To think M&S Sparks card should be aware of its own T&Cs?

[Notmoreantihistamines]

1st world problem, I am fully aware there are local regional and national news far more compelling and worthy than this incident.

Yesterday I selected a Sparks reward, "£5 off all bras".

Today I went to my local store specifically for bras. Before perusing the assorted fripperies I asked the shop assistant to clarify the deal, was it on a specific bra, any bra, all bras bought now or in the 6 day window the offer was available.

She kindly confirmed that all bras would have £5 off, but only in one transaction. I duly filled my basket.

I got to the till, lady at the till also thought the offer was all bras. Scanned first bra, £5 off, second bra, no deduction. She called the supervisor who said try it as a seperate transaction, it might only apply to one per purchase. Till said no, so supervisor concluded the £5 was for only one bra in one transaction.

I bought the basket of several as I had hoped 5 x £5 off the bras I bought would pay for the last one. I spent over £100.

By the time I had paid my parking £3, my marvellous offer saved me £2. .

Irritated by the lack of clarity I called Customer Services. They explained it was only one bra, only one transaction. I took issue with this as that is not what the offer said, or the shop staff said. Unfortunately there was nothing Customer Services could do my arse, ever heard of customer satisfaction.

So more irritated, I went online to have online "chat" with M&S Customer Services. it's a slow day chez antihistamines. The advisor advised if I had done each bra as a seperate transaction then I would have got £5 off each time, this was not what I been told over the phone. Customer Services directly contradicted each other.

Advisor then quoted in online chat (I have a transcript) T&Cs ""Refresh your lingerie drawer....we've got a bra for every outfit....excludes sale and clearance items....valid in store and online...not to be used in conjunction with any other offer.... Valid on presentation of card at till. Offer can be used only once"

This doesn't say only one one item. This says used only once. Bras is plural. In the abscence of clarity what happened to the customer is always right? If there was an offer, why hadn't the staff in the relevant dept all been told the correct details? This is not the shopfloor staffs fault.

This ad campaign is misleading, the staff misinformed, and the Customer Service unsatisfactory.

AIBU to think M&S Sparks card should be aware of it's own T&Cs?

FYI There will be no Daily Mail sad face in the side bar of shame.

Omag.

M&S need 30 people in groups of five in 6 regional centres to screen their adds. Who checks their shit.

Biggest demographic is 40+ start listening"

Has no one in store spotted similaritiies to P Green?..

Is everyone asleep????

I've just received an offer of a half price chilled drink if I buy a toastie in the cafe - what a pile of shite..... Nearly as good as the 20% of gluten free food when no one I'm my family is gluten intolerant.

I qualified for 'events and experiences' months ago and was therefore entered into a draw for something I didn't want to win and my chances of winning were going to be pretty remote anyway. I've had an invite to a fashion show during the day when like most people I'm working and the clothes are currently so shocking i wouldn't go anyway.

I am actually collecting points for absolutely no reason and have absolutely no incentive to earn more points. I just keep hoping M and S will wake up and offer me something that I actually want. I do not want 20% off Percy pigs or autograph nighwear that I can't actually find in any shop near me. I love the food and have recently bought furniture - keep it simple and let me earn vouchers for money off these.

Wake up M and S. Can't believe people have been paid to devise such a useless scheme..........

The offer isn't misleading, it clearly states that bras are discounted by £5. Now - the fact that M&S head office probably wanted it to say something slightly different, but whoever wrote it worded it poorly and thus changed the meaning, is by the by. They made an offer and then failed to honour it. Very very poor customer service IMO.

I find it bewildering too. Have just checked my offers. Buy a toastie and get a cold drink half price and 20 percent off gluten free - I'm not gluten free and have never bought gluten free stuff. Useless.

However then I saw 20 percent off Chablis, which immediately tempted me. It's probably overpriced Chablis.

My offers are:

£5 off men's trousers
20% off various niche food categories including jam and percy pigs.

Complete rubbish. I think the only time Sparks has ever been of any use was when it first started and they had 10% of ALL food.

I've never used any of the Sparks offers you have to add to your card. ANY of them.

