Meal Deal rip-offs...
- Thread starter dowie
- Start date
![[FnG]magnolia](/styles/overclockers/avatars/9.png){kind=avatar}
Caporegime
Mr Big Caramel 370ml is my new band name\
Suspended
Certainly shop dependent how they handle this.
Some places will take the first compliant items and associate them for a deal and hence scanning order matters.
Some places take all items, then group depending (normally) on the associate the cheapest items for deals first principle.
I had this in Wickes when they had some kind of 3 for 2 on.
I bought a load of stuff and it moved all the cheapest items to free ones, and charged for the most expensive.
Till person said thats correct. So I said ok refund the lot and then purchased in I think from memory three (maybe 4) transactions!
Grouping the items by the most expensive I hadn't paid for in each transaction.
I was buying a load of quite expensive stuff so made a lot of difference in total.
Most deals miss reduced items. They simply haven't applied logic enough at processing to exclude reduced items from a deal.
Most of the time the deal will still be lower than the total of the prices.
Simplest way if your suspicious and have items that may trigger a "misallocation" is to split them. If you can be bothered and the difference would be enough.
LOL at anyone buying a meal deal who would be bothered by this however.
Some places will take the first compliant items and associate them for a deal and hence scanning order matters.
Some places take all items, then group depending (normally) on the associate the cheapest items for deals first principle.
I had this in Wickes when they had some kind of 3 for 2 on.
I bought a load of stuff and it moved all the cheapest items to free ones, and charged for the most expensive.
Till person said thats correct. So I said ok refund the lot and then purchased in I think from memory three (maybe 4) transactions!
Grouping the items by the most expensive I hadn't paid for in each transaction.
I was buying a load of quite expensive stuff so made a lot of difference in total.
Most deals miss reduced items. They simply haven't applied logic enough at processing to exclude reduced items from a deal.
Most of the time the deal will still be lower than the total of the prices.
Simplest way if your suspicious and have items that may trigger a "misallocation" is to split them. If you can be bothered and the difference would be enough.
LOL at anyone buying a meal deal who would be bothered by this however.
Yeah, that is more understandable and more predictable, they could very easily handle it but I doubt the Wickes till developers are the sort to bash out leet code type problems in interviews.
It's an easier assumption there that given the algo is looking to give away the cheapest items for free then you need to split if buying multiple sets of 3. I did this at Christmas in Tesco, some of their 3 for 2 Christmas stuff was Tesco finest at circa £7 and some was regular stuff circa £3 so I grouped as separate transactions.
Wat! Noooo, this is very important stuff for meal deal fans! If you're buying a meal deal and a reduced item then you're doing so for the discount so of course you'd be bothered if it didn't then apply!
Soldato
Working at a call centre back in the mid 00s, on weekends we went to Boots in the small retail park behind work.
We had a competition to see who could save the most.
I think I won by buying a jacket potato with chilli con carne, a litre of orange juice and some chocolate brownie.
The only time I eat the premium sandwiches is when they are reduced to 10-20p at the end of the trading day. Managers are very demanding on us buying them. As if they are disposed, they add £4 to the waste budget. Buying at 10p, they get 10p sales and nothing in waste!
Most of my colleagues on a late night are fussy eaters. More for me then!
We had a competition to see who could save the most.
I think I won by buying a jacket potato with chilli con carne, a litre of orange juice and some chocolate brownie.
The only time I eat the premium sandwiches is when they are reduced to 10-20p at the end of the trading day. Managers are very demanding on us buying them. As if they are disposed, they add £4 to the waste budget. Buying at 10p, they get 10p sales and nothing in waste!
Most of my colleagues on a late night are fussy eaters. More for me then!
Soldato
Until about a year ago, about two thirds of the drinks in the drinks chiller were in the meal deals. Now, it’s all of them.
