Sainsbury 'Brand Matching' a con?

Beenie

I did my shopping today and needed some more dishwasher tablets.

I knew that Asda did them at £10 (70 Fairy tabs) but saw that they were £13 at Sainsbury, however, as they were advertising 'Brand Matching' I thought I'd get a refund at the till. Not so.

Apparently, some catfood I bought was cheaper than Asda, so this cancelled out the £3 dishwasher refund I should have had.

Seems like a great big con to me.

dlusman

Beenie wrote: »

Seems like a great big con to me.

A con is where someone tries to mislead you.
You cannot blame the supermarket for your failure to read the T&Cs. Item 1 on the FAQ page states ( note the use of "basket" NOT "item" )

. What is Sainsbury's Brand Match?

Sainsbury's Brand Match is a guarantee that if you could have paid less for an identical basket of branded products (same size, flavour, colour etc) at Tesco or Asda, we will give you a coupon at the till for the difference, at the end of that transaction, up to the value of £10.

The value of the coupon we give will be the difference between the Sainsbury's price for your basket and the cheapest price in Tesco or Asda for an identical basket bought on the same day.

marvin

All the supermarket price match things work in the same way, it is the total bill not the individual prices.

I always target my spending now to play the supermarkets at their own game even going through twice if I have to.

The rules on targeting:
Know your prices before you go shopping or check it as you go around.
Only buy branded things you know are on offer in one store, do not mix offers in Tesco or ASDA as they count them separately.
Do not buy Branded reduced price items (yellow sticker stuff where it is going out of date) this will be counted at full price in the other stores.
Maximum voucher is £10 make sure your returns do not beat this.

If you have offers from two stores or offers at Sainsburys (never buy things on offer at the Supermarket unless you know it is same price at the store you are targeting or is cheaper). Go through twice on the same belt, the second one does not need to be above £20 if not price matching.

My example from today, I wanted a new charger for the mobile which was £9.99 I decided I would buy the Nescafe GB which is £5 in sainsburys and £4 in ASDA. I also had to top up with something to bring it over the £20 mark. £2 voucher was issued.

It is not a con it is designed to confuse and I think not as honest in its promotion as it could be (I have made that point to both Justin King and Mike Coupe, it was his idea.)

The Sainsburys discount is worth more to me as I am an employee so on the coffee I bought today it was £5 - 10% (£4.50) - £1 (£3.50) and then so long as the voucher is presented after the staff discount is applied another 10% of the voucher making the coffee £3.40. So I have become a bit anal about it

My best one was always the Baileys Irish Coffee £21 in Sainsburys £12 in Tesco.

sarah1972

Beenie wrote: »

I did my shopping today and needed some more dishwasher tablets.

I knew that Asda did them at £10 (70 Fairy tabs) but saw that they were £13 at Sainsbury, however, as they were advertising 'Brand Matching' I thought I'd get a refund at the till. Not so.

Apparently, some catfood I bought was cheaper than Asda, so this cancelled out the £3 dishwasher refund I should have had.

Seems like a great big con to me.

Not a con at all.

It makes total sense and is clearly stated.

Did you honestly expect to get the £3 back for one item when another item counters the price out ?

jon81uk

The Asda price match works in the same way. The biggest difference with Asda is the website lists all of the items so you can see which ones cancelled out any savings.
At Sainsbury's you have to spend £20 to get brand match, whereas Asda you only have to buy 8 items so it is possible to split into two transactions and pay for everything on offer at Asda separate to the non-offers which may be cheaper at other supermarkets.

Beenie

Thank you for your replies.

My point I suppose is that there are great big boards with 'Brand Match' on them, but you have to read the small print of T&C to see what you are actually being offered. I don't think that's a nice practice.

No worries though, I got my £13 refunded at CS and went to Asda for my £10 tabs

browneyedbazzi

You might not think it's 'nice' but it is how all these things operate - it would be very difficult to include the full details of every promotion on advertisements, so retailers will always have more detailed terms and conditions that we as consumers should take some responsibility to make ourselves aware of.

geordie_joe

browneyedbazzi wrote: »

You might not think it's 'nice' but it is how all these things operate - it would be very difficult to include the full details of every promotion on advertisements, so retailers will always have more detailed terms and conditions that we as consumers should take some responsibility to make ourselves aware of.

Well I think calling it "Basket Match" would go a long way to making things clear.

Calling it "Brand Match" could make people think they are matching the price of branded items individually.

I know most people on here will know what it means, but there are many people who start supermarket shopping for the first time who have no idea.

maman

I agree that it's not a con but certainly not transparent and done deliberately IMO.


Canny shopping has become an art form!

dlusman

geordie_joe wrote: »

Well I think calling it "Basket Match" would go a long way to making things clear.

Calling it "Brand Match" could make people think they are matching the price of branded items individually.

.

but they arent "basket matching" so I would say that is more confusing. For example they arent matching prices of fresh fruit & veg

Beenie

Well I'm glad some people are agreeing with me about the lack of clarity.

The offer is only transparent when you study the leaflet and read about the 'basket comparison' which is not what 'brand matching' means to the average joe.

People like me just want to do some honest shopping, take offers at face value and not get involved in reading tiny print.