Meal Deal rip-offs...

dowie

dowie

dowie

Caporegime
Joined
29 Jan 2008
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Sadly Tesco inflated their meal deal price from £3 to some club card only £3.40 price, now various chains have a "premium" meal deal option too. But one thing I've noticed, which I didn't see happening previously, is that they're sneaky with the tills too if you have more than one item which could be included.

It's happened now in both Tesco and another chain. I get a meal deal; main + snack + drink, but there's a bargain shelf too with some other item, like a discounted main or snack. You scan those in and what does the till do? It groups together the discounted item in the meal deal and charges you full price for the more expensive main or snack as a separate item!

That's just BS, why would anyone want that? It just relies on them being sneaky if you then notice it you either waste the time of a staff member and have them refund the 4 items and then scan them through again as two separate purchases or the next time you shop you have to faff around and divide up your purchases so you put the discounted item through separately to the meal deal.

I could swear it didn't used to work like that?

Is anyone else a meal deal fan and have you noticed this recently?
 
I buy Tesco meal deals often and if it doesn't come up as £3.40, no matter how busy it is even at peak time, I leave the stuff and go back and get new stuff. Yeah it's very annoying. It's happened to me a fair few times as well usually when I deviate from crisps to some other snack, or a drink that's not a meal deal drink. The price if it doesn't scan at £3.40 is ridiculous. Sometimes double.
 
kindai said:
The other one I've noticed is deals not being advertised.

For example Morrisons pizza counter, have a custom 10" pizza, £3.50.

Have 2, then its £2 off...

But they dont actually have that listed anywhere!
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So how do you know?? Does it only show up on the receipt after purchase? Seems a bit mad if so. But then the whole sodding world is going mad at an alarming rate.
 
dowie said:
I could swear it didn't used to work like that?
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i buy meals deal almost every working day and have for far too many years. it's always worked like that.

seems sensible to me that way they've put it and not some sort of scam. i understand the confusion here, but it's simple now you know. main item + snack + drink = meal deal, any other reduced items will not count, and the cheapest item will be ones in the meal deal, so if you get as a snack, eggs for £1.50 as part of the meal deal, and crisps for 50p, it'll be the crisps that count so you have to do them seperatly.
 
cheesyboy said:
Recently discovered the best meal deal is in Co-op. I think the price is £3, but for the snack you can have a Ginsters Slice! Unbelievable value.
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£3.50 if you have a coop card, which coats £1 to get. Else it's £4.

They are all pretty much equal. You can get to £6 plus easy and see it come down to £3.40 or so.

Sometimes I see peolle getting the £1.50 sandwich and just want to tell them no, you're missing out on a good £2.80 sandwich for the same deal.
 
jaybee said:
I buy Tesco meal deals often and if it doesn't come up as £3.40, no matter how busy it is even at peak time, I leave the stuff and go back and get new stuff. Yeah it's very annoying. It's happened to me a fair few times as well usually when I deviate from crisps to some other snack, or a drink that's not a meal deal drink. The price if it doesn't scan at £3.40 is ridiculous. Sometimes double.
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So you pick the wrong items that aren't in the meal deal and then dump them at the checkout in annoyance?

Deals not scanning properly is a massive bugbear of mine but I know to check the shelves so I'm going to get the discount...
 
I know it's not difficult to put cheese or ham between 2 slices of bread and cling film it up, but there is something I like about eating a sandwich made by someone else, be it a supermarket, at a coffee shop or at my work's canteen. There is something nicer about it and I can't explain why. Can anyone else explain it?

On topic though, the Beeb covered this earlier in the year which I still had in my history:

www.bbc.co.uk

Boots, Tesco, Co-op meal deals - which is cheapest?

As the cost of grabbing lunch on the go rises we compare prices at some of the UK's biggest retailers.
www.bbc.co.uk

The general findings is that the average meal deal price has gone up from £3ish to £4ish over the past few years.

Although Aldi don't do meal deals, I do like their sandwiches and bring them into work. They're something like £1.89 for the cheaper ones and £2.19 for the 'deep fill' ones. Get a multipack of Snackrite crisps for £1 which works out at 20p a bag, so let's call that £2.50 tops per work day. I don't bother with the fizzy drinks though as there is chilled water at work and tea/coffee.
 
If I have understood correctly OP is upset about 40p?

I do not partake in meal deals. Occasionally I will be stuck with getting M&S sandwich and crisps at a station or having a pret.
 
I've been getting my lunch from Aldi and Farmfoods lately, my two locals are right next to each other.

£1.80-2 for a deep fill sandwich, their chicken salad is actually really good.

Sandwich £2: (Aldi)
Bottle of water 38p: (Aldi)
Apple and grape fruit pack: 34p (Aldi)
Get Active Protein flapjack: £1 (Farmfoods, they're actually really good and have a bunch of flavours)

So £3.52 - 3.72 depending on what I get.
 
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My favourite is the Morrisons shelve stackers that cannot work out that the 1.5k of cheese for example, goes to the price advertising 1.5k of cheese and not the one that should be for the 750g of cheese.

Mentioned it many times in there and a neighbours wife who works there, part time, agrees that they do it all the time.
 
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