We’re cross about coffee this week, are we?
Furious.
I thought it was Meghan Markle’s jam.
Food fury moves fast. This week the gourmet guns have turned on Pret A Manger.
What has Pret done?
Messed about with its subscription scheme, Club Pret, which (for £30 a month) gives members five barista-made drinks a day plus a 20 per cent discount on food. In theory customers can get £450-worth of coffee a month.
Nobody can consume £450 of coffee in a month.
True.
So, where’s the problem?
The wheels (lids?) have come off because members can’t share QR codes (through which the discounts are delivered) with friends and family.
They should have just read the T&Cs.
They did and – until six weeks ago – QR code sharing was fine. Now it’s been banned and members are being forced to log in to the retailer’s app every time they want to use their subscription.
Surely a storm in a coffee cup?
Unlikely to blow over quickly because Club Pret members have now found the updated app won’t let them log in at all, and that loyalty bonuses have vanished.
Forced to pay full price for a Pret Humous & Falafel Mezze Salad – the horror!
There’s rising panic on the streets of West London.
What’s Pret saying?
‘Since we made this change in March, our team have either given refunds or applied the Club Pret discount as normal to any customers who have genuinely struggled to log in.’
An unlikely scenario.
You don’t think staff would be that generous?
I don’t think staff have time to establish whether a customer’s struggles are ‘genuine’ or not. Have you been to a Pret recently?
No.
You get three nanoseconds to pick up your drink before a harassed barista starts yelling ‘FLAT WHITE EXTRA HOT!’ at you. IT assistance tends to take a back seat.
There’s also been trouble over at sister company Krispy Kreme.
Insurgency at the doughnut stall? Exciting.
Loyalty customers who spend £125 are supposed to get a free box of 12 doughnuts.
I assume there’s a hole in the thing.
This is serious. As at Pret, customers are having trouble claiming rewards on the app. They’re demanding fixes.
Or doughnuts.
Quite – but so far JAB (the German holding company that owns Pret and Krispy Kreme) says each brand is responsible. This all comes hard on the heels of the Pret prices scandal.
Isn’t it now charging £7.15 for a cheese sandwich?
Moaning about outrageous Pret markups has become a national sport. In the wake of Taylor Swift’s new album (featuring a song called ‘So Long London’), one X/Twitter user wrote: ‘Just paid £4.05 for a coffee in Pret A Manger. I’m not surprised Taylor wrote “So Long London”, feeling it too.’
Pret is putting the queue in QR code
On the subject of sandwich angst, isn’t everyone cross about M&S’s offerings too?
Yes, the £6 ‘posh’ egg mayo (the standard egg and cress is £2.65) is causing the most offence. ‘Pret rage’ doesn’t just happen at Pret.
What justifies doubling the price?
An extra 51g of egg, it appears, although one social media user wondered whether the word ‘posh’ costs £3 to print.
Returning to Pret, though, I remember when it was the gold standard of flawless service.
Back when its former owner Julian Metcalfe (who sold his shares in the company in 2018) printed his office number on every item in case customers had comments?
Exactly.
I’ve just found an online response to a customer about a Pret airport lunch (sandwich, crisps, snack bar and drink) that came to £14.10.
Go on…
‘Does that include the flight?’
