To ask what is THE POINT of the M&S SPARKS card?

[Northernlurker]

Because I can see no point at all. I got 20% off food when it started but since then all the offers have been unmitigated nonsense.
I get the emails telling me to activate my offers and I log on to find it's offering me 20% off jeans (in what is supposed to be summer), 20% off blouses (I don't wear them on account of norks, have never bought a M&S bluse), 20% off adored bras whatever they are - see above for norks for why I don't buy M&S because they stop at a flipping G cup and 20% off glasses. I don't want any glasses and if I did I wouldn't buy M&S.

I have 30,000 points. WHAT ARE THEY FOR? I do occasionally get £5 off food vouchers which are very handy, especially if you use them on the self service tills because it doesn't insist you give them up and thus you can use them more than once if you're canny. But is that it?

Ah so they're credit card ones. ThaT will be why I don't get them. Every so often you get £5 off £40 at the till which happened pre sparks as well

I think they want us to realise how shite it is and that we need to upgrade to the M&S credit card for decent "rewards".

They have never emailed me. I logged on once. The deals were totally random and the one I might have been interested in ended so soon I wouldn't have time to use it.

I emailed M&S about the sizes they were stocking in their Waterloo shop - the only time I go in is when there is commuter chaos and there's time to kill. Every time there has been something I would've bought but only in sizes 14-22 because all of the slimmer sizes have sold out. I think it's because most women who go through Waterloo are central London office workers who tend to be a very affluent & therefore tend to be a slimmer section than the population generally. I was surprised that M&S don't factor this in when they are stocking their stores.

Anyway. Sparks card is shit, points for points sake. Actually M&S is always doing bloody awfully so the poor stocking/crap points card all make sense in a way.

Agree, NorthernLurker, the Sparkcard thing is a total joke. I got increasingly irritated and now never use it. In the end I felt it was just a way for them to gather information about their customers whilst giving zero in return. I complained to staff about how awful it was. I also a couple of weeks ago complained to Customer Services about it! I got some kind of pointless reply that they'd pass my comments on!

It is just totally pointless. All the faffing around for 10% of teacakes or whatever. Agree with ReggaeShark deals are totally random. Last time I looked you could get some awful make up offer for £40 - but it was sold out anyway!

I just think these customers must think we must be idiots and won't notice that we're collection "points" for no actual real reason, except to be contacted to buy more!

*I meant companies, not customers!

I was pondering exactly this the other day. Looked online, realised there actually is no point to at all, and chucked it in the bin.

We have enough rubbish with loyalty cards in our bags these days, I'll save the space for ones where I can actually find some benefit to the blooming thing.

The only loyalty card I use is boots.

Save up your points then knock the money off your shopping.

Bada bing.

Exactly hewl, If they'd taken the Boots idea it would've been fantastic, so simple to use and creates loyalty. Even Tesco pays attention to what I buy and sends offers for what I'm actually going to spend money on. M&S simply does not care.

Oooh my MIL works for M&S Its apparently true that the guy who devised the whole sparks card scheme ahem "is not longer with the buisness" They're really looking at it all I believe
She comes home with some horrendous store is about how angry some customers get about Sparks! I just say "it's not for me thanks I won't be using it"
But MIL had one flung at her across the till and told that M&S deserves to be shut down. Nice

I can't see any point in cards which don't give you spendable points, like Boots and Nectar.

My purse is stuffed up with more than enough cards anyway. Same with most people I expect, so it has to be worth all the faff of finding the thing among the hordes of others at the checkout.

I bought a pushchair for Gd with my Boots card and got about a trillion points. 😀

It's the strictly limited nature of the offers that annoys me - I'm currently being offered "20% off M&S Collection blouses and shirts" but "EXCLUDING: Sale & clearance items, Autograph, Indigo, Per Una, Best of British and Limited Edition shirts and blouses." That would be about 2 shirts in my local M & S.

