Spoonbill support

Something not working, a question about a price, or a request about your data? Here is how to reach us, and the quickest answers.

Contact us

Email support@spoonbill.nz. It helps to tell us which phone you use and what you were doing. Please don’t send passwords or card details: we never need them.

We’ll reply within 5 working days.

Choosing your stores

The first time you open Spoonbill, after you sign in, it asks which stores you shop at. You can change them at any time in Me, under Your stores.

Search by store name, suburb or postcode, and tick a store to add it.
Pick up to three. Spoonbill compares your list across them, and tells you when a second store is worth the trip.
Tap Make usual on the store you shop at most. Every saving is measured against your usual store.

Under Memberships, turn on any supermarket membership you hold: Spoonbill uses a member price only for a membership you have turned on. To go through all the first-run choices again, tap Show the welcome again in Me.

Your data

Export a copy of your data

Open Spoonbill and go to Me.
Find Your data and tap Export my data.
Save the file, or share it.

It is one file with what the app keeps on your phone and the email address on your account. On the phone, that is your list, your stores and choices, the answers you gave when the app asked which product you meant, the swaps you approved and your logged shops, and on iPhone whether usage statistics are on.

Delete your account

Open Spoonbill and go to Me.
In the Account card, tap Delete my account.
Read the message, then tap Delete account to confirm.

This deletes your sign-in and everything we keep for it. Your list on your phone stays until you remove the app. Can’t open the app? See how to ask us to delete your account.

What we keep, and for how long, is in the privacy policy. The terms of use say what Spoonbill is and isn’t.

Questions

Where do the prices come from?

From the supermarkets’ own published product information: the store catalogues and websites of the chains Spoonbill covers (New World, PAK’nSAVE, Woolworths and FreshChoice). We gather it into one price catalogue. Each price is tied to the store it was seen at, and to the day it was seen. The app shows that day.

Prices, totals and savings are worked out by Spoonbill’s own code from that catalogue. They are never made up by an AI.

Are these live prices?

No. They are reference prices: what a product cost at a store on the day we saw it. Supermarkets change prices, run specials and price differently from store to store, so the price on the shelf or at the checkout can be different. Use Spoonbill to compare and plan, and check the price in store, or in the supermarket’s own app, before you rely on it. The savings Spoonbill shows are estimates against those reference prices.

Why a price is missing

We don’t have a price for every product at every store. When we have no price, the app says so (“We have no price at your stores for …”) and counts it (“on 8 of 10 items”). It never says the store doesn’t sell it. A price can be missing because:

We only have part of that store’s range. The app says: “We have prices for part of this store’s range.”
A special has ended. When the only price we saw was a special, there is no price after its last day, until we see the store again. The app says the price ended, and on which day.
We couldn’t tell two products apart. When one name means different products at a store, we leave both out, because a missing price beats a wrong one.
The price is too old. We don’t use a price we last saw more than 14 days ago. The app says when we last saw it, for example “Last seen 3 Oct; no recent price.”

If your store isn’t there, or a price looks wrong, email us with the store and the product’s name, and we’ll look into it.

Do supermarkets or brands pay to be shown first?

No. Spoonbill takes no money from supermarkets or brands, and never ranks products or stores by paid placement. A search follows what you asked for, and plans are compared on their total price.

Is Spoonbill connected to the supermarkets?

No. Spoonbill is independent. Supermarket names are used only to say which store a price is for.

Can Spoonbill place an order or log in to my supermarket account?

No. Spoonbill never asks for a supermarket password, a card or any payment details, and it never places or pays for an order. It shows you where to shop and what to buy, and can open each store’s own website for you. You do the shopping.

Does Spoonbill keep my shopping list?

Your list, stores and shops are kept on your phone, not on our servers. To answer you, the app sends our server what each answer needs, signed in with your account:

the products and quantities on your list;
your stores, your usual store, your memberships, how you shop and your split limit;
the swaps you approved;
the words of a list you paste, so we can match them to products;
for Saved, the shops you logged, so the server can count your savings.

The server works out the answer and sends it back. We don’t keep your list or your shops on our servers. The privacy policy has the detail.

It is a switch in Me, off until you turn it on. When it is on, the app counts which screens you open and what you do, such as searching or planning. It never sends your email, your list or any price. Turn it off at any time, and nothing more is sent.

Spoonbill signs you in with an email code or Google, and on iPhone also with Apple, so there is no password to forget. If a code doesn’t arrive, check your spam folder, then tap Send a new code. If the app says prices are being updated, wait a little while and try again. Still stuck? Email us.

Barcode scanning

Scanning a barcode

Tap the scan button beside the search on Prices, or Scan on your list, and point the camera at the barcode. Spoonbill shows that product’s prices at your stores, cheapest first. If the camera can’t read it, tap Type the number and enter the digits under the bars. Spoonbill uses the camera only to read barcodes: no photos or video are kept or sent.

“We don’t know this barcode yet”

We don’t have every product’s barcode. Search for the product by name instead. A label printed by the store, such as one on meat or deli items, isn’t a product barcode we can look up.

Price watch

Watching a price

On a product, tap Watch price. When its price drops at your stores, Spoonbill tells you, with a notification if you turn them on in Me. A notification can name the product and its new price, so it can appear on your lock screen. To stop, tap Watching on the product again.

To tell you about a drop, we keep these for your account: the products you watch; your store choices and usual store; whether you want notifications; the notices we send you; and on iPhone, a code Apple gives us to send you notifications, with the app’s version. Stopping a watch deletes it, with its notices, at once, and stopping your last watch deletes them all, as deleting your account does. We also delete notices after 90 days, a phone we haven’t heard from in 120 days, and everything for someone we haven’t heard from in 13 months (opening the app while signed in counts, and on Android so does its daily check for price drops). Export my data includes them. The privacy policy has the detail.