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

Wlon30

The House of Fraser store card now combines a points card. You can just get a points card but you get less points.

Use your Store card to make a purchase then pay it off immediately. this way you are not really using the card but getting the points.

Also if you take out the card protection you are covered for accidental damage and the like, but you dont pay for the cover if you pay your account in full each month.

But beware that staff are actively pushed to "sell" cards to customers and they get incentive for it too.

Wlon30

I think this applies to most banks but if you want to stop a cheque tell the them you have lost the cheque and you should not have to pay the fee which is usually around £8-£10.

bigson181

I used to work for Dixons on the weekend when I was in school.

Their clearance stuff is always marked with a price of £xx.97, or £xx.98. (the pence figure)

The managers have a big push on clearance as they cannot physically have new stock until they clear out old stuff and have targets on these. With this in mind, they may try to do you a deal on these to get rid of them. Its sometimes ex-demo or returned stuff but the manufacturers warranty will be the same (normally 12 months). Also, they have CABs on certain products including the clearance (Customer Advice Bonuses) where the staff get £5 - £10 per certain items they sell, so they may do you a better deal again on these items.

Also, in quieter shops (althoughDixons are getting rid of smaller ones now) it is better to go on a quieter day (Sundays, Bank Holidays or Mondays) especially if it is the start of the week as they have more discount to play with then (they have a max %age allowed of discount per week) and you may get a better deal.

I've not worked for them since 1999 but suspect it is still the same.

CeeJay

Not a tip... more an 'Aren't we lucky'. I live in Spain and recently took a 4 month old microwave back as it was faulty. All the way into town I was anticipating the usual, "Not our problem... contact the manufacturer", as I had grown to expect this response in the UK.

Not so. The item was exchanged on the spot for a new one and I was given a further 12 month warranty. Would the UK retailers have responded like that I wonder?

justjenny

I worked for one of the leading 4 banks and if a customer said the cheque was lost in the post it was free. Also if you need replacement bank statements the same applies rather than the duplicate charge of £5 a sheet.

penny_less_7

Maybe not a shop but a pub.restaurant chain..

Brewsters/brewers fayre/tgi's/beefeater any of this chain

1. When you order food staff are not obliged to inform you that if you have for example chicken in sauce that any extra sauce costs you extra..the arguement being its written on the menu

2. Always buy a bottle of wine rather than by the glass - a bottle of wine is in the long run cheaper, prices by the glass are way more expensive

3. If you ask for water staff will offer you still or sparkling - you may ask for tap water which should be presented in a large jug with ice and lemon, if you mean tap water but come to the bar without saying tap water staff will sell you bottled water.

4. It is practice when you buy a bottle of wine for staff to give you a 250ml glass the reason being that this is a larger glass and therefore you will drink and buy more because one bottle of wine is = to only 3 glasses of wine, so always ask for a smaller glass.

5. When given the choice of draught or bottled coke/pepsi ask for the draught you get more and its cheaper, practice is to try and sell you coke in a bottle, if you are not specific about what you want you will be sold Coke as its more expensive

6. when buying wine make sure you ask by brand, if you approach the bar and ask for a dry white you will be served a dry white but the most expensive.

7. If buying kids fruitshoots buy the larger bottle you get twice as much for 99p than you do a little bottle at 75p

8. If running a tab always present your tab ticket when you order something it is not uncommon for something to end up on your tab you didnt order because someone else picked a number at random without a ticket - always check your recipt on paying

9 When buying spirits remember that you are charged for you spirit and also any dashes you have, every dash costs you 29p and a half glass filled to the top with spirit and dashes of coke/lemonade takes at least 3 dashes

10 when buying draught fizz its standard for ice to be added to 2 thirds of the glass, this fools the customer into thinking they are getting more, but means they will buy more when they have finished their drink which is less than they thought. It also means your paying the same price for less fizz. Ask for only a few cubes if you require ice.

