Beware M&S Meal Deals

billiebess

I would urge everyone to check their receipt carefully when buying one of the 'meal deals' from M&S. On three occasions over the last month we as a family have been scammed three times by M&S either placing items which are not part of the deal in with the 'deals' or by items in the deal not being marked correctly so that the till recognises it as part of a deal. Three different stores Marble Arch, Cheltenham and Croydon were involved.The first time was Christmas, a bottle of Cava was involved, however the Cava placed directly next to the deal were not the 'free' ones and the till charged us £8.99. This we noticed at checkout and after much disagreement and holding up a lot of impatient shoppers we had it changed. The second time was a chinese meal deal, the mushroom rice of which there were many bags, not just the one, placed in with 'deal' was not a part. This we did not realise until we arrived home and checked the receipt. This final time was the till not recognising the chicken as part of the deal and after half an hour and it being scanned by three different tills with the involvement of a two assistants and a security guard!! it was finally agreed and he got his money back.
I know it's buyer beware, and the sums involved are quite small £2-£3 a lot of stores and a lot of shoppers, sums mount up. Also this wasn't just one store but three and not even in the same area!
Rant over!!

wheezy57

Unfortunately there are an awful lot of M&S diehard supporters on this forum who will never think for one moment that this high street giant has done anything wrong. I have first hand experience!!!

I do get it though. Its almost sneaky isnt it. There should therefore be a notice at the tills saying - separate your meal deals into orderly sections. Another one should say - this till doesnt recognize meal deals - another one could read - if your in a hurry dont bother with this till for your meal deals as its a complete hassle!!

At least you got your money back. There is something in that I suppose.

Pollycat

I'm not a M&S 'diehard' (I rarely buy clothes there unless very reduced in the sale and never buy food from there) but what surprises me about the OP's account is the length of time it seems to have taken to resolve once at the till.

If I'd had a bad experience once, I would watch the till like a hawk and if I weren't charged £10 for the meal deal, I'd query it immediately and if I was then told that I'd picked up an item that wasn't part of the meal deal, I'd say 'Put it all back, then' and go back and re-check what was on the shelves and what the deal actually included.

billiebess

Thanks for the replies. Generally I am a fan of M&S but when my son told me this had happened this very morning to him and he was made to feel like a criminal with the security guard breathing down his neck I just felt I had to have a rant. Problem with M&S is I can always find other tempting things to buy so the 'meal deal' gets mixed up with everything else and even if you add it up in your head before reaching the till the sums involved are so small that it could be your own error.

By the way it made him late for work as well so he was non too happy!!

Meadows

Errors are made no matter which shop, offers not logged on to computers either through error or no info sent down from Head Office pricing. As always the onus is on the shopper to check your receipt and not rely on the computes, tills, SEL's being right!

DCFC79

Never had a problem with buying the meal deals, bought a few from the Cheltenham store and been fine. If an odd item had been put in the wrong then could well be a customer who put it back in the wrong place so not wholly the stores fault.

fluffnutter

'Scammed' or a simple mistake?

pulliptears

fluffnutter wrote: »

'Scammed' or a simple mistake?

Scammed obviously! Have you never been into M&S and seen the gaggle of shop assistants lurking surreptitiously around the food section wearing evil grins and replacing the meals?

System

fluffnutter wrote: »

'Scammed' or a simple mistake?

Interestingly enough there is another poster on this forum who believes misprices like this are not simply mistakes and they are instead part of a companies policy to make more money.

I find this view debatable however I suppose you can't prove it either way!

tamiami

I find that the Co-op prices never go through correctly, their two for £2 deals, etc. always seem to be at standard full price. I stand at the till and double check the deals have processed correctly before paying now.

offshore1

M&S have a piece of very suspect marketing this weekend. They are advertising and displaying three courses and a free bottle of wine in exactly the same format as their Dine in for £10 promotion. The display does not make it clear that the the individual items are all their usual - or inflated prices - £2.99 for two tiny chocolate brownie type things etc etc so if you buy three items from the display and pick up your "free" wine it costs at least £12.50. Not a scam in itself but sure to p*** off their diminishing band of customers. They caught me but only because I had just picked up what I thought was the usual £10 deal and nothing else. I queried at the till and the cashier wearily explained so I thanked her kindly and said I would not be making the purchase and walked away.