Matalan and Students...

pulliptears

Went into town on saturday to do a bit of shopping. Being a good moneysaver I used my NUS Extra student card getting 10% off wherever possible. I usually get to the checkout, show the card and the SA presses a button and the till knocks off 10%. Easy. After making several purchases and using it like that through town i went to Matalan....

In Matalan I pick up a duvet set for my son, £10. Matalan give a 10% discount so I know I can save a £1. Not a lot, but every little helps! (wrong store lol). Anyway, I get to the till and present my purchase and card. The SA then has to go to the desk and get a printed student discount pad. On this pad she has to write what Ive bought, the transaction number from the till, the numbers and expiry from my NUS card, date, time, total, total after discount etc etc. All in all it took the poor girl ten minutes to process a discount of £1.

Ive never known a shop to have such a ridiculous system for processing Student discount. I felt so guilty at one point I told her it didnt matter, but as she rightly pointed out it's Matalan's ridiculous policy thats at fault and Im entitled to that saving.

So, the award for the most off putting, awkward and time consuming way to perform a discount goes to Matalan!

MissEyre

Not defending them, as it does sound like a stupidly long process, but perhaps they have had problems with staff authorising student discount for friends and family, so have had to introduce this to make sure that only people who are entitled to it actually get it? It must have been annoying though.

pulliptears

MissEyre wrote: »

Not defending them, as it does sound like a stupidly long process, but perhaps they have had problems with staff authorising student discount for friends and family, so have had to introduce this to make sure that only people who are entitled to it actually get it? It must have been annoying though.

I asked that question actually and the SA told me the system has always been like that nationwide. Probably a Matalan ploy to stop you gaining discount by making it as time consuming as possible

hollydays

Are these cards easy to obtain fraudulently?

98jdougl

It's partly because matalan only accept nus extra cards (the ones you pay for) rather than the normal student cards which most places accept as student id I think, although could be confusing this with somewhere else

pulliptears

hollydays wrote: »

Are these cards easy to obtain fraudulently?

No Holly, you have to pay a £10 fee a year to have an NUS Extra card, your photo is on it as well.

98jdougl wrote:

It's partly because matalan only accept nus extra cards (the ones you pay for) rather than the normal student cards which most places accept as student id I think, although could be confusing this with somewhere else

Ahh but, McDonalds, Shoezone and a few other places only accept NUS but again you dont have to go through all that

kr15snw

Ah yes, but our student union is pretty slack. They dont take details of whos bought them and they give them to you so that you can write your own name / signature. And add your own photo. Then put the plastic sheet over it yourself, to seal it.

This means if I wanted I could have copies for all my friends!

Barrets are pretty long winded when I was in there the other day. They also had a form that they had to put my number on, my date of birth, my name, my uni she had to sign it and i had to sign it. Then how I paid for it and the code for each product I was buying. Lol, poor woman said she hates students :P But I can understand why!

pulliptears

kr15snw wrote: »

Ah yes, but our student union is pretty slack. They dont take details of whos bought them and they give them to you so that you can write your own name / signature. And add your own photo. Then put the plastic sheet over it yourself, to seal it.

This means if I wanted I could have copies for all my friends!

Barrets are pretty long winded when I was in there the other day. They also had a form that they had to put my number on, my date of birth, my name, my uni she had to sign it and i had to sign it. Then how I paid for it and the code for each product I was buying. Lol, poor woman said she hates students :P But I can understand why!

Really? Mine came direct from NUS Extra (free with th Lloyds student account) so it was all done when I recieved it, but I see what you mean about it being open to fraud.

I think some of these companies are just trying to discourage us from using the cards. I cant see why they need to do all of that for just 10%. Not used it in Barrats so cant comment there, but like I said everywhere else Ive never had a problem.

My other gripe is the free McFlurry at McD's cos Im getting fat :rotfl::rotfl:

Gingernutmeg

hollydays wrote: »

Are these cards easy to obtain fraudulently?

Yes, they are (or at least they were lol). The SU president at my uni was chucked out for selling them on a well known auction site. I noticed piles of the cards on the desks whenever I used the SU office - if you're not honest they're easy to get hold of, and easy to use fraudulently.

tinkerbell84

pulliptears wrote: »

In Matalan I pick up a duvet set for my son, £10. Matalan give a 10% discount so I know I can save a £1. Not a lot, but every little helps! (wrong store lol). Anyway, I get to the till and present my purchase and card. The SA then has to go to the desk and get a printed student discount pad. On this pad she has to write what Ive bought, the transaction number from the till, the numbers and expiry from my NUS card, date, time, total, total after discount etc etc. All in all it took the poor girl ten minutes to process a discount of £1.

I went in a few days ago and picked up some bedding in their sale.

Same process for the student discount, but it took the sales assistant about 90 seconds to complete the form. I was more than happy given the discount it got me.

Can't see what could take someone 10 minutes - there are only about 6 fields to complete, and 2 of those are the SA's name and signature!

pulliptears

tinkerbell84 wrote: »

I went in a few days ago and picked up some bedding in their sale.

Same process for the student discount, but it took the sales assistant about 90 seconds to complete the form. I was more than happy given the discount it got me.

Can't see what could take someone 10 minutes - there are only about 6 fields to complete, and 2 of those are the SA's name and signature!

She hadnt done it very often apparently and kept having to go to other SA's for help, then she couldnt find transaction numbers etc etc. She said she had worked there for 5 years as well!!