Tesco Lie

I've been getting increasingly annoyed with Tesco and this morning something happened which finally made me get around to blogging about it. It relates to their their "Price Promise". They say:

The Tesco Price Promise: you won't lose out at Tesco

Well as someone once said "up to a point Lord Copper". If you have a clubcard (as we do) then Tesco do all sorts of arcane things.

So take this morning's shop which was £55.89.

With the receipt came a voucher which said:

£0.94 off your next shop

Today your comparable grocery shopping would have been cheaper elsewhere so here's the difference back.

And therein lies the problem. They've not given us "the difference back". They've given us a voucher, which we have to remember to take with us (and remember to use by a certain date).

So we have lost out.

This morning was particularly bad. I remembered when we got there that we had some vouchers to use up. When we got back I checked. We had £2.15 valid until tomorrow¹ and £5 valid until Sunday and this is before I even start on miscellaneous vouchers they've sent us for various items we routinely purchase. We would have probably saved about £8 on a total of £55.89 if I'd have been paying attention.

So I did "lose out at Tesco".

You'll be saying "but surely that's your fault, not theirs?".

Well, here's the thing. They could do all this for me. They know who I am as I have to offer up my clubcard at the checkout. They know what vouchers they've given me. For their current fuel promotion they don't require me to track my spend in store, they're doing it for me and they just tell me what deal I'm going to get at the pump. Now that does impress me and I don't see why they can't do the same for the rest of it.

So in the example above I still think they really should knock the £0.94 off now but fair enough, just tell me on the receipt now and then next time I shop when I offer my clubcard reduce the total by £0.94 and tell me that it's happened. Then I still get the positive vibe from shopping at Tesco and getting money off for loyalty without all the arse with having to remember to move bits of paper around².

They could do the same for any other offers they might want to make. So rather than sending me whole books of vouchers in the post all the time just email me a list of things they'll give me a discount on if I remember to use my clubcard.

As they say "Every Little Helps".

Alternatively why not, you know, just make their prices cheaper for everyone and stop pissing about with bloody clubcards. That's how Morrisons works. Nice place and we'd shop there all the time if they were nearer.

1. Just to add insult to injury I'd had to print that one out myself on my ink jet printer, so that probably cost me a few pence just to print it.
2. It will also be very good news at the self service checkouts which are notoriously bad at accepting vouchers.