Woolies 'Everyday Rewards' deceitful and ripping you off with fuel offers, what rewards?

tunzafun001 on 09/08/2013 - 18:47

Just discovered why Woolies always bring out a larger fuel discount a couple of weeks after the last. For example, last fortnight you got a fuel discount for 16c per litre when you spend $80+, with approx 4 weeks 'allegded/ deceived' expiry. Then this week, you get 20c a litre off.

You think, I have got 16c off my fuel with 2 weeks to spend it, and a 20c discount to spend 4 weeks later

WRONG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The highest value gets used first, so your 20c with the 'longest' expiry will go first.

So 2.5 weeks later when you go to fill up, you will find you have no fuel discount whatsoever. Woolies just duped you out of 16c per litre (+got you to spend $80+ at their store). By then the fuel is in your car, so it's hard to 'return' it, as you didn't want it without the voucher discount.

I hope everyone reports this to the ACCC. I have told OCBA and they have asked me to pass it on to ACCC. If we all do it, they may take notice.

Woolies say that this is in their T&C fine print. I didnt see it when I paid at the cash register. I think it stinks! I think it is a deliberate and deceitful act.

Does anyone know what would happen if you fill up, find out that they have removed your voucher, so you tell them you don't want the fuel at that price, as you anticipated your voucher discount. Then, leave it on their ground via a syphon or removing the fuel tank drain plug? If you don't take the fuel off their site, then you haven't stole it? Seems fair play?

As for rewards, what rewards do you get? (is giving them free research our reward? better off not giving your card and getting a voucher that has the full expiry. Way to go Woolworths, great loyalty program!

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Comments

  • No on 09/08/2013 - 19:32
    +4

    I would be annoyed if I had a 20 cent discount available and it used the 16 cent.

    And for rewards you get Qantas FF points.

  • retiredfeline on 09/08/2013 - 19:53
    +2

    Sadly this is true and it's in the fine print which came with the card. That's why I often forgo swiping the EDR card and getting a voucher, since on the rare occasion I spend it's just above $30 so there are few points to be had. A voucher also shows you the expiry date. Or at least have at most one voucher on the EDR card.

    I hate these fuel discount scams since Coolies' servos have taken to showing the discounted price and when you do the mental addition, it's about the same from an indie, so why bother? I hope they implement the new rules requiring displaying the undiscounted price.

    • arcticmonkey on 10/08/2013 - 13:57

      This is what happens when Woolworths/Coles have such big/ridiculous market domination: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/hungrybeast/stories/beast-file-wool…

      I expect the same to happen with people buying the home brand rubbish and kicking the competition off the shelves. If people continue to buy home brands and give more money to Coles/WW, expect grocery prices to rise much higher in the future too.

      • t_c on 11/08/2013 - 09:06
        -1

        Actually if coles/ww profit margins increase one could surmise that it will enable them to lower prices whilst still remaining a profitable viable business.

  • tunzafun001 on 09/08/2013 - 19:54
    +2

    Even though you will lose the 16c? Why can't we simply select the discount we want? If you want to use the longest expiring discount first, then fair enough. But why should I have to throw away my 16c discount? I would simply get the 20c discount 4 weeks down the track?

    • maidingaling on 10/08/2013 - 02:28
      +1

      You can select which discount to use if you know for sure you have a 20c and 16c on your card. When the employee scans your card with your fuel transaction ask him/her to void the transaction with the 20c discount and redo it. The second time they scan your card should come up with the 16c discount, problem solved. It does however take up to 3 days for the 20c discount to be put back onto your card. So it's not really a scam, you just need to be familiar with how the card works and check online when your discounts expire.

      • lisss on 12/08/2013 - 12:53

        Surely it should be easier than that though. Also, because it can take up to 3 days (I think it can be longer) for the new discount to load, in that period you can't be sure whether you have both discounts.

        We have an issue with this as we have one 4WD that takes 120L, and the other cars are small city runabouts. Big discounts are only really valuable for us if we use them on the big car, but it's difficult to know when the big discount has been loaded and frustrating to have to keep track of what discounts are on the card.

        As someone has suggested below, one way to get around this would be to create a new account for a fake person or a card that isn't linked to the other family ones, and use that for the big car. Coles is so much less hassle with their paper receipts though…

  • tunzafun001 on 09/08/2013 - 19:58
    +1

    -greenpossum, agreed. Sadly, most people would never check and are totally unaware they are being duped.

    I was going to go and get my standard 70 litres, now I'm getting a few people together and making sure we take the full 150 litres per voucher.

    • lisss on 12/08/2013 - 12:53

      I also agree that Woolworths are counting on the vast majority of people not being aware of this and missing out on the max discount, which just annoys me.

  • retiredfeline on 09/08/2013 - 20:00
    +5

    Also a paper voucher you can pass to somebody else if you can't use it. The EDR points are not worth it anyway for me.

