Coupon / Business Rant

[mayday0017]

I typed all this as a reply to another post about HD refusing their own coupon but decided after that it might be hijacking someone else's thread. So I moved it to it's own thread.

I'm getting tired of some places "Coupon Policy" a lot here lately.... I have quit carrying coupons for the most part and just take a picture of them and keep them on my phone. Then I have the coupon with me when I make it to the store and don't have a pile of them sitting in my car. Most stores don't have a problem they just type in the number on the coupon and if the system takes it all is well. But some stores throw a huge fit over it....

Last week was in northern tools, took a picture of 3 coupons and a sales ad earlier in the week. Went in and grabbed what I needed and they refused to accept the coupon. I pointed out the fact I can use the same coupon on their website for in store pick up and that this "policy" didn't make any sense. The cashier seemed like that made sense to her so she called the manager.... Waited 10 minutes for manager to come up front and of course he was one of those ******* types who didn't even let you talk before he gave an answer. His comment was "I can't accept that, there is no way, the cashier would get in trouble for not having a coupon in her drawer to turn in". To which I have a problem with proper English the word "Can't" isn't' correct but "won't" should be used but I didn't say that, I just offered a solution. "Can you just write a note for her to put in her drawer saying you approved it this one time? I have been standing in line for 15 minutes to buy this and waited 20 minutes before that while your employee chit chatted with his friend before he would get my flashlight down from top stock" his reply "I can't write a note it is policy not to do that".

I had to laugh; this guy's name tag says "Assistant Manager" and he doesn't have the authority to accept a coupon? I mean that's what "can't" means.... I just said, well I "can't" see a reason to do business with a store that the manager "can't" do his job, have a nice day and enjoy putting up my stuff.

99% of the time I don't have a problem with using "electronic copies" of coupons, but my biggest annoyance is when a manager doesn't treat a business as his own. If this was an individual's business he would realize he is only ******* off a customer and that what the customer is asking is no different than bringing in the paper coupon. But in today's world these people say no cause they can and don't think about the big picture and growth of the company....

 

[Stuey]

Would you go the supermarket and show them a picture you took of a coupon? No, they absolutely need to have a valid non-expired coupon in their drawer as these things are tallied up at the end of the day. If there's no coupon, the cashier is penalized for being short.

Maybe it's corporate policy, maybe store policy, hard to say.

A lot of stores don't accept online/printed coupons anymore due to fraud and counterfeiting.

 

[mayday0017]

Would you go the supermarket and show them a picture you took of a coupon? No, they absolutely need to have a valid non-expired coupon in their drawer as these things are tallied up at the end of the day. If there's no coupon, the cashier is penalized for being short.

Maybe it's corporate policy, maybe store policy, hard to say.

A lot of stores don't accept online/printed coupons anymore due to fraud and counterfeiting.

I really think you have it backwards.... More and more are accepting online/printed coupons and is becoming standard. And yes I do "electronic" coupons at supermarket too... hell most of the supermarkets around me have advertisment up to switch to electronic. No one wants paper coupons they are to much of as hastle for the retailer and customer both.

The "Rant" also isn't about the cashier and what she needs in her drawer, it has to do with a manager who shouldn't be one.

Edit: Also why should a cashier get in trouble for typing in a barcode and not having the coupon? I could understand if they changed the price manually, but the reciept will show that a coupon was scanned and so will the system...

 

[vw_tdi]

ya, i get your complaint and they should have been offering solutions...but to not have a physical coupon is asking a bit much, IMO

 

[mjl44]

If a store does not honor a legitimate coupon, I go elsewhere. Did it last week buying a hockey stick. The first store I went in gave me attitude over the coupon and the manager talked to me as if I was a child, so I left, went right next store, and made my purchase there.

 

[Ign]

You're just ahead of your time. Eventually this will be commonplace but right now people still need a printed coupon; they just don't understand it any other way. It doesn't matter if your argument makes sense - - tradition and social convention rarely do.

