To not know why M&S have introduced a Sparks card that does nothing.

[HamletsSister]

I recently got one of these beauties. Yay! I thought. Free knickers. Dutifully, I purchased t shirts and tights, bras for DD, even a couple of large boulder slings for myself.

And then, after some months, I asked. Apparently, the weird e-mail offers you get where you seem to pick one, are all you get. No discounts online. No preferential deals. Nothing.

I thought it would be like my Boots card, or my Co-op card where I clock up "money" and can then buy something.

Why do they make it so complicated?

Will they read this thread and sort it out?

We bought some couches from John Lewis recently and I gave the guy my John Lewis card. He said, oh good, lots of points for you! I didn't think you got points with the JL/Waitrose cards. Does anybody know about this? If we'd bought those couches in Sainsbury's we could hav paid off our fucking mortgage with the Nectar points

I was buying a pair of trousers recently in Marks and when the cashier asked if I had a Sparks card I handed it over along with a big old moan about how useless I thought it was. She just smiled sympathetically and said 'well today your card gets you £5 off these trousers'. I shut up.

It's really, really, really crap. The personalised offers seemed designed to be exactly what I DONT want. I can think of an actual example but something along the lines of I always buy full fat milk so the offer is on skimmed milk. All the friggin' time. 😡😡😡😡. It's incredibly frustrating and annoying. I sometimes get money off but it's too complicated and restricted that I still end up feeling annoyed and pissed off.
All I want is straightforward and simple offers.

They also use the sparks card as a way to send you way too many marketing emails. I understand that you agree to it and that agreeing to the emails is part of the deal of occasionally getting money off but jeez don't they realise that getting s so many emails is just going to piss off your customers.
Marketing departments seem so incompetent with this type of thing.

And they give me a birthday fiver which was nice!

I got £5 for my birthday and 20% off wine yesterday I thought the points you build up go to charity ?

Not interested in the Sparks card at all. However, the M&S Credit card gives points based on how much you've spent, and you get vouchers to exchange for goods, and vouchers for discounts on food or clothing. You get quite a lot if you've paid for a holiday for example.

It's not a great loyalty card if you're not a certain type of customer, but I don't really understand why some people seem to get so riled up about it. If the card's no good to you you can just chuck it out. No one's forcing you to use it.

There's dozens of loyalty cards I've never signed up for because I'd rather not get the constant emails in return for a few pounds off a couple of times a year. I only bother with the tiny handful that actually work for me as a consumer.

It's not a great loyalty card if you're not a certain type of customer, but I don't really understand why some people seem to get so riled up about it. If the card's no good to you you can just chuck it out

The problem is is that it's just about worth having. If it were worse it wouldn't annoy me as I wouldn't have it. It's in that perfect zone of being just useful enough to have.

I have very few loyalty cards. Boots and Waitrose are much better.

Actually you've just reminded me, the Waitrose card seems a bit useless. Don't think I've ever had any benefits from that one.

It's just spying on your shopping habits ! Binned mine when it stopped giving you some money off at the prosecco bar. Don't really but much there

Mitzy There's the free coffee, free newspaper, free magazine, 20% off your favourite items and I keep getting vouchers for £8 off when you spend £40 or similar.

I either use mine to stock up on meat, catfood and things like the curry meal deal or to build up my gin collection on the cheap. I keep going in and buying a couple of bottles of fancy gin on special offer and get a further £8 off. I have another voucher to use before the middle of May but am waiting to see if the offers changed as they didn't have much worth getting last time.

M&S have not Deigned to give their Irish customers a Sparkle card.
We are not as worthy as UK customers you see.
😞

I've never received any £5 for my birthday, that I'm aware of.

Nectar is rubbish. I keep meaning to call them as the shopping codes I purchased don't work, apparently expired.

Yup the M&S card seems pointless (pun intended) bit like the John Lewis one, though at least they send me a free cake voucher. Data collection, poorly disguised. The answer to why any business makes any decision is ALWAYS 'to make more money'

I do most of my food shop in M&S and think Sparks is rubbish. They say your offers are carefully selected but mine are never for anything I actually buy.

Ah I forgot about the famed free Waitrose coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker so that one isn't much use to me. Funnily enough however flicking through today's post I see they have sent me vouchers for half price cleaning products. Hmm

To receive the birthday £5 off you have to have put in your date of birth when you registered your sparks card. Be aware that it takes off the £5 from your next purchase and you don't get change so of you only buy a sandwich you lose the rest of the fiver.

Ah I forgot about the famed free Waitrose coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker so that one isn't much use to me.

You can have a tea instead ☕️

I don't drink tea either. But I might suggest to their customer service peeps that they add vodka and tonic or a glass of cava to their list of free beverages though!

I have to agree op. I don't even use mine anymore. I preferred the loyalty card with the free hot drink which they did away with on the introduction of the sparks card

I second the fact that an M&S credit card is better, you get money off and extra points vouchers. Also, if you switch to their current account, you get £5 (I think) put on a gift card for some months, which is worth having (not sure of details, changed recently, used to be £10 a month!).
The worst loyalty thing I had was tescos Orchard scheme - you got vouchers to try stuff and review it..but the voucher they sent didn't work, spent over an hour online chatting with a woman on their website, who suggested I was picking the wrong products that weren't in the offer (I wasn't, I tried it with all the possible products, none of them worked..). Then she told me I'd need to start over, querying it with 'Tesco' (I'd thought she worked for Tesco!). They didn't stop pestering me for that review for about 3 months, despite me emailing explaining the hassle I'd had...

Sparks is rubbish, I would have expected something better from M&S. They should have just kept it simple like Boots or Superdrug.

I agree. The Sparks card is a waste of time. I've binned mine. Because I get fewer points from M&S MasterCard, I've applied for a different one.

As a loyalty card, the Sparks card doesn't work because the offers they give, don't interested me.

I quite like the John Lewis for coffee and cake but you have to register the £5 voucher first then spend £50 then wait for £5 gift card in the post
As I do buy stuff online and sometimes high priced it's worth it if I want to access reciepts.
Ines I like are Boots Superdrug and Nando's!