Sainsbury's shoppers are seething after a 'technical error' caused them to miss out on valuable Nectar points through a limited-time promotion.
The Big Points Bonanza took place earlier this month - with the loyalty scheme rewarding punters with a 50 million point giveaway.
But come February 4, all Nectar card holders who were shopping at larger Sainsbury's stores were left disappointed, failing to receive their post-shop coupon.
Read more: Shop at Sainsbury's and you could win up to £25 on Saturday
The Mirror reports that the coupons were supposed to hold a value between 50 and 5,000 points - with the top prize worth £25 when converted monetarily. One person tweeted: “Where is my extras points for Saturdays promotion? Spent over £20 in a large store," while another, added: “I never got a voucher and used SmartShop. Just figured it was a bit of a con job.”
A third, Tweeted: “My wife and I spent over £60 on Sat 4th Feb and received nothing as per the promo/article," while a fourth, continued: “I spent well over the £20 threshold on Saturday 4th Feb & never received my voucher. When queried with staff, they didn't know about the promotion.”
Martin Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert website has reported that Sainsbury’s is giving shoppers who missed out £5 in bonus points. The consumer website said it had told the supermarket it would report it to the Advertising Standards Authority and to Trading Standards for misleading shoppers.
Sainsbury's hasn't said yet when, or how, customers will be reimbursed their points. It also isn't clear exactly how many shoppers were affected.
A Nectar spokesperson said: "We are sorry for any disappointment caused by a technical error with our one-off Nectar promotion on Saturday. To be as fair as we can, we will be giving 1,000 Nectar points to every customer who qualified but didn’t receive a bonus points coupon in store."
You get one Nectar point for every £1 spent in Sainsbury's stores, with one Nectar point worth 0.5p in return. This means if you earn one point from a purchase it's the equivalent of 0.5 per cent cashback.
You also get Nectar points when you fill up in a Sainsbury's fuel station, or at other brands like eBay, Expedia and Just Eat.
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