Local Asda told me today, the price guarantee voucher is no longer accepted, why?

simesb · 6 December 2015 at 11:11PM

Not had 50p increments before, but throughout November the APG vouchers have been a nightmare. The acceptance policy seems to have changed weekly and clearly the scanners and staff knowledge cannot keep up, never mind us customers. What was quickly scanned (the top right EAN13 barcodes) with previous till receipt number quickly operator-cross-checked is no more.
No barcodes at all are now scanning, Asda can't accept vouchers because of not being printed properly, oblique suggestions of fraud on my part. Eventually supervisors/operators of sufficient grade have to be called who had to tap ALL in the numbers and amounts which took several minutes, of course which makes nonsense of printing barcodes in the first place.
They've added the bottom 20 digit Code 128 barcode at only 47mm width, thus virtually requiring all home printers to be in perfect condition and print at least 2400 dpi. I have been told that in the future anything that doesn't scan won't be accepted. Its a nonsense, Asda please get your act together.

trinidadone · 14 December 2015 at 11:14PM

I experinced issues once again with a coupon. I presented the coupon to the checkout person, and was told it was not vfalid as it was not scanning. I advised the checkout worker to tap in the long number, she did and still noithing. a supervisor was called, and i was advised, because there is a single line through the bar code, it could not read it, i advised, the numbers needed to be tapped in manually, and the supervisor said, the checkout staff are not allowed to do this.

Using these coupons are becoming very challenging indeed to use in asda

PenguinOfDeath · 15 December 2015 at 12:06AM

I had an issue using a Ristorante pizza 'try me free' vouchee in asda, took forever with two staff trying to get it to work, in the end it did work but it didn't flag up on the till until they checked the receipt. Very odd 'update'

akh43 · 21 December 2015 at 12:22AM

I had similar issues so emailed Asda Customer Services and the response I got was

Thank you for your email. I am sorry about your recent experience with the coupons. I would like to let you know, that we still accept third party coupons. The software has been changed in the Asda Stores, and processing the coupons have been rather challenging since. But I can confirm that you shouldn't have been refused to use yours. I have spoken a service section leader in the store, who advised that they will be happy to try again next time you are in the store. If the machines don't accept the coupons again, they will enter the numbers manually and override the rejection.

Once again I am sorry for any inconvenience.

I have printed their response, along with my 2 page complaint email and although my coupons still do not work in store, once I show them the email then they manage to input them manually.

simesb · 31 December 2015 at 8:25PM

Just lately things have slitely improved on the Asda self printed APG vouchers.

It seems now the scanners only look for and read the Code 128 barcode at the bottom of the voucher ie. the 6x4 blocks of numbers. The detail of this barcode at printed width of 47mm demands a quality laser printer or good quality well adjusted inkjet printer at high/fine resolution or above. Then if the checkout scanner accepts that, the bottom-of-the-assocaited-TILL-receipt numbers ie 5x4 blocks of numbers have to be manually entered or adjacent barcode scanned in.

If your old till receipt has been creased more than once or twice, faded in sunlight or subject to rain or a puddle in the car park then you will need to manually enter the numbers.

This is crackers since you manually need to enter these same numbers (correctly) to obtain the self printed APG voucher in the first place.

I usually use the self service checkout machines, since I can then choose or wait for a particular (well adjusted) checkout scanner that I know usually works. They do vary.

Having entered your APG vouchers and old till receipts, if none are rejected and any remaining balance paid, then you just need to stuff the APG vouchers in the coupon slot and are free to leave.

With lots and lots of luck, without any checkout staff / security interventions!

simesb · 7 January 2016 at 12:19PM

Re my post below last week:
Yesterday the self service 'helper' tried to take over when I was half way through entering my till receipt number after scanning the base of my APG coupon. I think he thought because he saw that I was entering the 20 digits from the old till receipt manually, I had got into 'supervisor' mode in some way.
I had to explain and educate that lately, on some checkout scanners, the coupons now (sort of) sometimes work.

simesb · 13 January 2016 at 1:19AM

simesb wrote: »

. . . . The detail of this barcode at printed width of 47mm demands a quality laser printer or good quality well adjusted inkjet printer at high/fine resolution or above. Then if the checkout scanner accepts that, . . .

w/c 11/1/16 Seems they're monitoring! Unless my pc/printer settings have been sumhow changed, theyve scaled up the default size of the self printed coupon such that the bottom bar code is now 80mm wide not 47mm. ie there's a lot better chance of it being read by the scanner.
.

aau1 · 17 January 2016 at 9:43AM

simesb wrote: »

Just lately things have slitely improved on the Asda self printed APG vouchers.

It seems now the scanners only look for and read the Code 128 barcode at the bottom of the voucher ie. the 6x4 blocks of numbers. The detail of this barcode at printed width of 47mm demands a quality laser printer or good quality well adjusted inkjet printer at high/fine resolution or above. Then if the checkout scanner accepts that, the bottom-of-the-assocaited-TILL-receipt numbers ie 5x4 blocks of numbers have to be manually entered or adjacent barcode scanned in.

If your old till receipt has been creased more than once or twice, faded in sunlight or subject to rain or a puddle in the car park then you will need to manually enter the numbers.

This is crackers since you manually need to enter these same numbers (correctly) to obtain the self printed APG voucher in the first place.

I usually use the self service checkout machines, since I can then choose or wait for a particular (well adjusted) checkout scanner that I know usually works. They do vary.

Having entered your APG vouchers and old till receipts, if none are rejected and any remaining balance paid, then you just need to stuff the APG vouchers in the coupon slot and are free to leave.

With lots and lots of luck, without any checkout staff / security interventions!

It's not crackers. It's so that their system can verify your APG and also tick it off as having been used on their system

It's to stop people running off several copies of the same voucher

fifeken · 20 February 2016 at 11:55AM

My Price Guarantee voucher wouldn't scan yesterday. I was informed that from Monday they would not be accepting vouchers that don't scan. I don't know if this is a further development, or escalation of this issue from the past few months.

Any recent incidents or updates?

simesb · 2 March 2016 at 1:05AM

fifeken wrote: »

My Price Guarantee voucher wouldn't scan yesterday. I was informed that from Monday they would not be accepting vouchers that don't scan. I don't know if this is a further development, or escalation of this issue from the past few months.

Any recent incidents or updates?

Hi Fifeken
Staff Policy still seems to vary quite a lot even in the same store. Some 'helpers' are bothered, some not. Some still say they have to scribble on the voucher. For me the vouchers (you print out) BOTTOM bar code scan OK now, as by default theyre quite large now, especially if you print at 'FINE' quality.
However I've had the odd problem in the last 2 weeks with the bottom of the old till receipt barcode scanning, only around 25-50% work because the till receipt is narrow and easily damaged by crumpling, fading or water etc. The self service checkouts at my Asda still do (or did last week - end feb) also invite you to TYPE in the TC# 20 numbers (ish) from te old till receipt. Nothing says 'Call supervisor' if it wont scan.

The easiest thing I find is: do everything yourself 1st = Scan bot vouch Scan old till receipt barcode and if not working TYPE it, then invite the 'helper' over to check it. It makes them feel good and satisfies their management.

I will see this week if any no scan = no acceptance applies at my store.

Local Asda told me today, the price guarantee voucher is no longer accepted, why?

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