The Meal Deal scam

nailer54321

In my opinion supermarkets place the same item with slightly different quantity in the same place as the meal deal, as was said with the 380ml and 500ml Lucozade, this happens in all supermarkets and is done to catch out people, it happens too often for it to be a mistake, Tesco use to give you the items free and your money back if you noticed you have been over priced but that has all stopped now as too many people were getting free stuff. its about time that they just be honest with there customers and stop playing games like leaving too similar products beside each other or putting the price under the wrong product. happens too often to be a mistake. As for Tesco I have stopped shopping there a long time ago now because everytime I did go in they would have something priced wrong and it was up to me to spot it. its up to people to stop using these shops if they feel like they are been cheated. maybe they will change there ways then, but I would not hold my breath.

jcd5971

daheff wrote:

A simple report run every morning to show new price tags for overnight pricing changes cant be that difficult to implement in Spar?

In tesco you'd average 600 a day total price changes, 1 person to do it, when the offers change usually every 3-4 weeks on the changeover day that number rockets up to nearly 2000 depending on size of store, usually only 1 person to do it, maybe 2 if very busy.

It's a horrible hard job, have to print labels manually, they come out in stupid order, up and down shop like a yo yo etc.

Then figure in person doing it is under pressure and paid crap human nature kicks in.

That's even before you take into account you might change label of say lucozade in mineral section, but forget about the special offer ends or sandwich meal deal fridge etc.

I agree it should work but there you go just a bit of insight.

Stone Deaf 4evr

jcd5971 wrote: »

In tesco you'd average 600 a day total price changes, 1 person to do it, when the offers change usually every 3-4 weeks on the changeover day that number rockets up to nearly 2000 depending on size of store, usually only 1 person to do it, maybe 2 if very busy.

It's a horrible hard job, have to print labels manually, they come out in stupid order, up and down shop like a yo yo etc.

Then figure in person doing it is under pressure and paid crap human nature kicks in.

That's even before you take into account you might change label of say lucozade in mineral section, but forget about the special offer ends or sandwich meal deal fridge etc.

I agree it should work but there you go just a bit of insight.

why dont they use them digital price tags like you see in shops all over europe? I assume they can be altered easily without any of that faffing about you mention

L1011

Up front costs and ongoing maintenance are non negligible for a chain the size of Tesco

Stone Deaf 4evr

L1011 wrote: »

Up front costs and ongoing maintenance are non negligible for a chain the size of Tesco

Shops like super u, intermarche and E.leclerc are monster chains. If they can make it work, no reason Tesco can't.

L1011

If Tesco hadn't been losing money recently they might be more interested in the idea!

bobo the clown

When I used to work in Tesco there was a policy that if a customer paid a price over what is on the shelf edged label they would get it free. This was never actually implemented. So its best to actually pay first and then highlight the mistake than to highlight it before you pay.

I could have that totally wrong though!!

Also the systems were always wrong. We had an offer at one stage for toys. It was 3.99 and 4.99 toys on sale for 2 for €5. When scanned through the till they came to 2 cent. Some very happy customers that week.

loyatemu

jcd5971 wrote: »

In tesco you'd average 600 a day total price changes, 1 person to do it, when the offers change usually every 3-4 weeks on the changeover day that number rockets up to nearly 2000 depending on size of store, usually only 1 person to do it, maybe 2 if very busy.

that's a deliberate policy by Tesco though - they are constantly changing prices and offers in order to bamboozle their customers. They constantly move stuff around as well.

This is one of the reasons Lidl and Aldi have become so popular - if you go in and buy something this week, chances are it will be in the same place at the same price next week. It's a less bewildering experience than Tesco.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

loyatemu wrote: »

that's a deliberate policy by Tesco though - they are constantly changing prices and offers in order to bamboozle their customers. They constantly move stuff around as well.

This is one of the reasons Lidl and Aldi have become so popular - if you go in and buy something this week, chances are it will be in the same place at the same price next week. It's a less bewildering experience than Tesco.

There you have to be joking. The reason I gave up on Aldi and Lidl is that I could never find anything. Nothing follows any logic and stuff is moved constantly in the one's here: its lime going to a car boot sale at times. At least in Dunnes or Tesco the aisles are labelled and the products are in those aisles week after week.

mansize

Everything I buy regularly in Lidl is in the same place!

L1011

Willow Nutty Babble wrote: »

There you have to be joking. The reason I gave up on Aldi and Lidl is that I could never find anything. Nothing follows any logic and stuff is moved constantly in the one's here: its lime going to a car boot sale at times. At least in Dunnes or Tesco the aisles are labelled and the products are in those aisles week after week.

With the exception of the offer aisles (which include a small food offer section in Lidl) and the Aldi Super6 moves most of the other stuff has been in the same place in my local store for years. Actual years, not hyperbole.

I still can't find most of the "Tesco Ingredients" items since the last move

mansize

I cant abide Tesco stores, far too big.

My Lidl store is a town store and just the right size for me!

