Club discounts, or not?

We're still relatively new to the CMC, so hopefully miss out on most of the politics. And we've very much enjoyed the standards on the sites we've used so far, as well as some other club services. So that's good.

But I'm disappointed in the Special Discounts for Club Members, supposedly a benefit of membership. Since joining I've looked at a couple of companies with whom special deals have been arranged, which seemed great, until on each occasion it turned out the companies were having long-term special offers of their own to the general public, giving a still lower price.

So when I phoned to order our solar panels today, and was about to quote the special CMC code to claim my 10%, I'd have ended up paying more than the going rate if I hadn't questioned the nice gent on the phone.

I realise it's up to the companies what promotions they run, but please, CMC, with all that muscle you have, in the form of lots of members, if you negotiate a discount, can it be a real discount? Or if not, can you at least let us know when by claiming it we'll be paying over the odds?
Or is it that I have just been unlucky in my choice so far, and all the rest actually work?

Thanks,

Richard