SUPERMARKETS (Sainsbury’s looking at you here!) AND VAT arghhhh

Bettyishere

Hi all,

Newbie here - need to vent. Not sure if I have put this under right heading but hopefully someone will point me into the right direction if it needs to be moved.

Can I just have a MOAN about why supermarkets are so reluctant to say which items have VAT... it's doing my head in. I work in catering and we have to use supermarkets all over the country and online... ok, I kind of get that in a supermarket you can go and ask for a VAT receipt - but why online is it SO hard... I am naming and shaming SAINSBURYS here... on your online receipt - you don't even get a * next to any item with VAT... so you have to call up their customer service to fill out a form to request a VAT receipt (one at a time) which can take up to 15 days to get to you (although I am still waiting on some which has been over 20 days)...

I've now obviously got to that time in life - when I just can't bare these things and have to write emails about it (and then join forums to moan about it)... so after my fruitless journey through their customer service land - I eventually searched the internet to find the emails of the top dogs at Sainsbos (had to guess them but got it right as an assistant finally got back to me)... but nothing has been done... it's crazy.

Anyway - I am not giving up... hoping they will change it.

Thanks for listening to my moan.

Kind regards,
Disgruntled love child of Victor Meldrew 

Dear all senior management at Sainsburys,

Apologies for the group email - and I do hope I have your emails correct (not easy to find)... 

I am hoping that someone, could please inform us why Sainsburys do not issue VAT receipts when requested and when you do - why do they take so long to come through?

I work for a hospitality company and we are very good customers of Sainsburys - at the moment one of our food stations is catering for a (DELETED AS SENSITIVE INFO) in (DELETED AS SENSITIVE INFO) until the end of December... we are getting a large Sainsburys delivery almost daily. 

When we place an order - neither the emailed receipt nor the downloadable version has any indication of where VAT may be added. I have called on numerous occasions (as have my colleague and our account holder (DELETED AS SENSITIVE INFO) - both on copy) and asked for VAT receipts but we have had nothing. 

I was told by one member of customer service that yes, I could have VAT receipts - I asked if were possible to add this onto our account so that we get them for each order that we are placing - she said that was fine - but then another member by email said that it was impossible. 

I have tweeted and been asked to DM - no one gets back to me. 

I have emailed - no one replies. 

I have called - and tried to explain to your overseas call centre (I have nothing against overseas call centres I may add) but they do not seem to understand my request.

How, in 2022... can a company as gigantic as Sainsburys making millions in profits each year - fail to help its customers with the most simple of requests. This is not just us, there are many forums of complaints from Sainsburys customers almost pulling their hair out come VAT return time - asking the same question... Twitter, also is full of it. 

Wouldn't it be an easy thing to set up for your loyal online ordering customers? Perhaps a little tick box that we can tick to ask for a VAT receipt to be sent to us instead of the standard one? The printed out receipts from instore have a * where VAT is added - so why not do that online... or are we expected to go through reems of receipts and guess?

Here are the order numbers of the ones we need (but as I said, we are ordering all the time and so by the end of next week there will be more): (

DELETED AS SENSITIVE INFO)

tealady

I feel for the supermarkets tbh. They are in business to make a profit so need to streamline all services.
It must cost them money to produce VAT receipts for the occasional customer who wants them.
Could you not buy from a wholesaler instead?

Grumpy_chap

I have no sympathy for the Supermarkets on this. 
There are many retailers (including business much smaller than the Supermarkets) that simply put the VAT information on the bottom of the receipt. 
The petrol forecourts attached to Supermarkets automatically put the VAT information on the bottom of the receipt if you take a receipt, so it must be a standard option on the software the Supermarkets use to show or not show the VAT information.
It is therefore a (poor) management decision to not show the VAT information as standard on each receipt.  Nothing to hide here.

Though worse than the Supermarkets are Currys and Halfords who will provide a VAT-receipt on request, but only if you provide your e-mail details and they can then bombard you with marketing.  

Really would be so much easier for all retailers to simply show the VAT as standard.

Bettyishere said:

Hi all,

Newbie here - need to vent. Not sure if I have put this under right heading but hopefully someone will point me into the right direction if it needs to be moved.

Can I just have a MOAN about why supermarkets are so reluctant to say which items have VAT... it's doing my head in. I work in catering and we have to use supermarkets all over the country and online... ok, I kind of get that in a supermarket you can go and ask for a VAT receipt - but why online is it SO hard... I am naming and shaming SAINSBURYS here... on your online receipt - you don't even get a * next to any item with VAT... so you have to call up their customer service to fill out a form to request a VAT receipt (one at a time) which can take up to 15 days to get to you (although I am still waiting on some which has been over 20 days)...

I've now obviously got to that time in life - when I just can't bare these things and have to write emails about it (and then join forums to moan about it)... so after my fruitless journey through their customer service land - I eventually searched the internet to find the emails of the top dogs at Sainsbos (had to guess them but got it right as an assistant finally got back to me)... but nothing has been done... it's crazy.

Anyway - I am not giving up... hoping they will change it.

Thanks for listening to my moan.

Kind regards,
Disgruntled love child of Victor Meldrew 

Dear all senior management at Sainsburys,

Apologies for the group email - and I do hope I have your emails correct (not easy to find)... 

I am hoping that someone, could please inform us why Sainsburys do not issue VAT receipts when requested and when you do - why do they take so long to come through?

I work for a hospitality company and we are very good customers of Sainsburys - at the moment one of our food stations is catering for a (DELETED AS SENSITIVE INFO) in (DELETED AS SENSITIVE INFO) until the end of December... we are getting a large Sainsburys delivery almost daily. 

When we place an order - neither the emailed receipt nor the downloadable version has any indication of where VAT may be added. I have called on numerous occasions (as have my colleague and our account holder (DELETED AS SENSITIVE INFO) - both on copy) and asked for VAT receipts but we have had nothing. 

I was told by one member of customer service that yes, I could have VAT receipts - I asked if were possible to add this onto our account so that we get them for each order that we are placing - she said that was fine - but then another member by email said that it was impossible. 

I have tweeted and been asked to DM - no one gets back to me. 

I have emailed - no one replies. 

I have called - and tried to explain to your overseas call centre (I have nothing against overseas call centres I may add) but they do not seem to understand my request.

How, in 2022... can a company as gigantic as Sainsburys making millions in profits each year - fail to help its customers with the most simple of requests. This is not just us, there are many forums of complaints from Sainsburys customers almost pulling their hair out come VAT return time - asking the same question... Twitter, also is full of it. 

Wouldn't it be an easy thing to set up for your loyal online ordering customers? Perhaps a little tick box that we can tick to ask for a VAT receipt to be sent to us instead of the standard one? The printed out receipts from instore have a * where VAT is added - so why not do that online... or are we expected to go through reems of receipts and guess?

Here are the order numbers of the ones we need (but as I said, we are ordering all the time and so by the end of next week there will be more): (

DELETED AS SENSITIVE INFO)

tealady

But does everything sold in a supermarket have VAT?
Does anyone know?

Jeremy535897

Supermarkets are no different to any other supplier. Whether or not they charge VAT depends on what is supplied. Most cold food (non-snacking) is zero rated, as are children's clothes. Hot food, snacks, adult clothes, kitchen equipment etc is standard rated.

Grumpy_chap

tealady said:

But does everything sold in a supermarket have VAT?
Does anyone know?

No - most things sold in a Supermarket are VAT-exempt or zero-rated.  
That is definitely "most things" by number of product lines.  It may not be "most things" by value.  It takes a lot of 32pence tins of peaches to offset the value of one TV at £600.

On the Supermarket we use most, items that are VAT-rated have a small asterix (*) by on the receipt.

