Tesco riles customers with Clubcard changes that sees rewards value drop
Consumer champion Martin Lewis has urged Tesco to review changes to its Clubcard scheme that will see tens of thousands of shoppers lose out.
Lewis, the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, said masking the revision as “simplifying” its offers was a “slap in the face to loyal customers”.
Tesco came under fire for emailing news of the changes without notification to its army of Clubcard users.
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Shoppers are able to exchange Clubcard vouchers for Rewards ‘tokens’ worth up to four times as much with partner firms such as Prezzo, Cafe Rouge and London Zoo.
But the changes see a number of higher bracket rewards dropping in value to three times.
One Twitter user calculated that he had lost out £100 in the changes.
As I have £100 in Clubcard coupons that were “worth” £400 in vouchers yesterday and are now only worth £300 I feel like I have just been a victim of a pickpocket. Your headline “major changes” is woefully inadequate. This is scandalous #tescoclubcard #tesco
— Stephen Ellerington (@s_ellerington) January 15, 2018
Tesco pointed out that while some of the rewards will fall in “value” others will rise.
However, Martin Lewis said: “The issue is that these changes have been made immediately without any notification.
“Many people save their reward points month after month after month, waiting to redeem on a big item. These changes leave many of those people missing out on £50 or £100 – not good when so many are struggling.”
Very poor decision @Tesco #tescoclubcard every little does help and you have just taken that ‘little’ away!
— Norfolk Woodburners (@heatnorfolk) January 16, 2018
He added: “This is a terrible policy implementation by Tesco. I call on it to urgently review its policy to give a window of opportunity to those who’ve already saved substantial points, and will lose out by these changes, to still redeem at the prior value.”
@TescoClubcard Very very disappointing to find that the value of my clubcard points has now been reduced without any notice. I would have made use of them before today if you had informed your valued customers before hand. NOT HAPPY!
— My name is Tim (@timjames_me) January 16, 2018
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On its website, Tesco says: “We’re simplifying the Clubcard rewards you can collect through the majority of our Reward Partners. Previously, you could either get 2x, 3x or 4x the value of your Clubcard vouchers – but starting from 15 January 2018, we’re making everything 3x the value.
“So you won’t have to keep checking whether you’re getting 2x, 3x or 4x the value depending on which reward you’re claiming; everything will be 3x.”