The Disadvantages of the Advantage (Boots Advantage Card)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Boots Advantage Card
Date:	17/01/02 (923 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: In op

Disadvantages: In op

I’ve had a Boots Advantage card since they were first issued, back in the days when I could happily flash it here and there pretending it was a credit card. Up until recently I was pretty happy with them, but then things started going wrong….


HOW TO GET ONE

And I’m talking about Boots Cards here, ok? You need to fill out a form and send it off or drop it in the box in-store for them to send off. The form is pretty simple – name – so they know what to print on your card, address – so they know where to send it and so on. There are also a few market researchy questions so they can find out, I imagine, if there’s an astounding number of Boots card holders who are also glasses wearing diarrhea sufferers…. Anyway, plop (maybe not the best choice of word following the previous sentence) it in a box, post or otherwise, and about 4 weeks later plopping onto your doormat in return will be your newest flexible friend. Hang about, did she say 4 weeks? Yup, pretty long isn’t it? Still, it gets worse. Read on…..


HOW IT WORKS

Every time you make a purchase you hand your card over, and 9 times out of 10 they’ll add some points to your total. If you only every buy gift vouchers, baby milk, vitamins and stamps then poor you because none of these are eligible for those pointy things. Still, everything else including dental, optical and chiropody treatments are, and shop regularly and you’ll see your points add up. Boots offer one of the most generous schemes on the highstreet – 4 points (worth a penny each) per pound spent, which equates to 4% off. Not bad. And, you don't have to spend the full pound to get 4 points - it's one for every 25p, but spend 26p andyou'll get two points - a nice touch, and one not offered by most other places. The only negative point is that your points don’t accumulate as money to be redeemed against any purchase 
211; instead you can use them to buy certain products (illustrated by a blue star on the price label on the shelf). Don’t just go to the till point and expect your chosen item to be suitable, cos chances are it won’t be, and the staff at Boots aren’t always known for their tact when letting you know you’ve made a boo boo.


BONUSES

Are something Boots is pretty good at. They often have double points weekends although these aren’t that well advertised, and in the run up the Christmas they were offering 10 points per pound – 10% off is handy at the best of times, and especially during the festive period when you’re buying lots of presents – the points add up and in the new year when you’re broke they can be used to buy yourself something nice.


EXRAS

Cos I’ve already used the word Bonuses once. If you apply for an Advantage Credit Card (and, unlike me, get accepted – not cos I have a terrible credit rating I hasten to add, but just because Debenhams pay me peanuts) then you can earn points wherever you shop – even in Superdrug, lol – they’re paying you to go to the competition. There’s 1 point per pound outside Boots, and the normal 4 plus your credit card one in their so up to 5 points per pound at any time of year. You also get 1000 bonus points for signing up – that’s £10 to spend on whatever you want.


ADVANTAGE POINT

As well as not being sure if a product can be “bought” with points, there are times when you might not be sure of your points balance, and not have an old receipt (which has it printed on) to hand. This is where the Advantage point comes in – it’s a large white box containing a computer with a touch screen, and there’re usually a few in large stores (Manchester Market Street for example). Here you can find out how many points you have left and benefit from
special offers, such as 100 extra points when you buy tights or batteries. You can print as vouchers as you want, but they’re only valid until the end of that day.


WHEN IT ALL GOES WRONG

As I said, I had happily used my Boots card for a number of years until I lost it at the end of 2000 (it was in my wallet, my wallet was pinched and, vamoose.) I rang up and ordered a replacement which took the stated 4 weeks to arrive. A pain but there was nothing I could do really. On returning from New York last year I popped into Boots in town on my first day back at work, only to find my card wasn’t working in their reader thing. The lady was very helpful and asked if I’d been abroad recently since they’ve had some problems with metal detectors upsetting the magnetic chips. Since I’d passed through 4 of these in the last week and a bit it seemed like a very real possibility. This is a problem that doesn’t occur with, say, Tesco cards since they have numbers you can type in manually if they won’t swipe – magnetic data chips may be very futuristic and may look cool but they’re no good if they don’t work.

This was the first week of November, and I rang up a few days later to order a new one. It arrived last Saturday. Now I know the post gets mucked up around Christmas, but really – 2 months ?! It between times I’ve been saving my receipts and getting them validated as I went along (Boots won’t add on points if you don’t do this – probably to stop people who do have cards collecting receipts from those who don’t). Anyway, the validation reads along the lines of “take this to a Boots store with your card within 30 days and we’ll add on the points”. Along I went on Saturday before work with a handful of receipts in tow only to be told that they’d expired. Yes, I replied, I know that, but it’s hardly my fault your new card sendy
out people are so inefficient. Etc etc until the girl looked about to cry and called her manager who, in the words of Nike, told her to Just Do It. Ta, I said and hurried on to work only slightly put off by their, y’know, complete lack of customer service skills. I’d been holding up the queue and those behind me were understandably not happy. All this was happening, incidentally, about a meter from a girl being interrogated at full volume as to exactly why she’d had unprotected sex and wanted the morning after pill. Know where I’ll be rushing back to then for my contraceptive needs, not.


VERDICT

Good deal, excellent offers, crappy customer service, inefficient to the max. I’ll keep my card because it’s free and I benefit from it. I see it as something that gives me a nice surprise occasionally when I realise I have the points to buy a treat I would not normally indulge in, but I wouldn’t use it as a way to pay for everyday items – knowing my luck, they wouldn’t be for sale with points anyway. They get 3 stars because on the one hand they do offer a good deal points wise, but on the other, their customer service and attitude leave a little to be desired.

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