Yawns

Most Lidl / Aldi stores have the same layout around the country. You can walk into 2 different stores 30 miles apart and most of the time the layout very very similar. A few exceptions to the rule but that's been my experience of it ranging through midland towns and through Dublin.

CJmasgrande

Willow Nutty Babble wrote:

There you have to be joking. The reason I gave up on Aldi and Lidl is that I could never find anything. Nothing follows any logic and stuff is moved constantly in the one's here: its lime going to a car boot sale at times. At least in Dunnes or Tesco the aisles are labelled and the products are in those aisles week after week.

I go to Spain a lot and even their Aldis and Lidl are laid out identical to Irish stores.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

CJmasgrande wrote: »

I go to Spain a lot and even their Aldis and Lidl are laid out identical to Irish stores.

Must be me so. I can just never find what I'm looking for in them and have to ask staff for help.

monkeysnapper

I was in a spar in UK last week when on holiday and I picked up a sandwich /drink/ bar for special offer and like you say op it came to 2 pounds more.

I got you must have picked up wrong drink . so I went back , politly gave her all drinks and all bars and she still couldn't find offer. I just bought sandwich in end .

She was nice girl and seemed embarrassed so I just left with sandwich .
I always go through my receipts when there's multiple offers and find discrepancies.

Sadly, I have way too much experience in Supermarkets as a manager and an ordinary worker.
Never in all my time have I heard of any plan by store manager or above to deliberately mislead a customer on a promotion.

As the staff will tell you, an item is not in the offer. That doesn't mean you are wrong, it just means that on the system, that item does not come up under that promotion. There are many reasons that could happen:
Product has a new barcode,
Item was not put into the deal on the system at head office,
wrong label in front of the product,
Incorrect size, i.e triple sandwiches instead of 2, 500ml drink instead of 380ml
But the most common one is that the deal has expired but the label not changed.

At Tesco, there will be 1 person changing labels each night, 2 if there is a promotion change. Thats for the average 10,000 sq ft store. On a quiet night there might be 400 new labels to put out. On a promotion change 2000 to 4000, possibly more. Now that is a LOT and often times they might not get it finished.

They have to print those labels, seperate them all from sheets of say 16-40 per page, then manually put them all into a pile for each aisle. There will be a minimum of 3 different sizes of labels, all printed separately. Now each label requires them to scan the original barcode then scan the new barcode to ensure they match. One label at one end could be followed by another at the exact opposite, they are not in bay or shelf order. They generally wont notice if a slightly different product is already packed in the wrong place.

And the system doesn't know about extra locations and will only print 1 label per product. So if you have wine in a meal deal and the wine section and a promotion end someone needs to go to the other 2 locations and scan them for a reprint. These are often where the labels don't get changed.
Your 380ml lucozade is no longer in the deal and the person changes the label in the drink section but maybe forgets the cafe, the sandwich fridge, the lucozade stand and the impulse fridges at every other checkout.

I know it's frustrating but there is no conspiracy theory. Staff don't get anything from you being charged more apart from extra hassle and potentially losing a customer. If you're not in a rush, have a quick check that the yellow label matches the product you want and the promotion ending date hasn't passed. Shouldn't need to be done but might save you trouble.

As a manager, if it was our fault I would scan a product that IS in the deal and scan out the one that isn't but still give you the product you wanted. Our system orders based on sales so it isn't supposed to be done. It will think theres 1 more chicken sandwich than there is and 1 less egg sandwich and potentially not order something when it runs low.

tldr; it's not a conspiracy, just too much work to cope....sorry

sbs2010

[Deleted User] wrote: »

At Tesco, there will be 1 person changing labels each night, 2 if there is a promotion change. Thats for the average 10,000 sq ft store. On a quiet night there might be 400 new labels to put out.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. One question though - Why so many price changes every night? 400 seems very high.

sbs2010

sbs2010 wrote: »

Thanks for the detailed explanation. One question though - Why so many price changes every night? 400 seems very high.

I don't actually know the answer but I think a lot of them are price matching. Reducing to get rid of lines and make way for new products. Maybe increases where a product has suddenly become popular i.e. Rachel Allen used Greek Coconut and Raisin pitta bread and now everyone wants it.

positron

Deleted User wrote: »

tldr; it's not a conspiracy, just too much work to cope....sorry

Cheers for the explanation based on solid experience. What would the usual supermarket policy when someone points out that what's in the shelf is a) misleading or b) outright wrong and customer is right?

nhunter100

Deleted User wrote:

tldr; it's not a conspiracy, just too much work to cope....sorry

Thanks for the explanation, curious though how it always seems to work against the customer. Rarely, if ever do you hear of the shop/ store underselling.

positron

positron wrote: »

Cheers for the explanation based on solid experience. What would the usual supermarket policy when someone points out that what's in the shelf is a) misleading or b) outright wrong and customer is right?

