Before I go into detail regarding the Sainsbury's 25% off wine offer, here are two of the tactics retailers must avoid if they are to adhere to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
- Bait advertising - Luring the consumer with promotions of special prices when the trader knows that he cannot offer that product, or only has a few in stock at that price.
- Bait and switch - Promoting one product with the intention of selling you something else.
Normally, at Christmas, I treat myself to two or three bottles of Cava from Aldi. I usually spend about £6 per bottle and find the cava ok but not great. I decided to see what cava Tesco stock and consider ordering some shopping from them for the first time ever. I found Codorniu Cava Brut and saw it had good reviews. I decided I may as well check the price at Sainsbury's and saw they had a 25% offer on selected wines in six were bought, six of the same or a mix. The price of the cava would have been £5.64 per bottle with this discount, so I decided to really treat myself and order seven bottles to cover me for the whole of Christmas and NYE and any guests who might pop round. I only get one holiday a year - Christmas - so why not? Now, I will show you the comment I left on the Facebook page for Sainsbury's. Bare with me because it's quite a lot to get your head around, but it's worth it!
My comment...
My delivery
arrived today just an hour after receiving an email to say that I would be
receiving five bottles of Codorniu Cava Brut and not seven as ordered. Under
the number 5 was written the amount those five would cost, which was £37.50.
That works out to be £7.50 a bottle. On ordering, I took advantage of your well
publicised 25% off 'any' wines if ordering six or more with the offer. I
ordered ten bottles altogether, seven Codorniu and three different wines. The
Codorniu should have been £5.64. My main reason for buying online from
Sainsbury's for the first time ever was due to this offer. I had started an
order with Tesco but checked your offers on wine and
switched. If you were out of stock of the Codorniu then that would be fine to
reduce my order and refund me the difference, taking into account the 25%
discount. But you are not out of stock. I have just checked and you are in
stock. So why was my order reduced? And why was me reduced order then billed
without the discount, which I was still entitled to due to having bought eight
bottles (5+1+1+1)? Was my order intentionally reduced so that the discount
could be removed and you could charge the full price for the wine? I suspect
so. I quick Google search shows that other people have experienced the same
thing. An article in This is Money in January
discussed the exact thing happening to another customer. How many customers
have bought from you having seen this offer, only to find the offer has not
been honoured? I have made three long phone calls today, taking up valuable
time and energy, and come to the conclusion your system is set up to deprive
customers of this discount. Most people will not notice the 25% reduction has
been cancelled. Most people will assume a big company such as Sainsbury's would
have their systems set up so that customers can rest assured, they are not
being cheated. Most customers are busy and don’t have the time to check these
things. Does Sainsbury's habitually take advantage of this fact? I am
absolutely appalled that this has happened and even more appalled that it's
been going on for so long. I will be contacting Trading Standards and asking
them to consider this as corporate fraud. How many people have been deprived of
this offer they were entitled to?
End of Facebook comment.
Here is the snip I made of two computer windows opened side-by-side to prove that my local branch was in stock on the day of delivery. I also checked every other nearby supermarket and they too were in stock.
Copied from the link below. 'Apparently Sainsburys are not honouring their offer this time. My parents ordered 8 bottles during the offer, for delivery last Thursday (well inside the offer date), they only were offered 4 bottles as stocks were low however also did not offer the wines at the 25% off rate as wanted full price on the receipt, so my parents refused the items. This happened to them last time too. Not good Sainsburys...'
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6035713/sainsbury-s-25-off-wine
More evidence at Mumsnet!
'I ordered six bottles of wine
with my grocery order, taking advantage of the 25% off six bottles offer. On
the day of delivery two bottles of the same wine were out of stock. The two
unavailable bottles were substituted for just one different bottle of wine!
This meant I lost the discount and had less wine. I complained to customer
services and did not get a response for nine days. After chasing I got a very
dismissive response saying I no longer qualified for the offer as I only
received five bottles.'
kittybee
· 08/04/2021 21:00
Bizarrely
I was talking about this very thing to a friend earlier. They’d ordered 6
bottles of wine online with a 25% discount. They were sent 5 bottles only as
apparently the 6th bottle was out of stock. They were charged the full price
for the 5 they received. Their relative had this happen to them twice. The
relative told Sainsbury’s to collect the (in this case) champagne, or give the
discount.
'I ordered six bottles of wine but got five and
lost my 25% Sainsbury's discount'
Sainbury's: 'With regards to rectifying the issue we are working very hard to make sure that this doesn't affect any of our customers in the future. These are mistakes we are aware of, and we sincerely apologise to our customers that have been impacted by this. With regards to honouring the deal if that hasn't happened, we would encourage our customers to reach out so we can come to a satisfactory resolution for them.'
My reply: Your computer systems should be set up so customers do not need to chase you for discounts promised. Chasing you involves hour long waits to speak to people in India who do not speak English very clearly and who, in my experience, are prone to disconnecting calls for no reason.
Sainsbury's: I don't have that information at the moment. It is being worked on. I will let you know when a fix has been made.
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