FURIOUS Marks and Spencer customers are sharing their dismay at the supermarket's cafe no longer serving free biscuits with hot drinks.
Disappointed customers nipping in to M&S Cafe for a tea or coffee will no longer receive a free oat biscuit with their drink, now having to ask at the counter to ensure a sweet treat.
The mini oat biscuits – which M&S sell in its food halls in packs of around 22 for £1 – used to come free automatically with hot drinks ordered at M&S cafe.
One devastated twitter user wrote: "Hi M&S… I'm upset that my coffee in your cafe isn't accompanied by your delightful little shortbread biscuits anymore… #devasted #why".
Another disappointed customer tweeted: "@marksandspencer I've just been informed in my local M&S Cafe that you're doing away with the complimentary biscuits.
"Can you cook nfirm [sic] or deny this."
M&S say that customers can still have a biscuit with their drink if they want one – all they have to do is ask.
Replying to biscuit-less customers on Twitter, M&S's customer service team wrote: "We haven't completely removed these [biscuits]. We've stopped providing them with every hot drink, but if you ask when ordering you will be provided with one :)."
'REVERSE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE'
When asked why this new policy was in place, M&S said on Twitter: "Hi, the reason for this policy is that customers often don't want the biscuit and throw them away, but we are happy to give them to customers who tell us they enjoy them with their drinks."
M&S say they had to make the change due to "large numbers of biscuits which were going to waste."
However, customers weren't happy with the switch which they branded “cost-cutting” and “demeaning”.
Paul Doward blasted on Twitter: “Taking cost-cutting misery to a whole new level. Embarrassing.”
Another called Lucy said: “I doubt there were many people that didn’t eat the biscuit. Just big company greed taking away little perks that make a difference.”
One Twitter user, who branded the move "odd," wrote: "Why do you have to ask for a biscuit in the M&S cafe now?
"It used to be standard to be offered one but the server in the Longbridge cafe just told people in the queue that they can only give them to people who ask. Seems rather odd."
And in a follow up tweet wrote: "It just seems a little odd to have to ask for one yourself.
"It seems like the reverse of customer service."
SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Consumer expert Sue Hayward said: "M&S is caught between a rock and a hard place on this one.
"It’s saving waste by stopping automatically dishing out free biscuits, but facing complaints from customers who are moaning that they can’t get a free biscuit."
Last month, the retailer was accused of wasting plastic after offering miniature replicas of its most popular food items in a promotion aimed at children called Little Shop.
However, according to their website, M&S want to "help build a sustainable future by being a business that enables our customers to have a positive impact on wellbeing, communities and the planet through all that we do.
"Food waste has a huge impact on the planet and at M&S, we've taken some huge steps so far. But we know there is more work to be done.
"We pride ourselves on the quality and freshness of our food and believe it's just too good to be wasted. "That's why, we're finding new ways to cut our waste and make sure all our surplus food ends up on a plate."
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