 

[ybnormal70]

An electronic coupon is a lot different than a picture of a paper coupon. If you don't understand that, how about this: I could send you an electronic payment through paypal or a picture of cash? Which would you prefer? There is a difference.

L8r,

Kevin

 

[nine4gmc]

some places can even scan your coupon straight from the smart phones but some companies are still in the stone ages and do not recognize things like digital coupons, online coupons, and even home printed coupons. best practice is to bring the real deal with you and ask if you can use your phone next time until you are familiar with the individual company's policy.

 

[StevePgh]

I think that it shouldn't matter so much for store-based coupons. Some manufacturer coupons (granted, an ever decreasing number of them) still need to be sent back by the retailer. Some stores keep certain types of coupons for future tracking (usually there is some other barcode on them from a mailing that identifies the source - example: Linens and Things mailed coupons. The primary reason stores take and keep coupons these days are to prevent you from passing the coupon back to the guy behind you (think the HF 20% off coupons that the cashier just trashes anyway).

Sometimes managers do not understand the reasons certain policies are in place, and as such make stupid decisions that make the customer unhappy even though those decisions have no impact on protecting their brand or profitability. These are poor managers, but great parrots. After working in retail for many years at both a home improvement center and a consumer electronics store, I've seen some great ones and some bad ones.

 

[ishiboo]

Would you go the supermarket and show them a picture you took of a coupon? No, they absolutely need to have a valid non-expired coupon in their drawer as these things are tallied up at the end of the day. If there's no coupon, the cashier is penalized for being short.

Maybe it's corporate policy, maybe store policy, hard to say.

A lot of stores don't accept online/printed coupons anymore due to fraud and counterfeiting.

Most supermarket coupons are manufacturer coupons, the retailer must send them in to the manufacturer to get reimbursed for the product. A global "% off" is a different animal - it eats into the retailers profit margin.

Many places also require the coupon in the drawer so that the cashier doesn't just give free % offs to people he/she likes.

I think it's fair to require the physical coupon if that's how the coupon is distributed.

 

[Hootbro]

Instead of being a grammar Nazi about what the manager said and him not being a "solution provider, just print the coupons next time and bring them in. Problem solved.

Does nothing to compare what another establishment does with their coupons and then complain about another company and their policy.

 

[kc-steve]

Yeah, I hate coupons. Just lower the damn price and stop the confusion.

Another pet peeve of mine is the damn rebates. Just lower the damn prices. In economics, they are just trying to set the standard of pricing, too high in my opinion. And then they justify keeping the same old high price because they still sell "X" amount of product while making us think it is a bargain with a coupon or rebate.

Steve

 

[WRX/Z28]

How many coupons could you have that taking a picture of them is really a better solution than just putting them in your wallet?

Most places still need the coupon to submit to manfuacturer for reimbursement. That's how a normal coupon works. If it was a store coupon, he should have been able to help you, but why should he? Now he has to break his stores own policy because you are too lazy to actually bring in a small piece of paper? How is taking a picture of it easier? Seems to me like that would waste a lot more time... and seems to annoy people at the retailer.

 

[mayday0017]

Looks like we have some very mixed views... Several people who understand my point of view and see this as becoming a normal thing in the future. Others who believe there is a need for someone to hold on to a piece of paper before they throw it in the trash.... The days of sending coupons in to manufacture are almost gone, 95% or more of coupons go in the trash either when the individual counts their drawer at the end of their shift or at the time it is scanned.

Home Depot - Trash in front of you
Lowes - Trash in front of you
Harbofreight - Trash in front of you
Best Buy - Trash when counting drawer (Was manager there when younger)
Office depot - Trash in front of you (Manager there too)
Rue 21 - Trash when counting drawer (G/F was GM here)
New York Co. - Trash in front of you (G/F was GM here)
Guess - Trash when counting drawer (G/F was GM here)

I do understand "Policy" I also understand that managers have the ability to change prices and do what is needed to make the customer happy if it is fair and reasonable.

