I'll start this off by saying that I
am a very proud couponer. I am not an extreme couponer like you see on TLC with
a thousand items and even more coupons, getting hundreds of dollars of items
for less than I can make in an entire day, but I make it my best effort to get
the best deal I can and use my money wisely.
I have noticed many problems about
the way stores handle coupons. Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, CVS – every single
one has had their highs and lows regarding coupons. Typically, when a cashier
flat up refuses to accept a coupon, all it takes is a "may I speak with
your manager?" to light a fire under them and get them to go through with
the coupon. It is almost as if these cashiers do not want you to save money,
because they cannot figure it out themselves...
Alternatively, maybe it has to do
with their genuinely dreadful training, in both customer interaction and their own
stores coupon policy. Now, I completely understand a cashier being hesitant or
reading through the coupons carefully, but it is absolutely the most annoying factor
when they decide to hound you, asking you a million questions, only to deny
your coupon with no resolution.
I think many of these stores need to
take a good, hard look at what these managers are teaching their cashiers.
However, as I will explain in the event that happened to me a couple months
ago, sometimes even the managers are as clueless as the cashiers are.
This issue is from about two months
ago where I went into my local store, only to be denied use of my coupon
because it was "fake." Obviously, I would never use a fake coupon,
and I shame anyone who does, but the cashier - and even the "manager"
denied me using my coupon because they believed it to be fake. Why did they
believe it to be fake? Because it was printed online. The store will remain
unnamed, so that they do not get flooded with bad complaints in an attempt for
people to reach the same conclusion that I did, however, if you have a problem
with your store - write or call corporate! I hope that it will not take others
nearly as long as it did for me to reach a conclusion.
I printed off my coupon from the
manufacturer website, for a very nice Lindt/Lindor candy, and went to the
Wal-Mart store excited to use it! However, when I got to the cashier, I was met
with a barrage of questions. She began asking me "what's this for?"
while holding coupon AND the item... when I responded that it was for
Lindt/Lindor candy she rudely snapped back "well you ain't telling me if
it like 20% off 30% off what!" I was slightly taken aback, the best I
could do was stare, try to point at the item and coupon, and hope she
discovered the ability to read in the next few moments.
Of course, that did not happen. So
here is the first problem; why do I need to explain what a coupon is for, when
it clearly says on the coupon and is grouped with the item? I always put my
coupons with the items they go with; it is not as if I just throw them all
around at random, in an effort to manically annoy my cashiers... Here we also
see the problem in cashier to customer interaction. This cashier should not
have snappily raised her voice to me trying to get me to say what the coupon
was for - that she was holding. Again, this coupon was printed from the
manufacturer website and very clearly says "MANUFACTURER COUPON." Are
cashiers not being trained to read the coupons?
The cashier then abandons her register
– which I am fairly sure that is a bad thing to do mid-transaction - and walks
over to another cashier, and who asserted herself as a manager. This person who
came up has the "worst attitude of the day" pinned across her face,
and without even looking at the coupon, told me that it was
"fake/illegitimate." Why, I asked? Because it was printed online,
said the woman. Seeing as I am the one who printed it, from the manufacturer
website, I know for a fact that the coupon is legit. I asserted that the coupon
was real, and was met with a barrage of comments over and over again that it
was not real, and, because I have nothing better to do, were clearly trying to
use a fake coupon to cheat them.
Being inept at customer
service is one thing, not reading the coupon is another, but asserting that I
am trying to cheat them with a fake coupon? Absolutely ridiculous. I found
myself, once again, standing there without words. Coupons are fake because they
are printed online? Does this woman not know how many coupons Wal-Mart has
online?
This continued for a few more
minutes, and I found myself slowly losing hope of walking out with the item I
wanted. After a few more minutes of this manager stonewalling me, I gave up. I
paid for my other items, and left the store without my product.
I later emailed the manufacturer of
the coupon and product, telling them about the problem raised by the cashiers,
and trying to confirm whether I was in the wrong. Here is the response I
received.
"At Lindt & Sprüngli, we
truly value your comments and inquiries, and we appreciate the time in which
you’ve taken to contact us. We have tremendous pride, tradition, and time
honored values behind the manufacturing of our premium chocolate products, and
we are forever committed to providing our consumers with the highest quality
chocolate experience.
