Tesco Clubcard Deals - anyone use them yet?

bazwaldo

I know I'm not reporting a bargain as such but I know these have been mentioned before and want to hear of any experiences with them by all us bargain hunters.:)

I have €470 in clubcard vouchers after buying a telly and wii with 50% back on card. At the time I had forgotten about the tesco deals, but after people posting about them here I read up and waited for my clubcard vouchers to arrive. That they did a couple of weeks ago.

Now I want to book a family break. I need to get a decent sized family room which included breakfast and has a kidsclub. The Carlton Millrace Hotel in Enniscorthy fits the bill. Looking online there rate is €92pp/pn. And supplement of €25 per child over 6. 3 days for my family would work out at €621.

Then I read the small print and it mentioned "Published rates". So I rang the hotel and it turns out these are €125pp/pn + €75 supplement for family room. So this now totals €975. This works out at €244 in clubcard vouchers, which is still a good deal but not the steal it originally seemed.

Has anyone else used these "deals" yet? And found which to be proper 25% prices.

Or has anyone else booked a hotel using them and what was their experience?

slumped

might be better in Consumer Issues

bazwaldo

I don't have any consumer issues here really. I thought the posters here would have used the Tesco deals, thats why I thought in this forum. Maybe in Bargain requests would suit also.

Oracle

Only Clubcard deal I've used is a magazine subscription, I shopped around on the internet and found it was genuinely cheaper than anywhere else. Besides that I think some people go for the Stena Line or Irish Ferries deals. But again as you've spotted, the vouchers only offer discounts off published (usually the highest) rates. I think the selection of deals available aren't great. They're mostly things I wouldn't be buying, like breaks, theme parks, tourist attractions, magazines, restaurant vouchers, etc.... Looks like they have a better selection in their UK Clubcard Deals scheme. My 2 cents is I still think best value can be had using the vouchers for your shopping. If you shop carefully (ie. when Tesco have BOGOF's and special offers) €470 can go a long way in Tesco themselves.

Saruman

I have used the restaurant deals as these are 4x the value. I went to Lemongrass and TGI Fridays on them. I also use Pigsback for the same thing I have over €500 worth when you multiply by 4 so im going to have to sit down and pick what restaurants i want and get some other stuff in there also.

I also have over €100 in piggypoints to redeem and i usually get restaurant vouchers.

banchang

I've just paid for my entire family & car to go to France & back with Irish Ferries, on these vouchers.

Super deal.

No issue with published rates, as its the online prices what you can either pay with cash or clubcard deal vouchers

tk123

Cheers OP for posting this - you reminded me to call Readers Digest. Sent them the vouchers in December and still waiting for the magazine even after numerous calls!

The_Conductor

I used 4x for Insomnia. My wife and myself had free lunches and coffee for weeks......

cruachan7

I sent €40 away and got €160 worth of hard rock cafe vouchers!

Davy

smccarrick wrote: »

I used 4x for Insomnia. My wife and myself had free lunches and coffee for weeks......

Can you get small amounts are they all €10 vouchers, cause they don't give change? kind **** the insomnias in Spar don't take them,, cant see why cause you don't actually pay at the 'Spar' till

kindalen

have used them to book a trip to france with irish ferrys,these are really great deals IF you were going to buy anyways.its worked out great for me..you can get vouchers for jewellers too,this just goes to show the mark up they have.

badbrian

Would be interested in hearing if anyone used these in the jewellers yet? They offer 4 x your vouchers for Bernard John. In the Tesco brochure it says the minimum spend needs to be 300 yo-yos but when I went to the shop I was told each item must cost over 300. Which is a big difference because we were looking at buying some crystal glasses and stuff.
I tried emailing Bernard John but none of the emails from their site work.

Fnz

badbrian wrote: »

Would be interested in hearing if anyone used these in the jewellers yet? They offer 4 x your vouchers for Bernard John. In the Tesco brochure it says the minimum spend needs to be 300 yo-yos but when I went to the shop I was told each item must cost over 300. Which is a big difference because we were looking at buying some crystal glasses and stuff.
I tried emailing Bernard John but none of the emails from their site work.

Perhaps you should contact Tesco directly to find out the terms and conditions (00800 0 100 0707). The Clubcard Deals booklet simply says: "the total cost of your spend with Bernard John must come to over €300"

Rashers72

I had some problems using them in Apache pizza, so I gave up with them. I used them twice in TGI's, but the 2nd time I had a very bad experience in TGI's (no fault of Tesco's, so I'll never go back there again).
So I kept the last 3 lots of vouchers, and was going to use them to get a magazine subscription for National Geographic Kids. But when I seen how many vouchers I needed to use, I thought it was a bit expensive. And when I went straight to the National Geo website, it was a fraction of the price (especially with the $/Eur rate)
Hence ended up using the vouchers as a straight discount off the weekly shop.

hamiltron

I've used them in the LeisurePlex in Blanchardstown, TGIs and Insomnia. Never a problem.

