Woolworths’ loyalty programme has apologised after an email claiming members had a $15 voucher to spend was mistakenly sent to around 500,000 customers.
The message was intended for a small number of new members who had recently earned their first reward but — due to human error — it was sent much more widely.
A spokesperson for Everyday Rewards NZ said all members who were emailed by accident had been contacted to be given an apology for the confusion.
“We are investigating how this happened and will undertake a full review.”
Everyday Rewards was a loyalty programme run by Woolworths, which had partnerships with major brands including BP, ASB, and Air New Zealand.
The mistaken email led many customers to believe they had a $15 credit.
Among them was Mathew Thompson, who received an email to say he had a $15 voucher on his account.
He chose to shop at Woolworths on Thursday, putting an extra chicken in his trolley he would not have otherwise bought.
But, when he went to redeem his voucher at checkout, the supervisor told him there was no voucher on his account.
“It turned out there was no voucher and that the email was sent by mistake,” he said. “They just sent an email and said ‘sorry for the inconvenience’.
“To make matters worse, this week is a pretty tight week, so that $15 would have gone a bit further if I chose to shop at a cheaper supermarket.”
He said wanted the supermarket chain to honour his voucher and he would not be shopping at Woolworths again.
“Woolworths has the motto of ‘make it right’ in regard to pricing errors in store, this does not feel like they’ve made the situation right.”
