Tesco £9 finest meal deal for £6.50 if you buy 6!!!!

Shoppaholic12345

iblametheparents wrote: »

I left a note on all 24 items for them to be substituted for something else in the offer if they were out of stock and the 5 subs I had were substituted for items not in the offer.

Strange. My understanding of substitutions is that if they don't have the substitute you specified, then they shouldn't be substituting at all.

Maybe your store works differently to mine. I like you put a note next to each item I order, as I don't want them choosing my substitutes.

peterbaker

I have bought Tesco Finest £9 Meal Deal on and off since it was first launched, which I see from a search of MSE has been running on and off for over 18 months now. The wine has always been just okay but I would say there are almost always nicer wines at £5 a bottle to be found elsewhere in the store. I decided a long time ago that the £9 meal deal per se was barely worth it unless I particularly wanted a meal combination on offer. Clearly coupled with the 25% wine offer, the scales are nicely tipped, but there is a lot of scope for error unless you are a Meal Deal Expert.

Remember this whole game is about price-pointing i.e. a marketing ploy to make you think you are "saving" money on the correct price for high quality food and wine.

There are clearly three potential pitfalls that immediately spring to mind from within my last sentence. First, the money you "save" was yours in the first place before you got 'sold' into the deal. Second the correct price for individual items will often bear very little comparison with other items in the store and that in my opinion, applies especially to the wine. Finally, that 'high quality' "Finest" label ... sometimes rather debateable ... e.g. the Steak au Poivre , and the Spinach dish in particular are heavily sauce based ... not disagreeable to eat, but ...

I also think that some local Tesco management might get some unearned kick out of turning the tables on customers who don't quite get what they were hoping for after exploiting a known "glitch" like the 2 mains instead of 2 sides. After all, that "glitch" has been there since the start of the £9 meal deal and they haven't fixed it in 18 months now have they? I first noticed it completely by chance after I had been confused by some handwritten labelling of which shelf was mains and which was sides. In the early days perhaps, sometimes there was less distinction between some of the sides and some of the mains. But I don't see now how Tesco could possibly argue that it is somehow fraudulent to exploit their accepted glitch since everyone knows it has been that way for so long and they've been told about it at umpteen levels. I'd say it is reasonable to assume that how it is, is exactly how Tesco want it.

Lastly, even when doing your own picking instore, do watch out for subsituted desserts with similar packaging but which are actually the wrong item for the deal. You have to read the labelling extremely carefully in some stores to be sure you have picked correctly. Too many times I have seen that, and it was deliberate too, not just a stray pack left on the wrong shelf by a previous customer.

Oh and one more 'trick' that some Tesco stores have used is that when they remove the £9 Finest Meal Deal offer for some period, they keep that section of the chill cabinet looking very similar to the the Meal Deal offer and you could end up spending far more on 3 food items and a bottle of wine than you ever did on a Meal Deal!

PS Why do they always chill the red wine in the £9 Finest Meal Deal cabinets??? That perhaps is the biggest clue of Tesco's own view of the quality of it!

saadimonkey

Went to Tesco (Watford) and they are not putting out many main meals. I asked an assistant and they said they knew about the glitch and customers were trying to con tesco!

Good luck to all

sKiTz-0

Oh no, I was going to go and stock my freezer up tomorrow too I've been eating frozen meals all day to make room!

bagabargin

nellienoo wrote: »

Hi ! The wine was deffo in offer as it was all together in one section with the food- I double checked I got the right food and wine (so I thought!). When it went through- by rights I should have been charged £9 per meal- so for 2 meals it should have been £18. I was aware that to get money off the wine you need to buy 6 bottles. TBH, I just wanted to see if I could get the extra main instead of the side dish.However, I was charged £29 I think instead of £18!!In order not to be out of pocket I had to exchange the 2 extra main dishes (which were all the same -kievs)for side dishes at C.S. and she gave me £11 change.I assumed it was an overcharge due to me having 4 mains instead of 2 mains and 2 sides ( meaning the glitch didn't work for me). Have no idea why it didn't work as I know a few people who tried putting the odd meal through just to check it worked-but am very pleased for those who have managed to get the bargain-well done and thanks op!
Anyway, am very pleased for everyone it HAS worked for!:)

When i went in there was a shelf label for one of the wines that said 8.99 but dont know which one, i just picked a selection, on my receipt it said 8.00and 9.99 so prehaps the 8.99 was no longer in the deal and had just left the label on the shelf or they had run out!

bladerunner73

saadimonkey wrote: »

Went to Tesco (Watford) and they are not putting out many main meals. I asked an assistant and they said they knew about the glitch and customers were trying to con tesco!

Good luck to all

I went into Watford this morning and restocked my freezer, there are lots of the meal deal mains in the normal fridges and their is plenty of the more expensive wine in the wine aisle, not too sure about desserts as I didn't go hunting for them.

nellienoo

"When i went in there was a shelf label for one of the wines that said 8.99 but dont know which one, i just picked a selection, on my receipt it said 8.00and 9.99 so prehaps the 8.99 was no longer in the deal and had just left the label on the shelf or they had run out! " (bagabargin)

I thought at first it may have been the wine that caused the overcharge for me-however, if that was the case I would have thought that the over charge would tally with the price of the wine(which it didn't seem to). I do think in my case, it seems the 2 extra mains tallies with the amount that I was overcharged (ie. in that store the till recognised that I had not got 2 side orders but another 2 mains). I could be totally wrong ! But it would seem that way to me. I will wait for another bargain from Mr T !:D

MrsE_2

peterbaker wrote: »

After all, that "glitch" has been there since the start of the £9 meal deal and they haven't fixed it in 18 months now have they?

Its always been like that 2 mains instead of a main & side & they've never bothered to correct it???

scurr

Thanks again OP - just had mine delivered :j
Unfortunately they'd substituted 3 bottles of wine for bottles not in the deal - which meant total came to £79.97 instead of £53.38... but I phoned Customer Services while the delivery guy was unpacking and no probs with refunding the extra £26.59!!!! I was worried this would highlight the glitch but it wasn't an issue :beer:

sKiTz-0

So has anybody else tried this today? I can cancel my trip to Mr T tomorrow if it is confirmed as not working