Tag: shopping

Which? launches tool to tackle profiteers

Which? has developed a simple tool for people to report coronavirus profiteering amid concerns that price-gougers are getting away with hiking the prices of essential items.

The consumer champion has uncovered widespread problems with basic products being sold for hugely inflated prices on online marketplaces such as Amazon Marketplace and eBay – and there are concerns that similar behaviour could be happening on other sites and in shops up and down the country.

These practices may have left key workers and charities struggling to get essential products they need or forced to pay extortionate prices.

Which? spoke to a charity that helps provide hundreds of meals to elderly and vulnerable people – demand for this vital service has gone up since the Covid-19 crisis. However the price of essential items to keep its employees and vulnerable clients safe, such as antibacterial probe wipes, which the charity has only been able to buy in the high quantities they need from eBay, has more than doubled since the crisis.

The Competition and Markets Authority has set up a dedicated Covid-19 taskforce, and reports shared using the tool will help the regulator to establish the scale of the problem and take action against the worst offenders. Which? is also calling for emergency legislation to give regulators the tools to swiftly crack down on price-gouging on certain essential products during this crisis, and any future ones.

The CMA and Chartered Trading Standards Institute have both raised serious concerns about problems with price-gouging and the Prime Minister has also warned traders against “exploiting people’s need” during a national emergency.

Which? has heard reports from hundreds of consumers that unscrupulous sellers have been taking advantage of the situation and its investigations have uncovered huge price hikes on products such as handwash, cleaning products and baby formula.

Which? experts have found Dettol bleach and cleaning sprays being sold by third-party sellers with price hikes of almost 1000 per cent more than the typical price on eBay with evidence of dozens of purchases being made at these prices.

Researchers also encountered sterilising fluid for baby bottles for more than 10 times the original price by a seller on Amazon and a bundle of one handwash and one antibacterial gel for £30 on eBay, instead of the £3.50 it would usually cost.

Some shoppers have felt pressured into buying these overpriced products because of a lack of alternative options available, including older and more vulnerable people who need access to vital hygiene products such as hand sanitiser.

One told Which?: “I’m disabled and struggle to leave my home, but the current crisis is forcing me to go out and struggle to get essentials when I normally get as much online as I can.

“My trust in buying from online marketplaces has been shattered, some items are fine if I find it at a reasonable price, but others I can’t trust as they’re either gouged, possibly diluted and therefore useless, or it’s a scam listing and the item never existed to begin with.”

Another said: “I paid £19.80 plus £5.25 for post and packaging for 2 x 250ml of hand sanitiser from a seller on eBay. Outrageous price but we are a captive audience and it was the cheapest I could find. Someone is getting very rich from this pandemic.”

Which? has also heard numerous reports of price-gouging at bricks and mortar retailers including pharmacies.

Which? is calling for the government to introduce specific legislation to stop unjustifiable price hikes of essential items during times of emergency, as well as requiring online marketplaces to ensure compliance on their sites or face enforcement action.

New legislation would also give the UK a head start in tackling price-gouging during any future emergencies. The absence of legislation has made it harder to take action on this issue swiftly and left the UK trailing behind other countries that already have laws to combat price-gouging during crises.

In the meantime, Which? believes online marketplaces need to bring in stricter, more effective controls and policies to tackle price gouging, and is encouraging the CMA to take strong enforcement action using its existing powers where appropriate.

Sue Davies, Head of Consumer Protection at Which?, said: “It is unacceptable for people to be left at the mercy of unscrupulous sellers during a national emergency. We’re calling for people to report opportunistic coronavirus profiteers via our tool so that we can press home the need for swift action and put an end to price-gouging on basic goods.

“The government, working with the CMA, needs to step in with emergency legislation to crack down on price-gouging and keep the price of essential items reasonable during a crisis.”

Link for consumers to submit reports to Which?’s price-gouging tool: https://www.which.co.uk/pricegouging

An update from Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Mike Coupe

I wrote to you last week to update you on how we are supporting elderly and vulnerable customers with access to groceries online. I wanted to share some progress we have made on this over the past few days.

