Club discounts, or not?
We're still relatively new to the CMC, so hopefully miss out on most of the politics. And we've very much enjoyed the standards on the sites we've used so far, as well as some other club services. So that's good.
But I'm disappointed in the Special Discounts for Club Members, supposedly a benefit of membership. Since joining I've looked at a couple of companies with whom special deals have been arranged, which seemed great, until on each occasion it turned out the companies were having long-term special offers of their own to the general public, giving a still lower price.
So when I phoned to order our solar panels today, and was about to quote the special CMC code to claim my 10%, I'd have ended up paying more than the going rate if I hadn't questioned the nice gent on the phone.
I realise it's up to the companies what promotions they run, but please, CMC, with all that muscle you have, in the form of lots of members, if you negotiate a discount, can it be a real discount? Or if not, can you at least let us know when by claiming it we'll be paying over the odds?
Or is it that I have just been unlucky in my choice so far, and all the rest actually work?
Thanks,
Richard
Comments
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We have often found that the shops that supposedly offer 10% discount say that it doesn't apply to 'sale' items (nowadays everything sems to be a 'sale' item).
So realistically, we get no better deal than anyone else simply walking into the shop.
There are some good discounts on ferries etc. but shops not so much.
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Worth knowing about the Ferries, thanks.
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To be clear, you have to book ferry / tunnel crossings with the Club to get the discount (typically, 10%).
I usually look at the ferry /Eurotunnel web sites to see what is available / what is cheapest etc. and then ring the Club to book.
In theory, you should be able to check all this via the Club web site, but it so rarely works, that this is a very frustrating way to do it.
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The discount at affiliated sites is also parsimonious.. One pound per night! Bigger discount by keeping silent and asking for something off for a week's stay.
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Mountain Warehouse will give you 15% discount on till prices whether it is a sale item or not......
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Is this for flashing the CMC card, or just by asking? Mountain W'house always seems to have large discounts on everything!
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We've had some really good deals from MW on waterproof gear and walking boots. You have to take their "original" price with a pinch of salt but with 50% off and a further 15% with either club's card the savings are quite significant. Good quality and long lasting gear at a much lower cost than, say Cotswold Clothing.
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I bought a small rucksack at MW last year. It was advertised at a 'sale' price of 50% off. It's still at the same 'sale' price this year.
I asked for the CC discount but was told that it didn't apply to sale items.
Should I apply to the CAMC for the rebate?
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They must have seen you coming, Ian!
We went to the Skipton branch a couple of weeks ago and bought two pairs of walking shoes, some over trousers and several pairs of socks. All marked at 50% off. Asked if we could have CC discount and they said "of course" , didn't even insist on looking at my card!
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Yes, they must have 'seen us coming'.
And so I paid tbe full £15 for a rucksack and MW gained the £2.25 discount that they should have given us.
I won't use MW again, so I hope they are very happy with their magnificent victory.
I strongly advise others to avoid them and their poorly trained staff and shoddy customer service.
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I've used MW on a number of occasions, each time receiving the 15% discount.
Ian, why advise others to boycott them because of your failure to exact the discount? If you felt so strongly AFTER your purchase, then surely a letter to their head office indicating the mistake would have resulted in a better experience for you than having a moan on here? I have actually received a full refund for goods that arrived five days late,due to a third party delivery company messing up.
I thought that you were a TYKE mate? where's your Yorkshire grit?....
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Perhaps there is a little misunderstanding of how retail companies work. The ability of the Club to work with a retailer in order to get a discount will depend on that company's pricing policy and how they set their margins. Some work with discount schemes built into their margins and some don't and it is the latter where the Club are unlikely to negotiate a discount for members. The CMC and C&CC have a large catchment of potential customers so they are attractive to the likes of Go Outdoors and MW. As for getting an "extra" discount on a sale item it will depend. If it's just part of general discounting then probably yes however if the item is genuinely reduced to clear, perfectly accept this is not always obvious, then perhaps a further discount might be refused. At the end of the day the individual customer has to be happy with the price they pay or decide against the purchase.
David
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With the DFDS Newhaven to Dieppe crossing everyone on the ticket gets a 20% discount whether members of CAMC or not, provided that the named 'lead' person is over 60. But you cannot get that discount when booking online, only when booking by phone. It seems to be a closely guarded secret as it isn't even mentioned on the DFDS website.
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Fair comment and diplomatic indeed :-) My feeling was that with so many members, the CMC might expect to negotiate that these suppliers might make a discount beyond what's on general offer.
In each case I've looked at, the items weren't clearance, they were just one of those "special offers" which seem to go on for months.
Not a problem with that, but when part of the CM advertising is to say "Look at all these great discounts you'll get", which continues in my mind as ".. which you won't get if you don't join us" I'm just a bit disappointed that neither of them turned out as expected, and evidently some other special discounts no more materialise in real life. If I advertised something as part of the services I offer, then it turned out not as I led people to believe, that wouldn't be good for my reputation, whether the small print gave me wriggle room or not.
Sorry to seem grumpy about this!0 -
I'll let it rest after this, but in a way I think you make my point for me better than I did!
I agree, it's unrealistic. Which means maybe it's unrealistic for the CMC to list all these lovely discounts as incentives to join. The actual sites are great, many other services are great and those are good reasons to join: they're incentives which stand up well, rather than the discount offers, which I found caused a slight dissatisfaction in the organisation when they didn't turn out to be justified.
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But that's how it is, you need to shop around. It's a bit like someone saying they've earned lots of storecard points at a well known shop when they could have gone to an equally well known discount shop and paid less to start with. Savvy buyers know this already.
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The CMC (and the C&CC) are just 2 of many organisations purporting to offer special discounts for members. Apart from the above I get regular emails from Nationwide, Tracker and others about 'exciting' discounts. 99% of them are worthless. Very occasionally there is some gold glinting among the dross.
Caveat emptor applies, as always.
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The M6 Toll was recently sold to an investment group: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-40285221
Will our discount still apply?
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F
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Interesting view from volvo, I enquired if the 10% offered on the V90 etc was also offered on the new XC60, was told that it isn't, because the level of interest is high and why would they give a discount over the free met paint and 10% on accessories!
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