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

nightsong

Just wanted to say I thought Jon C's post was excellent, if I were going through this that's exactly the sort of advice I'd want.

And to the posters who are nitpicking about how many points she had, were the coupons out of date, etc etc, I'd like to say - these points are completely irrelevant. The issue is one of intimiation and possible criminal behaviour by Tesco staff. How would you feel as a mother of two small children if you'd been treated like that? A little empathy is in order here IMHO.

thepearce

dollywops wrote:

Benji, I am sorry, but you are wrong. The CS Manager at the Watford Extra, which I believe is among the top 10 in the country, told me that the coupon policy relating to all money off coupons is entirely at the discretion of the store manager. This store manager has said he will no longer take any money off coupons unless the product is brought. There are signs up at ever till saying this. This would not be happening if he were not allowed his discretion, would it?

The following is the (National) coupon policy, as advised, on several occasions, by HQ :

---

Any coupons, which display the Tesco logo, are Tesco specific. We only accept these if the products referred to on the coupons are purchased. This is because we negotiate savings with our suppliers on the condition that these actual products will be purchased.

With regard to coupons from brand name manufacturers, we are happy to accept one, even if you have not purchased the product. However, the coupon must be in date and Tesco must sell the item. If you present more than one identical coupon, then you must purchase the same number of products.

This also applies to coupons printed from the Internet. However, these will only be accepted at the discretion of the Store Manager.

---

Looking at that it shows whilst *Internet* coupons are accepted at the store manager's discretion this should not be the case for brand name coupons.

Where using coupons for goods you have not purchased they will accept *one* - but the way I read this is one per coupon type (ie not 3 "joeys"). This is often interpreted as one in total by stores. (would they still accept one if I asked for all my shopping to go through as seperate transactions?)

The trouble is many stores come up with their own policies, which confuses their own staff, and their customers. I realise Tesco do not need to accept coupons but their policy shows they have chosen to do so - the treatment I have received when attempting to follow this has been poor, to rude at times and I have never tried to use such high percentage of coupons vs total spend. I would be happy with a % limit, so long as there is some consistency.

Del_Boy_Gupta

Nightsong

I am not nitpicking abouth the points, I am just pointing out that if the coupons were out of date it is irrelevent if the staff were putting them through the tills or not as the point was that you were buying goods via decitful means- there is no difference to using out of date coupons or using forged currency to buy products. As such this could explain why the cs manager decided to have a word

As for the points situation, the amount of points suggest that igloo was a regular user and so could have been doing shopping on a very regular basis , a number of times per week always buying with the same coupons. If you read the small print on most interent coupons it says only 1 to be printed, so if you keep reusing it then again you are doing soemthing deceitfully.

don't mena to infer anything which is why I was asking- whilst we had igloo's side which i agree appears to be heavy handed, there are always two sides to the story and i just wanted to get a fuller picture before we started to make judgements about Tesco's etc.

(and by the way i am in no way affiliated to Tesco's!)

pmat

Are you the manager???

ohreally

Benji wrote:

If we really wanted to get this matter taken seriously, we could each spare a 30p stamp and send a similar letter to:

Mr Terry Leahy

Chief Executive

Tesco PLC

Delamare Road

Cheshunt, Herts

EN8 9SL

In my experience - and I have a little - Mr Leahy WILL take notice ~ he values the reputation of his company

Search on Google for the identities of Tesco executive directors and email them,Tesco corporate email suffix is @uk.tesco.com (try for example john.smith@.........).


Edit:- an email addressed to terry.leahy@uk.tesco.com didn't bounce so you may get an ear to bite there.

mossy

Good luck igloo I hope you managed to get this sorted out satisfactorily. I think its fair to say that part of this problem is due to Tescos inconsistent policy. I think its very good that Tescos will accept vouchers even if you haven't brought the product, I think 10% or maybe more of non purchased products coupons for the value of the shop would benefit all of us. We would get money off our shopping and Tescos makes money cos we shop from them and they get the rebate anyway (at the end of the day tescos will sell loads of these products to customers who don't use the coupons) so everyone will be happy :j

Fundamentaly regardless or how many vouchers igloo OFFERED for payment there was absolutely no need for Tescos to treat her in such a dreadful manner ESPECIALLY when she had little ones with her.

cheapaschips_2

Just a thought...

