Sainsbury's pricing

Brocade

Is it legal for sainsbury to show a price on each item in your online shopping basket, and then charge a different but unidentifiable price on your actual bill when the shopping is delivered? For example, they recently had £12 meal deals plus 25% off wine. I ordered a meal deal and the discounted prices for each item were shown on the online basket. The wine came out at £3 something with the double discount (I had ordered 6 bottles or more to qualify for the 25% discount). So I added another meal deal with different items, again, each item was shown at its discounted price. When the delivery comes they have substituted one of the deserts, so of course the other parts of the deal become full price. But I can't tell which ones they are by quickly going through the receipt while the driver is waiting. All the bottles of wine are shown at the full price with the discount as a lump sum at the end, so I can't tell which ones formed part of the meal deal, and especially not which of the 2 meal deals were affected! One item was also a short date, so how am I meant to hand that back to the driver if I don't know which meal deal that was part of, and even if I did, would that mean that the rest of the deal would then jump up to full price? The driver couldn't answer that one either.  Tesco manages to charge the same price as they quote on the items in the basket, so why can't sainsbury? Is it even legal what they are doing? I guess the moral is avoid sainsbury!

bazdvd

sometimes discounts are live when you add items to the basket but have finished by the time you have it delivered.
If a product is on offer until 30th and you place the order on 29th then you will see the discount applied but if delivery is on 31st then you lose the discount as its no longer valid

Brocade

If the offer will have expired on the delivery date I think most supermarkets would show the full price on the shopping basket. I just want to know the price I will be paying for each item, not too much to ask?

sarah1972

Brocade said:

If the offer will have expired on the delivery date I think most supermarkets would show the full price on the shopping basket. I just want to know the price I will be paying for each item, not too much to ask?

It doesn’t work like that. Your basket will show offers, weights etc and it is confirmed on the day it is picked. It works the same the other way too, you may order something on a Tuesday for delivery on a Friday for arguments sake and if it goes on offer between ordering and delivery you get the offer. 

You are charged the current price on delivery day. 

You have the choice to give it back to the driver, I know it can be a nightmare working it out on the receipt but at least you can look before delivery and decide. 

I have ordered a kilo of beef before and had over 2kg delivered and obviously charged for 2 but as I know beforehand I can decide if I want to give it back or keep it. I have stopped ordering meal deals as invariably one item is subbed for something not part of the meal deal so the whole lot gets charged at full price. Tesco were the worse for that I found. 

You will rarely know the exact price you will be paying until your items have been picked and scanned and you receive your final total. 

dealyboy

@sarah1972 said:

Brocade said:

If the offer will have expired on the delivery date I think most supermarkets would show the full price on the shopping basket. I just want to know the price I will be paying for each item, not too much to ask?

It doesn’t work like that. Your basket will show offers, weights etc and it is confirmed on the day it is picked. It works the same the other way too, you may order something on a Tuesday for delivery on a Friday for arguments sake and if it goes on offer between ordering and delivery you get the offer. 

You are charged the current price on delivery day. 

You have the choice to give it back to the driver, I know it can be a nightmare working it out on the receipt but at least you can look before delivery and decide. 

I have ordered a kilo of beef before and had over 2kg delivered and obviously charged for 2 but as I know beforehand I can decide if I want to give it back or keep it. I have stopped ordering meal deals as invariably one item is subbed for something not part of the meal deal so the whole lot gets charged at full price. Tesco were the worse for that I found. 

You will rarely know the exact price you will be paying until your items have been picked and scanned and you receive your final total. 

Just to add ... I believe Sainsbury's show the products' next day (delivery) prices on their website, so products going on or off offer on a Wednesday (typical retail price change day) can be bought on the Tuesday reflecting the new prices.

Brocade

Perhaps it depends where you live, but we have found that Tesco do manage to show the actual price you will pay for each item (you can check the day before for any new offers that might have come in), apart from any items that are charged by weight of course. If tesco can manage to do this, I don't understand why Sainsbury doesn't, unless they want to mislead customers? I can't see any other reason.

sarah1972

Brocade said:

Perhaps it depends where you live, but we have found that Tesco do manage to show the actual price you will pay for each item (you can check the day before for any new offers that might have come in), apart from any items that are charged by weight of course. If tesco can manage to do this, I don't understand why Sainsbury doesn't, unless they want to mislead customers? I can't see any other reason.

The op is saying one item was subbed knocking out the deal. Tesco won’t be able to show you the day before either as subs happen on the day. 

Brocade

Yes of course subs happen on the day, but the point is that Tesco honour the price quoted for the hole of the meal deal or offer, but sainsbury doesn't.

HillStreetBlues

With the deals you are talking about they will use the cheapest products for the deal and you pay for the most expensive items.
So it you have a main, side, desert & wine,  then if say the desert is missing , you pay the highest priced main, side & wine.
If you only wanted the £12 deal,  as well as the missing  desert, you would have to return any main, side & wine, it wouldn't matter what ones you returned.

Mnoee

I get my Sainsburys email receipt about half an hour before they arrive, and I get the earliest time slot of the day. For me that's plenty of time to go through it and see what subs I might want to return etc.

I've found customer services are always happy to sort things out afterwards if the driver is in a hurry. 

My Tesco receipts from last year have clubcard discounts at the end with names like 'Ice cream', which isn't so useful - no supermarket is perfect, I'm happy enough with Sainsbury's, personally. 

Wonka_2

Brocade said:

I ordered a meal deal and the discounted prices for each item were shown on the online basket. The wine came out at £3 something with the double discount (I had ordered 6 bottles or more to qualify for the 25% discount). So I added another meal deal with different items, again, each item was shown at its discounted price.

Are you suggesting you think you'd found a loophole where wine already discounted as part of a meal deal was subsequently further discounted as part of a Buy 6 save 25% deal ? If so I'm not surprised it changed by the time of delivery 

Plenty of exclusions in the T&C's below - but without being a legal guru/knowing the brands involved I'd have expected the Meal Deal would push the wine price under £6 leaving it ineligible for the Buy 6 save 25%

Terms and conditions

The promotion will only show with a slot booked from 14th November 2023. *Excludes bottles under £6 in England or £7 in Wales. Minimum unit pricing applies in Wales. Excludes bottles 200ml and under, all Sainsbury’s House wine, all fortified wine, boxed wine and gift sets. Max 36 bottles. Excludes Centrals, Locals and Scotland. Subject to availability and selected stores only. Offer available on online orders delivered or collected from 14th November 2023. Online delivery charges apply. The licensing laws only permit the sale of alcohol for certain permitted hours. See in store for details. You may be asked to provide ID to prove you’re the required legal age to purchase an age-restricted product. Please drink responsibly.