Misleading shelf labelling on meal deals

pdarc

A small but important issue that I’d like opinion from the forum.

I went to my local supermarket (one of the big chains) and decided to buy their meal deal: Sandwich, snack and drink. I selected the items that had the shelf edge banner which indicated that the items were in the meal deal, but on checking out the offer didn’t work because the snack wasn’t included in the offer.

I discussed it with a member of staff and they told me that despite the snack being on a shelf which clearly had a shelf edge banner that goes across the entire shelf saying “Lunch meal deal SNACK” that the shelf has a mix of products included and excluded and the only way to know is to look below the banner label on the price label where it will have a smaller blue box and state it is included. Below is a photo showing the shelves and I mistakenly thought all these products were included in the offer, but in actual fact a fair few are not because they don't have the smaller blue box.

I told the member of staff that this is very confusing but would not offer to rectify this. I subsequently wrote to head office where they responded with the following “The shelf edge banner does not mean this item is included. We understand the confusion but all items included will have a shelf edge label with a meal deal icon on it.”

I lost out on a couple of quid, no big deal, but I just think this is misleading and not fair on consumers in general especially in the middle of a cost of living crisis.

I doubt trading standards will do anything about this as it’s a low value, but I wanted the opinion of the forum:

1.       Am I in the wrong here and do people think that the retailer actually made their offer clear enough?

2.       If not, and I want to take it further, what options do I have to pursue this and force the retailer to change so that they stop misleading people?

Thanks

TELLIT01

I've bought many meal deals over the years and never been mislead by the labelling.  As staff and head office explained, there are labels on the items and on the shelves showing what is included in the meal deals.

Largs

I do find the Co-op meal deal confusing too.  The customer service at the helpline is pretty rubbish as well so the reply sums them up really.  I complained recently that the member prices were not coming off at the till, this was across veg, bakery and ambient items.  They wanted a photo of the receipt and credited me with 8p. (the difference in price of 1 loaf despite me telling them it has been happening for a week) so they think me spending time writing and pointing out their mistakes and then sending photos etc is worth 8p.  Vote with your feet is all I can say. 

swingaloo

I dont see the issue. the items included have a sticker on them to say they are included therefore if they dont have a sticker I would assume they are not part of the deal.

elsien

If it had been me, I’d probably just have gone back and changed the snack for something that was included. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I think it’s misleading, if the whole shelf has snack on it then everything on the shelf should be part of the deal, perhaps you could go back to head office and ask them if their display would be classed as a prohibited commercial practice that would alter the transactional decision of the average consumer and thus be in breach of the Consumer Protection From Unfair Trading Regulations.

If your local trading standards has a direct email listed here:

https://www.tradingstandards.uk/consumer-help/

you could cc them in, they probably won’t reply to you but might take note or it might encourage Coop to think harder about their actions.

Either it’s deliberate or it’s stupid, doubt they’d admit to either.

If you buy a reduced item, in Coop at least, it will count that as a meal deal item if it is one, given the reduced stuff is elsewhere how would you know so you can get caught out by that as well, you’d expect reduced items to be excluded from other deals. 

The two times we ended up over paying on a meal deal head office credited the difference in points, no points now so not sure what they would do if it happens again. 

badmemory

I would have just returned the lot.  I am suspicious.  I wonder if these items are shelved like that just so that we make exactly that mistake.

double_dutchy

Absolutely I think this is deliberate. Years ago I used to get Boots meal deals and they would often have included items interspersed with excluded items - the items themselves had no indication so it was all about where they were located.

Fortunately I'm the type of person who is happy to dispute this at the checkout. If I checked out and I didn't get the expected price I would query and change if necessary

tibawo

I agree that it is misleading but would have changed my snack. Mislabelling is annoying.
However, i’ve also had items that are cheaper than the shelf edge label but i let them slide!!

Tesco have some club card offer stuff at moment where shelf edge label states half price. 
My maths teacher taught me half of 18 was 9. He was wrong as Tesco say it’s £13.50!

littleboo

If the retailer responds with "We understand the confusion.." isn't that tacit agreement that they know that their choice of labelling can cause confusion for the consumer

pinkshoes

I use the self service checkouts so if it doesn't come up as the meal deal (as they aren't always clear) I can then just abandon the transaction and go find something else that is in the meal deal.