I've used the early access to sale feature, which is great, and the 20% off everything offer which is simple enough. But 20% off random items just isn't enough to make me impulse buy something I don't really need, eg, glassware - yet just enough to irritate me when I realise I COULD have had 20% off something I do need, eg, ladies' skirts, had I telepathically known M&S would be offering it three weeks later.

The whole thing has been devised by evil dimwits geniuses. If they'd only taken a leaf out of Waitrose's book, since it's surely a v similar demographic?, and offered a free seasonal tin of shortbread for every £100 spent (rapidly becoming my one M&S must-buy), or a free pair of black Magicwear opaques on your birthday, they'd have had a ratings winner.

Furious, it isn't just me then? The advert does say £5 off all bras bought in one transaction. I am definately following this up.

That Sparks card is absolutely infuriating. The offers are bloody useless.

The Chablis offer is ok, but three weeks ago in M&S I found Macon Village half price, with 25% off if you bought 6, £10, down to £4 .

That is an offer I want, and it had nothing to do with bloody stupid Sparks card.

I see your crap Sparks offers and I raise you...thus

I have north of 35000 sparks points. My sparks offer was Cream tea for 2 for £7.

DH has a Sparks card too, with 7000 sparks points (Don't ask!) His sparks offer was Cream tea for 2 for £6

Our local M&S cafe doesn't even do cream teas - we'd have to travel to another town to get one or 2, for the bargain price of €7, no was that £6?

What messages are they sending out?

And re the current 20% off dips, why doesn't that include Houmous? Why do their offers never work on what you would think they would, but you never get the benefit? It actually pisses me off so much - I've even looked at their t&C's referred to in the so called offers, buy it's completely generic & no b**y use at all. Whytf am I even supposed to telepathically know what M&S lexicography of food is???

I hate, hate, hate their stoopid offers which never apply to anything I want to buy, after the annoyingness of downloading their stoopid offers, using my 4G allowance because their stoopid wifi doesn't work in their stores!!! End of rant!!!

As a reasonable aside, if I go into their store to collect my online order, the lack of wifi means that I have to prepare by downloading their email saying it's there for me to collect, in order to show them...it's the amount of brains pace that I have to give to a simple process like cluck and collect that should be really easy and effortless, as in John Lewis, but e is instead frustrating and annoying.

M&S, I know you claim to be utterly disinterested in social media, but you should really wake up and smell the coffee (before your business is buried in the spent grounds).

The advert does say £5 off all bras bought in one transaction.

Is there any additional wording or t & cs attached to the offer?

Purely on the back of this thread, I have logged in (for the first time) to check my personalised offers.... Drum roll please....

Half price on herbs - HERBS, I haven't bought a herb in my whole life outs oneself as a crap cook and half price cream, again don't think I've ever bought any.

Totally underwhelmed.

PS Beckywiththegoodhare, I'm right behind you & several others in the queue. Having ordered a lot from m&s, staff see me & go to collect the boxes. At checkouts, they ask me which of my groceries are meant to be on special offer per the shelf edge labels, as they know that if they are not correct (at least 25% will have out of date labels) I will not want them, & it saves me going & spending 20 mins at the customer service desk for adjustments/returns.TBF I have disabilities so standing is challenging enough, but honestly, what business can be so complacent of its own rubbish shelf labelling behaviour? Especially as they could be caned by the office of fair trading?

Last post...half price cream???? Mine is for 20% off...& I actually need loads for a pavlova...

greengage I hope you don't think I was being snippy about the older ladies having sparks offers explained to them - it's absolutely right that an assistant should go through the offers with customers if they don't have internet access, and also that assistants should make time to help customers with disabilities too! I just think it's bizarrely tin-eared to make a 'rewards' scheme so very hard to benefit from, in pretty much every direction you look at it.

I got the £5 off Bras email. Def implies £5 off every bra (not just one) to me.



Ere is the wording for the rubbish bra offer. I don't think it's clear at all.

£5 OFF BRAS
IN STORE & ONLINE 4 DAYS TO CLAIM
CLAIM BONUS
Refresh your lingerie drawer, we’ve got a bra for every outfit.