candys_kisses

5 STEPS TO ROCKET YOUR NECTAR POINTS BALANCE

As a Nectar points collector, you are no doubt aware that for every 500 points you collect, you get £2.50 to spend at places like Argos and Sainsbury’s. This Equates to £50 free shopping money for 10000 points, £250 for 50000 and £500 for 100,000 and so on. You will also be aware that unless you get all the bonus points on any special promotions, it can take an age to accumulate a substantial points balance. Following the five steps outlined below changes that. Using this method, you can easily add 1000’s of points every month. During the first month that I used this method, I added 7300 points to my Nectar balance. I then went and did £35 worth of shopping at Sainsbury’s – for nothing!

Step 1
Apply for a Barclaycard credit card and register your Nectar card to it. To do this, simply phone Barclaycard and give them your Nectar number.

Step 2
Open a Meccagames account (https://www.meccagames.com). Use your Barclaycard for making deposits and withdrawals.
When you make your first deposit of £10 you will receive £10 free. You need to spend this initial £20 on any of their bingo or slot games and continue to play the games occasionally (about 5-10% of your earnings is sufficient – see table below) for Meccagames to be happy that you are using your account properly. When you do play the games, you do of course, stand a decent chance of winning and making a profit anyway – so don’t immediately assume that you will be £10 out of pocket. If you do lose the whole £20 (your £10 and the free £10) just consider it as an investment – you WILL make it back. Playing the games myself, I’ve found the best ones that payout quite well are: Slots- Bankenstein, Loot-n-Khamun, Sports Crazy and Ooh Matron; Bingo Games- Cashline and Bingo-Keno Super-Jackpot. Keep your stakes to 20p or 50p and all of those will pay you something fairly quickly (Bankenstein seems to throw up Jackpots quite regularly). As I explained though, you may lose all the money you play on the games – but this method is not about gambling- the Meccagames site merely acts as an easy gateway for you to wind up your Nectar balance. All will be explained in Step 3.

Step 3
Now here comes the big squeeze. Barclaycard credit card customers currently earn 1 Nectar point for every £2 spent. Once you’ve played your initial £20, you need to deposit the whole of your available Barclaycard balance into your Meccagames account. Then spend an amount of this on games (any amount- one 20p stake is enough). After 2 minutes has passed (you can’t use your card again within 2 minutes) withdraw the whole of your balance back to your Barclaycard. It usually takes between 2-3 days for the withdrawn funds to appear back on your Barclaycard and be available to spend again.

Step 4
Keep checking your Barclaycard balance over the next few days to check when withdrawn funds have been added back to your account. You can do this by clicking on ‘register’ on the ‘My Account’ section of the Barclaycard website, https://www.barclaycard.co.uk.

Step 5
As soon as your withdrawn funds are back on your Barclaycard and you have a balance to spend, repeat steps 3 and 4. You can do this, depending upon how quickly the withdrawn funds are cleared back to your Barclaycard (average 3 days) up to 12 times a month. Below is a table of how many points/ how much shopping money you can earn, based on doing this 10 times per month:

Available Barclaycard Balance Total Deposited & Withdrawn Nectar points earned per Money available to spend at
each month month via Barclaycard Argos/ Sainsbury's etc.
£200 £2,000 1000 £5
£500 £5,000 2500 £12.50
£750 £7,500 3750 £18.75
£1,000 £10,000 5000 £25
£2,000 £20,000 10000 £50
£5,000 £50,000 25000 £125
£10,000 £100,000 50000 £250


