Tesco has been left back-tracking after customers used a price promise to cash in — some effectively ending up with free food and money to spare.
The supermarket promised to give its 20 million customers a voucher worth double the difference between its price and Asda's in the "unlikely event" that products were cheaper when bought from their rival.
However, customers have been taking full advantage of the deal, with several getting hold of vouchers worth more than £100 after searching for the items with the biggest price gap solely to claim twice the money back.
Deals done
One man claimed on a Manchester United web forum that he outsmarted the system - scooping a huge £600 from the Price Check pledge.
According to the Daily Mail, one shopper splashed out on two bottles of Chardonnay, two bottles of Magners pear cider, two Nivea rich body moisturisers and a pack of mature cheddar after comparing items using Tesco's Price Check website.
The total bill came to £17.48 at Asda and £38.46 at Tesco — a difference of £20.98, which meant that Tesco was required to pay out a shopping voucher equivalent to £41.96.
Another customer spent £126 on a shop that would have cost £81 at Asda, and claimed back a £90 voucher.
How this happened
At the end of February Tesco launched its Price Check initiative as part of a new scheme to help shoppers struggling with tighter household budgets.
The company promised: "We'll check the price of your comparable grocery shopping versus Asda and then send you an email when we have your results. Of course we're confident you will find your shopping cheaper at Tesco, but if not, we'll refund double the difference."
Forced to change
But the story's changed since then, with a spokesman for Tesco telling Yahoo! Finance: "The vast majority of our customers who use Price Check find that Tesco is cheaper than Asda.
"A very small number of people have used Price Check just to seek out products which a competitor has on promotion and to make some money out of our guarantee.
"We commend their ingenuity, but this isn't why we set up the guarantee. So we've introduced a £20 limit."
Tesco added that fewer than one in 5,000 customers have been awarded vouchers worth more than £20.
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