in suggesting that the Marks and Spencer Sparks card is the worst loyalty scheme ever

[JackandDiane]

1. YOu have to activate offers - requires WAY too much thought and planning
2. I just want money off things I buy fgs
3. that fucking ' have you swiped your sparks card' is surely mitigation for murder?

I gave a link to this thread to one of the staff today...

Have fine tuned my response as of today -
"Do you have a Sparks card?"
"Nope - not any more"
"Did you get rid of it?"
"Yep"
Smile and knowing look from assistant

Oh don't worry, still happy with the work they do it wouldn't be doing it.

'Or' not 'it'.

The assistant also told me that she thought that the personal in formation that they harvest was too intrusive as well.

Once upon a time it was about the only big shop where you got treated like a valued person - where did that go?

M&S pay their staff a pittance and took away all the fringe benefits they used to enjoy. If you treat your staff like sh*t then they become demotivated and devalued, which immediately has a knockon effect when they are front line staff dealing with customers. I don't blame them for losing motivation. Many of them have worked for M&S for years and have seen those benefits eroded, while the senior management get fatter and fatter.....

One of these days senior management at M&S will actually put two and two together instead of wasting money on an appalling loyalty scheme that actually loses them customer loyalty. How ironic is that!

"If you treat your staff like sh*t then they become demotivated and devalued, which immediately has a knock on effect when they are front line staff dealing with customers."

Very true. Richard Branson said "If you look after your staff, they'll look after your customers. It's that simple." And I agree with him.

I think they must look after their staff in Boots, as I had such wonderful customer service from them today that I emailed them to tell them so.

did anyone else get the survey email?

Survey email?! You mean they're actually asking their customers what they think?!

Yes i mentioned it above. It was fspecifically about sparks card. I gave it 0s throughout and told them to look at boot for a loyalty card that work

Also had a little survey on sporcle the other day on what you think of when you hear the word m&s and basically how can they make their customers buy more clothes.

I worked for M&S for 17 years until I had my last child which made me utterly unworthy to them. They are so staggeringly shit at flexible options (I was in management). But that's another story

You're so right about the Sparks card, its rubbish but sums the company up. Too many people making decisions centrally who have zero qualifications or skills, its a company run on knowing the right people. Whoever came up with this scheme almost certainly has no marketing skills or experience but instead is good mates with someone senior.

I can totally believe that the staff hate the card too, the stupidest thing of all is that their employees are one of their most important customer groups. There are lots of people who go to work for M&S as they want the staff discount which to me is fair enough - at least they want to buy the product!

Well, whoop de doo. It's the "exclusive" sparks sale preview, today.

Can I bloody check out? Can I hell. It's kicked me out when I was almost complete, twice, now and I can't even get to the checkout page, any more. Going to give up because pretty much everything I chose for me has sold out while I've been trying.

I've wasted an hour. A whole fucking hour

the stupidest thing of all is that their employees are one of their most important customer groups.

Which is why, when they recently introduced a new uniform (thank goodness), they made them pay for the quilted jacket they needed (because some of the stores are quite chilly) themselves.

So they really do treat their staff the way they treat their customers -badly.

Nanny - that's outrageous! Our local food hall is freezing. I have on occasion complained about it to a member of staff and pointed out it must be losing them custom as it's not a place you want to linger. Poor souls always look frozen when they're sitting at the tills.

Incidentally, after my long online chat about 10 days ago in which I asked them to stop emailing me, which meant deactivating my card, I am still receiving emails from them. Infuriating!

I disabled my Sparks account yesterday because it was just so unbelievably crap. The fact that 'how do I withdraw from Sparks? ' is one of the FAQs on the website tells me that I'm certainly not the first one.

Agree about Sparks

I don't understand why Waitrose and JL have separate cards

The best thing about the Sparks card is the bloody card itself....errr, as if we need more of them. Complete waste of time and irritating that M&S don't seem to be doing anything about it. Obvs so complacent with their shoppers that they don't have to keep us happy!

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's rubbish! I will continue to use it ... but only because the pennies for charity add up.

www.change.org/p/marks-spencer-stop-the-m-s-sparks-card-scheme?recruiter=589634333&utm_source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink
I've started a petition.

YADNBU OP. It's utterly useless and I need to bin the damn card rather than handing it to the checkout every week - for what!

Cutting mine up. Complete waste of time. For my 'loyalty' I'd simply like money off discounts on whatever I want, when I want it. The charity element of the Sparks card is seriously unappealing. I'll donate direct when I can
(and its probably more than M&S are handing over on my behalf)

Someone else who has closed their Sparks account 'cos it's a total waste of time.

And while we're on the subject, do you think their customer surveys were designed by the person who created the Sparks card? I really don't want to write a ten page essay recounting my experience of buying a sandwich - the survey took longer to complete than the visit! I only filled it in because the staff at my local M&S are lovely and I think they get measured on the number of responses.

It is total rubbish. I don't even bother to get mine out of my wallet now.

I had an e-mail last week offering me half price champagne. Finally!, I thought - a decent offer.

Bearing in mind, you can get a nice bottle of champagne in there for less than £20 - but no, the champagne on offer was £32