wombling in tesco - what's safe

Timmne

The argument that screwing Tesco over because it makes £2b profit per year is absoultely ridiculous!!

Why does it make it less wrong to misuse schemes offered by Tesco just becuase it's so profitable? Would it be wrong on a company that makes £1b? What about £20,000? Where's the line that this argument stops being used?

Tesco's NP% is 5.66% which means that for every £1 you spend there, £0.0566 ends up being profit. If you go into a Tesco with handfulls of coupons/wombled points/R&R products, Tesco are probably making a loss on your shop - it's only because there are millions of sales each day at Tesco made by people that pay their way that they end up making money.

Like I said in my earlier post; Tesco don't like being taken for mugs (although I take Stebiz's point) so they'll get rid of these schemes for that reason rather than financial ones.

ramellous1

Tesco taking coupons mean Tesco is screwing it's suppliers.
Tesco having the misprices to warrant an R&R means Tesco is screwing thousands of customers.
Tesco selling whale and dolphin meat means Tesco is screwing nature.
Does my 150 clubcard points that were available to be taken by an original purchaser who did not want them screw anyone?

If Tesco stopped all of their promotional activities that are actually a cheap data collection ruse then a lot of shoppers would use Asda cos they are cheaper anyway....

ramellous1

laura_j_2k wrote:

But surely if the person throws it away it is no longer their property. If the person stood in front of me threw a fiver on the floor and I knew they had thrown it away on purpose, I would not hesitate to spend it. Also, if a person stood in front of me had a winning lottery ticket and threw it away, i would not hesitate to cash it in.

Laura, you are right. That is what I am saying.

stebiz

floydy wrote:

heard bout this on the radio......reckon this is normal practice for a lot of retailers not just supermarkets......i dont feel like a mug, i just enjoy buying things i need, handing over as many coupons as i dare and watching my points balance rocket.....
btw, i always enjoy reading ur posts stebiz....

Keep it up Floydy - we may not be able to beat Tesco but we can certainly keep their profits down - even if it is only a small amount.

Stebiz

stebiz

ramellous1 wrote:

Tesco taking coupons mean Tesco is screwing it's suppliers.
Tesco having the misprices to warrant an R&R means Tesco is screwing thousands of customers.
Tesco selling whale and dolphin meat means Tesco is screwing nature.
Does my 150 clubcard points that were available to be taken by an original purchaser who did not want them screw anyone?

If Tesco stopped all of their promotional activities that are actually a cheap data collection ruse then a lot of shoppers would use Asda cos they are cheaper anyway....

Must admit I do 'USE' Tesco more these day. I don't have any loyalty to them so why call it a loyalty card I don't know. I will get what I can as cheap as I can using coupons, points etc. I actually dislike the way they have muscled their way in on the market. I know some on here will love them and that is fair enough. If Tesco wanted to help more they'd give computers to schools. Instead my daughters school has had to save up all computer vouchers from last year to add to this years - just to get 2 digital cameras. The amount spent by parents last year in the school, in order to get these coupons - a mere £200,000. As for the excess clubcard points what about automatically giving them to charity etc? No I guess they don't want to help that much!!! :rolleyes:

Stebiz

paws17

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Laura

If you read my post, I said that if you LIE or IMPLY that it was your receipt, that would be fraudulent. If you tell the staff it's someone else's and you are wombling the points, that's not fraudulent.

And "it cannot be classed as obtaining money by deception". Grow up! It is obtaining something of value (points) by deception (telling the staff you "forgot" to claim the points on YOUR purchases).

Just because you are unlikely to be taken to court for something doesn't make it right.

Did you know that there's a certain major supermarket we all love to hate who often have "computers for schools" campaigns where - wait for it - schools who haven't spent any money in this supermarket get to claim lots of computer equipment by "fraudulently" redeeming lots of vouchers which other "criminal elements" have knowingly passed on to them.....

So if some kind soul chooses to throw me their "small change" by kindly leaving their uncollected points for me to pick up - and thereby keeping Mr T's shop forecourts free of litter for them into the bargain - then that's a matter for me and that customer to be concerned about, thank you. Mr T's already got his money, the customer has their shopping and has voluntarily chosen to pass the benefits that were rightfully theirs on to me. Mr T loses nothing - most of the benefits of the Clubcard scheme are paid for by the participants in any case - and if they get me and my family to go to their "Sealife Centre" for half-price when we may not have gone at all at the full price, then everyone gains.

However, I take it that some of you have never collected aluminium cans for recycling for pennies or stamps for guide-dogs with Blue Peter or taken "empties" back to the off-licence to get deposits back on old pop or beer bottles that were abandoned in hedges...

Preserve us all from the antics of online bullies and self appointed legal & moral experts!

Timmne

stebiz wrote: »

my daughters school has had to save up all computer vouchers from last year to add to this years - just to get 2 digital cameras. The amount spent by parents last year in the school, in order to get these coupons - a mere £200,000.
Stebiz

Agreed they didn't get a lot for the £200,000 spent, but surely it's more than they would have got from ASDA/Morrisons/Waitrose/Sainsbury's/Co-op/Lidl/Aldi etc etc....

ramellous1

Timmne wrote: »

Agreed they didn't get a lot for the £200,000 spent, but surely it's more than they would have got from ASDA/Morrisons/Waitrose/Sainsbury's/Co-op/Lidl/Aldi etc etc....

If they had spent £200,000 in Asda,Lidl or Aldi they would have had a hell of a lot more to show for it in their shopping trolley.

MarkyMarkD

laura_j_2k wrote: »

I had a right laugh at your response. You obviously took my post very personally. Some people really need to get a life.

It is NOT obtaining money by deception - I can assure you.
Also, I think you should read my post again. I did not say that it was right because it does not get to court. If I did, then I would not be able to work in my profession.
In my line of work I deal with a number of fraudulent cases that are far more serious than 'wombling' tesco points, and they are often just written off.
What I am trying to say is - it is highly unlikely that you will go to court or get into trouble with the law.
I would seriously suggest you think before writing abusive posts, I do not appreciate being told to grow up by someone that doesn't even know me.

I don't take anyone's posts on MSE personally. Taking posts personally would be to use expressions like "some people really need to get a life".

And to accuse me of being abusive, I think you would need to understand what "abusive" means.

It would also help, just to get back to the original subject for a moment, to understand what "obtaining money by deception" means. It means obtaining money (or things of value) by deception (i.e. deceiving the other party into giving you something to which you are not entitled).

For you to claim that "wombling" is not "claiming money by deception" is what was laughable, not my comments on the subject.

Standards of morality, and legality, are not dependent on monetary value. The fact that commercial reality means that many fraudulent cases are dropped doesn't affect that. Right is right, and wrong is wrong.

MarkyMarkD

paws17 wrote: »

Did you know that there's a certain major supermarket we all love to hate who often have "computers for schools" campaigns where - wait for it - schools who haven't spent any money in this supermarket get to claim lots of computer equipment by "fraudulently" redeeming lots of vouchers which other "criminal elements" have knowingly passed on to them.....

What ARE you wittering about? "Computers for schools" and other promotions are specifically designed for people to collect their vouchers and hand them to their schools.

What slight relevance is that supposed to have to this debate?