Meal deal frustration!

[ShirkingFromHome95]

So, this is totally a first world problem, but it really gets my goat how often I buy a meal deal to then find out at the till that it's not actually a meal deal.

Usually, it's because non-meal-deal items have encroached upon the space intended for meal deals. However, I was in Co-Op today and it was clearly labelled 'main', 'snack', and 'drink'.

I chose a halloumi wrap (defo a main), a brookie bar (defo a snack), and when I went to get the drink I saw there was a new flavour of Purdeys which actually looked quite nice. I remember thinking it wasn't usually in the meal deal but it was clearly well within the row labelled 'drink'.

Meal deal should've been £4 and I also grabbed some reduced bananas for my protein shake (45p) and some reduced wraps to chuck in freezer (60p).

So, I get to till, bag everything up, and cashier then goes on intercom and asks for another member of staff to come and man the next till which sort of disrupted the flow. Then turns back and says "eight pounds please". I knew it wasn't right but on the spot I wondered if I'd made a mistake and so just paid, thinking it must've been around £6 anyway so not gonna hold up the large queue to traipse right back across the shop and get another drink for the sake of a couple of quid (last time I queried it I was actually wrong as had forgotten about a can of deodorant I'd bought).

However, this time it was defo wrong and should've been just over £5. Not a biggie but I've basically paid an extra £3 just to have a Purdeys when I'd happily have chosen something else. Can't help but wonder how much extra they make from this kind of thing.

I've been in other shops where it's been less busy and upon changing the drink or sandwich have had to stand there holding up items and repeatedly saying "how about this one?" I know retail workers work hard for little money so not bashing them, but this one thing irks me. I mean, how frickin hard can it be to have a 'main', 'snack, and' drink' row that actually comprises of what it says?

Could it be because they’re counting the reduced banana as your snack element?

Definitely not. Only certain items are snacks. I'm pretty sure having the wrong drink meant it didn't class as a meal deal and I hence got charged full price for all three meal items - often the sandwich alone is only like 50p less than having the meal deal with drink and snack.

Yeah this pisses me off too, very annoying.

Just ask which items entitle you to a meal deal at the checkout, or from a shop assistant before you pay? Sometimes shoppers put things back on the wrong shelf.

Had this in Asda recently- in the end they gave us an item free as it was such a palava to figure it all out. It was their mistake, things in wrong places.

@Getitwright Thats easier said than done. Most small shops and petrol stations have very few staff in the aisles.

This always seems to be the issue. Not the odd item that someone's put back in the wrong place, but a whole row of non-eligible drinks in the bit reserved for meal deal drinks. I've had it so many times that it's really annoying when you properly look and still get stung.

If stuff is in the wrong place (eg in the meal deal shelves) the store has to honour the meal deal price.

I didn't know that but when there's a large queue and the cashier is already calling for assistance you don't really want to be that person that makes them walk all the way across the store to check. Often I'm wondering whether I made a mistake myself but today I 100% didn't.

Yes, I don’t disagree, but OP specifically mentioned Co op.

My nearby mini Waitrose is awful when it comes to the drinks for meal deals. I always check when I get to the counter as they have so many little stickers below the drinks, with some 2 for 1 and not in the meal deal, which makes no sense to me.

I think it annoys me more because Co-Op is a fucking rip off nowadays anyway. I don't mind paying more for say M&S but a sandwich that would be £1.95 in Aldi or Lidl is like £3.30 in Co-Op and not really any nicer.

I just sometimes go to there because I drive right past it on way back from gym, but when this happens it's like insult added to injury. 😂

Thats so frustrating. I know it's only small in the grand scheme but so annoying.

I once queried a meal deal with waitrose as nothing came up on my receipt for the £5 meal deal. The nice lady pointed out to me the items I had chosen came to less than £5 so the meal deal hadn't kicked in! I always go for the sushi now instead of the ham sandwich, really max that £5 out!

See, you wouldn't have this problem if you got the same meal deal every time like me.

I game meal deals!
usually get a sandwich or big salad, a costa coffee and then a scotch egg or sausage roll or pepperoni for hollow legged living at home DS. And use loyalty card. But beware if you add a syrup to the coffee it invalidates the deal.

Agree. Especially when you double check and it still doesn't scan. I think they should have to have a list attached to the chiller which shows the options. My local Tesco and Sainsbury's have no indication what is or isn't in the deal (which is the reverse annoying problem)

Have you also seen that Tesco's no longer shows on each line of the receipt if you buy reduced items- it just totals the saving up at the bottom which is crap as there is no quick way of working it out of you buy multiples. Feels scammy.

But if they ever change it you're done for. 😂 Nasty surprise at the till.

I agree it's annoying but sounds like you did realise the price was more than it should have been, and you did have the option to go back and swap it, but decided not to. At the end of the day, holding up the queue isn't your problem, there was another till open, most co-ops aren't that big so it would have taken, what, 30 seconds for you to 'traipse right back across the shop', it's hardly crossing the Sahara Desert.Even after you've paid, you could have gone back and checked then if the drinks were definitely mislabelled asked for a refund.

essentially, even if the shop should have done better, you had the opportunity to not pay the additional amount but carried on...

apart from anything else, causing the shop the inconvenience of holding up the queue or doing a refund might encourage them to stop putting things in the wrong place/mislabeling. You paying more without quibbling has only disadvantaged you, and has in fact worked out better for them, as they made an extra £3 out of you - so if it was done deliberately and not by accident it's worked out exactly as planned!

If you want them to stop doing it, challenging them at the time is going to do more than paying the higher price and then making an anonymous post on mumsnet!

Huh? A shop doesn't even have to honour price tag on an item, much less the price of an item on an incorrect shelf.

I do agree that meals deals are a pain in the butt!

And now I have loyalty cards for everywhere, because lots of places only give you a deal if you have the card or app.

I was quite surprised today to see that a large Ginsters pasty counts as a snack.

(or is that a trap as well 🤔).

A sandwich and a pasty together is defo a right fat knacker of a meal. 😂

Perhaps thats no longer an acceptable term. Obv I meant the restaurant rather than the individual.