GREAT 'WHAT SHOPS DON'T WANT US TO KNOW" HUNT

smorelli

MacDonalds have a zero complaints policy. This means that the customer is always right.
I often find when visiting them that they keep me waiting for my food.
Remember this is a FAST FOOD restaurant and therefore you should expect your food to be handed to you there and then.
If asked to take a seat or especially asked to park when using the drive through (if I had wanted to park I would have gone inside to collect my food)
I give them between 3 & 5 mins.
At this point I return to the counter and ask for my money back, better still let them bring you the food and ask for the money back citing that you were inconvienienced by the wait.
The satff are not allowed to sanction refunds so call the manager, they will 99% of the time refund you and give you the food anyway as they do not want to have complaints.

I have done this many times at various outlets and only once not been handed the food as well.

I must add that on each occassion I have genuinely had to wait.

I also try to give them time to have the food ready or they will be unable to give it to you.

speff_2

In my dim and distant past, I worked in the Butcher/ Butchers'/ Butchery (?) department of a Scottish supermarket.
When a customer wanted some good-quality meat minced up, what she got in return was about half of the good stuff, and half of what ever else was left on the machine.
Now, in the days of proper trading standards, and packaged meat, that might not be an issue, but it might be better if you're buying fresh, just to take it home and mince it yourself.
Btw, according to a friend of a friend who works in the restaurant trade, Costco's big boxes of meat for the freezer are of excellent value. Just wish I had a freezer...

Quiet_One

vaderag wrote:

Same thing applies with watches - got a new watch for my birthday recently from a specialist watch shop, asked for a discount and the gave me ~15% discount

Tried asking at Lidls but wouldn't discount their £2.99 leather strap gents date watch.............

tonysp

After discovering this site , I thought I would try to save some money.
My A.A. car membership is due for renewal soon so called them and explained I was moving house and needed to save some money so was going to shop around for a deal.
Within two minutes of speaking I was transferred to another person who straight away offered me the same level of membership I already have but with a 38 pound saving.

First time I have tried anything so was really pleased with myself. Pretty sure an experienced saver could do much better.


ps: make sure you use the 0800 number as you can be on hold for quite a while.

poorcat

drstonk wrote:

Every visit i've made to sainsbury in the last month has involved going to customer services to complain about missing discounts. twice for the same thing, it's getting worse

There was a point when I was visiting customer services at the end of virtually every shop for this reason, although it's got better recently - most discounts do go through the till now.
The thing that really annoys me in Sainsburys is when they do a, say, 3 for 2 offer, but don't make it clear enough what products are included or not in the offer. I used to particuarly find this the case when I was buying baby food, nappies, jars or packets that looked exactly the same size etc were excluded from the offer for no obvious good reason.
I've also been caught out by Blue Parrot ready meals (the chicken dinner isn't usually included because it's more expensive in the first place), high juice squashes (watch out for the blackcurrant) and bags of kiddies sweets.
I emailed hq customers services about this issue, they said the offers were always clearly labelled. But if so, how come I've been caught out so many times?

egglie

I work in retail and just wanted to re-itterate that most important point made in this thread - be nice to shop assistants! If I have a really nice customer I will go out of my way to make sure their order goes smoothly and that they get the best deal. if some w**ker comes in and is rude to me then I'm not going to make any special effort. I work in a shop where you are likely to make a substantial purchase (conservatories/flooring ect.) and here are some tips:

Basicly we are not trying to do you over but you have to give us a reason to discount - otherwise we would not be doing our jobs. Build up a friendly relationship with a member of staff, let them know what you are looking for and that if you are offered a good deal then you might be persueded to go a little over budget. The absolute best way to get discount is to make the assistant believe that you will be spending a large ammount of money on further products in the future - you had better be pretty convincing though as an assistant is unlikely to be sympatheic to someone they think is lying. If you are thinking of making a large purchase like this then have estimates done and get on the mailing lists of companies you are interested in, they will probably contact you if there are any special offers on the products you are looking at and sometimes have offers for mailing list customers only. If you are renovating a house or something then keep going back to the same places (and tell the assistants about your project) the more business you give a company the more likely they are to give you a good deal.

Shops have sales targets, monthly, quarterly ect. my tip is go towards the end of the quater or half year where the manager may be under more pressure to meet targets and make the business look good and higher disocunt levels may have been authorised.

