MSE News:Waitrose unveils its new loyalty scheme

sarah1972

jenniewb wrote: »

Check your voucher settings, I think many are automatically set to not send vouchers and you have to mess around with your online account in order to get them sent.

I called them and they said that I needed to change my details 2 years ago which I did and I still dont get anything !

Callie22

sarah1972 wrote: »

I called them and they said that I needed to change my details 2 years ago which I did and I still dont get anything !

They do seem to have issues with their databases. OH and I both have a Waitrose card and it seems like only one of us can get vouchers, as it's been the case that when I've called to see why I wasn't receiving anything and OH was, suddenly I start to get vouchers and OH stops getting them. I do wonder if it's something to do with their databases and addresses as we have exactly the same problem with John Lewis'.

Doc_N

Waitrose themselves refer to this as a loyalty scheme, and loyalty should work both ways.

Waitrose wants to save itself some money by dropping some useful self-selected 20% discounts and replacing them with some rather less than useful, and probably trivial, paper vouchers chosen by them.

Simple answer - repay the 'loyalty' displayed by Waitrose by popping into your local Aldi or Lidl. The prices will be very substantially lower (half the price in many cases), the quality's pretty similar, and you'll save a lot of time. You'll also save even more by not falling for the high-margin stuff all over Waitrose tempting you to buy it.

Sorry, Waitrose - this may well backfire on you and lose you even more customers to Aldi and Lidl.

System

If you get money off coupons from Tesco saying get £x off £y, if you read the back of the coupon, it says cannot be redeemed against clothing and alcohol. If you go through self scan or use scan n go scanners, it does take off the coupons off when shopping includes these. Don't go through a manned checkout as the operators at Tesco are little Hitlers. Sometimes I use the first coupon of £8 off £50 - I struggle to do £50 without booze or clothing as live alone.

In late November, my coupon was for £9 off £60 (increased it for Christmas) and I spent £30 on clothes and £12 on booze. Also had a £3 Clubcard voucher.

creative_gal

The vouchers that I had in the post were more relevant than usual (bananas and citrus fruit, which I buy almost every week- though not every week from Waitrose.) However, the paper vouchers seem remarkably similar to the vouchers that Waitrose used to send out every few months with a mini magazine, thus not really being hugely exciting or new. Also, only offering 10% off a shop (£4 off 40, in my case), when the Waitrose picks were worth 20% off seems a bit cheeky.

VintageHistorian

Just posted this on the other thread about Waitrose dropping PYO, the conditions on the back of the paper vouchers include;

2. Only one voucher per qualifying transaction can be redeemed in a single transaction by the person named on the voucher and who holds the corresponding My Waitrose card.

This sounds like you can only use one voucher per shop?

I'm also curious to know how the vouchers will work at the self-service tills, there's no space to put vouchers once you've used them, do you just hand them to staff to be binned?

redfox

VintageHistorian wrote: »

I'm also curious to know how the vouchers will work at the self-service tills, there's no space to put vouchers once you've used them, do you just hand them to staff to be binned?

the self service tills at my local Waitrose do have coupon slots. The coupons always have to be authorised by a staff member but then they just put them in the slot below the scan point.

Doc_N

Likewise. Though the Waitrose vouchers usually work without the need for staff authorisation. External vouchers almost always need authorisation, which is annoying as it slows things up considerably. Often takes 3 or 4 minutes for a staff member to turn up.

VintageHistorian

That's good to know, I'll keep an eye out for the coupon slot next time I'm there!

FightingForWhatsRight

Waitrose have insulted my intelligence with this 'after listening to our customers' line. Yes, people may have griped but did you survey them to find out if they would prefer this 80s tech madness? Either Yes and it was a thumbs down or No.

It's gone from 20% off everytime I bought something I needed to receiving an occasional paper voucher (with no commitment to the frequency). A paper voucher I have to carry with me (or my wife has them) that can be lost. These vouchers will take longer to deal with/process at check out too.

Bye-bye Waitrose - you were always expensive anyway but now you have blown it. Look forward to receiving my COOP dividend again! They've just redone our local store too!