When I wrote last, we had offered 450,000 elderly and vulnerable customers priority booking to online delivery. At the end of last week we received the government database, which includes details of all the people in England who have registered with the government to say that they are vulnerable and need help getting a food shop.

Since then we have been able to match almost 150,000 additional customers against our database. We have already contacted almost 30,000 of those and so we are now contacting almost 120,000 additional customers to offer them a priority delivery slot.

We are waiting for the databases for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and will contact vulnerable customers in those areas as soon as we are able.

We know many elderly and vulnerable people who need to self-isolate are relying on the kindness of family, friends and local communities to shop on their behalf and we encourage this.

You wrote to tell me that product limits were a barrier to being able to shop for other people. We understand that it can be difficult to buy what you need and shop for someone else with the 3 item product limit.

We have now lifted buying restrictions on thousands of products and hope that this will help more of you to shop for others. I also want to reassure you that stock levels are now much better right across the store.

We are keeping limits on the most popular items for now, including pasta, UHT milk, antibacterial products and some tinned and frozen foods. But you can now feel confident in shopping in our stores at any time of day and being able to find most of what you need.

To help people shop for others easily, we will be introducing a new volunteer gift card and online voucher in the next week or two. I will share more information on this soon.

Many of you have also written to me to tell me about food banks and community groups near you that are struggling in this crisis. We know from our ongoing support of food banks that this is a particularly tough time for them right across the country.

To help with this, we have donated £3 million to Fareshare, who will use that money to distribute donated food to the people who need it the most.

We are also partnering with Comic Relief and the BBC on The Big Night In which aims to raise money for people impacted by COVID 19. We’ll be sharing more information on this in stores and online.

Best wishes

Mike

Update from Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Mike Coupe

I’ve written to you regularly over the past few weeks as we adapt the way we work to keep our shelves full while keeping you and our colleagues safe.

We continue to make changes in line with government guidelines and in response to feedback from you and our colleagues.

I am writing today to tell you about measures we are taking to protect our customers and colleagues and to update you on our product availability and on how we continue to support our elderly and vulnerable customers.

Keeping our customers and colleagues safe

Keeping you and our colleagues safe is our number one priority. This week we have brought in further measures to help you keep a safe distance from other customers and from our colleagues when you are visiting our stores.

We have queuing systems in place outside stores and ask you to please queue at a safe distance of two metres apart. Please also try to keep a safe distance from other customers and from our colleagues when you are doing your shop. We have placed clear markings on shop floors to help you know what a safe distance is.

From today, we are asking everyone to please only send one adult per household to our shops.

This helps us keep people a safe distance apart and also helps to reduce queues to get into stores. Our store teams will be asking groups with more than one adult to choose one adult to shop and will ask other adults to wait. Children are of course welcome if they are not able to stay at home.

To help keep our colleagues safe while serving customers, we now have screens at most manned checkouts. In the next few days we will have finished installing the screens across all manned checkouts in every supermarket, convenience store and Argos collection point.

Feeding the nation

We have been working hard with our suppliers to improve our product availability. Most people are now just buying what they need for themselves and their families. This means we now often have stock on the shelves all day and at the end of the day.

People have been queuing to get into our stores when they open in the mornings, but customers are now finding they can shop at any time of the day and feel confident in finding most of what they need.

As stock continues to build, we have been reviewing whether we still need to limit the number of items people buy. I am pleased to tell you that we will start to remove limits from Sunday. Limits will remain in place on the most popular items which include UHT milk, pasta and tinned tomatoes.

We have removed limits from Easter eggs immediately as we know families often want to buy more than three and we have plenty of these in all stores and online.

Supporting elderly and vulnerable customers

We are continuing to prioritise elderly and vulnerable customers for online delivery slots and our customer Careline has helped 170,000 customers, who will now get priority access to online delivery. In total, we have offered priority booking to more than 450,000 elderly or vulnerable customers.

I apologise to customers who have been struggling to get through to our online team. The team is working at full capacity and we are doing our very best to get to people as quickly as possible.

We are expanding our groceries online service as much and as quickly as we can. Two weeks ago we had 370,000 online grocery slots available. By the end of next week we will have increased this to 600,000 across home delivery and click and collect and we will continue to add more capacity over the coming weeks.

