Anyone heard of "The Shopping Club"?

ch0ccy

Was just browsing groupon and came across the following offer - one year memebership to The Shopping Club for £10 instead of £19.95 http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/milton_keynes

They have a website http://www.theshoppingclub.co.uk/ but I've never heard of them, and a google search didn't provide much information either. It's unclear from their website how exactly the membership card works or where you can use it. Has anyone heard of this company?

PaddyPaws

I was just going to ask the same question (found this thread searching on google)

I've had a look at the website, looks quite good, and £10 instead of £29.95 isn't too shabby either. I took a look at the petrol savings (on the FAQ) and it's at Morrisons, Asda or Sainsburys and it has to be a manned petrol station/kiosk, so I guess in MK that will be Morrisons (is there petrol station manned or pay at pump?)

Thinking it might be worth a try - I'm going to post on the old style board in case any of those good folks have heard of it

PP

ch0ccy

The deal is listed under Milton Keynes but it seems the card could be used in other areas too? It just seems very vague to me... and the testimonials don't exactly look convincing either.

If the card is valid for all the listed shops every time you shop then it's a very good deal imo.

stokepa31

The deal seems to be national as i got it in Coventry too.

I have looked through the small print. lets say you want to save on fuel from sainsburys. you can save lets say 4%.

in order to do this you need to order a card and load it with credit. you put £100 on your card and pay by debit card. you will be charged £1.99 for the debit card transaction and then £1.99 p&p to get the card to you.

that effectively wipes out your discount. ill be steering clear

Cheers
Paul

ezmparsons

This is not what it appears- as with most things that are too good to be true.

I've cut and pasted their list of charges below and they rip you off. it doesn't cost £1.99 in p&p to send a card. Unless you get multiple cards in one hit to sae on the p&p, but yo They stipulate that the card is free, second class post is 32p an envelope is 10p at most ink to print onto the paper 2p- by my calculation p&p should be no more than 50p and that's with VAT.

They charge 1.99 for a direct debit to load a single card, stating that is what finacial institutes charge them- TOTAL RUBBISH. A direct debit transaction costs virtually nothing to bank as it's all electronic. You'd pay that every time you load onto every one of their cards.:mad::eek:
They have vouchers too they'll charge you £1.99 p&p and 50p debit card transaction again so total cost £2.49 :eek:

You'd have to put a minimum of £200 on say a sainsbury's card. You'd get 4% which is £8, but it's cost you 1.99 to get the card, 1.99 to load to the card so that's 3.98 alreadly gone.
They advertise cashback with fuel which is 4% that's good- But to gethe cash back with Asda or Morrisons you have to BUY vouchers which will cost you in debit card handling fee, p&p, only Sainsbury's use the card, and they you have to use it at a MANNED supermarket petrol station- so using it for the 24hr self service pumps is no good as it has to be done in the Kiosk.

You can make savings with this card, but only if you can load the card with several hundred pounds but I can;t find anything that states what happens if you loose the card, if it's like a gift card then you're stuffed- same with the vouchers.

Think very carefully before buying this read the T&C and FAQ's section- the charge are at the very bottom of the page-
You'd be better using a good cashback credit card or loyalty card, where you have more security,or using a free cahs bakc site like Quidco- where it's all free and you deal with the company direct adn collect cashback over time- you can read abotu Quidco on this site- Martin's looked into all the cashback sites and found the best ones.

Please read the costs below and calulate if it is actually something you will really benefit from. Don't part with your money just beacuse it looks good. I now check every promotion and review every product before I buy it and it's saved me time and money because I've been sucked in and stung before and don't want to again. I hope this helps anyone seeking some clarification on 'the shopping club'- p.s you have to pay for membership to- factor in that cost as well. £29.99 for a year.
:rotfl::A
Service/Product

Cost

In Store Reloadable Retail Cards

- Retail cards

Free of Charge

- Postage and packing of cards (per delivery)

£1.99 per order

- Cash back transfer to cards

Free of Charge

- Online balance checker

Free of Charge

- Telephone balance enquiry

Free of Charge

- Card cancellation

Free of Charge

- Debit card processing

£1.99 per card

- Replacement Cards

50p

- Credit card processing

2% of transaction value

Discount Retail Vouchers

- Postage and packing

£1.99

- Debit card processing

50p

- Credit card processing

2% of transaction value

Cash Back Transfer

- Transfer to a bank account

£1.00

- Transfer to a Reloadable Retail Card

Free of Charge

The Shopping Club local discount card

- Shopping Club Card

Free of Charge

- Package & Postage

£1.99

Service/Product

Cost

In Store Reloadable Retail Cards

- Retail cards

Free of Charge

- Postage and packing of cards (per delivery)

£1.99 per order

- Cash back transfer to cards

Free of Charge

- Online balance checker

Free of Charge

- Telephone balance enquiry

Free of Charge

- Card cancellation

Free of Charge

- Debit card processing

£1.99 per card

- Replacement Cards

50p

- Credit card processing

2% of transaction value

Discount Retail Vouchers

- Postage and packing

£1.99

- Debit card processing

50p

- Credit card processing

2% of transaction value

Cash Back Transfer

- Transfer to a bank account

£1.00

- Transfer to a Reloadable Retail Card

Free of Charge

The Shopping Club local discount card

- Shopping Club Card

Free of Charge

- Package & Postage

£1.99

bank_of_slate

Glad I looked at this thread, it's the same deal in Bradford too, was considering it but not now!
...Linda xx

ch0ccy

Aaah I see how the cards work now...

I also found a thread on HUKD http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/years-membership-discount-shopping-club-with-petrol-grocery-savings-10-groupon/950791 and quoting muffindazzler (response from shopping club)

You do have to have different cards for each store you wish to spend in. The cashback is not provided on the items you spend the funds on but on the ammount you choose to load on to your gift cards so if you had a Asda card and loaded it through us with £100 you would instantly receive £4 into your cashback account.You are able to transfer the cashback onto any of your gift cards or into your bank account. We also offer the standard cashback by shopping online simply by clicking through from our website and we give the full amount to you that the retailer pays so you will receive higher cashback on online purchases. Some gift cards that we offer cashback on also can be redeemed online for instance New Look cards you will receive cashback topping them up through us then if you click through to New Look from our site you will also receive cashback spending your gift card.

I certainly won't be getting a membership, with all their rip off fees it's not worth it

globetraveller

thanks ezparsons. What a con!

The_Shopping_Club

globetraveller wrote: »

thanks ezparsons. What a con!

Hi All

Found these posts concerning the shopping club and wanted to address some on the misconceptions being posted about the service.

First off relating to the P&P charges, whilst the cost of materials is less than £1.99 we have to pay labour charges to process each order.

Secondly, we must post an apology for the typo on the Debit Card charge, this should have been 50p and not £1.99. This referred to replacement cards if they were lost, sorry. You can load as many of your gift cards in one transaction and spread the 50p charge across multiple loads. Also if a card is lost we are able to cancel the card and transfer the balance to a replacement card.

The cards we send out are reloadable so you only pay the P&P charge once. Thereafter the only charges for loading cards are the Debit/Credit card processing fees.

Thirdly regarding the use of cards and vouchers in petrol stations unfortunately pay at the pump systems do not accept vouchers or gift cards so therefore the station needs to be manned.

Sorry about any misunderstanding and do feel free to respond to this thread if you have any questions.

Mike @ the shopping club.

don_mander

We have just asked to cancel this membership as not much info on the groupon site ( you only see what you get, when you gain membership ) They have been good in fairness on the phone so we will see if they will refund as under 7 days distant selling ? although going through a third party such as groupon, does that count ???

The_Shopping_Club wrote: »

Hi All

Found these posts concerning the shopping club and wanted to address some on the misconceptions being posted about the service.

First off relating to the P&P charges, whilst the cost of materials is less than £1.99 we have to pay labour charges to process each order.

Secondly, we must post an apology for the typo on the Debit Card charge, this should have been 50p and not £1.99. This referred to replacement cards if they were lost, sorry. You can load as many of your gift cards in one transaction and spread the 50p charge across multiple loads. Also if a card is lost we are able to cancel the card and transfer the balance to a replacement card.

The cards we send out are reloadable so you only pay the P&P charge once. Thereafter the only charges for loading cards are the Debit/Credit card processing fees.

Thirdly regarding the use of cards and vouchers in petrol stations unfortunately pay at the pump systems do not accept vouchers or gift cards so therefore the station needs to be manned.

Sorry about any misunderstanding and do feel free to respond to this thread if you have any questions.

Mike @ the shopping club.

coupleuk

Groupon are excellent re refunds

You wont have to worry at all