Supermarket giant Sainsbury's has contacted customers about a change to its Nectar Card offer - and shoppers are not happy.
Infuriated customers have accused the retailer of sending out a 'misleading' email, and they have taken to social media to hit out at the company. The outrage started when Sainsbury's, which has around 25 stores in the North East, including superstores in Durham, Team Valley and Sunderland, announced it would be running a new Big Points Swap offer. The offer works like so:
- Customers will be able to swap their Nectar points for enhanced money off vouchers which, for some customers, are potentially worth up to twice their usual monetary value when they shop with Sainsbury’s.
- Customers will need 2,000 points to be eligible and can redeem up a maximum of 10,000 points.
- Customers will see the different vouchers available to them within the app, based on their currents point value – so different customers will see different voucher values.
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However, some people have been left annoyed by the offer, and feel like it has replaced the popular Double Points promotion which we are used to seeing every year. However, Nectar confirmed that this offer would be coming to an end back in 2021.
At the time, a Nectar spokesperson said, "Fewer customers have been using Double Up over the last few years and so it’s only benefited a small minority of our customers. We know some people will be disappointed to see it go, but we hope more customers will be able to take advantage of our new My Nectar Prices offer. This gives customers access to lower prices and personalised offers year-round."
This hasn't stopped some people from taking to social media to slam both Nectar and Sainsbury's. On Twitter, @Matthew36906162 said: "@sainsburys @nectar @GlosTSS Your new BIG points swap is a BIG Con and hugely misleading, the email sent to me showed i would get double the value, in the app im being offered only 50%, you cant get anymore misleading than this!!!"
On the Extreme Couponing and Bargains Facebook group, shopper Becka Harris wrote: "Don’t know if it’s been posted but Sainsbury’s are doing the big points swap instead of double up this year."
There were also complaints on Twitter about Nectar taking more points that it should for the new promotion.
@andywebb101 said: "Hey, did the big points swap yesterday - 2,000 points for a £15 voucher and it took 3,000 points from the account. Is this a system failure that will be corrected?" And @MiaLuthien said: "What are you doing? I exchanged £50 worth of points for a £75 voucher but you've taken 15 000 points!"
@Sainsbury's said they were unable to help, and directed customers to Nectar by saying: "Hi there, sorry about your points issue. If you reach out to Nectar directly, they'll be able to advise further."
