Cafe Nero deleting stamped cards from the app

thedr

I regularly visit Cafe Nero, and had amassed a lot of fully stamped cards on the app (around 20 at one point). As a good money saving strategy, I wait until a card is about to expire, then use it. And that way I spread out my freebies throughout the year.

Just recently I looked in my app, and saw that there were only 5 stamped cards. Upon enquiring I was given what seemed to be a very prepared answer that discounted coffees don't qualify for stamps. What they did not admit to, was that they'd gone through all of my coffees from previous purchases that had been awarded stamps, and retrospectively deleted them.

So, I fully admit that I do use a discount code, and I fully agree that if the policy is "If it's discounted then you don't get a stamp" then that's fair. 

However, 2 points:

• It seems grossly unfair to retrospectively go through a digital account (which is giving Nero a lot of information about me) and delete stamps without even telling me. If I'd used paper stamps, would they have come knocking on my door to demand them back? I don't think so, so as far as I can see, there's a huge disadvantage in using the app (in case their policy changes yet again in the future and more stamps are deleted retrospectively)
• By all means change your policy on stamps, but don't apply them retrospectively. If a card is fully stamped, it's fully stamped. I guess legally there's no basis for this, but morally.

I had a trawl around the net and saw similar stories, people reporting that cards had "disappeared" from their app.

Now in fairness, the nice people in my local Nero seemed to know immediately what I was talking about, and had obviously been directed to hand out some stamped cards if a customer complained. But I got back 3 cards, hardly the same that I lost.

So this has forced me to take a step back from the environmentally friendly (paperless) app and return to paper stamps. Is this what Nero's wanted? And my consumer loyalty has been wrecked. Once my remaining stamps are claimed, I won't be coming back.

I wondered if anyone else had noticed what they've done? This for me would be a very interesting topic for Martin to cover on his podcast or show.

powerful_Rogue

Seems fair enough on Cafe Neros part. You wasn't entitled to the stamps and they removed them as it was against the T&C's you agreed to.

MattMattMattUK

thedr said:

I regularly visit Cafe Nero, and had amassed a lot of fully stamped cards on the app (around 20 at one point). As a good money saving strategy, I wait until a card is about to expire, then use it. And that way I spread out my freebies throughout the year.

Just recently I looked in my app, and saw that there were only 5 stamped cards. Upon enquiring I was given what seemed to be a very prepared answer that discounted coffees don't qualify for stamps. What they did not admit to, was that they'd gone through all of my coffees from previous purchases that had been awarded stamps, and retrospectively deleted them.

So, I fully admit that I do use a discount code, and I fully agree that if the policy is "If it's discounted then you don't get a stamp" then that's fair. 

However, 2 points:

• It seems grossly unfair to retrospectively go through a digital account (which is giving Nero a lot of information about me) and delete stamps without even telling me. If I'd used paper stamps, would they have come knocking on my door to demand them back? I don't think so, so as far as I can see, there's a huge disadvantage in using the app (in case their policy changes yet again in the future and more stamps are deleted retrospectively)
• By all means change your policy on stamps, but don't apply them retrospectively. If a card is fully stamped, it's fully stamped. I guess legally there's no basis for this, but morally.

I had a trawl around the net and saw similar stories, people reporting that cards had "disappeared" from their app.

Now in fairness, the nice people in my local Nero seemed to know immediately what I was talking about, and had obviously been directed to hand out some stamped cards if a customer complained. But I got back 3 cards, hardly the same that I lost.

So this has forced me to take a step back from the environmentally friendly (paperless) app and return to paper stamps. Is this what Nero's wanted? And my consumer loyalty has been wrecked. Once my remaining stamps are claimed, I won't be coming back.

I wondered if anyone else had noticed what they've done? This for me would be a very interesting topic for Martin to cover on his podcast or show.

You were cheating the system, you knew you were cheating the system, you expected them to stop you cheating the system at some point and now you are annoyed that has happened. I do not imagine they will see your loss of custom as a loss and I cannot imagine Martin covering it, "Consumer cheating system gets comeuppance and throws toys out of pram" is not usually the headline he goes after, even if he has picked some odd causes to champion in the past.