Supermarket coupon policy

flowerclipper

RustyFlange wrote: »

Just read through the thread from start to finish and whilst I was skeptical about it all I then started to believe it... all until the line highlighted in bold.

If you had been arrested and involved in something like that when you had supposedly done nothing wrong then surely you would not continue to shop there??? If a supermarket did something like that to me then I would never step foot in there again ever! I would also contact the press and go down that route!!!

He took back a duvet cover that I had bought - should have had pillowcases in it and it didn't.

JimmyTheWig

Following Coupon-mad's post, I have completely lost track of this.

I have no idea what a Daily Mail Book token is, but why can Sainsbury's not redeem these, or batches of Supermarket-magazine coupons?

Why do coupons appear in newspapers and magazines that you are not allowed to use? Do the newspapers and magazines know about this?

Where did the 'Same sort of coupons used for a year' text first appear. Looks like it's been quoted, but can;t find reference to it in this thread.


And flowerclipper, have you asked them what they think you have done?


Jim

flowerclipper

Hi Jim,
I did ask the manager who was there the whole time I was being interviewed but he didn't talk to me. I now know from reading police procedure that he wasn't allowed to.
I recently saw a coupon in the Waitrose mag (yoghurt I think) and the same coupon was in the Sainsbury's mag but both said that you could only use it in their own store. They clearly do this so that you shop in their store when in fact the coupon will probably work in any store. I have only found out that you cannot use Daily Mail book coupons in some stores from reading what other MSE'ers have written, otherwise I would have tried to use them anywhere. If a store cannot take a certain coupon they should train their staff properly and tell them not to take it or take it off their tills (not allow it electronically). It is so confusing.

Coupon-mad

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Following Coupon-mad's post, I have completely lost track of this.

I have no idea what a Daily Mail Book token is, but why can Sainsbury's not redeem these, or batches of Supermarket-magazine coupons?

Why do coupons appear in newspapers and magazines that you are not allowed to use? Do the newspapers and magazines know about this?

Where did the 'Same sort of coupons used for a year' text first appear. Looks like it's been quoted, but can;t find reference to it in this thread.


And flowerclipper, have you asked them what they think you have done?
Jim

Hi Jim,
To answer the parts in bold, there is a book token that appears in the Daily Mail once a month but it's supposed to be used in bookshops (but it scans in Supermarkets as they share the same barcode system). If you don't buy the book it will still scan but Supermarkets can't reclaim the whole £4 that the customer gets off their shopping (I believe they can't claim anything back on book tokens but some may 'allow' you to use it if buying the actual book - that depends on the store).

I was making an educated guess that these tokens may have been the coupons flowerclipper has been using, as very few other coupons have been around for a year except various Supermarkets-own coupons which appear most months in their instore magazines. If it was DM book tokens then this would soon get noticed as they would cause a loss of £3.50 or £4 a pop in a store that is unused to coupons.

As for Supermarket magazine coupons, well of course Sainsburys-own ones should only be used if buying the right product (but they will scan anyway, as most such coupons will). Somerfield/Asda/Tesco coupons from their own magazines can only be redeemed by their own stores (and you are supposed to buy the product to use a store's own coupon).

So I think what you may have missed is that flowerclipper did not buy the product stated on the coupons (whatever that product was) over a period of a year or so. That would be a problem in Sainsburys as they don't allow such coupon-use, never have done AFAIK.

'Same sort of coupons used for over a year' was just my way of paraphrasing (not quoting) what flowerclipper had said in an earlier post on the previous page.

HTH

JimmyTheWig

Ah, starting to make sense. Thanks.
So, flowerclipper...
Over the last year, have you used coupons in Sainsburys without buying the product that the coupon was for? Did you know you weren't supposed to do this?
Over the last year, have you used coupons in Sainsburys from another supermarket's magazine that says only to be used in that store? Did you know you weren't supposed to do this?
Over the last year, have you used Daily Mail Book tokens in Sainsburys. Did you know you weren't supposed to do this?

flowerclipper

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Ah, starting to make sense. Thanks.
So, flowerclipper...
Over the last year, have you used coupons in Sainsburys without buying the product that the coupon was for? Did you know you weren't supposed to do this?
Over the last year, have you used coupons in Sainsburys from another supermarket's magazine that says only to be used in that store? Did you know you weren't supposed to do this?
Over the last year, have you used Daily Mail Book tokens in Sainsburys. Did you know you weren't supposed to do this?

1) Over the last year, I have used coupons in Sainsbury's without buying the product because I didn't know that I shouldn't - it is alright to do it in other supermarkets.
2) I may well have done until I read on here that I shouldn't.
3)Only one or two and for books and, no, i didn't know that I shouldn't until recently.
But guess what, Sainsbury's staff don't know any of this either because they took them. They only have to say, sorry but you haven't bought the product, sorry but this is for ???? supermarket, sorry we can't take book coupons and I wouldn't have given them. Did not force any cashier, they took them willingly. As is the covert practice of Sainsbury's according to the article I mentioned earlier. If there was a visible coupon policy you would abide by it.
I don't use coupons in Morrisons or Lidl because they don't take them.

JimmyTheWig

Ok, well I do believe that we've now got enough of the facts to know what their problem is. We're making progress.

You've done something, on numerous occaisions over the past year, that is against Sainsburys' policy.

It comes down to, then, whether the supermarket should have made its coupon policy visible, and whose responsibility it is to follow the rules.

If a shop didn't have a notice about shoplifters being prosecuted and I went into that shop and stole something in view of a staff member who didn't challenge me (maybe I looked threatening), I think that shop have the right to call the police on me.

I don't think your case is as clear cut as that (everyone knows shoplifting is illegal, but not everyone knows you can only use a coupon for, say, Ribena if you buy Ribena) and so the question is where the line is drawn.

Then there's the further complication of evidence. They've got evidence that you did it on the day in question, because you admitted to it. But what evidence can they have that you have done it on numerous times over the past year?

Plus it's complicated further still by the fact that they broke procedures, which may help you get off on a technicality.

Not an easy situation. What legal advice have you had?

taxiphil

I don't think you can draw any comparisons with shoplifting.

It's irrelevant whether the coupons handed over were out of date, or for a different supermarket, or whether signs were on display, or whatever.

This is a simple case of civil contract law and the police should never have got involved. The coupons were tendered in exchange for goods. Offer, consideration and acceptance took place, and the contract was formed.

You could offer a dead pig as a form of payment, and if the cashier chooses to accept it, the contract is formed.

I would be looking to make a formal complaint against the police for wrongful arrest and imprisonment over something that was never a criminal matter.

cybervic

flowerclipper, I do believe your story but I really think the store should be named and shamed. They shouldn't have let you use the MOCs for a year if it was against their policy.

JimmyTheWig

taxiphil wrote: »

This is a simple case of civil contract law and the police should never have got involved. The coupons were tendered in exchange for goods. Offer, consideration and acceptance took place, and the contract was formed.

You could offer a dead pig as a form of payment, and if the cashier chooses to accept it, the contract is formed.

But what if you pretended that dead pig was a fifty pound note? And the cashier believed you. That would be fraud. Which, presumably, isn't civil law.
[Note that I know nothing about law!]

Are they saying (and here we are back to guesswork as we don't really know what they are saying) that when the coupons were tendered, flowerclipper was implying that they were valid and that's the basis on which the cashier took them?
Is "pretending" that a coupon is valid any different to pretending that a dead pig is a fifty pound note?