Just had this chat with Sainsbury's Nectar Support Nectar Support: Hi, my name is Nectar Support. How may I help you? Nectar Support: Hello Steve, welcome to Nectar. How can I help you? Big Elf: I have a problem with the Nectar App on Android. When I try to login it freezes Nectar Support: Please uninstall and reinstall the application. Big Elf: Done that Nectar Support: Then you have to update the application even if its not working then you have to try in another phone as the issue is occuring because of the phone. Big Elf: Tried on my backup phone. Prior to uninstall and reinstall I cleared cache and data, still freezes. A lot of people are having the same problem judging by Play Store comments Nectar Support: Please allow me a moment. Big Elf: OK Big Elf: In the meantime I can try and install an older version of the App and see if it works prior to the last update which is the one I think that broke it. I haven't tried that yet Nectar Support: Please try that . Big Elf: Right. I've just tried that and it works. The version I installed was 11.5.0 but I don't have the date when that was released Nectar Support: Great. Nectar Support: It was released on Monday. Nectar Support: Thanks for contacting Nectar. Is there anything else I can help you with today? Big Elf: You haven't helped at all and the problem is not resolved. I am running an older version of the software which may no no longer work properly and could be insecure Big Elf: The Nectar system has changed recently and you now have to use the App to claim the points. Does this older version of the App allow me to do that? Big Elf: Please note the latest version is 11.15.0 not the older version 11.5.0 I've just installed Nectar Support: Okay. Nectar Support: You just have to update your application. Big Elf: 11.15.0 is the version that freezes when trying to login Big Elf: Are you reading what I'm typing? Nectar Support: Yes. Nectar Support: Then it doesn't supports the latest version. Big Elf: Well the problem is not fixed. The older version of the software works the new version doesn't so I need a fix for the new version Big Elf: What doesn't support the new version? Nectar Support: It is the android issue we cannot do any thing with this. Big Elf: You don't know what you're talking about. I need to speak to a manager Big Elf: You have released the new version of the software on Android it doesn't work. It isn't me that's broken it Nectar Support: Please try to understand its the issue of software. Big Elf: Yes I know, you've released a version that doesn't work. I need a fix for it Nectar Support: We have updated the application but it doesnt support your android version. Big Elf: You don't know what my android version is? Nectar Support: I see in the above message . Nectar Support: But we cannot change the update, you need to update your phone or change your device. Big Elf: The version numbers are your app versions not my Android version. I need to speak to a Manager Nectar Support: 0344 811 0811 Nectar Support: Please call on this number. Big Elf: I am deaf I can't phone people Big Elf: I rely on chat Nectar Support: No worries. Nectar Support: Let me transfer your chat. Big Elf: OK Nectar Support: As I have a word with the manager they are busy right at this moment can you connect us back? Big Elf: No. You are not being helpful. I have copied our chat to use when making a complaint Nectar Support: If you are facing issue with the application you can use the magnetic card to spend and collect points. Big Elf: No you can't. you can now only use the app not the card. That's apparently what the latest update has done except I can't see it because I can't login to the new version Nectar Support: As I have provided the information which were the answers for your concern I don't have any other answer left even if you contact anyone even my manager will answer you this only. Big Elf: I don't think your manager knows as little as you do about how Nectar, Apps or Android work Nectar Support: It's the issue of the software version. Big Elf: I need to speak to a manager Nectar Support: Please contact us back after sometime. Nectar Support: I am sorry for the inconvenience caused if its from the my side. Big Elf: You seem to be trying to fob me off. You obviously don't know what you're talking about. You certainly don't know how the App works Big Elf: I need to speak to a manager I eventually got connected to a 'Manager' He went into my Nectar Account and reset it and now I can login.
As a former call centre employee and manager, I would be furious if one of my team or department had that conversation with a customer. If there's a critical bug or issue, everyone is fully briefed, especially if there is a fix. That **** gets copied a thousand times and gets stapled to their foreheads.
Yeah, this is the real issue here: intentionally making it more difficult to spend your nectar points by railroading you into using their app, where you can be data-mined and monetised even more. You apparently can still use the plastic card in order to spend the points: “To spend points with a plastic card, you will need to swipe the black magnetic strip down the side of the chip and PIN machine at Sainsbury’s stores. You can still collect as normal when using the barcode on your plastic card.“ However… and I could well be mistaken here… the self-scan tills don’t have magnetic stripe readers, as far as I can remember. Wherever possible I use self-scan handsets almost exclusively now; without getting too far off track, it’s one of the things that makes shopping actually tolerable.
If I can't add a loyalty card to Wallet, I'm not shopping there. Nectar or Iceland was a notable pain in the arse to sort out
Having to have their app in order to use the Nectar card in Apple Wallet was… fine. I could live with that, because I didn’t need to interact with the app except for occasionally logging in. I could just pull up the card with a double-tap of the power button, scan the barcode with the handset, and be on my merry way. When I got to the till, all I had to do is tap the on-screen “Nectar” tab to see if there were points to spend. But now I can’t do that*. Now if I want to use Nectar points for a measly couple of quid off, I have to use the app to generate a QR code that I then scan at the till. Why? Because “**** you, you’ll use our app or you’ll **** off”. Sure, I could think of a hundred technical reasons why you might need to change the back-end systems in such a way that it inevitably forces a user-facing change. But I can also think of an equal - or greater - number of reasons why you could, and should, build the new flow in such a way that the user experience is unchanged. I benefit nothing from having to use the app to spend Nectar points. It’s more work for me, I now need additional manual steps to continue doing what I did last week. But the “benefits” aren’t for me, the benefits are for Sainsbury’s. Railroading me into the app means that there are more opportunities to: serve me adverts, entice me to buy additional products, gather more data on how I interact with the app, data-mine my phone in order to link my supermarket purchases with the technology I use, and so on. On the face of it, this sounds like a really minor thing to be getting one’s knickers in a twist about. But you can’t consider this in isolation, you have to consider the wider context of how apps and services are becoming increasingly hostile. This is enshittification and the rot economy happening right before my eyes in real time. *This, of course, is all under the assumption that my memory is not faulty, and that the self-scan tills do not have magnetic card readers that I can use to swipe the physical Nectar card in order to spend points. I usually go to a supermarket on my way home on Fridays, so I’m deliberately going out of my way to Sainsbury’s in order to check.
