Somerfield - if you wanna make an omelette ... low stakes gambling

joenoflow

Encouraged by reading Martin's book, I thought I would try and get myself a bargain this morning.
I was doing my weekly shop in Somerfield and went to get some eggs. Now, a 12 box of eggs is £1.80 whereas 6 are £1.03. Yet again this week they didn't have a 12 box and having initially felt irritated but thought I'd put up with it. Then I thought, NO, enough is enough. I'm going to see if I can get myself a reasonable 26p off from my purchase.

At the till I politely asked the girl and she looked a bit stumped and called the duty person. She went off and checked the price or something and came back and I could see them looking at each other - it was plain that the answer was no but they didn't want to tell me. the duty person called the assistant and he said they couldn't put it through as a 12 box. I asked why I should pay more just because they hadn't got the right box in stock, he went and got someone else. The fourth person just straight out told me it wasn't possible as it would mess up their stock. I have to say with regret, readers, I crumbled at this point. I couldn't bring myself to keep going for the sake of 26p. However, I did think it said something about their customer service philosophy. The fact that it would cause them inconvenience to give me a reasonable price didn't seem like a good reason not to give me a discount.
I should have stuck with it, I know. Funny thing was I quite enjoyed it. I'm not a very confrontational person and because I wasn't overly worried about the outcome I found I could maintain humour and a polite exterior. I think I will probably try it again in another situation.

So the point of that story was, I was wondering if anyone else had successfully argued over piddling amounts of cash? My inanate Britishness was trying to make me stop, but I didn't really feel any shame whilst I was doing it, in fact it almost seem to turn around and make them look tight. I could see they could all see my point, but they weren't trained with how to deal with it.

Can anyone give me some tipss for next time?

Cheers,

LilacLillie

You can ask for a 'Raincheck' voucher for your next visit.
LL

p1an0player

Joenoflow, it's logical but with Somerfield you were wasting your time. It could only really work in a local independent retailer or with a farmer.

If you're into moneysaving and mild confrontation at supermarkets, there's much more potential if you focus on Tesco R&Rs which are discussed in some considerable depth elsewhere on this forum!

jejawill

LilacLillie wrote:

You can ask for a 'Raincheck' voucher for your next visit.
LL

Do somerfields still do raincheck vouchers?

V_Chic_Chick

Yep, I've argued over pennies before

quoia

joenoflow wrote:

.................went to get some eggs. Now, a 12 box of eggs is £1.80 whereas 6 are £1.03. .....................

Can anyone give me some tips for next time?

Cheers,

Firstly don't buy eggs in Somerfield unless it's the ONLY place that you can get them

ASDA sell a box of 15 LARGE for just £1 (Smartprice)
ALDI do a box of 10 LARGE ones for 79p (was 69p for a 2 to 3 months very recently)

Smashing

quoia wrote:

ASDA sell a box of 15 LARGE for just £1 (Smartprice)

Personally, I'd rather pay a bit more for free-range.

youngie

try your local butchers they often have eggs at very reasonable prices

Lady_E

Similar situation , slightly more money. I was in Boots on Saurday, doing my triple point shopping on 342s etc ,and managed to spend £10.24. They had an offer whereby you spend a tenner and get a £5 no7 voucher. Well they had run out!!! I was not too bothered however I asked for a raincheck and they said "no can do, however here is 500 points on your card". Now 500 points is worth £5 on my points total , "oh thanks " says I , embarrassed and delighted at the same time . DH says he would have been mortified had he been there with me , but I feel quite chuffed by it all .

Elljay_2

Lady_E wrote:

Similar situation , slightly more money. I was in Boots on Saurday, doing my triple point shopping on 342s etc ,and managed to spend £10.24. They had an offer whereby you spend a tenner and get a £5 no7 voucher. Well they had run out!!! I was not too bothered however I asked for a raincheck and they said "no can do, however here is 500 points on your card". Now 500 points is worth £5 on my points total , "oh thanks " says I , embarrassed and delighted at the same time . DH says he would have been mortified had he been there with me , but I feel quite chuffed by it all .

Good for you!!! If you don't ask you don't get!! I hate it when stores do a big promotion and you can't take advantage of it and then they don't offer "rain check" vouchers! Grrrr

mhoc

I have had several run in battles with Sainsburys regarding pizza. When the BOGOF offer is on it is two pizzas for £2.99 and they always run out of Pepperoni. They also have large ones but they worth out at over £7. So I ask someone if they have any small ones left, very long wait and then they come back and say no. So I ask to see the manager of the cold food section. Eventually he shows up and I explain that I dont want to pay over twice as much for two large pizzas especailly as they are too big and some will be wasted and everythime i am in the small ones have run out. They either mark down the large ones to the price of the small ones or give me a voucher to take to the till for a reduction. Anyway I end up with large pizzas at the price of the small ones. It is very time consuming but I have done it on several occassions so it does work in Sainsburys. Appeal to the managers sense of fair play, say you dont want to pay almost twice as much and what can Sainsburys do about it

Mary