    • arcticmonkey on 10/08/2013 - 14:00

      EDR is junk to me, especially with the $30 clause. Usually no benefit for scanning the card if the transaction is under $30. I expect they rely on fools who do this.

  • tunzafun001 on 09/08/2013 - 20:14

    So in summary, it's an Everyday 'Penalty' card. I wonder what percentage of people have ever:
    1) Accumulated any worthwhile FF points?
    2) Ever used the points?

    Everyone turfing their cards? Woolies now have a 'with card normal price' and 'without card inflated price' on various items. So forcing you to use the card, so you don't get the printed voucher.

    "just these items on the reward card", the others without the everyday penalty card thanks! (girl at checkout dumbfounded).

    • retiredfeline on 09/08/2013 - 20:20
      +2

      If you can be bothered, do two checkout runs, one for the card discounts and one for the others. I once bought a $2 bottle of ketchup with the card. And a $2 coin of course. :)

    • Mistymoo on 09/08/2013 - 20:44
      +3

      I get gift cards just about every quarter through using my EDR card and I don't spend any extra to do so. I love my EDR card! (and no, I'm not associated with Woolies, blah blah blah.

    • No on 11/08/2013 - 13:12

      Yes

      Total Qantas Frequent Flyer points earned from Woolworths products :
      Everyday Rewards Card : 17940
      Everyday Rewards Qantas Credit Card : 50703
      Total Qantas Frequent Flyer points earned : 68643

  • cwongtech on 09/08/2013 - 21:46
    +3

    Advice for you tunzafun001.

    Woolies say that this is in their T&C fine print. I didnt see it when I paid at the cash register. I think it stinks! I think it is a deliberate and deceitful act.

    It is true. We learnt it the hard way before.
    What I did was create a fake identity and now I have 2 EDRs, one to a non-existent person. This is in addition to my family member's EDR cards since they keep losing them everywhere.
    Call it fraud if you want for holding multiple EDR accounts (2 for me) we write down all the fuel discounts on each card.

    Also there are sometimes different offers made to each card, so we choose the one that's the best.
    i.e. in the same week EDR spending offers are sent out - one card will get an offer that requires $10 more spend than the other card.

    They usually send out better offers to your card if you haven't been shopping at woolies for a while (I got 2 free 10c vouchers :D because the 2 cards that I hold have been dormant for a while)
    I reckon this is MUCH better than what flybuys offered.

    • KBZ on 10/08/2013 - 13:22

      ^ Thats actually quite smart, I remember coming back from holidays and obviously I didn't spend any money on groceries for a month and got an EDR for like spend over $60 instead of $100 for 16 cents off.

      • lisss on 12/08/2013 - 12:56

        Another annoying thing is that the EDR supposedly tracks your spending and offers you discounts so that you spend á little' more than what you usually spend each time. Clever in theory, but it doesn't work for me. I usually buy for a couple, and spend around $50 per shop. On one occasion I did the shopping for my parents and siblings who still live at home (a much larger family) and it came to $150+. Now all of my discounts are targeted at that higher amount, even though that was a once off spend…

  • kabigon on 09/08/2013 - 22:13
    +1

    I've found that with targeted fuel offers (for Woolies) that end on a Sunday, the voucher is usually added on the following Thursday, so you've got some time to use up previous vouchers if your most recent voucher is a higher value.

    Apart from the above tricks, I'd recommend only spending at Coolies the minimum possible amount every time they send you an offer that you want to redeem(I always try to get it to a dollar or less above the minimum amd don't go to Coolies otherwise unless there's a really good/rare deal on something). Plan your shopping ahead of time and compare against Aldi / previous sale prices etc., and don't forget your calculator app because we still don't have apps / trolleys that keep a running total of your shopping ;)

    • cwongtech on 09/08/2013 - 23:20

      Also for woolies - if you use public transport, there are a number of woolies that sell public transport tickets… for the same price as everyone else… but you get to use ING paywave + will count towards those pesky "Spend $30 in one transaction" or "Spend $80 in one week" :)
      Remember folks, don't spend money on stuff you don't need!
      travelten/mymulti tickets however, you can always buy in advance, worst case scenario if Opal Card system completely wipes out the travelten/mymultis, is you should be able to transfer it as "credit" onto an opal card account (when the time comes), it should be similar to the renaming of traveltens… now called "MyBus" 1 2 3s, not that they made any difference at all.

  • Hoju on 10/08/2013 - 08:25
    +12

    I don't understand what you're whining about, they give you a card, with free fuel discounts, free QFF points, free discounts.
    All it does is take up space in the wallet and give them 'information' that is no secret to anyone that could walk past your mailbox or shopping trolley.

    Some people just need to chill out and see the sunny side of things instead of running to the ACCC every time they think they're being 'ripped off'.

    I'm the first to complain if I pay money for something and it doesn't meet a minimum standard of quality, but this stuff is just whinging.

