Misleading 3 for 2 offers on website

demeter · 26 November 2018 at 5:00PM

I had a look at how Ocado does a similar offer Buy 2 get one half price. No problem if you add 2 items same price - discount is half the price of one item. Add a cheaper item and the discount is lower. It appears to be one quarter the price of the expensive item plus one quarter the price of the cheaper item. That is not the offer as advertised, Add another of the cheaper items, making two of each, and the discount is correct at half the price of the expensive item plus half the price of the cheaper item.

The_Miser · 28 November 2018 at 1:47PM

Planahead wrote: »

Thanks both - it was an online shop - I added the first three items in my basket - so one product x 3.
Then the second product - x 3.
I've got my money back via customer services but this seems sharp practice - the store has said:
There can be a slight confusion in that, our system will work out a percentage rather than provide the items for free. Whatever the percentage of the saving,this will be applied across the items as a whole rather than charging them as zero.
I think this is very misleading and bad practice - I wonder how many others have thought they were getting a deal but then didn't bother to check [very badly laid out] receipt/invoice!

Just shows that a) read the small print, b) check your receipt slip VERY carefully c) question what you don't understanmd and d) complain to Head Office if you think a fast one is being pulled (they probably don't realise) IF you have a nearly genuinely complainmt Head Office will normally accommodate you

I have a small rucksack with a "lifetime guarantee" After perhaps 15 years I sent it back - they had moved but it got to the manufacturers and I got a new one IF you have a genuine complaint at least always try - it usually works

demeter · 3 December 2018 at 8:37PM

The CEO's office said that the correct 3for2 savings should be applied when the order is prepared for delivery or collection. They asked me to make an order and get in touch if the 3for2 saving was wrong and that I would get a refund if I was overcharged.
This is the statement in Tesco's Ts&Cs about discounts being wrong:
I haven't received my discounts
First of all, please accept our apologies. If you fill in our Contact Us form and provide your order number (and information about the discounts you expected to receive) we'll investigate the problem and get back to you.
Sounds like they know they get it wrong sometimes.

Online the 3for2 saving is calculated as the cheapest 3for2 item(s). My guess is that they want to show the lowest possible 3for2 saving in case items are out of stock or substituted. When checking out online a card payment is pre-authorised for £2 (this is in the Ts&Cs). The actual price is worked out and charged when the order is prepared. If they use the store POS system then the 3for2 saving should be correct. If not the Ts&Cs say that they will look at it and might sort it out. They really should make this clearer when ordering.

I will look at ordering online when I need to stock up on 3for2 items if only to test Tesco's system. But I probably would be better off just shopping at the local superstore, where the online order would be prepared anyway.

alanq · 4 December 2018 at 9:27AM

I have just noticed a much lesser problem with ASDA where the discount is miscalculated even when all the items in a multibuy are the same price.

Soups any 6 for £4. I ordered 12 so should have been charged £8. Non-discounted price of each soup was £1.07. So full price would be 12*£1.07=£12.84 and I expected a discount of £4.84 to be applied. The actual discount was £4.82.

My guess is that instead of the above simple calculation a more complex one was performed that resulted in rounding errors.

Just to add to confusion the order confirmation email that I received showed a £4.83 discount so the calculation is being performed differently by ordering and billing software.

demeter · 28 January 2019 at 6:45PM

I've just had a look at the Asda Groceries online ordering and could not reproduce that problem. Maybe the system has now been fixed and updated since the post on 4th Dec. The discount did show correctly as £4.84 but I did not go as far as ordering and and getting a confirmation email. The issue here is that when dividing by 3 (or a multiple of 3) when there is a remainder it will be 1 or 2 i.e. this gives 0.333...p or 0.666...p to be rounded down or up. Depending on how the items are grouped in the calculation then the rounding could be different. There would only be a problem if the charge on the final bill was not the £4 for 6 items, £8 for 12 items, etc... as per the offer.

I did check what Asda does if there is a mix of items qualifying for the offer. They seem to get it right as when I put 7 items from the 6 for £4 offer in the basket the best discount was given. i.e. 6 items at 95p and 1 item at £1.07 was charged at £4.95 meaning that the higher cost item was included in the 6 for £4 offer and the cheapest item was not included and charged at 95p.

demeter · 19 April 2019 at 7:41PM

Not much more to add other that to say that the problem seems to be the way that Tesco, and some other retailers, run online shopping. They may not deliver exactly what you ordered or give the discounts/offers advertised. I'm sure that it is a useful if not vital service for people who can't get to a store but some of us are used to ordering from retailers like Amazon where we can expect to get exactly what we ordered at the price agreed.

Misleading 3 for 2 offers on website

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