I am thinking of buying a watch in Walker and Hall in Swords. They should really accept the vouchers when the total spend is over €300 - not each individual item. However, I imagine that the jewelers were probably expecting most people to have only saved their normal allocation of points for the shop and may not have expected people to be arriving in with hundreds worth of vouchers having bought a TV or console at the cashback offers in Tesco.

ninty

badbrian wrote: »

Would be interested in hearing if anyone used these in the jewellers yet? They offer 4 x your vouchers for Bernard John. In the Tesco brochure it says the minimum spend needs to be 300 yo-yos but when I went to the shop I was told each item must cost over 300. Which is a big difference because we were looking at buying some crystal glasses and stuff.
I tried emailing Bernard John but none of the emails from their site work.

I used €800 vouchers in the jeweller,Swords for 3 different items,no problem with them and they were very helpful.

podgeandrodge

have used the vouchers for hard rock cafe, great value..don't know how they make money with these? (though they don't cover drinks in hard rock

as for the jewellery I can't figure that out at all!

jimogr

Sorry for bringing up an old thread but I thought it was probably the best place to ask this.

I ordered some tokens for Dublin Zoo, but probably won't use now. However, I see in the terms that they sent me that you can use your tokens for any deal with a code beginning with R. So I want to try using them in Hard Rock cafe.

Has anyone tried this? Using the token for a deal other that the code on the voucher.

Thanks

ninty

No problem as they are general vouchers with no specific name on them.Have used vouchers i got for jeweller in apache and harry ramsdens ok.

jimogr

Thanks ninty

okidoki987

as for the jewellery I can't figure that out at all!

Have a guess what kind of mark-up jewellery shops have? :eek:

ninty

Not as much as the 75% extra i got with the vouchers and if it is i did not pay it.Thank you Tesco.Ideal for people getting engaged,married or wedding presents.

Doodah7

I was going to use some for the Carlton Hotel in Kinsale. The few days we were looking at, the price by booking over the internet was €49pps. However you can't use these prices and you have to phone their central reservation part. They wanted to charge €140 pps if we used the Tesco voucher!!!!:mad::mad:

Needless to say...

snubbleste

I have a stack of Tesco vouchers I want to exchange for deals

What is currently the best clubcard deal as in value for money out there?

Saruman

Lots of thread resurrection going on but its a good question all the same.
There are new deals these days but also some of the good ones are gone.

Perhaps the vouchers for Irish ferries and Stenna line are good.

spank_inferno

I believe the Irish ferries offering is now nearly closed (you had to book by the start of May I think)

This doesnt leave a whole lot IMO

Saruman

I thought that was just for the france crossings, anyway I would not use them on principal so would use stena line.

okidoki987

Perhaps the vouchers for Irish ferries

As spank_inferno says that deal is over, was only going for travel before 1st May
so summer holidays were out .
Probably didn't realise so many people would use them for that.
A few offers have gone over the last few years and not a huge number of new deals to replace them.

Current offers
http://www.tesco.ie/clubcarddeals/

cormie

Irish Ferries vouchers ARE valid, only the routes to France expire after May

Saruman

As I already said, use stena line but Irish ferries is still open to the UK, it only has their France routes finished on may 31st for clubcard deals. See below:

Please note that the Irish Ferries Rosslare/Cherbourg and Rosslare/Roscoff routes will not be available through Tesco Clubcard Deals from the end of May 2009. If you are planning to use your Deals Tokens for either of these routes you must ensure that they are ordered and travel is taken by 31st May 2009

cormie

what's wrong with them?

Saruman

With who? Irish Ferries?? Do you not remember they sacked (or planned to, not sure how it turned out) all their Irish workers a few years back and hired contracted workers below minimum wage and could get away with it? They also re registered their ships in Cyprus or somewhere to avoid Irish labour law.

cormie

I heard them mentioned in the news alright, never read into it though

bobbbb

badbrian wrote: »

Would be interested in hearing if anyone used these in the jewellers yet? They offer 4 x your vouchers for Bernard John. In the Tesco brochure it says the minimum spend needs to be 300 yo-yos but when I went to the shop I was told each item must cost over 300. Which is a big difference because we were looking at buying some crystal glasses and stuff.
I tried emailing Bernard John but none of the emails from their site work.

I wouldnt mention the vouchers while bargaining with the jewellers until you have your final price and they have the goods all wrapped up and are at the til.

