Pret customers complain after free rewards ‘disappear’

PRET A MANGER subscribers claim to have found a new glitch with the coffee company’s app where reward vouchers disappear before they can be redeemed.

Customers earn “stars” every time they spend money in a store with the loyalty scheme. When they reach 10 stars, they receive a “Pret perk”, which ranges from bakery treats to popcorn and crisps. One customer said that her perk, a free muffin, disappeared from her app before she could use it.

She said that she had been able to claim her drinks, but that the reward had “just vanished”.

Every time a subscriber renews their “Club Pret” membership, which offers five barista-made drinks daily and costs £30, they receive a bonus star, according to Pret’s website. Another customer wrote on social media that she was told that she had redeemed her perk, which was a choice between crisps and popcorn, when she visited a store in March – although she claims she had not.

Others complained online that the “perks” were always the same products.

In the announcement of the loyalty program, it states that the rewards would be tailored to customers’ preferences, but this appears to have led to subscribers getting the same reward several times in a row.

One wrote on Twitter: “Give a girl a break here! Six crisps or popcorn perks in a row. Can you spare a morsel of bakery treat or a delicious snack perchance? I can’t survive on crisps and popcorn alone.”

A beta version of the loyalty scheme was launched for subscribers in November 2021. To begin with, it was available through the app or via the Pret website, but customers must now use the app. It comes after revealed that the coffee chain was forced to refund subscribers who have not been able to log into their apps owing to glitches and technical problems.

Subscribers must now use the Pret app in order to claim the free drinks rather than accessing their QR code in their Apple Wallet or on a smart watch, under new rules that came into force on March 18 to stop people sharing their subscriptions. Notices appeared in Pret stores ahead of the changes.

Malcolm Lambert, 78, has owned Lamberts of Ringwood, Hants, since the 1990s but said ‘it has been really tough in recent years and there are a lot of negative views of guns’