My Waitrose coupons change of terms and conditions

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star2000
star2000 Posts: 56 Forumite
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in Gone off!
Waitrose have done it again and made yet another change to the terms and conditions for the voucher spend for My Waitrose customers. They normally send me a £8 off £40 voucher which I use each month. When I tried to use it yesterday it would not work and I was told that items such as the Waitrose Food magazine and coffee no longer counted towards the total spend. Apparently this changed 10 days ago and all Waitrose customers are meant to have received an email but I have received nothing. There is also no information on their website or in store about this change in policy. This resulted in me having to hold up the queue to go and get more items I did not really need which was embarrassing and put me under pressure. Their customer service department has been totally unhelpful since and just told me to check my junk mail (which I do anyway and still have not received the email) The voucher itself has a number of exceptions printed on the back and does not state the new terms and conditions. I am waiting for a manager to contact me but this is yet another example of how poor Waitrose customer service is becoming and how they are constantly watering down their offers. I know most people have stopped shopping there already but I was still going just to use the voucher and now won't be bothering any more. :j
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  • starving_artist
    starving_artist Posts: 863 Forumite
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    Thanks for posting this - it confirmed my suspicions. I'm really struggling to spend £10 to get the free newspaper these days so often bump up the spend with the Waitrose Food Magazine. Last weekend it didn't give me the paper and I did wonder if it was because it wasn't including the magazine in the spend but didn't realise the coffee might also not be counted. I haven't had any notification from Waitrose either. Guess I'm going to be shopping even less in Waitrose in future.
  • maman
    maman Posts: 28,587 Forumite
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    My DH has an email (not opened yet) from John Lewis.


    He's a member of a My John Lewis scheme where he gets coffee and cake now and again.


    I wouldn't open his emails but what I noticed from the cover page was that it's an invitation to accept the new Terms and Conditions. To read them you have to click to ' Accept Terms and Conditions'. The email then says that if you do nothing then your membership will be deactivated within 14 days. So you can't read the terms and conditions without accepting them.


    I'm guessing this is part of the same move to worsen customer service. :(


    Shops like Waitrose and Sainsbury's have always charged more for their goods (often identical to those available more cheaply elsewhere) based on a better customer shopping experience. As this erodes then they will drive away more and more customers. If we can work that out, why can't they???
  • mgns
    mgns Posts: 55 Forumite
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    In light of the above posts, does the price of the (free) newspaper still count towards the £10 spend or has that changed as well?
  • k3lvc
    k3lvc Posts: 4,174 Forumite
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    maman wrote: »
    I'm guessing this is part of the same move to worsen customer service. :(

    'Customer Service' is a very different concept to 'giving stuff away' :rotfl:

    maman wrote: »
    Shops like Waitrose and Sainsbury's have always charged more for their goods (often identical to those available more cheaply elsewhere) based on a better customer shopping experience. As this erodes then they will drive away more and more customers. If we can work that out, why can't they???

    Because there comes a point where a significant number of transactions become unprofitable and they have to act. Assuming a shop on a Sunday where you spend £10 inc newspaper (£2.50) and coffee (£2.00) you've given Waitrose £5.50 of your cash. From this £5.50 they're maybe making £1.20 margin on the goods sold and from this are funding your coffee (say 30p) and half the cost of the newspaper (say £1).

    Something in their systems will have shown (through MyWaitrose data) the number of people who are doing this and a decision made on the cost/effect of changing the deal. No loss at all to the more traditional Waitrose shoppers who are spending on higher sums on higher margin (fresh) products


    The next step once handhelds are more widely used could be to target the spend to full value items only i.e. exclude promotional/clearance spend
  • thedogsmum
    thedogsmum Posts: 363 Forumite
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    mgns wrote: »
    In light of the above posts, does the price of the (free) newspaper still count towards the £10 spend or has that changed as well?[/QUOTE

    I never knew, or expected, the free coffee andmagazine could be used toward the spend for a free newspaper. Why would/should it?
  • POPPYOSCAR
    POPPYOSCAR Posts: 14,897 Forumite
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    Customer service is certainly not what it used to be.

    Last week I was overcharged.

    I noticed when I got home and checked the bill.

    Went back two days later.

    They said they would refund the overcharge "this time" but in future to check the bill before leaving the store.
  • LonesomeWanderer
    LonesomeWanderer Posts: 276 Forumite
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    Just a heads up....

    I got caught out yesterday in Waitrose with the free newspaper offer. The Waitrose Food magazine used to be included in the £10 qualifying spend you needed to get the free paper but it seems it isn't anymore. I've had no notice of this from Waitrose and the people at the Welcome desk didn't seem to know about it either - they couldn't even tell me if the coffee and paper were still qualifying items, and all they suggested was that I make sure I spend £10 on other stuff (bit of a training fail there).

    I've just checked the T&Cs on the Waitrose site and there is now a clause to exclude the magazines from qualifying items, but there's no mention of whether the price of the paper and coffee still count toward the £10.

    I understand the need from a business point of view to make sure they're not giving away more than they can afford but the lack of communication about it is pretty appalling.
  • k3lvc
    k3lvc Posts: 4,174 Forumite
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    Covered here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=6000516
  • PennyForThem_2
    PennyForThem_2 Posts: 1,036 Forumite
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    lol I used to pick up 2 per month Food Mags and wondered why this wasn't 'picked up. Yes, I used to drop both off at work amongst 500 potential readers so that is why didn't feel guilty.

    BUT I did wonder why this was allowed considering it was logged against your Waitrose Loyalty Card.

    Waitrose offer free

    coffee
    newspaper after £10 spend
    Food mag
    Health mag
    Drinks Mag
    Lottery
    weekly newspaper re Waitrose

    Think that is a great deal
  • LonesomeWanderer
    LonesomeWanderer Posts: 276 Forumite
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    All the supermarkets are struggling a bit at the moment so I wouldn't be surprised if they make the coffee more limited soon. I still think that they could communicate the changes better though (if only to their own staff!)
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