The comment about what if I offered to give you a picture of cash instead of cash is 100% different, give me a picture of a check instead of the check itself because it has codes and number on it I'm good that is a better comparison. I throw every check I get in the trash because my bank understands times have changed and lets me snap a quick picture from my phone to make a deposite.

Long story short, I don't believe there is a policy against doing this, I believe it just isn't how things are done at that store. I am also perfectly ok with them NOT wanting to do this but it is how things are handled. "Sir we do not take electronic copies, just bring the reciept back with the actual coupon and we can do the transaction over and put that money back in your pocket"

Instead I got "There is no way I can take that it isn't possible" Me: "Sure you just type in the numbers next to the bar code".... He was not offering any SOLUTION and that is the problem, he was only trying to figure out a way to say NO with out sounding like an *******....

Anways, I will keep using electronic copies this is the 1st time it didn't work for me, and to answer the question of how much effort it takes. Well that depends on how much you buy and how often you try to use coupons. I woudl say 90% of the time I don't pay retail prices for anythign I buy... I use a coupon, or a sale, or both... I stop at harborfreight on the way home 2 or 3 times a week using a 20% coupon each time when I need to pick up several big ticket items. Why? Because I drive past the place anyways, I don't need it now, and they only honor the 20% on one item. I am playing by their rules but I am saving the same money...

I guess I have said my piece and it is interesting to see the mixed views, I can see everyone's point of view on this and the logic behind these views. If there are any other questions or good points feel free to bring them up I will respond when I can.

 

[WRX/Z28]

It seems the manager was saying there is a policy against that. It could have to do with one of two things, either A: they only want you to be able to use said coupon once, and if they start accepting it off the phone, you can simply reuse it over and over and over. or B: they want to prevent the cashier from being able to just randomly add the coupon code to friends/relatives/joe schmo's orders without them ever having the coupone, knowing about it, or even being the original target of the coupon.

All of your examples for coupon's going in the trash must be for in house coupon's only. Having worked for multiple retailers myself, I can tell you that manufacturer's coupon's and such still work the old school way of sending them back to the manufacturer. To my knowledge this has not changed, and if you look at some of the coupon's for the grocery store and such, they still have instructions for the retailer on the back about how to be reimbursed.

Regardless of all of this, if the manager told me he couldn't accept a cell phone picture of my coupon, I really don't think I would take offense, I'd simply go get the coupon and hand it to him. My point is that cutting out the coupon takes less time than taking a picture of it, and having to call up that picture while you're in line at the store.

If I was standing in line behind some jacknut showing the cashier his cell phone saying here's my coupon, and she had to call a manager over to figure out how to process it (assuming they'd take it that way) I'd be having some words with the cell phone guy. Nothing is more annoying to me than people who think they are the only customer in the store, and waste other peoples time over things like this. IMO, you've now wasted the cashier's time, the manager's time, any customers behind you in line's time, and your own time.

Why make it harder than it needs to be? Just hand them the paper coupon and call it a day.


And the worst part is, you've now had a problem with someone accepting it, and instead of saying to yourself "oh, this could be an inconvenience in certain places, maybe I should just bring the coupon instead" You've already stated that you'll continue to do this.

You know what they say about people that repeat the same actions expecting different results right?


PS, don't take any offense, i'm just another oppinionated forum guy...

