SOUNDING OFF: Ripped off? Stunned by good service? Write, blog or text your experience to us
Dee Delany does her grocery shopping online and has been buying 12-packs of Cadbury Family Mini Rolls “for an age now at a cost of €4.79”. Last month, however, after ordering her usual 12 rolls from Tesco, she was not best pleased to see a 10-pack arrive in its place. “My receipt itemises a 12-pack at the usual cost but I was minus two mini-rolls,” she says.
Last weekend she ordered the mini-rolls again, but on this occasion they were listed online as a 10-pack plus 50 per cent extra free. “It used to be 12 plus 50 per cent extra free,” she says. “I got the 10-pack again and not a sign of the extra 50 per cent free. Needless to say, I was still charged the usual €4.79. One wonders how either company can justify their actions? No doubt both companies will come up with some plausible explanation.”
Missing the boat
Sticking with Tesco, Dorothy Byrne made “a shock discovery” recently in connection with the shop’s Clubcard deals. Under the scheme, shoppers can save up their Clubcard vouchers and exchange them for hotel breaks, days out and ferry trips, explains Byrne. “Tesco give up to four times their value, so it’s well worth letting them accumulate to avail of offers.”
Last year she swapped her vouchers for Irish Ferries travel tokens and went on holiday to France. She says that Tesco sends out a booklet every quarter detailing the offers and in the latest booklet (Aug 2008 – Feb 2009), the Irish Ferries deal is still included.
“I was shocked, however, to discover that this year, the Irish Ferries offer ends on May 31st. Having three schoolgoing children, we have to take our holiday in July/August, so this doesn’t suit.”
She says that in the small print on Tesco’s leaflet, it states that “crossings are available all year”.
“I feel that this is very misleading. I have contacted Tesco and they said that they thought that it was Irish Ferries’ fault, I contacted Irish Ferries and they said that it was Tesco’s fault. So I’m none the wiser. It would seem like a win-win situation to continue this offer for everyone; Tesco would receive huge customer loyalty as people try to find the money to take a holiday in this recession and Irish Ferries would get people on their ferry and spending their money in restaurant, cinema, bar, etc.”
She asked if we could find out who was behind this decision and to see if they would change their mind. “Also, as customers of Tesco have to save up their vouchers instead of using them to pay for goods, it might be worth letting them know that Tesco may decide to cancel the offers they have been saving their vouchers up for. In the meantime, I’m off to Lidl as they give good value without having to rely on dodgy ‘deals’ to gain customer loyalty, which, as I can hear you saying, I should have done in the first place.”
We got in touch with Tesco and a spokesman confirmed that the terms and conditions of the ferries deal had changed and it was only valid up until the end of May. He could give no reason for the change other than to suggest that such things happened from time to time, and he offered to refund our reader her Clubcard points if she had already exchanged them for Irish Ferries vouchers. He said that the change in the terms and conditions were clearly highlighted on the website. While the change is indeed highlighted, we suggested that it wasn’t really fair to expect shoppers such as Byrne to check the site frequently for such changes.
There’s more than one
Last week, in a piece on reasons to be cheerful in the recession, we referred to the website www.onlinetradesman.com as a resource to find reputable people to do work about your house.
The address is, in fact, www.onlinetradesmen.com.
