Pret app in chaos after subscription crackdown leaves customers threatening to quit
Pret A Manger subscribers say they are unable to claim their free coffees after having trouble with the chain’s app, with some threatening to go elsewhere for their drinks.
The “Club Pret” membership allows a customer to order up to five barista-made drinks a day for a monthly subscription of £30.
But last month, the chain launched a crackdown on subscribers sharing free drinks with friends and colleagues. It is understood that some customers were exploiting loopholes to share the subscription, either by sending friends a screenshot of a QR code or by logging in to various devices.
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 rules that came into effect on March 18.
However, subscribers have complained that the changes make it more difficult to claim the offer, with some reporting technical issues when trying to access the app. Others have cancelled their subscriptions owing to the “faff” the updates have caused.
Customers threaten to quit
“Pret. Please can you update your app so the QR code for the subscription appears straight away, as it’s such a faff having to open it every time I order a drink since I can’t use it from my Apple Wallet anymore. Thanks,” one subscriber said online.
Alison Ruane, a communications director at Macmillan Children’s Books based in London, was among several customers claiming she was unable to sign into the Pret app as it did not recognise her password. “Your customer services are taking hours to respond. I will cancel my subscription if I am not helped soon,” she said on Twitter.
Another subscriber said: “I cannot even login to the useless Pret app it’s terrible! How convenient it is to just have the barcode in my Apple Wallet! I have been a Pret member since 2020, I am going to have to cancel now and go elsewhere, instead of making things easier you have made it worse!”
Another wrote “Pret subscription absolute joke. Broken app leaves me paying for something I can’t use plus really rude (although I’m sure equally frustrated) workers.”
Some customers also reported being unable to login to the app after they were told the SIM card in their phone did not match the phone number linked to their account.
Other customers questioned how they would be able to access the app if they were in a chain without signal. However, Pret has said subscribers are able to access their QR code while offline once subscribers are logged in to the app.
A Pret spokesman said: “We recently updated how Club Pret subscribers access their QR codes as we continue to invest in our digital offer for customers. Live QR codes are now available to all subscribers exclusively via the Pret App. A few customers may have experienced technical issues in accessing their new codes while logging into the Pret App. Anyone with problems accessing their new code can contact our customer support team who will be happy to help.”
App chaos follows price hike row
It came after the chain reduced the price of its best-selling sandwiches after the retailer was hit with claims of profiteering.
Price cuts were introduced across Pret’s six most popular products, with some sandwiches falling by up to £1.
That includes the price of a tuna baguette, which has been lowered from £4.25 to £3.99, and the Posh Cheddar baguette, which has fallen from £4.99 to £3.99.
A total of 66p has also been knocked off the price of a cheese toastie, which now costs customers £4.99. Egg mayo sandwiches have also been cut from £3.40 to £2.99.
The popular lunch spot was forced to defend hiking prices over the past two years.
The company’s shops and franchise director Guy Meakin said last October that the company had always been “transparent” with its customers.
He told The Grocer: “It’s a really tough market. Energy costs have gone up through the roof, and are now starting to plateau and come down, which is encouraging – but still significantly higher than before.
“But prices are going up, so unfortunately, we are having to pass our prices through to our customers from time to time.”
