WTH M&S???

[NowWhatUsernameShallIHave]

What have M&S done to the Sparks card?

Now you can’t ever get 20% but have to buy things to ramp up rewards which are in £ but only when you buy the from the category they send you.
you then have to convert it so that you can actually spend it.
i get the way it works but psychologically I would be buying more if I had 20% off a category or just in general as you get the reward right there and then.

Not a good move in my opinion

I agree. It's stupid and I will definitely be put off spending there because if M&S send me a 20% off then I may go there to buy kids pj's, underwear etc instead of Tesco, however I won't be buying at full price in order to get a reduction at some point.
Also the timeline you get, to spend said amount is limited. It's not an accumulation over time like Nectar or Tesco Clubcard.
Totally stupid IMO.

They have also removed the student code offers. What is the point of further education now!

They have made it so complicated.

yes I was annoyed to see this too. It's obviously some kind of cost cutting exercise. I am not prepared to spend quite a lot of money over a short time period, so I doubt that I'll ever use the discount.

Hmm I was happy with it but I bought qualifying things for a £6 reward on 18.04 and the reward isn’t available until 02.05.
its a bit like points I guess but mine are always available instantly in tesco, boots etc

Agreed. My offer is spend £170 in the next 6 days to get £34 credit on the Sparks card, which equates to 20%. But £170 is an awful lot to spend over a few days, and £34 is only credit to spend in future, not 20% off the total spend. Definitely less appealing!

Blame Adrian. He never should have got the job.

Yeah, no thanks. I suspect the 20% off offers will creep back in eventually because it’s just not as tempting - or ‘rewarding’. Almost as good as the ‘£5 off a £130 spend’ at John Lewis.

I have an 'Earn £10 when you spend £40 on womenswear' which is the equivalent of 25% off? I've also got earn £5 on £20 spend in Beauty and the same in Home, so I guess they're just targeted.

My main ones are spend money on cheese, chocolate and fresh fruit so I'm quite happy with those.

I’ve currently got 6 days to spend £250 on clothes to get a £50 reward! Absolutely bonkers. I don’t know why they think I’ve got £250 spare to spend. It’s a real shame. I always used to buy when given 20% off. With this new format, I won’t be spending much anytime soon. I don’t know who thought this was all a good idea. If M&S wanted to change everything, surely a simple points system, where ££s spent = rewards points would have made more sense.

AND all my offers are for the food hall, when I never buy food from M&S which they can surely tell from my Sparks card!

I don’t like it either! The 20% used to make me go and I’d normally end up buying loads of other bits too. This new way is more complicated I probably won’t bother with it. I hope they change it back but I doubt it.

I think it’s rubbish, but was also rubbish before. My offers were rarely on things I needed when I was in. Both iterations the worst loyalty approach out there!

It's not giving you the money though is it, you will give M&S the full price and then you get a tenner to spend on more M&S stuff.
I'm sure they didn't like giving 20% etc off, but it encouraged me to shop there - this won't at all.

I’m confused - can you spend the rewards on anything you like?

Yeah, the Sparks card is just getting worse.

I mean, I’ve only got it for a free bag of Percy Pigs on my birthday.

Sure, but it's no different to building up Nectar points and then spending them back at Sainsbury's or Tesco clubcard points or whatever. None of them give you actual money, that's all I meant.