Sainsbury’s and its overuse of vouchers and annoying discount systems

[Danc1ng1nthedark]

It’s now driving me nuts. Aside from the separate prices for Nectar card holders I get sent some quite good vouchers through the post separately weekly dated £7.50 (and above )off a shop and a load of dated extra points awarded for certain items. They are all connected on a perforated sheet you have to rip apart and each token has a different date.I then get given masses (when I pay) of annoying separate paper non perforated slips. I also have a nectar card. Some slips are petrol discount you have to bizarrely give a slip to get back a slip. My purse is rammed.

I work full time and shop/ fill up on my way home from work once a week So at checkout I have to scan my nectar card and pull out masses of slips to sort through and rip. Check dates and check I get petrol back and also take off discount from my Nectar card. I get people huffing behind me and I’m having to be patient for people doing the same in front. The cashiers are sympathetic and think it’s nuts too. I know I should be super organised but I have no idea what necessarily going to end up buying, I’m often knackered and often can’t remember what I’ve exactly bought at checkout either to have all the correct slips to hand. Life is too frantic to have everything prepared before I shop.

Why can’t they just give us a better Nectar card points deal instead of all this faff?
Life is too short. Don’t want to think about the money I’m wasting if I don’t go through the rigmarole so honestly think I’m going to quit and go somewhere with less faff. Would probably save money not looking at Tu and Habitat in the process.

See we’re all getting different discounts which is also annoying.

I get hoards through the post and at checkout. My petrol discount involves tiny perforated dated vouchers on a mass of various £7.50 or £9 off your shop if over an amount on a sheet. All with separate dates You hand this over when you pay which has to be over a certain amount and you then get another one back.

No cant be arsed with sorting through all this before I go. Life is busy. I’d rather go somewhere else without the faff knowing I haven’t lost money or I’m getting less discount than the person next to me.

No you don't need to self scan bar for a few "discounted price" offers.

I like the self scan as no queue and it's then not a faff to use phone to pay (using a pre paid 5% discounted voucher I buy via workplace).

The pre loaded spend over £30 and get £3 off that you have to manually scan at end of shopping are a pain as not done automatically and never scan from my phone.

I wonder if you get less discounts though using the app. Sainsbury’s is expensive enough as it is.

lidl do it automatically to your card,, i guess because it is on the app.

Totally agree: life is too short. All these loyalty schemes with vouchers and all that seem to come from another era when women didn’t have much to do except shop.

Working parents don’t have time.

I just chuck them. They go out of date too quickly. I'm not going to buy my preferred brand of tea the week sainsbury's want me to just to get 50p off. Especially as the price might be more expensive than usual. I just won't buy it and go elsewhere if its too expensive.

Well if you don’t use them then it doesn’t matter, does it?

My nectar vouchers arrive via email and I just tap an icon in the app and they load onto my virtual card. Same as boots, lidl and M&S. Why don't you just set that up?

bonus points (if you’ve remembered to pre-select them!) and personalised nectar price deals are automatically applied at the till if you use the app.
The exception is on the rare occasion they offer a discount voucher e.g £5 off when you spend £100. You still have to scan those at the till . Don’t know why, because why on earth would I decline a discount on my shopping?!

Do you have the app op? I never get postal vouchers, occasionally get one at checkout trying to persuade me to take out insurance which I bin but that's it. Every Friday the app notifies me that weeks offers are in, I just need to tap the "save all offers" button and then they automatically go through when I buy that product. It works on self scan, manned tills or online orders.

Tesco sends it in the post

Am looking at my nectar app and can’t see vouchers on there - am I missing something?

I went to the manned till at a sainsburys once and the cashier asked me if I wanted to spend my points - it was £15 off in points, but I couldn’t see them! What the hell?? If she hadn’t asked I’d have no idea

See I’m wondering if you don’t get offers or not such good offers with the app.

It's all on the homepage of the app, including the points available for spending at the top. (Android.)

Do you have the latest version and are you logged in?

I shop online, so no paper vouchers, just add them all on the app and they apply automatically.

Loads of offers on the app every week. Much more than I ever got in paper vouchers and as they are linked to my card, no faff and holding folk up at the checkout. My points add up quickly too. Only time I ever get a paper voucher is if at the till for double points on fuel.

They are under Nectar Prices and Sainsbury's Offers.

My app for Sainsbury’s never works. I have to reset the password every time even if I’ve saved it (on iPhone). I’m so over it. And I still get vouchers in the post. Mostly just go to Aldi or Lidl now as I know what I’m paying for things!

I shopped at Sainsburys until I had a self scan check that was tantamount to accusing me of theft. I never minded their voucher system.

I now shop at Tesco and happily the bills is slightly cheaper overall, and I think the quality is on a par or slightly better. It was an easier transition because our Sainsburys was under new management and had got scruffy. It was a shame because it was super previously.

Of all the reward systems. M&S Sparks has to be the worst by far. An incredible rigmarole to claim an iced bun ime.

Going against the grain here but I really like Sainsburys point bonus as in my app it's generally on items I often shop for. Including the sneaky weekly Danish pastries habit DH got into over lockdown as our "treat"

Yes they are surprisingly well targeted and I always feel bad about then "falling for their tricks" and buying that product.

But mine are usually 4 pints of milk or the bread we get or the malties cereal. Stuff I am buying anyway.

My app does says the "my nectar prices" are only if go via internet or do a smart shop (ie self scan).

But I like self scanning as I can pack as I go!

And this is why I prefer to shop at Aldi. None of that special offer price bollocks that’s only valid on the third Wednesday after the full moon if your Nectar card number has a prime factor in it.

Boots do load them onto your Advantage card. You have to get the app, but then they send you offers which you load up onto the card. I've never had a paper voucher.

I sometimes take the paper vouchers at the till and then am too bored to read them so throw them in the bin. They are usually just extra points, rather than discounts, right? I THINK having now looked at the app they are all on there, is it the same ones?

I definitely used to get those sheets through the post with “save £10 when you spend over £80” etc. haven’t seen one in a while though and can’t see an equivalent on my app. However it used to make me irrationally angry when DH would go to the shops and not be arsed to take the voucher, or if I forgot it myself. It’s all very confusing!

The only thing that I am on top of is that you have to scan the card at checkout to get the Nectar prices. DS is 7 and sometimes comes with me, he is obsessed by Nectar prices as if they were some sort of scavenger hunt (odd child). I don’t have the heart to explain that they just bump up the non-Nectar ones to make the Nectar ones look good.