MSE News: After a John Lewis loyalty card? Free tea & cake is no longer guaranteed

A question about : MSE News: After a John Lewis loyalty card? Free tea & cake is no longer guaranteed

John Lewis has changed the loyalty card free tea and cake offer so only some members will get the deal from now on ...

Read the full story:

After a John Lewis loyalty card? Its free tea and cake offer's no longer guaranteed

Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.

Best answers:

• So JL customers will get the freebie and non-customers won't?
  Can't see much wrong with that.
• Queue people moaning about not getting the something for nothing they believe they're 'entitled' to
• I generally order from JL online and arrange to pick up from my local Waitrose shop but I visit the store monthly to enjoy my free coffee and cake voucher. I nearly always buy something in store.
  I think JL could lose a lot of foot traffic from store visits now they are targeting customers.
• Who's got one and just uses it for the monthly free tea and cake?
• I get a voucher for two (the original vouchers were for two), and as a family we spend a great deal of money there. Last time we went in the restaurant was so busy we went elsewhere. I think limiting the vouchers to true customers is agood thing, as otherwise they are in danger of losing those that actually spend money.
• No such thing as a free lunch tea!
• I have been a JLP store card carrying member for over thirty years. I have the Partnership credit card, the JLP loyalty card, AND the Waitrose card. It's really bulking up my wallet, so I miss out on using the JLP loyalty card some times.
  My John Lewis spend hasn't changed, but I definitely go into Waitrose a lot more for the free coffee.
  I haven been telling the staff to tell them to combine the three cards for months. All they have to do is print the bar code on the back of the credit card. As an interim measure, send us some sticky labels with the bar code. Next time they renew the card, print everything on the same card.
  What is the point of having a separate Waitrose card? If you pay and shop in Waitrose, and swipe a John Lewis loyalty card, they still know it's a supermarket spend, and still have your spending habit on tap. With this bizaarre logic, we would have a bus Oyster card, a tube Oyster card, and a train Oyster card.
  Ideally, I should be able to use the Partnership credit card, and all this happens automatically. Obviously I need to log in and register my loyalty card numbers under the credit card account.
• I have the JL card, I have bought from JL in the past and recently and have the coffee and cake vouchers, but I rarely use them. I only really want a coffee and often can't be bothered with the long queues or that they will only half fill a cup because I have the voucher (told to me by a staff member- I didn't make that up!) but I do still get the vouchers if I am passing and have the time.
  I don't feel an entitlement, am pleased for what I have got and am suprized it has lasted this long. I think it would be sad if it stopped but would mean the queue for those who are paying would be significantly smaller and I can't help thinking it's those who would normally pay who are not joining the long queue. Why queue for a service when you can see everyone else getting the same item for free or when you know that the coffee place next door has a far shorter queue and a place to sit afterwards!
  That being said, I would be sad to see it go.
• Fair enough, I've had more than my fair share of free cake since this started! I doubt if I'll remember to use my card, so doubt I'll get any more after my last 2 vouchers are used.
• I'm guessing the Waitrose free coffees will head in the same general direction at some point - and no bad thing for genuine customers.
  Not sure I'd accept what JL are saying about 'existing customers' having all received August vouchers, though - our experience has been that my card (used on purchases) has produced vouchers, but my wife's (not used lately) has not.
  Seems fair enough - particularly if it stops all the HUKD !!!!!!!!!!s. [odd that the word 'free-loader' has to be given a hyphen to get rid of the exclamation marks inserted by MSE!]
• You are entitled to a regular sizes coffee, not large.
  Maybe they ran out of regular cups, so they filled a large cup with the regular amount.
  They can try to make some of the vouchers BUY-ONE-GET-ONE FREE. The money spending customers get sent free vouchers, the !!!!!!!!!!s get BOGOF vouchers. Use a distinguishing colour scheme, so the staff can tell the difference at a glance.
• Can't say I'm surprised it's gone. I feel sorry for the poor dears in the queue who haven't got vouchers, as they feel royally miffed that they seem to be the only ones paying for their drinks.
  Quote:
• I have seen a thread on MSE Forum from a John Lewis employee commenting on the challenges of a large number of visitors to the restaurant.
  The queue at our local John Lewis have seemed much longer since the introduction of the vouchers.
  We go to John Lewis about once a month as it is our favourite store at our local shopping centre.
  I wonder whether the offer has been of financial benefit for John Lewis. We are often told how inexpensive coffee costs relative to the price charged in caf!s, and I guess it may be similar for cakes.
  The other, more significant cost is staffing (relatively fixed due to opening hours?)
  If the increased footfall has not resulted in increased sales, then I can understand scaling it back. It could be an even greater PR failure to withdraw it completely.
• The JL near me is quite small and very old inside. None of the departments carry a good range of products and it is really difficult to make impulse buys. It is the sort of shop that you might go to buy a wedding gift as even small kitchen items are expensive.
  That said the coffee shop is nice and I have been going there monthly with 2 friends for the last six/seven months. Between us we have bought a few token items but not really contributing at all towards JL's profits. I suppose it is us that this move is directed towards which is fair enough.
  In our defence we have been using the almost next door Waitrose carpark and have been in food shopping after our cake stop, something we wouldn't have done had we not been into JL and needed our carpark ticket stamped! We didn't even claim another free coffee in there so feel somewhat vindicated.
  If we don't get any more vouchers we won't be going to make the special trip to JL or going into Waitrose afterwards.
• I'll be sad to see it go. I got a card at the end of last year, but have only recently started using the vouchers (twice so far). I do a food shop in Waitrose most weeks and pop in John Lewis loads, but I only tend to buy bits and bobs around birthdays and Christmas.
• I go there quite often so the monthly free hot chocolate and cake was always a nice bonus.
  I'm disappointed in their loyalty scheme though, they absolutely hammer your inbox with junk until you set it to monthly only. If you don't want any emails then you can't be a member any more!
• I'm a regular shopper in JL as my local branch is only about 2 miles away. I've welcomed the free tea and cake every month but I'm not surprised that JL is scaling it back as there has been little incentive to swipe the card until now if you've spent money in store. Often I've forgotten to get it out until it's time to pay and then checkout staff have told me it's too late. This happened again last week in Kingston after I'd spent Ј200 on towels and the assistant said the only way she could get the card swiped would be to cancel the sale and re-do it. Then her colleague told her that she couldn't do that. It should be called a 'test of loyalty card'.
  Boots have got a much better approach - staff ask you early on in the transaction if you have a card and their till system doesn't require you to swipe the card at the start. If John Lewis is going to only offer tea and cake to 'regular shoppers' it's going to encourage me to cancel a transaction and do it over if the sales assistant hasn't swiped my card. Come on John Lewis, if you want to encourage shoppers to use their card so you get their shopping data, get your till systems and staff training sorted out!