TERMS & CONDITIONS

EXCLUDING: Sale & clearance items and Bra Accessories. Image used for illustrative purposes only. Valid in participating Marks & Spencer stores in the UK (excluding Channel Islands, M&S Outlet and BP Connect stores) and online at marksandspencer.com. Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other M&S discount voucher or online promotion. Valid in store on presentation of your Sparks Card at the till or online. Offer can be used only once in store and using our in store ordering service within the period of validity. Online offer is valid once at marksandspencer.com, mobile, by phone or touch screen ordering points in store. Offer strictly non-transferable and cannot be sold or exchanged for cash. Any refunds will take into account the discount and your M&S Sparks balance. Discount does not apply to delivery charges. Marks & Spencer reserves the right to reject this voucher with reasonable cause. --This offer can be used with staff discount—

sparks really is the most rubbish "reward" card. I only use it for the charitable donation aspect.

Who ever remembers what the offers are 6 days later? If I've ever got money off its simply luck.

Becky, sorry, no, I don't think you're being snippy!
I agree, they have made it stupidly hard for any of their target audience to engage successfully and happily.
I have been almost reduced to tears by their bizarre unwillingness to actually sell me stuff straightforwardly. I think they reckon that they are saving us from the tyranny of carrying around lots of vouchers, but the opacity of their offers, and the seeming randomness and their poor follow through - wifi: poor quality of & how it impacts staff & customers; different staff, different interpretations etc means that it is a PR disaster, looking at this & previous threads.
What do I know anyway? I still buy food & underwear & some household goods there. If I was a smart young tweeter with 000s of followers, maybe they would care a bit more?

It almost sounds to me that they've made it deliberately vague. "Refresh your lingerie drawer" would suggest you'd buy more than one bra.

I would assume that would be £5 off each bra bought in the same transaction. Not £5 off just one bra.

greengage phew, sorry - I didn't want to offend by accident!

'Refresh your lingerie drawer' is a classic M&S moment for me, in that while it's well-intended, the mental image it conjures up is of stinky old grundies in need of a wash. Thanks, M&S.

Agree reads £5 off each bra you buy in the same transaction.

Re customer service they no longer have a clue. I had a conversation with customer services re terrible service at the cafe in the Cribs Causeway branch and asked when I would hear from them regarding any action taken and they said oh we don't write to you, your comments will just be passed on to the branch manager. So actually no real acknowledgement or apology for the problems let alone a free coffee for my trouble.

SPARKES is totally useless. Our nearest store is miles away so if I actually did want to use any offer they have expired when I go. Only thing I've ever used was the 20% off.

Shame M&S used to be king of customer service now rubbish.

ARE YOU LISTENING STEVE ROWE????

We are your core customers and you are pissing us off with your silly Sparks "reward" card and your rubbish ladies fashion. You better start taking action soon or you'll be the next one being grilled in a select committee over the failure of M&S and the loss of goodness knows how many jobs.

Thanks for the details, PolitelyDisagree.

The wording could be better but for me it's not ambiguous. I would interpret £5 off all bras as meaning the offer could be applied to any M & S bra on sale, rather than customers choosing from selected items/not the full range. Even if you think the offer applies to any number of bras purchased in one transaction, the terms say: Offer can be used only once in store (or once online/by other methods). Had they included the words in one transaction that might support the idea that you could have £5 off several items provided you purchased them in one go.

That said, I would expect employees in the department to understand the terms of the offer.

The promotioinal offer is nonsense. Its utterly crap wording, I am going to email Head Office.

Refresh is not a good choice of word, as PP said it implies unfresh.

£5 of all bras is plural. £5 of any bra is singular.

Offer can be used only once in store means one transaction

This offer is utterly rubbish. People are being paid wages to do this??

Phillip Green should be a warning to all retailers to get their act together.

You don't refresh your lingerie drawer by buying only one bra. It's misleading, perhaps deliberately.

Money off offers like this also tend to be per transaction when it's across a range of items, not only available on one of the eligible items. It's not unreasonable to get what is essentially 20% off a £25 bra so there's no reason to think that it couldn't possibly be so generous as to give you the discount on more than one bra. In fact in sales you would get that or more. It's a totally bizarre and confusing promotion.