Supporting our colleagues

Our colleagues really are doing a remarkable job. I have been into a number of stores over the past few days and have been struck by their dedication and their determination to do the best job for our customers. These are very uncertain times and our colleagues really are on the frontline.

We are doing everything we can to keep our colleagues safe and this includes supporting them if they need to self-isolate. Where colleagues are considered vulnerable, we are paying them in full for the recommended 12 weeks self-isolation, including colleagues who live with extremely vulnerable family members who the government has asked to shield for 12 weeks.

I am personally committed to ensuring the safety of our colleagues and we will continue to do the right thing to protect them throughout this time.

I have been delighted to see that customers have told us they think colleague friendliness is at an all-time high at the moment. I think this is real testament both to the hard work of our colleagues and also the fantastic recognition they are getting for the vital role they are playing throughout this crisis.

Thank you for treating our colleagues with the respect and kindness they deserve. They really are doing their best to serve our customers well in these challenging times.

Best wishes

Mike

Entrepreneur aims to Keep Edinburgh Thriving

Pioneering venture Keep Edinburgh Thriving will allow residents to continue to ‘shop local’ whilst simultaneously supporting businesses across Edinburgh to survive COVID-19 and beyond 

Three weeks ago, everything changed overnight for small businesses across the city of Edinburgh. Social distancing measures forced them to close their doors indefinitely and the future for each of them, became somewhat uncertain.

In an attempt to provide these independent vendors with a much-needed lifeline, local entrepreneur, Robbie Allen has launched Keep Edinburgh Thriving, a service that will see a selection of local high-quality products packaged up into gift boxes and delivered to households across Scotland’s capital.

The pioneering venture will allow local residents to continue to ‘shop local’ whilst simultaneously providing a critical lifeline to these businesses, helping them with cash flow and financial sustainability during COVID-19 and beyond.

Robbie Allen, founder of Keep Edinburgh Thriving comments: “It is a really simple idea. Our aim is to Keep Edinburgh Thriving.

“We are partnering with a bunch of amazing local businesses in Edinburgh and taking these high-quality products and handling all the logistics and e-commerce side of things for them so that they can continue to grow and sustain their company and livelihood.

“This is a really tough time for our beloved high street, and we want to help as many local Edinburgh businesses as possible. As soon as you place an order this instantly benefits our local partners providing the products in each gift box.”

There are two box sizes of gift box available – a small box contains 4-5 items (£39) and a large contains 6-7 items (£55). Customers will receive a variety of products including artisan food and snacks, local art, drinks, craft coffee, beer, spirits, lifestyle products (candles, coasters, notebooks, mugs/tumblers) and local skin care products, all of which will be high-quality and local to Edinburgh.

To help support the local community further during this epidemic, £2 from each gift box sale will be donated to the Edinburgh Food Project.

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has caused a sudden, steep decline in business for cafes, restaurants, boutiques, artisans, creators and local retailers.

For more information about how to support your local high street and keep Edinburgh Thriving, visit www.keepedinburghthriving.com

Shopping: stay safe online

Some security advice to help protect British shoppers against cyber-crime has been released as we head online for the basics:

Internet shopping specialists from NetVoucherCodes.co.uk have revealed their 13 top tips to help UK consumers stay safe when shopping on the web in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

From using a credit card and keeping software up to date, to writing down complicated passwords and making up answers to security questions, online shoppers could avoid becoming a cyber criminal’s next victim by following the guidance.

A spokesperson for NetVoucherCodes.co.uk said: “With more and more Britons heading online to shop for the essentials, it’s important to take online security even more seriously.

“Browsing the web can be a security minefield for consumers – a computer virus, hacker or fraud could be just one click away.

“So to help Brits shop online with greater peace of mind, we’ve revealed the different measures you can take to stay safe when buying something on the internet.”

Here is the NetVoucherCodes.co.uk advice:

1. Use a credit card

If you purchase online using a debit card and it turns out to be a scam there’s usually no way to retrieve your money, but fraudulent charges must be reimbursed by credit card companies.

Check your statements regularly, just in case a purchase you didn’t make gets through the card provider’s safety net and you need to dispute it. This could also help if a purchase is shows up different to what you ordered, damaged or doesn’t arrive at all.