Many
major retailers around the U.S. will accept this coupon offering, however,
policies do vary. Unfortunately, we do not control nor have any influence
with any of these retailers and the policies that they choose to enact."
So there we go! Comforted that I am
not a blundering idiot, I emailed Wal-Mart Customer Support about the problems
I experienced with the cashiers along with the response I received from the
manufacturer about the legitimacy of the coupon in question.
Here is the response I received from
Wal-Mart.
"Walmart Stores can accept coupons that are available
on the internet for customers to print from their home computers. The
following are guidelines for the stores for accepting internet coupons:
- The coupon should be legible and say "Manufacturer Coupon".
- There should be a valid remit address for the manufacturer
- The coupon should have a scan-able bar code.
- The coupon should have an expiration date.
- We do accept buy one get one free (BOGO) coupons.
- We do not accept " Free " internet coupons or those that require no
purchase
- We do not accept digital coupons that are accessed from a smart phone from
sites such as GeoQpons
- Coupon is acceptable in black and white or color but the coupon cannot be a
photocopy.
- The limit is one coupon per item, per Customer.
- No duplications
A Salaried Manager can refuse to accept a coupon if it does not meet any or all
of these guidelines.
Sincerely,
Walmart Customer Care
For further correspondence regarding this issue, please reply to this
email."
And so, reply I did! I repeated that
the coupon was legitimate, that I knew and had read the coupon rules for their
store, and then I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Two months later, remembering the
issue again as I received the same cashier and was played twenty questions yet
again, it lit the fuel under me to delve into Wal-Mart not caring about their
customer. That cashier ran away yet again to ask somebody about the coupon I
had, for a completely different product this time, where she then left her register
unattended for at least 30 seconds yet again, but she ran the coupon and all
was good. Funny thing was, this coupon was not even an online coupon; it was
one I received in the mail.
I emailed Wal-Mart customer support
yet again, asking them why it had been two months without a response - this
time being clear that I believed Wal-Mart is being neglectful and not caring
about customers like myself.
Two days later... my phone rings!
It's a manager of the local store! He asked me basic questions about the
product I was trying to use it for, and a gist of what happened. Great! He
asked me for a code from the receipt, but seeing as I don't keep two month old
receipts in my back pocket, all I had to go off was the email I sent two months
prior, which included the terminal and reference numbers. He said that he would
go back to review the video cameras, and call me back in half an hour.
To say that I was happy that a
manager was finally paying attention would be an understatement.
Half an hour later I receive a call
again, saying that he could not figure the problem out, but then said, "so
uh how about I just give you a twenty dollar gift card and you can buy whatever
you want."
Well, okay. A little uncaring about
the issue now, but at least something will come from the problem. The manager
gives me a time that I can come in to get it, and I come in the following day
to talk with him. Or, so I thought. Instead, I waited in the Customer Service
area for half an hour while the guy was on the phone, and then he left and
forgot about me. I had told him who I was and that I was there to meet him, but
he left after his phone call anyway. Wonderful. A girl who worked the Customer
Service area called him back a few minutes later, and I finally received my
gift card.
So what is the moral of this story?
Well, it is a little skewed - but I want people to know that complaining to
companies CAN get action! Sometimes a company might just ignore you, as they
did with me for a couple months, but persistence and not being afraid to
explain how you feel about the issue will go far. Do I think Wal-Mart will do
anything about the cashier or problem manager? No, unfortunately, I do not. But
I can keep it in my mind that if other people receive the same attitudes, and
complaints start to pile up, eventually somebody will step in and get the
retraining they desperately need.
Furthermore, to be honest, it is
more of an issue about convenience. Why would I shop at Wal-Mart, who will give
me such trouble over a coupon, when I can go to Target a few miles down and
have no problem at all? In my experiences, Target is typically a cleaner place
with nicer staff anyway! So, again, this all comes down to convenience. If I
can save time by going to Wal-Mart, I will go to Wal-Mart. However, I think
retailers are starting to realize that convenience of location does not go
nearly as far as convenience of being able to actually get what I want out of a
shopping trip.
For the moment I shop at Wal-Mart.
Down the road? If I continue to have problems with anti-coupon cashiers, I
expect that Target will be getting my business instead.