Sometimes I am asked for a discount when there is no way I can offer one, please don't be emabarrassed or offended if we say no. I don't mind people asking but I can only offer what has been authorised. Often what is a big order to you or me personally is very small to the company so don't ask for discount for quantity just ask if there are any special offers coming up.

If the worst happens and something goes wrong - please resist the temptation to shout at the assistant, believe me if you are nice about it then they will work much harder on your behalf. Just remembering to say please and thankyou and to smile will help! I know this is not rocket science but I hope it helps someone out.

shopbot

megsykins wrote:

Another quite obvious one, so many shops do student discount but don't advertise it - always, always ask! (and if you're no longer a student - keep your NUS card, most places don't realise it's out-of-date!)

Surely the ethos of this site is to save money in a legal way? What you are suggesting is deception (even if you get away with it because the shop don't check thoroughly). I want to make the point because I think this is a great site but once posts start appearing that are a bit dubious legally (albeit in a minor form in this case) in my view it devalues the site and its principles.

chompie

At Argos when a catalogue runs it's course the new catalogue drops a lot of items, now as soon as these are dropped, they remain on the instore system but at reduced prices, and not all of them are advertised in sales, (and some sneaky staff even hide them so they are there for periods of upto 18 months and every few months the price comes down further)

so if you want an item that is not in the new catalogue go into a store and type in the number...you may be surprised and grab a bargain.

mariejader

I am replying to the till's and offers not being shown correctly.

Last week I went into Iceland now I had only poped out to bank some money and parked behind Iceland for conveniencem, on my way back to my car, I noticed they had their meal deal offer buy all this for £5.00 now I had £10 in my pocket so I new how much I was spending as I bought some lamb chops for £4.00 so my bill should have been £9.00 when it went through the till it was £16.75, I questioned it and the lady responded oh I bet you have the breaded onion rings and not the ones in batter, I said I have picked up one of every item in that freezer and that's what's on offer, oh no she replied our staff put the wrong onion rings in the freezer yesterday I though they would have moved them by now!! so she went and changed my onion rings and my shop total was now £9.00.

Now I saw 3 people before me purchased that deal, and did not spot it, to be honest if I had done my usual shop I would not have noticed it either, but the fact that they were aware the wrong item was in the freezer now makes me wonder if I have been caught before, they did not seem to concerned about it, and insisted that they change my product and not me

So my advice is check you have the right items when purchasing a meal deal and check your receipt before you leave,

ben500

mariejader wrote:

I am replying to the till's and offers not being shown correctly.

Last week I went into Iceland now I had only poped out to bank some money and parked behind Iceland for conveniencem, on my way back to my car, I noticed they had their meal deal offer buy all this for £5.00 now I had £10 in my pocket so I new how much I was spending as I bought some lamb chops for £4.00 so my bill should have been £9.00 when it went through the till it was £16.75, I questioned it and the lady responded oh I bet you have the breaded onion rings and not the ones in batter, I said I have picked up one of every item in that freezer and that's what's on offer, oh no she replied our staff put the wrong onion rings in the freezer yesterday I though they would have moved them by now!! so she went and changed my onion rings and my shop total was now £9.00.

Now I saw 3 people before me purchased that deal, and did not spot it, to be honest if I had done my usual shop I would not have noticed it either, but the fact that they were aware the wrong item was in the freezer now makes me wonder if I have been caught before, they did not seem to concerned about it, and insisted that they change my product and not me

So my advice is check you have the right items when purchasing a meal deal and check your receipt before you leave,

Sadly this is common practice in most supermarkets to switch higher priced items for those supposedly on offer, if your caught like this in Tesco get your revenge as they have a refund and replace policy if you are overcharged, simply go back to the display and fill a trolley with the item no matter what it is as you will be getting it free anyway and can give any surplus to family and friends. pay for the items and then dance along to the counter with your till receipt, at first they might try and give you some pathetic excuse like refund and replace is limited to only 5/2/7 or whatever figure they pluck out of their head and try to limit your refund, stand your ground and insist they check with head office! I have heard all kinds of reasons from Tesco staff for not fulfilling refund and replace policy but have NEVER walked away without my refund, the staff try to talk you out of it in any way they can as they are targeted on such refunds. I love Tesco and on many occasion am overcharged but I don't mind in fact I'm quite disappointed when they get it right!