Why not get all MSE'ers to hammer tesco with vouchers? lets test the system.
If nothing else it may make them clarify their policy countrywide wether that be to tighten up or losen off.

What do you all think?

cpjackso

Another thanks for Jon_C's post - thats very good advice.

• Make sure you send your letters recorded (or special).
• Make sure you set time-limits for them to reply (14 days say).
• Make sure your letters are clear/concise and they set out that you have contacted the police and they are investigating and that you will not let this drop.
• Make sure you list what *YOU* want the outcomes of the Head Office investigation to be (apology, compensation).
• You could email your complaints - however I'd always follow it up with actual printed, recorded delivery letters.
• Try the CCTV request - this might get them thinking about what they did because it'll cost them in 000's. (They may fob you off with something about a case late last year which said stores didn't have to provide CCTV, however the case clearly said that stores which used cameras that can focus on individuals and zoom up etc. ARE covered AFAIK).
• I personally wouldn't contact the store - you'll probably just get fobbed off, ie. "Oh - I'll speak to the member of staff" and they'll forget it. It's gone much further than this - you need a written and verbal apology directly from the store manager and security guard and cash compensation. You also want the store managers and cashiers at your store to be able to recite the coupon policy backwards. You also want your "ban" lifted.
• I'd hint about going to the papers - you might know a journalist etc. - but I'd hold this back for a day or two.

If I were you I'd contact the police again - using some of ben500's language - they falsely imprisoned you and your children. You asked to leave - they wouldn't let you. That's the definition of false imprisonment. You'd like them to take the case forward and question the manager and security guard. Push them - often they'd prefer to fob you off so they don't have to fill in the paper work, I know how difficult it can be but keep trying. Maybe rather than phone the police go down to the station or organise an appointment with them, they'll often take you much more seriously if you see them in person. Make sure you put across how worried you were for you and your childrens safety when you were locked up in a room with two men intimidating you when you had done nothing wrong.

You could also mention about assault - mainly if they touched you (ie. put a hand on your arm). Assault can also be proved if you were scared they were going to assault you, but didn't actually AFAIK (maybe the lawyers can comment?). If they did touch you (and therefore did assault you) - get the *police* to secure the CCTV footage for you.

igloo - Get them to beg for mercy

cpjackso

cheapaschips wrote:

Why not get all MSE'ers to hammer tesco with vouchers? lets test the system.
If nothing else it may make them clarify their policy countrywide wether that be to tighten up or losen off.

Ooops - I thought we were already hammering tescos with all our vouchers .

dawny10

thepearce wrote:

The following is the (National) coupon policy, as advised, on several occasions, by HQ :

---

Any coupons, which display the Tesco logo, are Tesco specific. We only accept these if the products referred to on the coupons are purchased. This is because we negotiate savings with our suppliers on the condition that these actual products will be purchased.

With regard to coupons from brand name manufacturers, we are happy to accept one, even if you have not purchased the product. However, the coupon must be in date and Tesco must sell the item. If you present more than one identical coupon, then you must purchase the same number of products.

This also applies to coupons printed from the Internet. However, these will only be accepted at the discretion of the Store Manager.

---

Looking at that it shows whilst *Internet* coupons are accepted at the store manager's discretion this should not be the case for brand name coupons.

Where using coupons for goods you have not purchased they will accept *one* - but the way I read this is one per coupon type (ie not 3 "joeys"). This is often interpreted as one in total by stores. (would they still accept one if I asked for all my shopping to go through as seperate transactions?)

The trouble is many stores come up with their own policies, which confuses their own staff, and their customers. I realise Tesco do not need to accept coupons but their policy shows they have chosen to do so - the treatment I have received when attempting to follow this has been poor, to rude at times and I have never tried to use such high percentage of coupons vs total spend. I would be happy with a % limit, so long as there is some consistency.

I have a letter from a Customer Service Executive at Tesco Head Office saying that they do have a national policy but individual store manager's have the discretion to overide this if they believe there has been an abuse of the policy. Basically my local store decided to ban coupons unless you bought the product - I queried this with head office and they told me the Manager was within his rights to do this.