    A more serious topic is whether or not fuel prices are inflated by coles and woolworths and then you 'save' on their vouchers…

    • pjcook on 10/08/2013 - 08:56
      +1

      Greenspoon, I couldn't agree more……

    • retiredfeline on 10/08/2013 - 10:22
      +2

      I guess you haven't been following the discussion on how they track your spend and send you targeted offers that attempt to raise your spending. Nothing sinister about that, it's what they would do.

      • Hoju on 10/08/2013 - 10:24
        +3

        Nobody is forcing you to spend more. It's called marketing, and you're free to filter their emails as spam.

        • retiredfeline on 10/08/2013 - 10:25
          +2

          It's not the spam, it's that ironically by telling them how much you spend, you get poorer offers later on. So you might actually get better offers later by not swiping the card.

        • Hoju on 10/08/2013 - 10:29
          +1

          Yeh I understand that, and I have a card and my wife does too, meaning that one of us usually gets a decent offer.
          But either way you're still getting something for nothing, and there's no reason for the OP to make a post like this suggesting we should be complaining to the ACCC. "My free discount wasn't big enough!" or "My discount expired because I didn't use enough petrol!"

        • retiredfeline on 10/08/2013 - 10:30

          Well that part of the OP's post I disagree with. I always read the fine print on any offer, and I've always known about this trap.

  • natman on 10/08/2013 - 10:10
    +2

    I don't get what the op's problem is. It uses the highest value discount first. That is a good thing. If you wanted to use the 16c discount, why didn't you use it in the 2 weeks before you got the 20c discount?

    • retiredfeline on 10/08/2013 - 10:19
      +2

      Well you should have the choice like you do with paper vouchers. You might have more than one voucher active because you had waited for the low and want to use the closest expiring one first because you aren't going to fill up again before it expires. Putting it on the card takes away that choice. Sometimes using the highest discount first is the right option, sometimes it's not.

      It was probably too hard for them to design a scheme that gives you a choice at the servo cashier.

      • natman on 10/08/2013 - 13:04

        Fair enough. I agree that sometimes it would be handy to choose the discount that is expiring first. Especially if you don't fill up often.

  • suerayii on 10/08/2013 - 10:48

    If you have a partner,get two cards and alternate the card used each shopping visit. Obviously put a 1 and 2 on the front in pen so you know which one you are using.
    Same system with banks who drop interest rates if you make a withdrawl.2 accounts and move money one to the other each month. Always get the full interest. Beat them at their own game.

  • tunzafun001 on 10/08/2013 - 12:09

    Greenspoon- For your average 4c/ 4week discount, I agree. A bonus, great! (mind you most Woolies petrol stations around here are inflated by 2 cents, so really it's only 2c - Even though it is once again deceitfully appears 2c cheaper as you drive up). But 2c is better than nothing.

    However, I take massive issue when they offer a pay $100 receive a larger discount type offer, that is then no longer accessible. You can't tell me they can't simply add a discount option to the EFTPOS equipment.

    Guess we just have to play the game (2 cards)….I'll just buy a $100 item without the card, cut off the discount at the bottom, then return it to get the discount back.

  • tunzafun001 on 10/08/2013 - 12:13
    +2

    PS- If I don't have a discount or for work fuel purchases, I will always go to an independent fuel outlet.

    • ilostnemo on 10/08/2013 - 12:29

      Shop at Coles, problem solved.

    • lisss on 12/08/2013 - 12:58

      Me too!

  • t_c on 11/08/2013 - 09:13

    so how do you get the full 150 litres and still get your 5% ing wave rebate?

    if you reset the pump every 60 litres will the attendant still accept the voucher 3 times?

    • cwongtech on 11/08/2013 - 11:18

      You split the payment method, not the transactions.
      i.e. pay 2 or 3 times in 99.99 on your paywave.

      • t_c on 13/08/2013 - 07:29

        So I purchase 150 litres without hanging up the pump

        then walk in and split the payment 3 x

        is this correct?

        • cwongtech on 13/08/2013 - 09:44

          Correct.
          People do this when buying TVs..

  • Cluster on 11/08/2013 - 14:29

    Rewards? Well, I guess there's the frequent flyer points. I've managed to gather enough to get around $75 in gift cards over the past few years. The points are worth more if redeemed on Qantas flights but that usually requires spending even more money to redeem them (taxes, fuel surcharges, etc). And you actually have to want to fly somewhere.

    Select items are also discounted every week, but only if you scan your card. I guess that's a reward in a way.

    I quite like the system of using the largest discount first. Sometimes I have 2 or 3 4c discounts already on the card and then get a 16c bonus on top. I really do want to use that 16c bonus first regardless of when it expires simply because I run the risk of it expiring if I had to use all the discounts in chronological order.

  • Finde on 11/08/2013 - 22:46

    So you would rather use all of your 4c dockets first before using your 20c?
    I know I personally would much rather have the highest discount first.
    I think you are just one of those customers who just love to complain.

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