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

Fifer

You mean in the same way that the music on a cd you've bought becomes your property when you buy a cd? The only thing that is 'your property' when you buy a magazine is the stationary it's printed on little else, and certainly not material belonging to a third party who have happened to distribute a coupon within the mag.

The music on a CD is in no way analogous to a printed coupon in a magazine. I think that, unintentionally you've illustrated the very point I was trying to make. When you buy a CD, you own the physical disc and the packaging, but not the IP (in this case, the music). Similarly, when you buy a magazine, you own the paper and ink, but not the IP (the stories, article, pictures and adverts). However, what Tesco is accepting is a piece of paper with ink on. They view it as a token. The only control that the company sponsoring the voucher has is that provided by law, which pretty much covers unauthorised reproduction or copying and not much else. Just as a Metallica cannot stop you from exchanging the physical media (the CD) you have purchased for money or other items (it's yours to sell, exchange or give away), so Birds Eye cannot stop you selling or exchanging all or part of the magazine, even if it is a Bird's Eye coupon in part payment for Findus fish fingers.

However, if Tesco then claim to Bird's Eye that they took the voucher in exchage for Bird's Eye fish fingers and tried for reimbursement, that would be fraud. As I said though, that is not the customer's problem.

What does strike me as very odd though, is that Tesco cannot program their tills to check whether more than a certain number of coupons have been scanned for products not purchased. It would seem pretty straight forward and would solve all these problems.

ben500

They can, they just haven't. they have however set an upper limit of £50.00 at which point the checkout operator gets a screen telling him or her to call supervision.

It is therefore not advisable to go over this limit and draw unnecessary attention to yourself.

AFAIK Asda have no such limit built into their systems, Somerfield do not but don't need one as their policy is not to accept unless you purchase the product, Sainsbury again I am not sure about but I'm pretty confident the duff systems that they do have, posess the facilities to do so.

windym_2

I concur with ben500 and Fifer. At the end of the day igloo has to decide what she wants out of all of this and what she is going to do regarding shopping at any Tesco in the future.

As for the points, you can whip them up easily, they used to give 4500 points for taking out a life policy, you could pay your first months premium of a fiver and then cancel. Both of you doing that a few times a year certainly bumped it up. They have stopped that now but they are always offering something and yes, it may cost you a little in the outset but the returns are fabulous. It is worth the hassle. We are off in 2 weeks on a golfing holiday, which is absolutely free, paid for with vouchers. Not bad for all travel, hotel, 3 of us and at peak time! Think of Tesco as a savings policy, you pay in with money, get a bit of interest in the form of groceries/petrol etc but the payout is BIG!

bylromarha

Igloo. have nothing to add to anything already on here as I know nothing legal nor technical.

I do know I would be fuming if I had been treated they way you have been.

I also thank you for posting as I am now prepared for this to happen next time I present a Joey.

I also hope that this incident will make tesco finally come up with a coupon policy which is adhered to by each and every member of staff in whichever store you enter...and that the tills flag up if you step over their clearly drawn lines.

All the best with getting this resolved.

newfoundglory

ben500 wrote:

Which would be a cut and dried breach of the Data Protection Act but that's another story.

Definitely!

If they breach the DPA make sure you do them for it. It would be a *BIG* kick in the balls to Tesco. The Data Protection Act is extremely powerful, more so than people realise, and is enough to bring even the largest companies to their knees.

You would be surprised how bloody fast a company with zero customer service gets its act together when just the threat of a report to the Information Commissioner comes into the equation.

Roger_Rampant

I find it really amusing that somebody appears to have suggested that Igloo has committed fraud. Igloo has offered coupons to Tesco which Tesco can exchange for payment. Tesco give Igloo goods, she gives them payment. Nobody has committed fraud

The company that manufacture the goods might be unhappy that they will be giving money to Tesco, but none of their goods have actually been sold. That is something that the manufacturer of the goods needs to take up with Tesco

Igloo is not obtaining goods by deception, nor is she committing fraud. The fly in the ointment is Tesco' coupon policy

Martini

brummybloke wrote:

haha im not going to get into any kind of slanging match with someone who doesnt know his !!!!!! from his elbow. you cant even get simple legal terminology correct.

maybe if you look up unlawful detention or false imprisonment in blackstones??? she was legally detained as she had commited fraud ( a criminal offence if you didnt know) they could have wasted their time calling the police but instead decided not to waste their time, unlike some suggestions that she should have called the police, they have then retrieved their property.

dont tell me what law i know and dont know because you are barking up the wrong tree, i suggest you keep to the good advise you give people on letters of complaint and leave the legal advice to people who know what they are talking about.

sheeeesh.

Ben has better punctuation and grammer though! - LOL

Roger_Rampant

you cant even get simple legal terminology correct

Ironically you have spelt advice two different ways in the post that martini has quoted, one spelling is correct and one isn't...

Al_Mac

Getting a bit boring now.

Igloo used vouchers which Tesco accepted. Management type didn't like this, probably something in his performance management assessment, he rashly detained Igloo, possibly illegaly.

Igloo needs to either take this to the police, which would be my advice, or forget it.

I'm in no way trained in a legal sense, just common. And if I don't use word my spelling and grammer are rubbish.

I'm sure Igloo likes the advice, but not everyone getting noughty with each other.

:beer:

Roger_Rampant

IMO the police are a waste of time. Better to take it to Tesco head office, more chance of being compensated and the staff involved being reprimanded