As you can see from the above table, even a new Barclaycard customer with an initial credit limit of £200, can easily make £60 FREE shopping money per year. However, you will not be limited to £200 for long. Barclaycard recognises the withdrawals back to your card as payments- this means that you will never have to make a payment, you will never accumulate any interest on your Barclaycard (as you are continually paying off your balance) and your credit rating will be excellent. This all means that your credit limit will very quickly be increased and your Nectar earning potential will increase inline.
I have been doing this for over one year and at the time of writing this guide, my credit limit stands at £3600. I am currently making between £80-90 per month. This doesn’t cover my entire shopping bill, but it certainly goes a long way towards it. I also, of course, after claiming my vouchers at Sainsbury’s, use my Nectar card at the checkout and earn more points on my shopping.
Out of the money I make, I usually stake around £10 on the slot and bingo games to ensure my Meccagames account stays in good favour. I don’t know if they would close my account for continuously depositing and withdrawing without actually spending any money, but I’d rather not take the risk. The main reason for this is that they will not allow the same card to be registered again once an account is closed. The other thing I should also point out is that over the past 12 months, I’m actually about 22% up on money I’ve staked on the games (I’ve staked £110 and have got back just over £133). Whether this is a return rate you can rely on or whether I’m just lucky, I don’t know, the main point of course is that I’ve also made just over £1000 shopping money.
There are of course other online gaming accounts that accept Barclaycard where you would be able to do this. There are several reasons why I have found Meccagames to be the best for this process. Firstly, they are UK based and are extremely reputable (part of the Rank group). As they are UK based and are a large, well resourced company, they have among the quickest withdrawal times in the business – many other sites can have you wait up to 10 working days for the money to appear back on your card. They also have the smallest initial deposit requirement for a 100% bonus (£10 for £10). Also, they have very low stakes available on games – as little as 20p! Lastly, you do actually win from time to time- I’m currently about 22% up on money I’ve staked on games.

Points to remember
§ Do check your Barclaycard balance regularly and deposit as soon as possible
§ Do stake something on games each time you deposit – even if its only 20p!
§ Do stake a reasonable amount on games occasionally – maybe £5-£10 every couple of months
§ Do take your Nectar card with you and get the points for the shopping you do with your free cash
§ Do ask Barclaycard regularly for an increased credit limit – if they don’t do it for you anyway
§ Don’t just deposit and withdraw – you may put your Meccagames account at risk. Spend something – even if it’s just the odd pound every now and again.
§ Don’t get carried away on the games and become a compulsive gambler – unless you’re a lucky one!

So there you have it. I know this report is a few pages and there seems like quite a lot of information, put the process is actually very simple. Once you’ve got everything set up, this method actually takes about 5 minutes online every 3 days or so.

Hope you find this information as useful and rewarding as I have.

Good Luck.

odowdchr

Pete wrote:

Not sure if this is the right thread, hope so.
I use to think McDonalds all charged the same but have noticed that some are dearer. For example happy meal in Bedford is £2.09 whereas most places it is £1.99.

Another addendum to the McDonalds "free refill" on filter coffee is the length of time it takes you to get served. I remember this from when they first appeared in the UK and they quoted it on their adverts....if you dont get served in X amount of time then your food is free. This seems to have been buried over the years but apparently it's still valid, even though they've franchised massively since the 80's.
A friend of mine (very cost conscious bloke and ex-McDonalds employee when at school) does this regularly in our local franchised branch. The service is always slow, food is rarely cooked until you order it...so he will order, wait about 7 minutes, then call for the manager and quote some terms to him....voila....free food. It often ends in a bit of a row with denials, but it's fun to watch and the food is always free....not sure if it works everywhere though

odowdchr

penny_less wrote:

3. If you ask for water staff will offer you still or sparkling - you may ask for tap water which should be presented in a large jug with ice and lemon, if you mean tap water but come to the bar without saying tap water staff will sell you bottled water.

The same "Mcdonalds" bloke above is also a teetotaller and hates fizzy drinks because his teeth were rotted on copious amounts of cola from pubs...
You can ask for a glass of tap water in any pub and they can't charge you for it.
To my knowledge, he hasn't bought anything in a pub for years :beer:

cosmokramer2004

First anonymous message! ......

I work for the uk's largest diy chain, on a wednesday any ticks you may see on point of sale labels means the price will go up thursday, any crosses they will go down.
check out your local store as i'm not sure wether all stores use the same system.

cheers