Marks and Spencers Sparks card?

Hengus wrote: »

I confess that it is one of the daftest reward cards around. I got offers of bridal wear earlier this week and I am a 67 yearly male who has been married for 45 years.

I constantly get offers on foods I've never eaten, never will eat, on clothes I have never purchased from them, on kids clothes (I have no children) on just about everything....but not what I actually purchase!

I fed this back to them, along with the question on why I had reached enough points to get invited to "money cannot buy" events and low and behold...an event appeared!

I went to the event and no sooner had I seen the crowd than I was regretting having made the time- let alone journey! It was full of a crowd of people twice my age- and I am not at all considered young!

There was a prize draw...for a bottle of....fizzy orange squash, and the event had a strange M&S man standing in the corner like some sort of under paid security guard- I've not even seen a security guard looking so miserable! I did wonder what he was doing there.

It was mentioned we could feed back on our experience of the event on the post-it notes supplied but the lady next to me took mine (and hers and the empty seat next to hers) when I asked if I could have my copy, she said I should ask a member of staff...I don't know why she felt she had to take all those leaflets and post it notes and I didn't want to ask tbh. I felt like a right idiot for being at the event at all- it was far from where I lived, I don't visit that store but had been told it was a "money cannot buy" event.

Just a warning to anyone else getting a ticket for these sorts of events- please don't assume it is what it says on the ticket!

Well hate to buck the trend but I love my sparks card. I always get offers and discounts and use them. Never had a problem with M&S deliveries arrive on time. Happy happy

Prinzessilein wrote: »

I am a real fan of the Sparks card!

The offers I get sent are definitely tailored to me....in the Food Hall offers, I usually get 2 0r 3 offers of a decent discount off things I buy regularly, and then 1 or 2 of things I haven't tried, but are generally the sort of thing I 'might' be interested in......the Clothing Weeks are much more hit and miss....but then I don't buy clothing that often...I di take advantage of the 20% off nightwear a few months ago...and am hoping for a similar offer when the new PJs come in before winter!....One week was offers on make-up and perfume and jewellery - absolutely no use because of allergies, but you can't blame M&S for that!

The bonus offers on the card are terrific....£5 off vouchers....get an extra side dish free with the £ 10 meal deal....last week I had an offer for having 4 meat/fish packs for £12 (the in-store offer was 3 for £10)...I split that offer with Mum and we both got 2 packs for the freezer.

An on top of that, every time I use the card it benefits Shelter.

My only minor gripe with M&S is that I live in a one-horse-dorp and our M&S doesn't have anything like the full range (clothes can be ordered, but not general items from the food hall) ...and we have no caf! either!

Either your alone in finding the offers suit you or I'm alone in rarely ever finding an offer that suits me! I get offers I'm never going to use, month after month and maybe once in 4-5 months, an offer that saves me 20% which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact I'd had to wait so long to save anything at all! I've never had £5 off anything sent to me- apart from the T-shirt offer which when I did try to use it, wouldn't work and even getting an assistant and then a manager to look at the offer I'd selected (simply said £5 off ANY t-shirt) no one could see the problem in my choice or why it wouldn't go through. In the end I gave up and left without a t-shirt, a bit annoyed at the wasted half hour trying to get it sorted out.


I would far rather just have one single offer sent to me that actually applied to me rather than having a selection of 6 to pick 5 from and then not using any of them because none are on my radar, I've gotten to the point now where I quite often don't select anything because I can't see any point in selecting something I know I wont use.


I got to the top tier about 6 months or more ago and yet I've not found anything worth the extra tier- I was invited to what was described as a look at the new season, but was so far out of my range (as in, everyone was at least 30 years older than me and I'm not that young) and had not enough seating either. I had put aside time to attend thinking they'd look at what I purchase and my age and etc to have selected me for an event which was not at a store I normally ever visit, but it appeared not.


I don't know who does their marketing, or why it seems to work so well for you and not for me, but it's fair to say that I don't think it's possible to say the card is either fantastic or pointless from either of our experiences combined!