One possibility is that the Supermarkets use "cash-basis" for VAT accounting.  I can't believe that is truly the case for such large organisations.  I only mention the possibility because of the unusual way that our Supermarket Mobile is invoiced - the initial bill does not have VAT and the VAT-invoice is only available after our payment has cleared to the account.  The majority case is that the VAT is applicable as at the date of the invoice and when that invoice is paid is irrelevant.

There may also be a complication by the way that Supermarkets over-complicate their transaction values and payment methods.  I have around £50 of Clubcard vouchers sitting in my top drawer.  If I spend those on food, then there will be no VAT or I could spend the vouchers to buy a gift for my Great Niece and cuddly toys do attract VAT but a little dress won't attract VAT.  It's not even as simple as all food is no VAT, as the differentiation between cakes and biscuits demonstrated in the Jaffa Cake case shows.

I still think the Supermarkets could provide proper VAT information as standard on their receipts by default at the time of purchase.

Bettyishere

Hi all,
So in my ongoing emails to Sainsbury's I have now had this response:

Thank you for your email. 

I do apologise that you have still not received your VAT receipts for your online orders from the 30th of August to present, I do understand your frustration with this. 

After further investigation, unfortunately I do need to inform you that the support team that sends the receipts out have been encountering ongoing system issues which has resulted in the receipts not being sent out. 

I would like to assure you that we do have a team currently attempting to resolve this technical problem however at this moment we are unable to request receipts. 

Again I would like to apologise regarding this delay.

Kindest Regards

 

Hannah Lafferty | Executive Office 

J Sainsbury plc | 33 Holborn | London EC1N 2HT

My first request for a VAT receipt was the beginning of September... it's taken this long for this reply... 

Bettyishere

tealady said: I feel for the supermarkets tbh. They are in business to make a profit so need to streamline all services.
It must cost them money to produce VAT receipts for the occasional customer who wants them.
Could you not buy from a wholesaler instead?

They made £38 BILLION last year in profit... Could a tiny portion of that not be spent on an app that could make it easier just to provide a VAT receipt when asked? And yes, we do buy from wholesaler too but many items we can only
get from Sainsburys as we do not have the storage.
  

Bettyishere

Bettyishere said:

tealady said:

I feel for the supermarkets tbh. They are in business to make a profit so need to streamline all services.
It must cost them money to produce VAT receipts for the occasional customer who wants them.
Could you not buy from a wholesaler instead?

They made £38 BILLION last year in profit... Could a tiny portion of that not be spent on an app that could make it easier just to provide a VAT receipt when asked? And yes, we do buy from wholesaler too but many items we can only
get from Sainsburys as we do not have the storage.
  

* sorry £730 million 

Bradden

Whilst I agree it's frustrating it's something they are aware of and trying to fix. I would guess it's not something many customers actually ask for so it's probably not a priority.
They may have made 730 million profit but have a  turnover of about 30 billion so their actual profit margin is pretty small.
Comparing them to wholesalers seems unfair... they are geared up to serve the trade sector - Sainsbury focus on retail sales.

DullGreyGuy

Bettyishere said:

Bettyishere said:

tealady said:

I feel for the supermarkets tbh. They are in business to make a profit so need to streamline all services.
It must cost them money to produce VAT receipts for the occasional customer who wants them.
Could you not buy from a wholesaler instead?

They made £38 BILLION last year in profit... Could a tiny portion of that not be spent on an app that could make it easier just to provide a VAT receipt when asked? And yes, we do buy from wholesaler too but many items we can only
get from Sainsburys as we do not have the storage.
  

They made £38 BILLION last year in profit... Could a tiny portion of that not be spent on an app that could make it easier just to provide a VAT receipt when asked? And yes, we do buy from wholesaler too but many items we can only 
get from Sainsburys as we do not have the storage.
  

* sorry £730 million 

£38bn profit from £29.8bn of revenue would be highly impressive! Though there you are talking about Sainsbury's Group not Sainsbury's Supermarket (ie inc Argos, Habitat, Nectar, Banking etc) and is before tax etc

This year's IT budget would have been based on last year's results though which was a £164m loss