Help! Tesco coupon policy? I've been banned!

wannasave_2

well said both brummybloke and darren21. At last some voices of reason on this thread and some sensible words on a situation that has been whipped up into a frenzy out of all proportion by the baying crowds :rolleyes:

mossy

I have been reading igloo's awful situation since she posted it yesterday and I have to say that on the basis of how she and her children were treated I do feel the staff overacted and could have dealt with it in a better manner, especially as she had children with her.

Igloo had been warned before by a manager when she was self scanning vouchers and was told only 1 voucher per transaction, to be honest I would have ignored that 1 per transaction comment as well, and I appreciate that she went back to the cashier and left it to them to decide, almost as a part compromise in a way.

However (and I appreciate that this may sound judgemental but please do not take it as such as it is not meant to cause any offense) but personally I feel it does seem a bit greedy when ANYONE trys to cash in such a large amount of vouchers compared to the cost of shop. I appreciate that lots of you do this although I would never have the guts to do it I am more than happy to get 10% off my shopping each week/year. However if we all kept to the 10% that tesco have set then there wouldn't be individual stores only taking 1 voucher per transaction because the system had been abused as it wouldn't be. In all honesty it would be nice if it was higher than 10% (and I suspect you can push it to more than that) but expecting to get 70-90% without any objection from the store is a bit much...isn't it. :think:

If I get 10% off all my shopping for a month thats around £25 a month which is £300 a year which is over a months free shopping every year and I would be very happy with this :dance: , if it was a higher % (if I had that many coupons) that would be even sweeter but when lots of people abuse the system then I agree it will spoil it for all of us.

I appreciate that my opinion may not be the same as many of you (I am a newbie to vouchers).

Having said all that I want to re-confirm that I do really feel for igloo and regardless or whether she was taking it to far considering she had been warned and could be considered as being greedy (although you can't really call someone greedy without knowing their financial situation) she still shouldn't have been intimated by a manager and a security guard, especially with her little ones with her.

Just my humble opinion please don't be cross at me for it. :whistle:

mickydes

i still say the way tesco the dealt with is very very poor.
igloo you said you have a 11000 points on the card what is £110 in tesco vouchers these turn into £440 if you convert.
did you always use coupons to pay for most of shopping ?
also you know about the offer's of the extra points for the 66p beef( buy 3) to get the extra 150 points.
i can see tesco getting a little upset if you were just going out and getting mostly beef or things that just had extra points on then using loads of coupons to pay for them.
as tesco would be giving you back £1.50 in vouchers are £6 if converted and they would not be getting that much cash from you.
thats maybe why they wanted the tesco clubcard from you straight away.
i hope you get everything sorted out asap,and get tesco to say sorry to you on the way a member of staff treated you.
what city and tesco was it ?
also lets remember that tesco know when we use cash,a card or coupons and every item that we buy when we use are clubcards and they will save this info as well.

mossy

keithwjones wrote:

I agree with Darren 21 - This was a total abuse of the system.

The coupons state not to be used to purchase other items.

I believe that the person presenting them and Tescos are committing a joint offence of fraud against the company on the coupon.

I hear what your saying keithwjones and I was concerned about how 'fair' this was when i first heard about coupons, however it is Tescos overall policy to accept coupons for products that you haven't purchased as long as they stock them up to the value of 10% of the total bill.

Tescos then get their money back plus handling fee but as they have had so many customers buying those products (without money off coupons) it covers them as well as us.

biglugs

It appears to me from reading this thread (cos I don't use coupons myself) that the fault lies with Tesco for perpetuating a fraud on the product manufacturers.
As I understand it most coupons state on them that the manufacturers will reimburse the retailer if the coupon is used towards purchase of their goods. By accepting them from customers who haven't bought their product, then reclaiming the money from the manufacturers Tesco MUST be committing either fraud or obtaining money by deception.
I assume that they are allowed to get away with this because:
a. the manufacturers are too scared to complain given Tesco's market dominance
b. the police don't see big companies defrauding other companies as crime?
Whichever it is I have decided that in future I WILL start using coupons wherever I can - particularly if there is someone behind me in the queue who takes umbrage at it, and I shall only use the less than 10 items till if I've got more than 20 items, and I will only pay by cheque if Tesco refuse most of my coupons.
Gotta go - off to get some of that lovely beef to pay for my Disneyland trip next year.

mossy

Tesco are and aren't defrauding the suppliers at the same time. Its a bit of a grey area and open to interpretation.

They accept vouchers that we present even if we haven't purchased the item.

However there will be at least 1 customer who brought the products without a voucher so in effect Tescos have sold one of the products and are redeeming one of the vouchers if you see what I mean.

Perhaps thats how they get away with it...I'm not going to complain about it as some of the vouchers I now use are against products I brought but some aren't

qbatqbat

Whats the betting that after this there will be a new policy that can't be overriden and doesn't allow any coupon use if you don't buy the product. Wouldn't blame them though considering what greif they are getting from all your emails to them for actually allowing limited use of these vouchers :-)

keithwjones

Good points by:

biglugs
mossy
qbatqbat

It appears that most people are afraid to say that this is a total abuse. 10% is fair. 90% and 76% is just abuse and greedy.

What a lot of people are forgetting is that many OAPs rely on the use of these coupons to survive and have done for years.

I am surprised that Tesco have not stopped accepting them unless you buy the goods

poorcat

MrSmartprice wrote:

Pursue this matter as vigorously as you can. And if Tesco turn stroppy, get the local paper involved. They love stuff like this.

We sure do! (I work for a local paper)...
And there's nothing big companies such as Tesco hate more than public embarrassment...

igloo

Well, thanks for the support!

Abusing their coupon policy?

Yes - I had been warned previously whilst using a self-service checkout but because of conflicting "coupon policies" from other members of staff in the same store I emailed head office for the coupon policy. I then followed this to the letter and always went to a checkout with a checkout assistant and not the self-service ones.
After the goods are scanned, I was always up-front and told them that I had coupons ...some for things I had bought....some for things I hadnt.
I NEVER tried to mislead them in any way shape or form. All they had to do was say...I can only take a few, or one, or three...whatever. But, no, they told me what head office had said. One coupon per manufacturer for items not bought.

Its their policy, not mine.

My son keeps asking me why they were nasty to me and took my clubcard off me. :mad: