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.

Thank you Matey, that is what I think. In the absence of clarity, with misleading T&Cs they should have honoured the meaning of the wording.

I will contact Head Office and include this thread.

The fact there is any debate at all means the wording is wrong, the promo should be reworded and relaunched.

Matey I've said that the wording could be clearer and that staff should understand the terms of the offer. However, the expression £ off all items in a retail context indicates that an offer can be applied to an entire range, rather than to unlimited purchases (had the offer read £5 off all bra purchases, that would better support OP's interpretation). Other retailers use the same terminology. Offers that are expressed as a specific amount of money off are not usually able to be used multiple times - when they are, it says so in the terms. Offers across multiple items in one transaction are likely to be expressed as a percentage discount.

What other examples can you provide of offers applying to an unlimited number of items, expressed as £x of all items with used only once or similar in the terms?

Er, no. If my coupon says £3 off all fizzy wine at Morrisons, I expect every single bottle to have £3 off - not £3 off the total bill when you buy any amount of fizzy wine.

If they meant £5 off a single bra purchase then they should have said so. £5 off your bill when you buy any bra.

MrsHathaway, £3 of all fizzy wine does not carry the same meaning as £3 off all fizzy wines (the latter being a better comparator for OP's offer).

off, even.

OK, I'll look at the difference.

"£3 off all fizzy wines with this coupon". Small print says coupon is not transferable, cannot be exchanged for cash, etc etc.

I put twelve bottles of £10 Prosecco in my trolley.

I expect to pay £84 not £117. I'd be extremely loud at Customer Services if they didn't honour the coupon as I expected.

The thing is - and I know I keep banging on about this - that there are simple ways to express what M&S intended. But they didn't use those words. They used words which introduced ambiguity. 107 messages later, we're still arguing. Good customer service suggests you recognise your error and proceed with the generous interpretation.

And alert Head Office ASAP with warnings that their wording sucks.

Thank you MrsHathaway. That is exactly what the email coupon said, £5 off all bras bought in one transaction. I am about to contact Head
Office.

I have the same offer (used it today) and read it as £5 off one bra, but any bra I liked.

Most of their offers are limiting and will say £5 off per una bras only etc but this one was £5 off any one bra.

It was quite clear to me that was the offer. I brought 4 bras but knew I was only getting £5 off.

Notmore
That is exactly what the email coupon said, £5 off all bras bought in one transaction.

That's different to the full wording previously supplied by PolitelyDisagree (no mention of transaction; inclusion of Offer can be used only once in store ).

MrsHathaway Even slight changes to the wording - you've added one detail and omitted another - shifts the meaning of the offer.

Fucking hell, bloody M&S, got through to Head Office.

Apologised for misleading ad, they apologised for incorrect advice by the shop floor and at point of sale, apologised for Sparks card inaccuracies, apologised for online chat getting the advice wrong and telling me to make more than one transaction, apologised for the whole misunderstanding as they read the transcript and the way I had been treated

Offered me a £10 voucher. I told them to keep it, too bloody irritated and have mo intention of spending it.

For f*cks sake,. How much time and effort has it taken for them to agree they screwed up, but btw here is £10 for your troubles

I told M&S that this thread was ongoing, that we couldn't reach a unanimous understanding about the T&Cs because it lacked clarity of communication. I added that on MN, there was someone more qualified with experience in retailing and ad campaigns , upthread, many thanks, who said they should bloody homour it.

I used the fizzy wine analogy with a £3 off promotion. If I bought 12, I'd want £36 off, I wouldn't imagine it applied to just the first bottle

Going to call retail customer services next, I am getting more annoyed the more I deal with them.

It doesn't say any one bra, it say £5 off all bras bought in one transaction, re read upthread That is what M&S said, in the T&Cs, that is what I was told in the shop, and that is what I was told in the online chat.

Sparks card don't know their own T&Cs.

Farcical.

Gah angry typing, honour, not humour obvs.

Totally agree with MrsHathaway. It's not clear enough and as gesture of good will they should give the discount off more than one.

fascicle x off all bras means just that unless a qualifying condition is made. That is the common use in retail promotions. Here MnS said " can only be used once " but because of the inclusion of the word "all " rather than "any" or ,"one", confusion is introduced. "Once " can also be interpreted as one transaction, one product or one product per transaction.

As Mrs Hathaway has said, there are ways this offer could have been made crystal clear and it wasn't. Essentially, if an offer needs explaining then it is not a good offer. That is what I was always taught. The MnS wording fails this test.

Meant to add, the wording as given by woodleypixie does make it clear that it is off *any one" bra.

I will follow up this am. All the bras are still in the bag I bought them home in. My DH is calling this BraGate. I need some Wild West stand off music.
If retail customer services can't see a way to rectify this misleading add the whole lot is going back.
FYI lady in the shop told me to keep those annoying snappy plastic fragile but strong enough to gut industrial strength rubbish bags hangers as they are considered packaging.
I am annoyed just thinking about this whole bloody farce.
Going to print this thread and send it to the store manager.

Sorry to derail but I chucked my Sparks card after buying a bottle of whisky (i.e taking empty whisky bottle box to till for someone to go away and put the actual bottle inside) then being accused of trying to defraud them when, two minutes later I went back to the cashier to complain an incorrect, much cheaper bottle had been put in the box. I hadn't even left the shop! No apology, I was just directed to customer services, who didn't apologise either . Appalling.

mateysmum
fascicle x off all bras means just that unless a qualifying condition is made. That is the common use in retail promotions.

I understand the intentions behind the offer precisely because I've come across similar phrasing elsewhere in retail to indicate the same thing (i.e. £ discount with unlimited choice across a range, but to be used against one product). But the language could be made clearer, especially if you take it out of a retail context.

I think others have made the point that Sparks offers are not particularly generous, so that adds further context to the parameters of this offer.

I took woodleypixie's post to be about her interpretation of the offer, rather than it being wording differently.

Notmore
Sounds like a good response from head office (although you don't say if they promised to make changes to future wording/staff understanding of offers). In order to restore your faith in them, what else would you have liked them to have said/offered?

I imagine the OP would have liked £5 off all the bras she bought.

They'll be cheaper than that in the sale in not very long so it would have been relatively cost neutral for M&S not to mention far better PR than this thread.

I was going to go to M&S for school uniform. I won't bother now. I'll go to George at Asda where I know I'll be treated honestly.

Fascicle the offer was £5 off all bras in anyone transaction. When I sought clarification I was informed that would mean every bra in the basket
Shopfloor gave this wrong advice, point of sale gave wrong advice, online chat gave wrong advice.

£5 off is not particularly generous, its 20% on a £25 bra. M&S do flash sales of 20% off woolens, 20% off certain food.

What I want is what the offer stated, £5 off all bras in one transaction ie £30 back.

Customer retail services have now agreed it is misleading. They will change their wording fire their copyrighting team, and inform the store, and offer me a £15 evoucher, I don't think that is a particularly impressive.

I told them about this thread on Mumsnet, their customer services person had never heard of this forum . I asked customer services to forward this thread to their Sparks team.

I also asked if they had heard of Sir shitheatPhilip Green?

As they haven't given me what I wanted I will return half of the 6 bras, so the ones I keep will all have £5 off, and then I will destroy my Sparks card so they can't use my data for demographic profiling or whatever they do with it sell info to third parties.

Well done Marks and Spencer. Please feel free to use this for customer training purposes as an example of how not to treat loyal customers.

And, if I can work out how to print this I am posting it to the manager in the local branch.

Ooooh, printy icon at the bottom of the page

Notmoreantihistamines
I was deleting emails from my phone yesterday and found one addressed to the CEO of M&S. (You can get the email addresses of most CEO's if you google ceoemail.)
A lady from his office, called Jane replied. I informed them of a Mumsnet thread ongoing at the time, quite critical of M&S. So head office is aware of Mumsnet threads
It was an old email. Perhaps 2 years.
M&S get real customer feedback for free. They don't have to pay for expensive consultants.
In that email I had asked about a customer loyalty card. I was told they had no plans to intriduce one. Then they brought in the Sparks card.

Holly, I just emailed this entire thread to customer services, when I spotted the printer icon, I also spotted the email icon.
I am now going to try and get the store manager's email, and Head Office, and maybe CEO.

M&S SORT IT OUT.

I got caught out by this exact same working on £5 off all jeans, a month or so back. I ordered online, though, so was well warned that I'd only get the one £5 discount and simply took all but one pair out of my basket.

So they lost a good chunk of a sale.