Depends on the manager and the customer. Some managers might give in to customers that shout and bully you. I would be fine with nice customers and those where it was our fault. I would do as little as possible, sometimes even below company procedures if you shout. As I said before, misleading suggest it was done on purpose. I've never experience that, just human or system errors

The customer is always right in theory but i'd say 80% of the time they have made a mistake. If you show them or explain it quietly they shouldn't be embarrassed too much.

Price Integrity is very closely followed. Out of 30,000 customers a week, our target would be 10 price errors per week and usually it would be 5 or below.
A few years since I left Tesco Ireland though.

runawaybishop

nhunter100 wrote: »

Thanks for the explanation, curious though how it always seems to work against the customer. Rarely, if ever do you hear of the shop/ store underselling.

Pennies constantly undersell!

People don't tend to ever complain when something is cheaper than advertised so you just don't read those stories.

The manual system of printed SELs is a pain, items always get missed. Spars, daybreak's, SuperValu etc get a new price file every week. Bound to be errors in displaying the labels.

degsie

runawaybishop wrote: »

The manual system of printed SELs is a pain, items always get missed. Spars, daybreak's, SuperValu etc get a new price file every week. Bound to be errors in displaying the labels.

Electronic SEL's are the way forward, but initial costs are no doubt prohibitive.

ben.schlomo

degsie wrote: »

Electronic SEL's are the way forward, but initial costs are no doubt prohibitive.

These were in use in Supervalu in Galway in the late 90s/early 00s, never to be seen since.

MaroonAndGreen

positron wrote:

How many of you have experienced meal deal items not adding up to the meal deal at checkout?

I'll tell you its 100% not staff's fault and it certainly isn't the checkout staff's fault, anyone who has any experience of retail would know floor staff and checkout staff have no input in these issues. Hopefully people would bear that fact in mind

Kings Inns or bust

degsie wrote: »

Electronic SEL's are the way forward, but initial costs are no doubt prohibitive.

I doubt it's the initial cost, the amount of time spent changing SELs is ridiculous. However I can imagine the ongoing junkie tax would be prohibitively expensive!

I can just see it now man found in Dublin apartment with €3000 worth of heroin and 6000 electronic SELs.

rubadub

Deleted User wrote: »

Sadly, I have way too much experience in Supermarkets as a manager and an ordinary worker.
Never in all my time have I heard of any plan by store manager or above to deliberately mislead a customer on a promotion.

Have you heard of any plans to deliberately NOT mislead customers? i.e. have a bit of cop on and foresight realizing this type of thing is extremely common. If they did not want it to happen they could easily do things. e.g. keep the meal deal items very separate. Have staff frequently checking the meal deal area for off loaded items. e.g. people might get the 500ml lucozade, walk around see the deal and leave his 500ml on the shelf in that section.

If there is lots of confusion happening they could put up notices saying items are not in the deal. Or on the signs specifically say the 500ml is not included.

Deleted User wrote: »

At Tesco, there will be 1 person changing labels each night, 2 if there is a promotion change. Thats for the average 10,000 sq ft store. On a quiet night there might be 400 new labels to put out. On a promotion change 2000 to 4000, possibly more. Now that is a LOT and often times they might not get it finished.

If it routinely happens that they knowingly have incorrect prices then its a legal matter. Tesco are scum, using their own customers as cheap labour in detecting incorrect prices. They used to give you the item free, I had no problem taking several of the same item, for the time I spend queuing at their slow customer service desk I feel I should be getting paid at least the same hourly rates I do in my own job. Their new pathetic double the difference thing is not worth my while, if I spot incorrect prices I will leave it at the till.

rubadub

rubadub wrote: »

Have you heard of any plans to deliberately NOT mislead customers? i.e. have a bit of cop on and foresight realizing this type of thing is extremely common. If they did not want it to happen they could easily do things. e.g. keep the meal deal items very separate. Have staff frequently checking the meal deal area for off loaded items. e.g. people might get the 500ml lucozade, walk around see the deal and leave his 500ml on the shelf in that section.

If there is lots of confusion happening they could put up notices saying items are not in the deal. Or on the signs specifically say the 500ml is not included.



If it routinely happens that they knowingly have incorrect prices then its a legal matter. Tesco are scum, using their own customers as cheap labour in detecting incorrect prices. They used to give you the item free, I had no problem taking several of the same item, for the time I spend queuing at their slow customer service desk I feel I should be getting paid at least the same hourly rates I do in my own job. Their new pathetic double the difference thing is not worth my while, if I spot incorrect prices I will leave it at the till.

So extra staff to redo the fridge plan everytime an item gets added to/removed from an offer, extra staff to walk around constantly picking up the items customers leave wherever they fancy, extra customer service desk staff, extra pricing staff and the usual 'pay farmers more' 'pay staff more' and all this with the 'prices too high' arguments.

If you're so unhappy with your local shop/Tesco in general, you really should shop elsewhere

rubadub

hahaha, I'll take that as a definite NO then, not too surprising... Hopefully now you can cop on and see why some would think its sharp practise.