulse buying again, I appreciate that as a marketer you should deploy all tactics reasonable to enhance the prospect of a sale but there should be limits, Tesco along with ALL major retailers display a distinct lack of respect and inordinate amount of contempt for it's clientelle and staff far too often.

Danlaur

**** wrote:

[Obviosuly I will make the choice of what is a good idea and what isn't...not you! I have decided it IS a good idea to get noticed. I couldn't care less if they know my name or whatever, I think they will learn that they cannot fob me off. Other people may be happy to be washed over with rudeness, have their rights taken away and suffer illegal acts...but I will always complain.

In my view, I hope that store gets a huge fine and thinks "it would have been better just to give the £4.16 in the first place!" Hopefully they will learn a lesson to uphold their own policy.

If they do pull the whole policy just becasue of my complaint (yeah right! maybe its you who should be taking the chill pill!) then so be it! I'd rather stand up for what I beleive in than let them win!...it was good while it lasted.

It is exactly this kind of pedantic opinion that WILL get Ts R & R removed......

I agree with some of the earlier postings on this board, which are suggesting some of us are acting against the nature of the original R+R offer from Tesco, ..... threatening legal action - regardless of how right, or how wrong you are.... "actively" seeking to outdo T by deliberately going out with the sole inention of catching them out....to get something for nothing !!!....

How BL@@DY childish !!!

Can't you see that a few of us are ruining the offer for everyone...... you cannot see the wood for the trees !!

WE ALL like a bargain.... and when they get it wrong... yes, its good to see we get well compensated..... but is it so really necessary to the "n'th Degree" ???

Enjoy Life..... Chill !!

bleugh

el6724 wrote:

Asda will give a £2 goodwill card to anyone over charged – but there is no thread about Asda miss prices as they are rare.

actually, you'll find that ASDA mis-charge quite a lot!,
it's only because they don't advertise the policy of giving a £2 gift very much that you don't hear about it and get prats shouting TRADING STANDARDS from the aisles.

and, as for facts, two members of my family have worked in Asda over the years, one still does

again, the ONLY reason there are no discussions about the other supermarkets is that PEOPLE DONT GET FREE STUFF