New ASDA policy on offers that expire before delivery?

markbernstein

I wonder if ASDA has changed the way it deals with special offers that expire between the order and delivery dates?

I put in an order yesterday and had it delivered today. Two articles (both branded items) were charged at the regular price instead of yesterday's special offer price.

I noticed the total was about five quid higher than expected when the delivery was made, for no obvious reason, and mentioned it to the driver, who said that it might be a special offer that had expired, and then the regular price would be charged, and that was that. Fair enough I thought, that has happened quite a few times in the past, and I have always got a refund from customer services without problems when I rang them up.

Not so today. The person at the other end of the line repeated almost word for word what the driver had said. Though in the end, after pressing her a bit on the issue, I think I convinced her to refund me the difference anyway (haven't received the refund confirmation email yet). She denied there had been any change in policy.

But there's also a new notice in the order confirmation email that I've only spotted now:

Please note: all prices are Guide Prices only and offers are subject to change.
You will be charged the price of the items on the day they are picked.

On my previous one (about two weeeks ago), it had said:

Please note that these prices are for guidance only.
You will be charged the in-store price of all available items on the day they are picked.

No mention of special offer prices here.

I'm happy to accept that there are seasonal fluctuations in prices, so if I order strawberries a couple of weeks ahead of time in late summer, of course the price may change before they are delivered.

But if I order a special offer today and am charged the normal price tomorrow, with no warning whatsover during the ordering process that the special order is expiring today (as Tesco does it), then I think it is unreasonable to expect the customer to accept that price change.

AFAIK, deliveries are always made at least a day after the order date, so what appears to be the new policy makes a mockery of the whole idea of special offers, if they are not honoured even for one day after the order.

Have other people made a similar experience in the last couple of weeks?

If so, perhaps it would be worthwhile for MSE to take up the issue with ASDA.

alanq

I am not aware of any change of policy. I thought that it was always like that.

I was caught a few weeks back by a special offer ending overnight. Fortunately Tesco still had a better price than ASDA's offer price so I got an even better deal through ASDA Price Guarantee.

ASDA as far as I am aware is alone in not advertising online when its special offers end. This is a major disincentive to shopping with it. This policy is particularly daft when in some cases there are "Display Until" cards advertising special offers in store.

mjm3346

Sainsburys are simple and state the date you can get the offer up to such as

Only £7.50: Save £2.50 Delivery by 17/11/2015

WannaBLoaded

Tesco put the date. Asda is inferior to Tesco.

Big_Graeme

That has been ASDA's policy for the lest 5 years that I know of.

williacg

It's infuriating that they don't publish the duration of the sales promotion date, I was caught out yesterday, when I purchased the Aunt Bessie's Duck Fat Potatoes on offer at £1.00, which I was charged £2.79 for, and also the Walkers Beef and Onion pack of six crisps, which were on offer for £1.00, but was charged £1.50.

Not cool Asda.

williacg

WannaBLoaded wrote: »

Tesco put the date. Asda is inferior to Tesco.

Tesco also display a message when checking out, informing you of any sales items that will have expired the promotional date by the time you receive your delivery, and give you the option to either change your delivery date or change the item.