 

[mayday0017]

See Below

It seems the manager was saying there is a policy against that. It could have to do with one of two things, either A: they only want you to be able to use said coupon once, and if they start accepting it off the phone, you can simply reuse it over and over and over. or B: they want to prevent the cashier from being able to just randomly add the coupon code to friends/relatives/joe schmo's orders without them ever having the coupone, knowing about it, or even being the original target of the coupon. These are logical reasons why not to do it, and if he would of offered any of these as an explination instead of first telling me it was impossible, then saying the cashier would get in trouble, then saying he can't do it... basically he had no "reason" to not honor it he was trying to find one instead of saying NO because he wanted to sound like he was being reasonable even though he knew he was being lazy and was annoyed he got called up front. (Side note I didn't mention was there was a manager from another store filling in that was close by the cashier and they talked and she said "we do it at my store but I'm just filling in here so call Leo, maybe there is a reason yall don't do it here") I do agree if they have been having problems with a fraud type situation it would make sense not to do it, but to take a customer who has been standing waiting for you and offer no solution and act like he is wasting your time is not good mgmt.

All of your examples for coupon's going in the trash must be for in house coupon's only. Having worked for multiple retailers myself, I can tell you that manufacturer's coupon's and such still work the old school way of sending them back to the manufacturer. To my knowledge this has not changed, and if you look at some of the coupon's for the grocery store and such, they still have instructions for the retailer on the back about how to be reimbursed.
I do know of manufacture coupons that get returned, it is very uncommon to see manufacture coupons though most are offered by the store. But grocery store is a good example of where I see manufacture coupons, really about the only place I can think of.

Regardless of all of this, if the manager told me he couldn't accept a cell phone picture of my coupon, I really don't think I would take offense, I'd simply go get the coupon and hand it to him. My point is that cutting out the coupon takes less time than taking a picture of it, and having to call up that picture while you're in line at the store.
As stated below I can find faster on phone then someone could find looking through paper copies because it is sorted. It also wasn't so much that the manager didn't want to take the coupon it was the fact he was rude the minute he walked up, started talking before listening, and then wanted to act like I was being so unreasonable for even asking, and made no apoligy for getting a flashlight taking an hour because his people were chatting with their friends and being lazy in general. Basically it's not the "policy" I have a problem with, but how the issue was taken care of... Also he could not show me the policy anywhere, it was not listed on their coupon policy that was posted.

If I was standing in line behind some jacknut showing the cashier his cell phone saying here's my coupon, and she had to call a manager over to figure out how to process it (assuming they'd take it that way) I'd be having some words with the cell phone guy. Nothing is more annoying to me than people who think they are the only customer in the store, and waste other peoples time over things like this. IMO, you've now wasted the cashier's time, the manager's time, any customers behind you in line's time, and your own time.
I do agree with getting pissed off by the guy taking forever to check out, recently had this happen at harborfreight, the guy was digging through about 100 coupons trying to figure out what he bought and to make it worse he would take one item out of cart and go through every coupon he had to see if he had one for it then let the cashier scan the item, then on to the next item... I thought I was going to kill myself standing there! In this case where the cashier couldn't take the coupon which I already had pulled up on the phone while I waited in line in the first place and I requested a manager. I stepped aside and told her to go ahead and check the others out while I waited. My actions had no impact on others and I made a special point to insure that. Very valid point though! Everywhere else so far acts like they have seen this 100 times and holds the phone in 1 hand and types the numbers or I read it to them.

Why make it harder than it needs to be? Just hand them the paper coupon and call it a day. It is faster to scroll through pictures that are in folders sorted by store on my phone then a stack of 50+ coupons crammed in my wallet


And the worst part is, you've now had a problem with someone accepting it, and instead of saying to yourself "oh, this could be an inconvenience in certain places, maybe I should just bring the coupon instead" You've already stated that you'll continue to do this. I won't go back to Northern Tools and try to do this, honestly I will not shop at the same one again, I don't shop where the manager doesn't treat the store as his own when I can help it.

You know what they say about people that repeat the same actions expecting different results right? If everywhere else I have been doing this for the past few years gave me the results I am looking for and this 1 place didn't, that is a little different then repeating and expecting different results. And I guess this shows that reapeating can get different results since they didn't accept it as others did....


