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"Original coupon only..."

joe_padavano

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Joined
Feb 26, 2011
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1,788
Location
Northern VA
I just looked at the fine print at the bottom of the latest HF 25% off email I received. At the very bottom of the page it says "Original coupon only."

Um... Do they tag the electrons that generated that email so they can verify it is the "original" coupon?

:headscrat
 
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Nineeightyone

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Joined
Mar 21, 2018
Messages
393
Location
Pennsylvania
I've never had an issue, been using coupons which have that message at the bottom from HFQPDB for quite a while. It might depend on your cashier, but more than likely they're not going to piss off a customer over a couple bucks max.
 

2ndGearRubber

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Joined
Mar 24, 2014
Messages
14,185
Location
Pittsburgh
HF generally doesn't care. It's cover-your-*** disclaimer. I was told by a local manger recently quantity limits don't apply on their POS system with coupons when items are scanned individually, the limit is enforced only when the cashier manually enters a quantity. She also says she (and her store) don't generally want to even enforce it. She implied to me she feels that the limits rather go against the whole idea of HF and their aggressive coupon-ing and pricing. I normally only hit limits with their nitrile gloves, which I use at work, so I'm buying 15+ boxes a year. I have zero issue with the limit, they're a good price at $7 or whatever without a coupon. But if she'll give me $6 a box on 10+ boxes at once, cool by me.

AFAIK she's been the manager the last 18months of so, and was there in some sort of management facility when it opened 24-ish months. They're obviously not producing coupons that consistently net them a loss; outside the "FREE" item ones which are invitations to upsell, which ain't hard in a HF. Apparently whatever she's doing is at least somewhat condoned/accepted by HF, since she's been there long enough with that policy and they're always pretty busy.
 

bwringer

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Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
10,382
Location
Indianapolis
It's just there to give them an "out" if they don't feel like accepting it that day, or if they want to limit coupon sharing to people who aren't in their systems.

Sometimes scanning the electronic coupons from my phone works, sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, they enter the number from the coupon image. I'm fairly sure these numbers are not unique to the person, but they could vary by region or something.
 

rlitman

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Joined
Oct 18, 2010
Messages
24,758
Location
Long Island
I just looked at the fine print at the bottom of the latest HF 25% off email I received. At the very bottom of the page it says "Original coupon only."

Um... Do they tag the electrons that generated that email so they can verify it is the "original" coupon?

:headscrat

You've never noticed that "new email smell"?
 

Sevenhills1952

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
Messages
1,750
Location
Virginia
Here's a funny one.
Last week I stopped in HF to get something and forgot coupons. I'm standing in line, guy ahead of me whispers "do you have a 20% off coupon?"
"No...sorry" I answer. Guy behind me overheard and says "I do"...hands it to him under counter. Then after he checks out hands it to me. I hand back to original owner who after checkout hands it to a guy behind him.[emoji16]

Sent from my SM-S320VL using Tapatalk
 

jd_1138

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Joined
May 8, 2013
Messages
17,134
Location
NE Ohio
I guess theoretically they could generate unique coupon codes (bar codes), and once it's used that code will no longer work. But that'd be a massive PITA on their end, plus it would make them lose sales. If I remember to bring a coupon, I also end up buying way more stuff than I saved by using the coupon. About half the time, I forget the coupon.

You can pull them up on your smart phone if you forget to bring them.
 

2ndGearRubber

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 24, 2014
Messages
14,185
Location
Pittsburgh
Here's a funny one.
Last week I stopped in HF to get something and forgot coupons. I'm standing in line, guy ahead of me whispers "do you have a 20% off coupon?"
"No...sorry" I answer. Guy behind me overheard and says "I do"...hands it to him under counter. Then after he checks out hands it to me. I hand back to original owner who after checkout hands it to a guy behind him.[emoji16]

Sent from my SM-S320VL using Tapatalk

They usually ask if I want them back after use. Lots of places do that, kohls for instance. Sale is 15% off whatever for 4 days. Come in on day one, they're thrilled to hand you that coupon right back if you want to grab one more thing on the last day of the sale. They make money even at coupon pricing, and when I buy a roll pin assortment for $5.99 while I'm there, the margin on that helps eat my 8 boxes of gloves with coupon.

I've seen HF cashiers use their own phones to pull up coupons for customers if they're familiar with the current flier or common promos. Most people that work at the local HF stores near me are very nice and just seem to want to be helpful if they can save you money. Then there's the occasional lazy person who DGAF, they're just there working their hours. The result is the same generally.
 

lolaetype

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 11, 2019
Messages
2,167
Location
North Western Arkansas
I use coupons I print out all the time

Me too.

