Someone recently posted an interesting question on Slickdeals: “May I ask for a raincheck for a free after extra care bucks item at CVS?” For those of you who don’t know, a raincheck is like a coupon that is given to a customer when an advertised item is not in stock allowing the customer to get the item at the sale price once it is back in stock after the sale is over. It is an interesting question to me since one of my biggest frustrations with CVS deals recently (besides the lack of good ones) is that it seems like the stores never have these items in stock, especially the monthly deals. For instance, I have probably been to at least 10 different CVS stores so far this month and have not seen a single one of the heating pads that are free this month.
So what’s the verdict? It looks like it is a big YMMV based on the store manager’s discretion. Here are the results other users at SD have posted:
- Denial of a raincheck, saying it was policy that they couldn’t write rainchecks on free after ECB items.
- Success in getting a raincheck, after having to call customer service to explain to the manager how to write the raincheck.
- Getting a raincheck for the item with “free” written in the price blank.
- Getting a raincheck for the item where it is rung up at the advertised price and the ECB award amount is provided on a gift card.
- Substitute for a similar item taking the ECB amount off at time of purchase.
- Substitute for a similar item but scan the UPC for the advertised item at time of purchase to generate the ECBs.
- Calling corporate customer service for a raincheck to be mailed to you (reportedly done successfully last month).
So as you can see, there apparently isn’t a standard CVS policy for how to handle these request, or if there is they obviously don’t train their store personnel on what that is. So although it may take a few minutes (and perhaps a few tries), this may be best way to get in on these deals that never seem to be in stock without driving all over town searching.
Hi, I’m subbing to your blog; I found you at SlickDeals.com from a thread about Spanish newspapers having coupons (Houston).
I’m trying to relearn couponing. My mother couponed and rebated, and occasionally got paid to shop, or got things free, but mostly just got reduced prices. She tried getting me into couponing when I was in my 20s, but I wasn’t that interested in it then.
Now I’m doing the homemaker thing, and have been buying generic for a hubby that prefers name-brand. It seems most of his name-brand preference is in his head, but not all of it, because sometimes I can taste the difference between name-brand and generic too 8^)
So I found SlickDeals after searching/clicking around, and it’s pretty overwhelming just to get around the huge forums lol, but I’m slowly learning my way around, and subbing/sticky’ing threads to come back to.
My first plans are to relearn couponing, since the internet wasn’t big when I was taught; and learning how to use CVS’s EBC — I ordered my card, so I have time to study while waiting for it.
That’s it for now, that’s going to keep me busy for a while, and I’ve almost typed a book 8^)
Shreela
(Houston)