AIBU to fed up to the back teeth with discount codes, special deals and loyalty cards?

[PacificDogwood]

Apologise, I've ranted about this before and some of you agreed, many didn't

I've just ordered Domino's pizza for our Satusday night treat.

'Buy one pizza, get 2nd (cheaper one, natch!) half price - so far, so usual.

A bit of googling gets me a discount code 'exclusive' to the Domino's blog.
FFS. 'Domino's blog' - who wants to read their fecking blog??
Anyhoo, gave me 25% off the whole order.

The admin of all that crap, the money that that costs - just charge me a realistic amount and I'll happily pay it. I am actually prepared to pay a decent price for a decent product (this is not about the relative merits of Domino's pizza btw ).

I know that these marketing gimmicks work, of course they do, companies would not spend lots of money on setting this crap up if it did not pay.
But to make us believe and us to actually believe, we are 'saving' anything?? Redunculous!!

Don't get me started on my Tesco receipt telling me smugly how much I 'saved today' - I just spent £££; saving is when you put some spare money away for a rainy day. Not being overcharged is NOT saving, you twats!!

One day, I will move to the country and weave all my own lentils and chew my own yoghurt and have nothing to do with the evils of modern living. Humph.

Oh and they put all their Christmas crap out for two weeks at extortionate prices then take 25% off. Its just insulting and wrong.

Totally agree. Sick to the back teeth of discount, loyalty cards, BOYONEGETONEFREE.

Just sell the stuff for a decent price and give good service. Simple.

I just refuse to have any loyalty cards at all!

So don't use them then.

Sometimes places really do shoot themselves in the foot with their 'deals'.

My DF needed a replacement patio door. He phoned a well known glazier company (one of these always offering buy one, get one free, or half price offers), who came out and gave him a (seriously inflated) quote. He also phoned a local trades person, who gave him a quote for roughly half the price. Obviously he went with the local guy. For the next few months, DF had the window firm phoning him and offering him limited time only, we're in your area tomorrow, 'special' discounts. DF always declined as it was 'still too much money' (no mention that he'd already had the work done). Eventually they gave him a price that was comparable to the local guy's, and my DF took great pleasure in informing them that he had already had the door replaced, but if they had just given him that price in the first place they would have had his money not the local guy, and laughing because they'd wasted so much time phoning him.

They weren't very pleased.

I love offers and always take advantage of them. I know loyalty cards do divide opinion, but the way I see it, is that if I'm going to buy it anyway, I may as well get the points.

If you shop wisely, you can do well out of offers;

Gap - OH needed some new shorts and all shorts were £20, so we bought 3 pairs. Much cheaper than everywhere else we looked.

Body shop - you can make a killing here, when they reduce the sales items by 40%. The body butters are normally £13, but through maximising offers, I can get them for about £4 and I buy them for presents etc.

Tesco - a couple of years ago, when they were giving double points and doubling up the vouchers on the toys, we got £80 worth of toys, which have been used for two babies. I know you could argue that we paid for them through shopping in tesco, but I only shop in tesco for top ups on the way home from work.

Oh gawd, yes, insurance renewals!
What an unnecessary faff.

Tesco Clubcard - it's more subtle, isn't it?
Not collecting the points seems just stupid, so I do too, but I still think that that hard- and software, the staff, the training that goes in to setting it up/maintaining it could be used to, you know, just offer lower prices? Radical idea, I know . And don't get started on double points and exchanging them for vouchers: I have neither the brainpower nor the time nor the inclination to even want to figure it out.

JUST ALLOW ME TO PAY HONEST PRICES. It should not be this hard.

There was a thread today on shops 'harvesting' e-mail addresses of post codes from every customer - it's along the same underhanded sly marketing that I so detest.

chanie, good for you re the Tesco toys, but somebody is paying for it somewhere.

I think part of why this works is because it's nice to feel all clever about how I've outwitted the large corporation and Got A Deal
IMO the same goes for the 'you've saved £xx today' - funny how they don't say 'you've been overcharged £xx less today': not the same warm fuzzy feel-good factor, is there?

I am actually quite easy-going and not-angry in RL btw

I really dislike being given a voucher as I leave the till for £3 or whatever saying that as I'd paid more than at Tesco I can take that off my next shop. Why not take it off this shop? Sainsbury's & Tesco both do this & it really annoys me.

I am an Aldi and Lidl shopper. Two things give me great pleasure at the checkout ... 1) Great long receipt with not many £££ at the end 2) Tesco points cos I pay with my Tesco CC

All of our everyday spending goes on the Tesco card and we pay it off in full each month (setting the actual money aside as we go so it's there to pay with). We usually save enough points to treat the 4 of us to 3 or 4 slap up meals during our summer hols

No gimmicks, no BOGOFs, no hassle.

Oh, that is genius, paying at one of the discounters with the Tesco CC - I like it!

nomore You can get better deals with a cash back credit card than a tesco one- tesco you have to spend £4 to get 1 point (worth 1p or up to 4p in deals). It says 5 points per £4 but that's if you go to tesco and get your 4 points for £4 that you get with any clubcard. I have a credit card with 2% cash back on my supermarket spending, so with a £4 spend I get 8p cash off my credit card bill.

Of course, it doesn't come with the warm fuzzy feeling of getting one over on Tesco. But it does come with the warm fuzzy feeling of getting one over on the credit card company- since I always pay in full and don't overspend, they don't get any extra money off me!

I don't want to go looking for 'deals' though!

It's the Deals I am after Chrohnically .. if I got cash back it would just sort of disappear, it certainly wouldn't get spent on treats iyswim?

I got my £50 for reaching 5000 points on Yougov surveys the other day, but because it went into the bank it's just been swallowed up. I should go and take out £50 cash and spend it ALL ON ME .... do you know how many times you have to click 'Don't know' surveys you have to do to get 5000 points!!!???

And I am aware that my last post misses the point of the thread completely

YANBU! I always feel smug getting a 50% off voucher for dominos.. Until after I've eaten and still regret paying a fortune Hate that less savvy people end up paying the full price!

We save up Tesco clubcard points and use them for days out in August. We use a Tesco credit card too, pay off each month and get extra points plus petrol. We do days out that we wouldnt be able to manage otherwise. Sometimes do surveys on shopper thoughts. 75 points for a survey is £3 towards a day out. That's more than half a Diggerland ticket!

Boots- I only buy things I can't get elsewhere. Soap & Glory, can't think of anything else. I only buy when they are 3 for 2. The points are kept for christmas presents for teenager.

Nandos chillis add up quickly

Book People- we buy a lot, their books are usually the best prices and we get a free book once in a while

Natwest have a scheme where you get a small % back from your household bills- were saving that for August and it's adding up nicely. It's a tiny % but it's free so worth asking them about if that's where you bank

ZOMBIE with a spammer