PS, don't take any offense, i'm just another oppinionated forum guy...
No offense taken, you are being fair and reasonable and I appricate that

PS: HOLY **** you made me type a book, but you put your points together well sir

 

[WRX/Z28]

I still can't see how it would take less time to photograph, and retrieve the photograph of a coupon you can rip out in 2 seconds.

Ever see that extreme couponing show? None of those people are using their cell phone when they get to check out... it would be near impossible to do so IMO.

Maybe my Droid 2 is just archaeic, but it takes forever to navigate photo's on that thing. I haven't seen any phones that would lead me to believe that it would be faster than pulling one coupon out of a stack of 40, but then again, apparently I count paper money by hand really fast, or so i'm told.

About the closest i've ever come to using my phone as a coupon was when I was showing a price from one lowes to another lowes manager to try to get them to honor the price. Believe it or not, they wouldn't, even though it was clearly their tag in another store. They cited that the picture could be manipulated via photoshop, and they wouldn't match another out of area store anyway... even doing that took me longer than it should have.

Eh, any way you slice it, there are ways around it. People in retail have bad days and good days. Sometimes they respond to your unconscious body language. Sometimes they just dealt with a personal issue at home, and can't seperate it from work very well.

I'd just as soon bring the actual coupon to avoid any possiblity of hassle.

 

[R1V3R5]

Seems like the idea of coupon clipping should be dead. Why not just have a coupon on a mobile phone with a bar code for the employee to scan? Makes more sense to me.

However, I worked at a place (not mentioned in your post) as an Assistant Manager and we had to keep those coupons when we counted down the drawer. Then we would put all the coupons in a big envelope every night. And monthly these coupons were sent to our corporate office. The coupon count absolutely had to match what the registers showed or someone could be fired. I guess corporate were afraid we were just randomly giving discounts to our buddies? I don't actually know the reasoning and I can't say I agreed with the corporate policy, but I couldn't change it either.

 

[DFW-LSX]

Seems like the idea of coupon clipping should be dead. Why not just have a coupon on a mobile phone with a bar code for the employee to scan? Makes more sense to me.

Thats what I do, just zoom in on the bar code and screenshot it in my pics on the iPhone. I have a "coupon" folder in there and I can whip those out quicker than someone can sift through the 25 they have in their pocket/wallet. When I find the bar code I just hand the cashier my phone to scan it.

 

[mayday0017]

Hm... Maybe it's a Texas thing

 

[purplezr2]

I was at Northern Tool earlier this week and had the coupon email on my phone(no a picture, an actually email) and the lady was getting all bent out of shape said I need to print them off. I asked her to show me were it indicated that I would need to bring in a printed copy for them to scan. She grumbled and typed the barcode in. I went back an used the same coupon got a different cashier and he didn't care and thought my idea was cool.

 

[catsass]

How many coupons could you have that taking a picture of them is really a better solution than just putting them in your wallet?

Most places still need the coupon to submit to manfuacturer for reimbursement. That's how a normal coupon works. If it was a store coupon, he should have been able to help you, but why should he? Now he has to break his stores own policy because you are too lazy to actually bring in a small piece of paper? How is taking a picture of it easier? Seems to me like that would waste a lot more time... and seems to annoy people at the retailer.

It's not lazy, or 1972. Stores bombard us with email marketing and daily coupons. Also, this isn't a tool store only issue. sams club won't let me in with an app scanned copy of my member card. Total bs!

Grocery stores are starting to use only electronic coupons"Harris teeter e-vic coupons". You get an email, select only the coupons you want and pre-load them onto you're card, electronically.if you don't, you can't use them.it's the future, now.
I'm using tapatalk because I'm to much of a loser to carry my pc with me and an inverter while I run errands. 2012.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[mayday0017]

I still can't see how it would take less time to photograph, and retrieve the photograph of a coupon you can rip out in 2 seconds.

Uh oh dude looks like I'm starting to gather an army! LOL