Nectar – behaviour as pointless as its product

Last Thursday I got a call from Amex wanting to give me a special embargoed (i.e. before it’s allowed to go public) briefing on a new card. It turned out to be the new Nectar Amex card (you can see my view on it here).

During the meeting I spoke to a senior Nectar exec and asked ‘so does this mean Barclaycard is dropping Nectar?’ After all, it’s already stopped offering it for new customers. “No, absolutely not??? was the reply.

Today I get a call from Barclaycard saying “on Monday we’re announcing we’re stopping the Nectar reward scheme”. What pointlessness from Nectar. It lied point blank. Why on earth? The exec could’ve said “yes, but it’s embargoed”. But to lie blatantly? I don’t exactly think much of Nectar anyway, yet this type of behaviour just adds to its untrustworthiness. Pathetic, and to the exec, who knows who he is, you should be ashamed!