2. Make up security answers

When creating an account with online shopping sites, you might be asked to set up password reset security questions to confirm your identity.

Rather than entering the real town you were born in or mother’s maiden name, enter false answers and write them down if you can’t remember. This makes it much harder for cyber criminals who might be trying to gather information on you.

3. Only fill out required fields

 Don’t offer up any more personal information that is necessary to complete an online purchase.

The required fields are usually starred or highlighted when checking out – it’s usually wise to leave the rest blank.

4. Never save information 

Allowing even the most reputable of websites to store your payment or address information is unnecessary.

Don’t say yes when your browser suggests saving any passwords either and always log out when you’ve finished shopping.

5. Change passwords often

 Regularly change between complicated, hard to guess, alphanumeric passwords that also contain symbols, even if you have to write them all down somewhere secure at home. Keep them different for each site you use too.

Using the same, simple but memorable password for every website for years, such as a pet’s name, is asking for trouble when online shopping.

6. Look for security indicators

A web address (or URL) that begins with ‘HTTPS’ are secure – those without the ‘S’, ‘HTTP’, may not be.

Other signs of shopping site security to look out for could include a closed padlock or complete key, possibly green, alongside the URL, next to the search bar or elsewhere around the screen. 

7. Avoid public Wi-Fi

 Entering personal information such as credit card details, passwords or home address while using free public Wi-Fi hotspots is dangerous as your data won’t be protected by encryption and could vulnerable to hackers.

8. Update your computer

Using an older version of a popular internet browser, operating system or anti-virus software on your computer means that you’ll be missing out on important security updates, which could leave you exposed when browsing the web.

9. Be extra careful on mobiles 

Most mobile phones won’t have the same level of anti-virus protection as laptop or desktop computers so extra vigilance is required, particularly around shortened mobile-friendly URLs.

Mobile devices are also more likely to be stolen, so make sure any payment details are passcode or fingerprint protected.

10. Avoid email links

 Rather than clicking on potentially suspect links to shopping sites that you see on social media, other websites or in emails, search for the website yourself.

This helps to make sure you browse the authentic site. If you’re getting a lot of spam emails, consider setting up a dedicated online shopping only email address.

11. Leave badly designed websites

If a shopping site appears to be out of date, has a strange URL, comes with lots of pop ups, or is dominated by cheap, irrelevant or overseas adverts, the page could be dodgy and worth exiting before it’s too late.

12. Research and read reviews

When considering spending on a new site that you haven’t used before, it can be useful to browse forums and social media to see what experience others have had of shopping there.

If you can find a real physical address and verifiable contact details for the company you intend to make a purchase from, they’re probably legitimate. 

13. Trust your instincts

 Just as you would when shopping on the high street, if you feel like a website is requesting too much personal information or could harm your computer with viruses, close it.

If in any doubt, stick to shopping with sites you know and trust.

Remember, if a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Which? – Coronavirus email and text phishing scams

Phishing and smishing emails and SMS messages are already being sent out to trap the unwary into giving up login details.

One we’ve seen is an email that claims to come from the World Health Organization. It’s short and sweet, asking that you click on a link to what it says is a PDF offering advice on how to stay safe during the outbreak.

Security firm Sophos has a detailed breakdown of what happens if you click on that link, but broadly it shows you a pop-up in front of what looks like the WHO’s actual website asking you to input your email address and password so that you can receive the non-existent PDF.

Other phishing emails and SMS messages (known as ‘smishing’ texts) are also doing the rounds: Action Fraud has warned that emails purporting to be from organisations including the US Centers for Disease Control and the WHO are being sent with the aim of tricking you into opening malicious attachments or giving away your passwords.

The latest email and text phishing scams:

Fake lockdown fines

People have been warned not to fall for a bogus text message saying they have been fined for stepping outside during the coronavirus lockdown. The scam message claims to be from the Government, telling the recipient their movements have been monitored through their phone and they must pay a fine or face a more severe penalty.

HMRC goodwill payment 

The MET police are warning of a fake message designed to steal your account details that says ‘As part of the NHS promise to battle the COV-19 virus, HMRC has issued a payment of £258 as a goodwill payment’.

