My wife received an email offer from Woolworths informing her as a rewards card holder of a $10 refund she would receive when she spent a minimum of $50 instore by the following Sunday. She activated her card online according to the instruction in order to benefit from this offer. I and my wife have linked Woolworths reward cards. Having shopped, no refund was shown online or given at the checkout. On further inquiry, having printed out the relevant email and returned to the store, it was explained by an under-manager the email offer sent to my wifeâs email address carried my card number (of which we were unaware). The offer then was invalid, in spite of our cards being linked.
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That is a legacy from the days when QF miles were awarded with Woolies points, so each card transaction had to be to a particular linked QF FF number. Each card is individual as are the offers that only work on a particular card. The only time they come together are fuel discounts that are pooled across the cards. Sometimes my partner gets a better or at least more attainable offer than I, so we pick and choose. I trust you have updated the email addresses to reflect each card.
One decent feature is that sometimes (not all the time) Woolies offers are for one or more shops totalling $X in a week rather than only in a single shop.
In contrast Coles flybuys treats the household together, but their offers must be done in a single shop.
+/- for each if one is going to play their games but they put me off as much as court me with their antics.
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Itâs frustrating isnât it! I got a â$10 off one shop over $50â email as a birthday gift from Woolies. I printed the email out just in case there were issues and did my shop. None of the assistants were able to help me enter the code on the email - one actually told me that it was a scam and that it doesnât say itâs from woolies.com.au. I pointed out to her that she was looking at my email address and showed her where it said that it Was from woolies.com.au. After a huddle with her manager, I was told that it was for an online shop only - despite it not saying anywhere on the email that this was the case and they would not budge. I was put in the âtoo hardâ basket methinks. Thanks for nothing Woolies!
I had problems with Flybuys when my partner tried to link his Medibank card to his Flybuys card (as an additional card holder on my Flybuys account) but they wouldnât let him link it up. I think the same issue that wim.roodenburgâs wife had with her Rewards card applied to the Medibank/Flybuys link. Isnât that the point of these cards - for everyone in household to be able to be part of one account??! UghâŠbig business.
I have had a similar thing whereby I was supposed to get a free bottle of beer when making any purchase at Woolworthâs BWS.
The email that was sent through didnât state that I had to take the email to store to receive the offer and the wording appeared to indicate that it was attached to my rewards card.
When I was in the BWS store (not specifically to take the offer up), when I got to the register I wasnât automatically offered the free beer bottle. I mentioned it in passing to the staff and they said they didnât know anything about it and if I had the original email. I said no but said that I wanât going to lose sleep over the free beer but was concerned that they may have been many others receiving the same offer and stores not redeeming it. This could be an unwanted publicity nightmare for Woollies.
When I got home I contact Woollies through the rewards website (logging in and making contact) and let them know about the aboveâŠand suggested that they should change their emails if one is required to take it into store to have the offer redeemed. They wrote back apologising and forwarded the information to their marketing team. They also, although not requested, credited by rewards card with the equivalent number of points to the value of the beer (1000 points from memory).
Note: using the rewards website they could verify that I had made the purchased and also could provide a copy of their email to them.
I also indicated that the staff were friendly and could understand that they wouldnât honour such offers at the word of a customer, as this could easily turn into a scam to get free alchool.
It may be worth following up Woollies through their rewards website (by loging in and making contact) as it is something they need to know about and need to potentially rectify. It appears that their âleft handâ (marketing section) may not communicating to their âright handâ (store personnel).
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We have also struck the issue of offers being linked to only one card. I have got around this by getting a second card on my account, so that my husband can use this if the offer was sent to me and I am not with him. Takes a bit of tracking as to who has got which offer though! We have also noticed that if a rewards card is not used for a period (eg if we are travelling in areas where there is no Woolies) the offers seem to get more valuable, presumably to try to lure us back!
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Hi all
What we did was take a photo of the cardâs barcode with our phoneâs camera. The checkout scanners will scan & accept the photo. Only one card needed for the whole family, and it isnât even necessary to carry it!
In fact we use the phone camera trick for all the loyalty cards, and for discount vouchers as well. If your photo section has âfavouritesâ mark these as favourites so they are easier to find. Once a discount voucher is used up, the photo can be deleted.
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What a great discussion!
The ideas are appreciated, especially about getting around issues concerning a second linked card. I note the tracking and the camera trick. The Stocard app works well with this and it eliminates carrying all those cards which add up to such thickness. When a checkout scanner does not accept the photograph manually entering the numbers seems to do the trick.
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You could always say you lost your card and apply for a replacement one. One will be issued with same numberâŠhey presto, your better half and you have the same card, one rewards account and no need for linking,
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Here is a way to fight Woollies at their own game.
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Mixed feelings about that. Its not exactly cheating⊠the points would go somewhere⊠but at the same time, thats exactly whats happening. I would not bother.
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Woolies would be cross as it increases the overheads of the scheme but also it defeats one of their objectives which is to link all your purchases together to get a consolidated picture of your purchasing pattern. Knowledge is power.
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