Meal Deal rip-offs...

Seems obvious they'd include the cheapest items if you had multiple things that could be included.

The same way that if you buy 4 items that are all in a "3 for the price of 2" offer, you'd expect to end up getting the cheapest item 'free' and paying for the most expensive individually unless you deliberately pay for them in different transactions.

I'd be very surprised if any of them were ever running a system that didn't preferentially identify the cheapest eligible items to form the deal price.
 
dowie said:
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!
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Of course it does. That’s how it works, that’s how it’s always worked.

It’s like a ‘four for the price of three’ deal where it’s always the cheapest item that’s free.

To get around this, make two transactions. Buy your meal deal first and then the discounted item afterwards.

There’s no rip-off here, it’s just how it works and how it’s always worked.
 
yes i have bought in desperation but maybe once yearly , work will be red pepper humus crammed with salad items i rotate daily (no i dont sit there and spin them) on wholemeal bread and hot chilli sauce.
cheaper healthier and not thrown together by an agency worker (believe me i have been on this circuit)
 
Bought a sandwich meal deal from M&S recently and i'm sure it was about 6-7 quid, inside a train station too which probably inflated the price.
 
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dowie said:
I could swear it didn't used to work like that?

Is anyone else a meal deal fan and have you noticed this recently?
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Yes, I bought a meal deal, pasta, bag of crisps and a drink. My wife bought a drink only. She was more savvy than me and realising that the clerk was adding the cheaper drink (hers) into the deal and charging full price for the other (mine), told her to start again.
 
dowie said:
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?
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I just do two transactions in such cases to make sure it calculates how I want it to.. the £3.40 meal deal is good value IMO compared to emost other things.
 
If I have 2 items that can get into the meal deal. I'll just put the meal deal items through on a separate transaction.

Been a while since I bought one
 
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[FnG]magnolia said:
Altogether now:

"Are you cheesefest in disguise?
Are you cheesefest?
Are you cheesefest?
Are you cheesefest in disguise?

ARE YOU CHEESFEST IN DISGUISE?"
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Ooo aaa, ooo ooo aaa!
Ooo aaa, ooo ooo aaa!

He’s Dowie - cheesefest in disguise
He’s Dowie - meal deal on his mind

Dowie will raise his
Battle to destroy the meal deal sellers with…
A big dowiehole

He’s Dowie!
 
Nitefly said:
Ooo aaa, ooo ooo aaa!
Ooo aaa, ooo ooo aaa!

He’s Dowie - cheesefest in disguise
He’s Dowie - meal deal on his mind

Dowie will raise his
Battle to destroy the meal deal sellers with…
A big dowiehole

He’s Dowie!
Click to expand...

A meal deal is more of a cheesedrought than a cheesefest
 
Feek said:
Of course it does. That’s how it works, that’s how it’s always worked.

It’s like a ‘four for the price of three’ deal where it’s always the cheapest item that’s free.
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Why of course? I'm not sure it has always worked like that, in fact, the guy in Tesco blamed it on the new manned till they'd got, I only got to see once the receipt was printed then asked for a refund, but I usually use self-service tills and then it's immediately apparent where the discount applies as you see a whole list of items and it highlights "reduced item" and "meal deal" in yellow on the list of items.

If something is advertised as the cheapest being free then of course you'd expect the cheapest to be free, what I don't necessarily expect is to pick up three meal deal items inc a £2.75 main and then spot another main already discounted from £2.75 to say £1.25p on the bargain shelf and for it to be sensible for that already discounted item to be included in the promotion. It's pretty clear that any customer doing that has picked up their three non-discounted items for a meal deal so it is sneaky if the till then screws them.

I think I might test this again on the self-service tills in the next few days and report back! :)
 
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Pawnless Endgame said:
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?
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No, I don't like it at all. Who knows where the person has had their fingers whilst making your sandwich.
Same with fast food places. There's a higher than normal chance that a low paid spotty teen who hates their job has spat in your burger, or farted on the bread bun.
 
purplesky said:
No, I don't like it at all. Who knows where the person has had their fingers whilst making your sandwich.
Same with fast food places. There's a higher than normal chance that a low paid spotty teen who hates their job has spat in your burger, or farted on the bread bun.
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You could say the same about anything you buy.
 
gingergundog said:
You could say the same about anything you buy.
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Yes, you never know. I tend to make a lot of the food myself from ingredients that may have been messed with. Fruit and veg I always thoroughly wash so there's less risk, but I can't exactly wash bread for example.
I've seen the amount of laughing and joking that goes on in the back of places like McDonalds and it really wouldn't surprise me if there was some very unsavoury practices going on there, particularly because of the usual age group of the staff who are normally employed in such places
 
There's a Tesco next door to one of the locations I work so another meal deal fan here :D.

It's been a long time since I was in your specific situation, but I do remember previously it was all about the order you scan the items.

Eg. If you had 1 meal deal but 2 drinks, different prices, the higher prices drink would need to be scanned with the main/snack, and it would automatically group it together for the meal deal price, then the 2nd scanned drink would be a complete separate charge automatically.

It does seem something has changed now as when scanning it seems like it waits until ALL items are scanned, then it decides itself which to group as a meal deal. Saying that I'm not 100%, will need to check the specific scenario again.
 
EddScott said:
I get meal deal from tesco most days. Can't say I've ever noticed this. Even with other items, using club card I assumed the discount was correct. I shall keep an eye on it from now on.
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Same here, I must admit my mental arithmetic isn't as quick as it used to be but I'll be sure to check this next time I go Tesco which will be in the next hour or so.
 
A2Z said:
It's been a long time since I was in your specific situation, but I do remember previously it was all about the order you scan the items.
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Oh that might be part of it, in my recent case the guy at the till scanned and kept the original receipt after processing the refunds so I don't know what order he did it in.

Have checked and just found an old receipt with a meal deal + a discounted meal deal item on it and the till handled it correctly but what you've said there tallies with this receipt, the meal deal items were scanned first and the discounted meal deal item was scanned last:

1fWhHPA.jpg


So perhaps it's the scanning order or perhaps it's the self-service tills vs newer staffed tills but either way I'm going to stand by my earlier claim that it's sneaky behavour, contrary to others claiming that it's like some cheapest free offer that isn't how it's worked in Tesco in the past as evidenced by the receipt above.
 
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