'Sainsbury's launches mostly meaningless price promise' blog discussion

Former_MSE_Helen

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "Sainsbury's launches mostly meaningless price promise" Blog.

Please click 'post reply' to discuss below.

VfM4meplse

Martin, I'm a little diisappointed that this is not the whole story.

What your blog doesn't mention is that Sainsbo's bank gives an excellent customer service though (I say this as an ex customer - I closed the account many years ago as the savings rates were poor). According to the Sunday Times, Sainsbury’s Finance recently scored highly for customer service on loans among those surveyed by Blue Market Research.

If you move from Santander to Sainsbo's, you'll notice the difference.

MSE_Martin

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Martin, I'm a little diisappointed that this is not the whole story.

What your blog doesn't mention is that Sainsbo's bank gives an excellent customer service though (I say this as an ex customer - I closed the account many years ago as the savings rates were poor). According to the Sunday Times, Sainsbury’s Finance recently scored highly for customer service on loans among those surveyed by Blue Market Research.

If you move from Santander to Sainsbo's, you'll notice the difference.

True, and nor does the blog mention that Sainsbury has good own brand jaffa cakes either

Your point is a valid one, but not for this blog in my view. This wasn't a blog about Sainsbury, Sainsbury's personal finance, or even Sainsbury's loan. It was about its price promise. As I mention in the piece its loans are competitive, and in fact are our top pick in some levels.

Yet the blog was about a mostly meaningless price promise that adds little to the consumer experience.

Stryder

Cant help that Martin does not mention all the endless broken Tesco promises ... mind you, still waiting to see how much Tesco give Martin for their endless "promotions" that are never as good as their copy.

MSE_Martin

Stryder wrote: »

Cant help that Martin does not mention all the endless broken Tesco promises ... mind you, still waiting to see how much Tesco give Martin for their endless "promotions" that are never as good as their copy.

What a staggering comment. We treat all companies the same and give tesco stick when it deserves it. There is absolutely no special relationship with Tesco here.

You seem to think we're never negative about Tesco... rubbish, we play with an even hand. It took 2seconds to find these on the tesco news tag

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/shopping/2011/12/revealed-the-true-extent-of-tescos-big-price-drop
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/shopping/2011/11/tesco-told-to-make-price-check-limit-clearer-on-ads
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/shopping/2011/09/tesco-slashes-clubcard-rewards-to-finance-price-drop
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/cards/2011/01/tesco-moves-to-fairer-foreign-exchange-credit-card-fees
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/shopping/2011/04/tesco-weakens-price-check-guarantee-again
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/shopping/2010/12/anger-as-tesco-website-crashes-on-clubcard-deadline-day

stoneman

Stryder wrote: »

Cant help that Martin does not mention all the endless broken Tesco promises ... mind you, still waiting to see how much Tesco give Martin for their endless "promotions" that are never as good as their copy.

Have you got some kind of personal grudge againt Martin, what on earth has your comment to do with the story? Or were you just venting your spleen.

Stryder

I never said there was no negative news stories about Tesco, somewhat impossible over the last year or so. However, I feel there is a bias in the frequency that they are mentioned and their tone. I can not remember a time where new online shoppers dont get discounts and these pop up prominently quite frequently.

And many forum users have discussed the past use of stories heading with "Clubcard deals 4x". These Tesco clubcard "4x" deals have been heavily promoted on the weekly emails when there was never any real basis for Tesco's grandiose claims - the deals were rarely true "4x" deals

Martin, the some of the links you posted are misleading. One includes (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/cards/2011/01/tesco-moves-to-fairer-foreign-exchange-credit-card-fees) a story about Tesco moving to fairer prices (not the worst story out there) and the issues with the price drop was heavily reported in the press a long time before you team reported it:
http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/companies/a-month-of-big-price-drop-yet-tesco-prices-remain-flat/222084.article
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049979/The-great-Tesco-Big-Price-Drop-rip-Supermarket-pushed-prices-UP-weeks-500m-cost-cutting-campaign.html

You are affiliated to TEsco, i.e. earning comission on the links people press, which is fine. But when you set the site in the style of a "champion of the people" you must realiose this becomes dangerous ground. You receive an income from companies that get frequent mentions. HOw do you police fairness or do you not try and simply work on commercial basis? If its commercual decisions, fair enough, but admit it. If you state all advice is fair and unbiased, then it should be open to scrutiny as you, as a journalist, would expect of others. Taking a "Holier than thou" stance does no one any credit.

I may be wrong, and if I am I would admit it. But I will admit it when I see the statistics, the figures. Until then the feeling of bias, and anecdotal evidence of others on the forum, will not subside. Surely as a journalist you would encourage consumers to follow this kind of questioning whether its of a retailer, a government or an advice/news site (even yours)?

wozearly

Stryder wrote: »

I never said there was no negative news stories about Tesco, somewhat impossible over the last year or so. However, I feel there is a bias in the frequency that they are mentioned and their tone.

You are affiliated to TEsco, i.e. earning comission on the links people press, which is fine. But when you set the site in the style of a "champion of the people" you must realiose this becomes dangerous ground. You receive an income from companies that get frequent mentions. HOw do you police fairness or do you not try and simply work on commercial basis?

The MSE site isn't directly affiliated to Tesco (or any company). There's a description on how the site is financed (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/moneysavingexpert-finance) using affiliate links, which covers your point about integrity of advice vs link income.

This is far more transparent than most sites using paid referrals are.

Ultimately, you're making an accusation of bias that could never be proved or disproved. If the journalistic side was showing deliberate (or unintentional) bias in selecting what to talk about and how to talk about it, how could that actually be assessed? What unbiased source would you put forward for comparison purposes?

At what point down that path would Martin be asked to stop blogging about Scrabble because some paranoid soul believes its a subversive attempt to promote Mattel games?

quidsinquentin

MSE_Martin wrote: »

True, and nor does the blog mention that Sainsbury has good own brand jaffa cakes either

Your point is a valid one, but not for this blog in my view. This wasn't a blog about Sainsbury, Sainsbury's personal finance, or even Sainsbury's loan. It was about its price promise. As I mention in the piece its loans are competitive, and in fact are our top pick in some levels.

Yet the blog was about a mostly meaningless price promise that adds little to the consumer experience.

Can I ask what is unusual about that?

Stryder

Ahhh so Martin is getting support from Mattel is he? No wonder he has not been talking about "Battleships" or "Transformer" movies - they are Hasbro!

Logged on and what did I see? two "great" tips for Tesco
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/discount-voucher-codes/tesco

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/latesttip/#tesco
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/latesttip/#tesco

I agree that this is not "specifically" appropriate for this blog, but my original comment was 3 lines of frustration....

I still think that as this site grows it has to decide on its identity. If it is going to continue as a "watchdog" style consumer journalism then I think it should set up guidelines to ensure there is not a bias and free advertising is not given to any companies, intentionally or unintentionally. Big firms like Tesco's releasing "new promotions" weekly is a way of getting free advertising from journalists and websites. In this respect I believe Martin has to think carefully how to advertise and promote these, especially when promotions are repeated in the forums.

This is my opinion and maybe it does not count for much, but I feel more and more suspicious journalism and the media (as many people are) and all journalist have to be aware of the Zeitgeist and more circumspect.

More openness, more Hasbro and less Mattel

Stryder

So MSE is coming a fully integrated commercial arm of MoneySupermarket.com

In relation to above comments, one word ...

LOL