Free school meals 

The Department for Education has issued warnings about a scam email designed to steal your bank details saying: ‘As schools will be closing, if you’re entitled to free school meals, please send your bank details and we’ll make sure you’re supported.’

Conspiracy theories and misinformation

Another email we’ve seen is full of doom-laden warnings that ‘There is no vaccine for coronavirus’ and that ‘the US government, like the Chinese government, isn’t telling us the truth about how many are infected’. That email is full of links. While we’ve only seen screenshots of this, it seems likely that these links will lead you to either phishing sites or, worse, sites that can infect your computer with malware.

Sophos has also reported on emails that – for now – are targeting Italian email addresses and which include a Word document that purports to offer guidelines for preventing infection, but which in fact harbours a malicious script that infects Windows computers with a banking Trojan, i.e. malware that aims to steal online banking credentials.

So watch out for emails that include attachments.

Read the Which? guide on how to spot a phishing scam for more information:

Read more: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/03/coronavirus-scams-how-to-spot-them-and-stop-them/

 

Morrisons introduces NHS Hour

Many NHS workers have said that they are struggling to buy the products they need at the beginning or the end of their shift, as supermarkets have seen unprecedented demand.

So we’re responding by introducing an NHS hour at all our stores at the beginning of every day, Monday to Saturday, so NHS workers can shop for groceries for themselves and their families.

This will be from 7am to 8am and a Morrisons colleague will be on the door to let staff with an NHS badge in.

Our new opening hours for all our other customers are 8am to 8pm, Monday to Saturday. On Sundays we’ll be open as usual.

We promise to play our part in feeding the nation – it’s more than our job.  

David Potts, 

Chief Executive, Morrisons

Another update from Sainbury’s

A further update from Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Mike Coupe:

We are continuing to work around the clock to feed the nation in these challenging times.

Many of you have written to me in the past 24 hours to tell me that you like the idea of priority shopping for NHS workers and for elderly and disabled customers, but that these should be at different times.

We have therefore decided to allow NHS and social care workers to shop in our supermarkets for half an hour before they open each day. So anyone with NHS ID will be able to shop from 07.30-08.00 every day from Monday to Saturday.

We’re delighted to be able to offer priority shopping to all the hard-working NHS staff across the country who are working so hard to keep us all safe and well.

In addition to this, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, all our supermarkets will dedicate 08.00-09.00 to serving elderly customers, disabled customers and carers.

Many of you have also asked me about priority online delivery slots for elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers.

We have been able to identify a number of customers as elderly and vulnerable based on the information they have given us previously. These details would include date of birth and if you have ever used our vulnerable customer helpline. For all of these customers, we will email you today (Sunday) with information on when slots will become available.

If you do not receive an email and you consider yourself to be vulnerable, please visit our Groceries Online website on Monday for information on how to contact us.

We are also working as quickly as possible on an option for people to register themselves as disabled and vulnerable on their online shopping accounts.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to get in touch with me and share your feedback – it’s because of you that we are making these changes and we will continue to listen, learn and adapt during this uncertain time.

Best wishes

Mike

Update from Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Mike Coupe

I wanted to write to you again to update you on the steps we are taking to make sure everyone has access to food and essential items. I’m also sharing more information about how we are supporting our colleagues in these challenging times and how you can help.

An increasing number of you have told me that you’re not always able to get the items that you need when you need them. We are working with our suppliers to get even more stock of essential items and we are adding warehouse capacity on a daily basis.

You will have seen that we put restrictions in place this week to ensure that more products are on shelf for longer.

From Monday 23rd March, we are consolidating our opening hours and all our supermarkets will be open from 8am to 8pm, Monday-Saturday, including those with an Argos store. Sunday opening, Sainsbury’s Local and petrol station opening times will stay the same.

This means we can focus our store colleagues’ time on keeping shelves stocked and serving our customers well during the times that most of you are already shopping.

Last Thursday, we set aside an hour for elderly and vulnerable shoppers in our supermarkets. Many of you have told me how much you appreciated this and that you would like this to become a regular event. Some of you also said we should extend this to members of our hardworking NHS and Social Care workers. And we will be doing just that.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, all our supermarkets will dedicate 8am – 9am to serving elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers, as well as NHS and Social Care workers.