Before we wasted so much time on refunding the difference of meal deals if a customer bought a drink which didn’t apply on meal deal. A few times, we let customers kept the drink they originally bought and scanned another drink. One example was a mother buying her autistic son a meal deal. He wanted a green smoothie which wasn’t in the meal deal but the other colours were in it and his mum said he was going through a green phase. His sandwich was a veggie one - green packaging and Walkers salt n vinegar crisps.
We let it through as he would have a meltdown.
Before we wasted so much time on refunding the difference of meal deals if a customer bought a drink which didn’t apply on meal deal. A few times, we let customers kept the drink they originally bought and scanned another drink. One example was a mother buying her autistic son a meal deal. He wanted a green smoothie which wasn’t in the meal deal but the other colours were in it and his mum said he was going through a green phase. His sandwich was a veggie one - green packaging and Walkers salt n vinegar crisps.
We let it through as he would have a meltdown.
I think you're misunderstanding this as the issue I described was with a reduced item counting and AFAIK it didn't used to work like that. But you've said it always worked like that but then contradicted yourself by saying other reduced items won't count (that's the behaviour I expected but in my case, at the staffed tills, the reduced item did count).
If you see the receipt posted later in the thread the behaviour is different there and the reduced item didn't count, a couple of posters have then suggested that it's the order in which you scan the items that would count, that seems plausible and it would tally with the reciept as the reduced item was scanned last there.
Soldato
Yeah Boots Meal Deals I always had 4 items but always put the most expensive snack in as part of the sandwich and drink. Then added the cheap crisps/savoury snack on top and it always did the first 3 items scanned as the meal deal. No idea if they still do that now.
A reduced item with a yellow barcode I presumed/should have thought was a separate EAN/SKU from the original item so wouldn't trigger in the promotion.
A reduced item with a yellow barcode I presumed/should have thought was a separate EAN/SKU from the original item so wouldn't trigger in the promotion.
Last edited:
Soldato
There's a Tesco next door to one of the locations I work so another meal deal fan here.
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.
Update, it turns out it's not the order... I just tested it.
My recept uploaded previously had the meal deal items first and the reduced one at the end, this time I tried scanning the reduced one at the start and the meal deal items afterward and the self-service till behaved as expected, grouped the non-discounted items into the meal deal and applied the deal + kept the reduced meal deal main seperate.
So I was right to be suspicious re: the in-person till, it is sneaky if the behaviour is different there as you don't see the list on items in front of you on a big display with the meal deal and reduced stuff highlighted, you only see at the end on the receipt. Ppl comparing it to buy 3 get the cheapest free offers are mistaken.
So if you're not using the self-service tills then check your receipts as Tesco has some inconsistent ways of handling this stuff.
Soldato
It has the same EAN. Sometimes if a customer buys a reduced sandwich plus a drink and snack, it will work and customer pays the meal deal price, if the cost is more. If not, it will be the cost price. Cheapest snack is 70p, cheapest drink is 55p (water)
Same thing applies if on your Nectar app, you get 80 points for something, even though its reduced. System recognises you purchased the item - not the price. Got 60 points for buying some reduced mushrooms for 20p. Get 30p worth of points for something for 20p.
Soldato
Look at the ticket. If it doesn't mention meal deal or some symbol the shop uses to indicate meal deal items, then its not in the meal deal.
Soldato
Exactly this. Usually discounted items have a sticker with a new barcode on it related to the new discounted price. If you scan that it shouldn't include in the meal deal, but if you scan the regular one then it would. Easy to scan the wrong one though.
Boots is my go to for meal deals. Better selection, better value, and better flavour.
Asda wasn't too bad but last time I went the deal didn't have any specifics beyond cheapest item free. Got 2 sandwiches but would have been cheaper to buy a 2 litre drink.
Tesco tastes every bit as cheap as it looks.
Soldato
On price! But not on a hot meal.
Plus its bloody Pizza....... You can't beat Pizza if you're truly honest with yourself
Last edited:
Last edited: