To tell M&S that Sparks is rubbish?

[Trumpton]

Just had a survey come in asking my opinion on the Sparks card . I hope they are wearing their safety gear !
It must be the worst thought out reward (?) scheme ever . I only use mine for the charity donations they give and regard it as their way of gathering information on my shopping habits rather than a way of rewarding me .
Does anyone like this card ?

I never seem to get any offers I'd actually use on my Sparks card (currently I've got 20% off pasta sauce jars and tomatoes, neither of which are things I eat).

spicerack Ah right, thanks. I wouldn't know. I rarely try anything on in shops and M&S don't do anything I like these days anyway.

Last year I did get offered the opportunity to pre-book a Christmas food order before the dates were generally available which we found useful

M&S refuse to invoke sex exemptions in the EA2010, and accept that some women for reason of privacy, dignity, safety and religion are unable to use mixed sex changing spaces.

Apart from seeing the sales first, I hate it!

I hate having to remember to add the offers on the card yourself every Thursday. I hate having to remember what the offers were that you selected. I hate paying for the items only to afterwards remember no one reminded you to use the card so you could get said offers.

I agree Sparks is rubbish. Some of the offers are so specific and you can't tell what is included. I recently had one along these lines (cant remember exactly): 5 yoghurts for the price of 4. I duly picked up 5 tubs of yoghurt of different types and sizes. When I got home I discovered I had been charged full price, presumably because one or more of my chosen tubs didn't count....who needs that sort of hassle?

Yeah. Complicated and annoying. Plus the constant email spamming with offers that you have to decipher like Enigma code.
Get 10% off oranges between 20-21st of April! FFS! When? How? I just bought load of oranges in Tesco so no. And what's 20%. Like 20p.
20% off Underwear! Great! Love me some tights and sensible knickers. Hold on. It's only the scratchy lace Autograph range. FFS!
Activate 3 of these exclusive offers out of five available this week only! Right, which one do I activate? 15% off flowers (but only fresh ones not plants) or 3 for 2 on mezze selection or 25% off salad ingredients

Basically it's massive faff.

Just no.

It is totally crap.. and the faff to get hold of one!! My mum had been badgering me to get one for ages a we do most of our food shopping at M&S. I went on their website to sign up for one, thinking I'd just register and they'd send me a card in the post.. you know... the sensible thing. But no! I had to kind of half register online, then it asked me to enter my card number... didn't have one yet. So then I had to actually go to the store to pick up a card. And I had to go to the till and queue to ask for one!! There's nothing on the racks by the tills or anywhere in the shop you can just pick one up for yourself. And it looks like it was a total waste of time because I never remember to apply the discounts to my card before I go shopping.

Don't know why everyone can't be more like Boots - get actual money back off your purchases that you can save up and then spend in store.

I'd say Mumsnet should boycott Sparks, but there'd be no point as I think my own DM gets enough points to keep a third world country going in charity donations.

Hillingdon am I right in thinking you pay M&S £240 a year, to get £150 in vouchers and travel insurance?

How is that a good deal?

Three times a year my points are automatically converted into vouchers and sent to me.

I' be only ever received one set of vouchers. I thought, oh good (because I certainly CBA to faff around online to set stuff up to get discounts). But then I noticed their expiry date was a week earlier.

Boots seems to manage a scheme with useful vouchers and/or just spend the points, why can't M&S just do something like that?

I have one, have more than enough Sparks points to be eligible for priority access to the sales (wasn't informed at all about the most recent one) and the 'events and experiences'. Not impressed. And I don't seem to have had any clothes discount offers since before Christmas. Is it my imagination that the number of offers has been reduced too? I'm a sucker for a freebie or loyalty cards but this is not fit for purpose.

And I've not knowingly received the survey you're referring to either!

IAmMatty I was thinking that. £20 a month is quite a chunk out of my free "spending" money so definitely not something I would consider.

I always shop in M&S on the very last day of their sale. Last week I got a £35 skirt for £3.29 and two nice tops for £2.29 each so this membership would not benefit me in the slightest.

I’ve stopped using mine. Offers I get are 20% off croissants, what’s the point? Or money off olives (I hate them and have never bought any there in my life).

One offer I did try was a money off a bottle of prosecco, at the till it didn’t take any money off and if took ages to sort out. If I had bought it along with other shopping I wouldn’t have noticed.

Downpatrick I've got the croissants offer as well!! Maybe they're trying to get rid!

Also on offer to me at the moment (among other things) is 20% off fresh custard.. is that meant to go with the croissants perhaps?

Why don’t they listen to their customers? Their previous reward system was far better. You earned money off vouchers and use use when (and on what) you wanted. Simples. I don’t want hot cross buns or offers on tights.

My survey was pretty scathing as well!
I don't get the whole thing.

Are my rewards supposed to be linked to my shopping habits?!
I get vouchers for blouses and bras but I mainly buy food!
I've never really understood it or received anything I want!
My favourite reward cards are the simple save up points in exchange for money off eg. Free coffees or vouchers etc.

It's such a poorly thought out system - you can just imagine them sitting around the board room table debating how to offer something completely different from every other loyalty card.

Which means they have ended up with a ridiculously over-complicated system where the number of points you have has absolutely fuck all to do with anything and can't be converted into what every customer actually wants, i.e. money off what they want to buy.

Instead I get random offers for 10% off sushi for the next 6 days. Oh and an apparently "exclusive" sale preview when in fact two days later everyone else will have it too.

It's completely useless. I've got one, but having to log on to get vouchers is ridiculous, and it's never anything that I want - you would at least expect the offers to be tailored in some way.

Why can't it be like Boots or Superdrug for instance, accumulate points and then get money off whatever you want?

DH was asked if he had a Sparks card when he was in store recently. He doesn't, and asked what the benefit was of getting one. The sales assistant actually couldn't tell him, which I think sums the whole thing up.

I avoided it initially as it’s a data harvesting scheme. Then they announced the 20% offers would only be going to Sparks holders in future, so I joined.

I do most of my M&S shopping online (a lot less overall than it used to be) so sort out the Sparks offers at the time of ordering, which isn’t an issue. Last time I bought in store the assistant offered to check my Sparks offers for me at the till, just in case I was missing something. Now that palaver would cheese me off if there was a queue.

I used mine , didn’t realise I had to actually tell M & S which deal I wanted , so held up the queue for ages as they helped me out ( to get an extra side with my Indian meal deal )
I said , oh it’s so confusing , and the assistant agreed with me !
Says it all
Hope I get the survey !

What happens to the points? I think it's pants too.

It's only worth it (IME) for the early access to the 50% off sale - and that's only because they often put things in that which don't go into the in-store sale.

The problem with THAT, from the M&S profit point of view, is that I no longer buy underwear until I'm offered it six times a year for half price.

At least it's not just me!I've been thinking for a while it's the most irritating and pointless reward card out there .To the point that I politely told the cashier so the other day ,and couldn't be bothered to get it out of my purse.The Boots reward card knocks spots of it ,and is a much simpler concept and keeps me loyal far more than the Sparks card ever could.M and S have lost their way in a lot of ways lately I fear.

So, my Club membership costs £240. I get approx. £150-£200 in vouchers because of my spend. The insurance is worth £120 for the family. I did have my own insurance before hand so know approximate costs.

I also get vouchers for hot drink (once a week) worth £2.65 = £137.

Plus I get random vouchers worth approx. £40 to spend on clothing and beauty during the year