Sainsbury Valentine meal deal problem

pullenuk

Did you allow alternatives? If you didn't, then the shopper cannot do ANYTHING if you banned them from giving you alternatives. So therefore one item is out of stock and you haven't brought enough for the deal. Allow alternatives, you can always return it if you didn't want it and you would KEEP the deal!

If you did allow alternatives, and they didn't give you something else, then obviously they are at fault.
Your order can be shopped by different shoppers, since the valentines deal can be in different sections different shoppers would go and get parts of it. So therefore the shopper will not always pick up on the fact you will be missing part of the deal.

However, the call centre is aware of silly things like this. If you call them or email them and explain that you tried to get the deal, you will get a refund on the "over charged" amount that you tried to save money on and maybe if you are lucky a voucher as a sorry.

Hope that helps

LittleVoice

pullenuk wrote: »

Did you allow alternatives?

In post #7 the OP confirms that they had not selected "No Substitutes".

donquine

Bazzaboy17 wrote: »

Just by chance I happened to be chatting to someone at work about my bad experience. She said that the same thing had happened to her with Tesco's. However when she contacted them they authorised a refund.

Same thing happened to me a while ago. OH signed for the delivery (I was out) and didn't realise we'd lost out on the meal deal. An item was substituted and the total price of the meal deal more than doubled. I complained and Tesco refunded the excess straight away.

They do get it right sometimes. :beer:

Bazzaboy17

Thank you pullenuk for taking time to post a reply I did not say no substitute and would have accepted any side dish to qualify for the offer. As regards EMails with Sainsburys I have exchanged about ten EMails with sainsburys customer services and they all pretty much say the same thing but in different ways. So that you can get a general idea of their perspective on this I have reproduced their last reply below.


Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry that you remain unhappy with our policies.

The price given at the time of ordering is an estimated price only and is subject to change. When a customer's order is delivered the customer has the right to refuse the delivery altogether or return individual items with the driver.

In addition to this, once the driver has left, the customer still has the right to return any unwanted items to any local Sainsbury's store along with the relevant receipt and they will still receive a refund. We even allow customers to return items from the previous delivery when our delivery driver makes his next visit. We would not force customers to pay for goods that they didn't want.

We’re grateful for you taking the time to contact us.

Kind regards

David Symington
Customer Manager
Sainsbury's Online


There seems to be a vast gap in the polices and customer service between Sainsburys and Tesco's

Snugglebunny8

It looks to me like the customer manager hasnt quite grasped the issue? it isnt that you didnt want the goods, its that you were charged individually for each item in the deal that was left, because they were out of stock of one item, which looks like a clear errors to me,it looks like he hasnt understood this is the issue?

Bazzaboy17

Well my final action was is to send a letter to the chief exec but doubt anything will change. Decided that our best course of action is simply not to shop there again. My wife says she calculates we spend about £8000 a year. Not a lot I know when you consider Sainsbuys multi millions profit. I hope no one else is treated this way, it has been a learning process for me.

Middy

Bazzaboy17 wrote: »

Well my final action was is to send a letter to the chief exec but doubt anything will change. Decided that our best course of action is simply not to shop there again. My wife says she calculates we spend about £8000 a year. Not a lot I know when you consider Sainsbuys multi millions profit. I hope no one else is treated this way, it has been a learning process for me.

Did you mention in the letter about issues my store had regarding the desserts and how we overcame that. I reckon based on the problems at my store and the store where your online shopping was done, there were issues store wide. Some stores may had issues with other courses.

All we were given was a piece of paper written by a supervisor with barcode numbers for those desserts that were part of the meal deal. I'm not too sure if they got these from notice from HQ or found the numbers on a system.

If it was the former, the customer manager should be aware of that and refund the difference.

notisis

Ditto Tescos. Substituted the main meal which unfortunately was not part of the offer but I emailed and they refunded the difference so I got the deal. Sainsburys could learn!

Fitzio

I think you are being treated terribly and you should definitely push it as far as you can. It really is a point of principle now.

I have been really disappointed with the customer service I have received from Sainsburys. I did an online shop for the first time with Tesco 2 weekends ago, and it was excellent. Everything had plenty of life left in it and the quality of the meat/fruit etc is what I would have chosen myself instore. Inspired by this, I did one with Sainsburys last weekend, and had the opposite experience. Hot Cross Buns best before the date of delivery. 4 litres of milk best before the day after delivery. And various other items with very short sell by dates and several substitutes.
Sainsburys have agreed to refund the items I listed, but they are the only company I have come across who don't do refund and replace. I returned tomatoes purchased instore once when they went mouldy the following day, and they just gave me my money back. I expected them to replace the tomatoes as well like Tesco, Morrisons, Asda etc would. It was quite a drive to return them as I don't have a store locally, but it wasn't the first time I had purchased poor quality fruit/veg from them, so I had just had enough!

Sorry to derail your thread - good luck with writing to the Chief Exec. Their policy is shocking. At the very least, it should have been highlighted to you at point of delivery to give you the option.

smj43

Sainsbury's will be happy to give you a refund if you explain the situation. The person selecting your goods at the store may not have been able to find a suitable alternative and obviously didn't realise you were going for the meal deal (so not realising you would end up paying £13 more). This is essentially the colleagues fault for not realising this and contacting you but also any goods that were unavailable on your order would have been clearly stated at the top of the order summary. Check this next time and you will be able to send back items with the driver without having to go through everything you have bought.