Last week I needed 4 of their cheap swivel casters, $1.99 each. I figured I might as well use the 20% off coupon on one of them since I had it in my wallet. Their system wouldn't accept it and the cashier couldn't explain why not. Nothing ion the fine print excluded casters or mentioned a minimum purchase.

Simply wanting clarification, I wasn't concerned about not getting a $0.40 discount, I e-mailed HF corporate and got a reply that said they only handled queries about on -line purchases and I should take my question to the store manager.

I've been buying from HF for at least 30 years and this is the only time I've been disappointed with their customer service response.
 

dogdog

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 15, 2011
Messages
12,711
more like this is HF's pocket rocket to curtail coupon abuse when they needed to one of these days when then wanted to.... so pre-emptively print that on coupons way in advance will justify their actions... sort of like those outdated laws, that is documented, but never enforced, but still give them the option to throw the book at you deals...
 
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parks31

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Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
56
Download the coupon to your phone and have them scan that. If they can't scan it they can enter the number manually.
 

gte718p

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Joined
Mar 12, 2009
Messages
3,989
I’m going to use the New Years 25% off coupon tomorrow. However I was laughing at the page of exclusions, pretty much everything is excluded these days. It appears the knock off pelican cases are not yet. They seem to have pretty good reviews so I’m sure that glitch will be fixed quickly.
 

ChrisLS8

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Joined
Jan 16, 2015
Messages
1,964
They say right on their own website they take all coupons on smartphones. Tell em to pound sand if they argue with that
 

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driftpin

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Joined
Dec 22, 2016
Messages
11,417
Location
Miami-Dade/Broward Co. Florida
I've been waiting to try to use the discount coupon 'on anything,' but I haven't seen one in awhile. I want to buy a $200+ item, so 20%-off is enough to buy a dinner out at an inexpensive place, if you're not drinking alcohol.

Still looking...

I often use online coupons, and as-long as it's a legit coupon, not expired, I've never been refused.
 

darkzero

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 20, 2011
Messages
3,341
Location
SoCal
I've been using printed coupons for yrs, they've never said anything. As mentioned, they tell you that you can use coupons directly from your smartphone now. I still print out coupons, ever since they announced that they just hand me back my printed coupons.

The exclusion list keeps growing. Last 25% sale (Labor Day) I bought a mobile base that's the Central Machinery brand with no problem. CM is on the exclusion list now. Yesterday I went to buy another one. Checked online first & sure enough the coupon wouldn't apply.

Found one 25% coupon on hfqpdb that didn't say CM, still wouldn't apply online. Went to try my luck anyway. Luckily the store manager checkout me out, coupon wouldn't apply & I mentioned that CM wasn't on the coupon I brought. He gave me the 25% off for customer satisfaction.
 
OP
J

joe_padavano

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 26, 2011
Messages
1,788
Location
Northern VA
I realize they don't really care if the coupon is "original" or not, and usually they just scan the picture of the bar code off of my phone, so obviously there's no issue. I just thought that given those practices, and the reality of email, it was ludicrous to have that note.

Of course, there's no correlation between logic and legal department. When submitting expense reports, my company requires me to submit paper receipts. This means that I have to print out the email of the airline ticket and hotel receipt. The receipts get mailed to our home office with the expense report, where I think they get scanned and stored digitally.
:confused:
 

tom-ky

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Joined
Mar 11, 2017
Messages
512
Location
Morgantown, Ky
I went there yesterday and use the 25% coupon, always thought they were good on one item only. It took it off every item, had a coupon for the step drill bits for 8.99 but they rang up normal with the 25% off making them $10.49 so I left them. Should have rung them on a separate transaction. Did the same think on a stage box I had a coupon for, didn't catch it until I walked out but it was about $.50 higher.
 

mudflap

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Joined
Sep 25, 2011
Messages
1,279
Location
cincinnati,ohio
Aside from a few specific item coupons.. Almost everything worth buying is excluded from the in general % off coupons.. But i think alot of people dont read the fine print..so it al least gets people thru the door, and they find out there. I think that is the purpose of them..
 

JRC3

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 30, 2014
Messages
12,481
Location
Southwestern OH
Funny that they don't want you copying their coupons when copying is the basis of most of their tools.


Another funny thing, the length of time for some of their 20% off coupons is about as long as their power tool warranties...Coincidence? Or do they want you to still have the coupon to buy a replacement? lol I guess that's the least they can do for offering such a ****** warranty.

:lol_hitti

:flamethro
 

dogdog

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 15, 2011
Messages
12,711
Funny that they don't want you copying their coupons when copying is the basis of most of their tools.


.........

are you referring to the Daytona jacks ? we know how that turned out :lol_hitti :beer:

Licensing and copying is two different things....

Or are you referring to those two knucklehead that fake those "Soft metal" Icon socket wrench review ?
 
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