Mention before you;re finished bargaining and this will effect the price you pay.

bobbbb

Saruman wrote: »

With who? Irish Ferries?? Do you not remember they sacked (or planned to, not sure how it turned out) all their Irish workers a few years back and hired contracted workers below minimum wage and could get away with it? They also re registered their ships in Cyprus or somewhere to avoid Irish labour law.

Yes, they hired slaves. Basically they work all day on one ship and are ten bussed to another ship to sleep and bussed back to work again.

bobbbb

okidoki987 wrote: »

Have a guess what kind of mark-up jewellery shops have? :eek:

Mate of mine owns a Jewellers.
90% markup - Yep i was blown away too.

_Whimsical_

Before sending your vouchers off be sure to photocopy them. I have found Tesco Clubcard Deal staff to be the most incredibly incompetant people I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with.

Last November I sent off €350 of clubcard vouchers to translate into €1254 of clubcard deals.I used registered post.The clubcard deal vouchers weren't available at the time due to a problem with them.However so they said they'd roll over the end date of my vouchers from end dec 08 to end dec '10 so I could avail of the clubcard deal when they'd sorted the glitch after xmass.

I recieved no new vouchers, so I rang them and was told that they'd never got around to processing my vouchers and now they were past their end of date so useless.They said they don't keep records of vouchers on computer so nothing they can do.It's impossible to get to speak to a manager. In the course of one phone call where I was transferred to different people I've been told the person I need to speak to had just left the office sick/is on maternity leave/is on holidays/is busy with a client and will ring back in 5 mins.I got no reply to a letter sent by registered post complaining about the service either.

There's no real legal entitlement where vouchers are concerned so basically my €1254 of clubcard vouchers has gone down the tubes.

Saruman

Good advice on the photocopy. I wish we could do it online like they can in the UK.

okidoki987

e's no real legal entitlement where vouchers are concerned so basically my €1254 of clubcard vouchers has gone down the tubes.

Joe Duffy (or whoever is filling in for him) would be where I'd be going next.
Just a pity we don't have a programme over here like the UK's Watchdog.

CH3OH

Chilly,
I got replacement clubcard vouchers last year. Had put then in the recycling ! Rang then up and got replacements pretty fast.
If you have no success on the phone , send a letter or email.

They have to have computer records. how else could they track your points.

_Whimsical_

okidoki987 wrote: »

Joe Duffy (or whoever is filling in for him) would be where I'd be going next.
Just a pity we don't have a programme over here like the UK's Watchdog.

I'm seriously tempted to do that because I am so annoyed over it. I had intended using the voucher for an Open Uni course so I had important plans for the vouchers.

CH3OH wrote: »

Chilly,
I got replacement clubcard vouchers last year. Had put then in the recycling ! Rang then up and got replacements pretty fast.
If you have no success on the phone , send a letter or email.

They have to have computer records. how else could they track your points.

They have told me that they only started using computer records for Irish clubcard points in mid 2007.My vouchers were dated Dec 31st 2006 so they were not on their computer system.
I have emailed and sent a letter of complaint to a manager there by registered post. That was 8 weeks ago and despite countless phonecalls trying to follow it up the person has never rang back and their staff have blatantly lied about where this person is everytime I call.Also every other senior person has claimed they can't help and that there is only person who can.
I will continue to pester them for awhile but as there's no legal avenue to persue it(and I couldn't afford to) it'll probably end up being pointless.

_Whimsical_

chilly wrote: »

Before sending your vouchers off be sure to photocopy them. I have found Tesco Clubcard Deal staff to be the most incredibly incompetant people I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with.

Last November I sent off €350 of clubcard vouchers to translate into €1254 of clubcard deals.I used registered post.The clubcard deal vouchers weren't available at the time due to a problem with them.However so they said they'd roll over the end date of my vouchers from end dec 08 to end dec '10 so I could avail of the clubcard deal when they'd sorted the glitch after xmass.

I recieved no new vouchers, so I rang them and was told that they'd never got around to processing my vouchers and now they were past their end of date so useless.They said they don't keep records of vouchers on computer so nothing they can do.It's impossible to get to speak to a manager. In the course of one phone call where I was transferred to different people I've been told the person I need to speak to had just left the office sick/is on maternity leave/is on holidays/is busy with a client and will ring back in 5 mins.I got no reply to a letter sent by registered post complaining about the service either.

There's no real legal entitlement where vouchers are concerned so basically my €1256 of clubcard vouchers has gone down the tubes.

To follow this up with some good news, after posting the above I got a PM from CH3OH with an email address for someone in Tesco HQ. I emailed it yesterday and got a phonecall this morning from someone who has agreed to reissue my vouchers as it was not my mistake that they were lost. So thank you to CH3OH who has saved me €1256!

Rafloution

wow fair play ch03!!!! think you owe him a drink!