I once went to M&S specifically to get some trousers, and found I had an offer on Per Una trousers and one on Autograph chinos so I activated it, and went to a bigger M&S so I'd have a good selection. They had NO Aotograph chinos in size 14, so I looked in Per Una. I know they are generally crap, but I do like their Roma rise straight leg ones, and I found a nice black size 14 short leg pair, and the bling decoration was only where my top would cover it.
So I tried them on, fine, then happened to mention to the assistant on the way out how it was the first time I'd managed to use a Sparks offer. Oh, she said, sorry, those aren't trousers, they're jeans, jeans are excluded from the Per Una offer. But you could get those. Pointing to something like this...
www.marksandspencer.com/roma-rise-floral-tapered-leg-trouser/p/p60084120?prevPage=plp.

I can never remember what the offers I have when in the store - this week I have 20% off Chinos from one range, 20% off underwear from one range etc. The food offers were bizarre.

Complete waste of time.

yes I remember the food offers as being bizarre! Something like 20% off three specific small salads. You have to ask yourself is this for real.

I still have a soft spot for M&S. Sometimes they do have some decent designs - but often let down these days by the poor quality of the material. The cut of their tops never look right on me either.

It's weird. They're the last shop to get on board the points card train so you think they'd have studied them all carefully and seen what's popular and what's not.

Instead they come up with the worst points card of all.

I've given up on M and S now. If the bigwigs that run the company thought the sparks card was a good idea (someone high up must have signed it off) then that says it all about their management capability, really.

I'm just hanging onto mine in the hope that eventually they will change the scheme and the points I have earned buying food and skincare will start to mean something other than money off their ugly clothes.

M&S are arrogant. They are the most arrogant company I've ever dealt with.

I imagine they thought inventing a card which had no real benefit but allowed M&S to constantly market to you (with 'offers' that are unlikely to ever be redeemed) was terribly clever.

No bloody use whatsoever, even the manager at a big store couldn't tell me.
It's purely for tracking customers' spending patterns, just like every other store card , nothing more (and at least some give you points).
The offers via Sparks are usually online regardless.

I chucked mine away in the bin months ago and when I'm asked about it I say that's where it is.

I also reply that I binned mine as it's useless. The staff all have that knowing look. Having to select an offer in advance of shopping is ridiculous.

I also bin the emails unopened because that should feed back to their analytics?

If you play a guitar, you can buy a gadget that makes plectrums out of old credit cards. There's a use for it after all to make lovely music...!

Can't agree that they're arrogant. I do order the occasional thing online to pick up in store, and it's always worked v well. And they're about the only company I don't mind giving my phone number to, since I trust them not to sell it on. They've had mine for years and I get hardly any 'pester' calls.

Having said that, IMO they need to sack 90% of their buyers. ( I hope you're reading this, M&S!) I do often wonder what on earth they were thinking of - unless of course it was, 'Well, I wouldn't be seen dead in it, but it'll do for the poor sad people who shop at M&S'.

I do still find the odd thing - their summer linen is still good IMO - at least you know it won't shrink, which is more than you can say for virtually identical things from other shops at twice the price. But I do have to root around among the horrible styles/colours/nasty cheap looking fabrics with vile patterns, not to mention things that would have been perfectly nice if not for fussy 'bits' or tacky sparkles added.
Must say I still find the babywear v good, though, and have bought quite a lot of basics for Gd.

I got one a couple of weeks ago purely because if you signed up, you got 10% of food and drink for a few days.
Got a free hot drink for signing up, but haven't had anything since! So do i have to actually log in to the account to find out what offers there are? Why can't they just send them to you? Mind you they seem to be a bit rubbish anyway.

....designed by men for use by women

Also useful for scraping wax off tables..

I am glad Im not the only one who fails to see the use of it! Most times I present it to be told my points go to my "chosen charity"?! I have forgotten what that was TBH! I dont see why we cant get some points like Sainsburys do ,even £2.50 helps ! Seems quite pointless to me too!