They will just need to show us their pass or ID when they visit. Some of you fed back that you couldn’t find what you wanted during that hour, so we will try our best to have essential items on shelf for these customers.

We will be working to keep our shelves well stocked and would encourage customers to arrive throughout the hour to prevent queues forming and to help everyone keep a safe distance.

Hundreds of you have written to me to thank our amazing colleagues who are working around the clock to serve our customers. A number of you have also shared your concerns for the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues.

I want you to know that we are doing all we can to support everyone who works in our business.

We have committed to paying all colleagues who are unwell or need to self-isolate for the full period of fourteen days. We have also committed to paying vulnerable and elderly colleagues in full if the government decides they should isolate for 12 weeks.

We hope this will go some way to helping our teams through this uncertain time and we are looking at other ways to thank our colleagues for their extraordinary efforts.

To keep our colleagues safe, I need to ask again for your help. Please do your best to stand one metre away from colleagues in our stores where you can. And we would prefer you to pay with card rather than cash at our tills.

Please also treat our colleagues and other customers with kindness and respect. These are unprecedented circumstances and our colleagues are being asked to come to work every day while so many others are being asked to stay at home.

We all need them to keep coming to work to feed the nation – a small thank you goes a really long way.

I hope you will join us in looking out for each other and the communities that we serve.

Best wishes

Mike

Coronavirus: Morrisons introduces new measures

Morrisons has set out a number of measures to support colleagues and customers during the Coronavirus outbreak.

As a British family business, Morrisons will do its bit during the emergency and today sets out a plan to protect and help colleagues and expand home delivery to many more households at a time of national need. In doing so, Morrisons will create an extra 3,500 jobs.

These measures follow on from Morrisons announcement last week that it would be implementing immediate payments for its smaller suppliers, supporting their cashflow during this very difficult time for the British economy.

The key elements of the plan announced yesterday are:

  • Colleague hardship fund – to support colleagues who are in financial difficulty as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak we will create a colleague hardship fund. Colleagues will be able to apply for funds if they experience a financial setback and are struggling to make ends meet.
  • Helping colleagues – Morrisons colleagues are very highly valued and the company is introducing the following measures if they are affected:
    * Those who are sick with the Coronavirus will receive sick pay whether or not they would normally be eligible.
    * Colleagues who are affected either because of self isolation, or by playing their part in looking after close family members or the vulnerable in their local community, will also be eligible for sick pay, alternative shifts or holiday.
  • Protecting colleagues – Morrisons will protect highly valued colleagues by:
    * Asking customers at the checkout to pay, if possible, by card or smartphone to reduce cash handling.
    * Issuing hand sanitiser to checkouts at all stores and significantly increasing cleaning on places that colleagues and customers touch.
    * Redeploying colleagues who are vulnerable to the virus, where possible.
  • Expanding home delivery – Morrisons is to introduce new ways of delivering groceries and more slots for customers, which will also help vulnerable people and those affected by the virus. New measures include:
    * Launching a new range of simple-to-order food parcels, including options for vegetarians, from March 23rd.
    * Making more delivery slots available to customers both through Morrisons.com and the Morrisons Store on Amazon Prime Now. Morrisons will use 100 further stores to pick customers’ shopping over the coming weeks.
    * Launching a customer call centre for orders to be taken over the phone so that people who do not shop online can still order food.
    * To support the roll-out of these expanded home delivery methods, Morrisons will be recruiting around 2,500 pickers and drivers.
  • New Jobs – The outbreak of coronavirus will affect businesses across the UK and Morrisons will be offering jobs to people that are impacted. In addition to around 2,500 pickers and drivers to expand home delivery, Morrisons will be recruiting around 1,000 people to work in the company’s distribution centres. The vacancies will be advertised through a campaign on radio and social media and the Morrisons jobs website morrisons.jobs

David Potts, Chief Executive of Morrisons, said: “We expect the days, weeks and months ahead to be very testing and we are determined to do our bit.

“These measures will support our very hard-working colleagues, enable us to provide more food to more people in their homes and create opportunities for people whose jobs are affected by the coronavirus.”