In [...]]]> As sentiments about the economy continue to degrade, there is a mighty battle brewing. No, I’m not talking about fights over trillion dollar “stimulus” packages, bailouts, or tax cuts. The dispute I’m speaking of is on the surface over much smaller amounts. I’m talking about the battle between coupon shoppers and uncooperative retail store employees.

In this bleak economic environment, consumers are finding a new appreciation for frugality and couponing. However, seemingly more and more consumers are running into problems when they try to take advantage of the best deals, problems in the form of retail store employees and managers that seemingly take customers’ attempted thriftiness as a personal insult. Here are some of the problems coupons shoppers are reporting at several different stores:

• Misunderstanding of the “one coupon per purchase” clause stated on most manufacturer coupons. This clause is placed by the manufacturers to sure you use only one coupon on a single item, not to prohibit the redemption of multiple coupons for multiple items. Per most manufacturers’ coupon policies, a “purchase” is defined as a item, not an entire transaction. For instance, if you purchase four bottles of shampoo you are making four “purchases”, although you may be making these purchases in one transaction, and should be able to use four coupons.
• Refusal of internet printable coupons. Unfortunately some bad apples using copied or fraudulent coupons have led some store managers to refuse valid internet printable coupons, despite corporate policies to the contrary.
• Refusal of coupons for more than the price of the item. Sometimes if you find a really good sale, you can have the instance where the value of a valid coupon is more than the price of the corresponding item. Some retail employees and managers believe that they cannot take coupons in this instance, which is incorrect. The retailer will be reimbursed the stated value of the coupon regardless of the pre-coupon price charged to the consumer. For this reason, retailers should also not adjust the coupon down to the item price at the register, however this is common practice and is hard to argue against.
• Refusal of coupons because “it makes the item too cheap”. Anyone that has couponed has probably heard this one more than once, and subsequently wondered how the person that made the comment has enough brain cells to function in daily life. There is no rule against getting a good deal, and if the coupon didn’t make the item cheap you likely wouldn’t buy the item in the first place.
• Coupon shoppers generally more familiar with store policies than employees. More and more, coupon shoppers are having to explain proper store procedures to employees who have not been properly trained or are just trying to be difficult.

Consumers will likely run into these issues at pretty well any national retailer, but there is one that seems to get a lot of complaints these days: Walgreens. Yes, while CVS was long the darling of coupon shoppers to the point most CVS store employees are reasonably knowledgeable about and comfortable with coupons, Walgreens is relatively new in offering amazing deals with their “Rapid Rewards” program and thus far has poorly trained store employees and management alike in how the program works.

The basics of the program are pretty simple: if you buy a specified product or products, a coupon for a certain amount off your next purchase should print. The only rules around it are that you can only get one of each offer per transaction and if you use a particular RR coupon on a transaction, the system will not give you the same coupon on that transaction. The coupons are supposed to spend like cash, with the only restrictions being that you can’t use them to pay for certain items (gift cards, prescription copays, and a few others) and you can only use as many coupons as you have items (i.e., you can’t redeem five $5 coupons for a single $25 item). Unfortunately there have been so many issues with the program and employees’ misunderstanding of it that many couponers have given up on the program entirely as being too much hassle.

Here are some of the issues that have been encountered:

• Register Rewards coupons not printing. Herein lies the biggest weakness in the Register Rewards program. While the CVS Extra Bucks program is fully integrated into their register system with earned coupons printing directly on the receipt, the Walgreens program depends on an add-on system run by Catalina Marketing and the coupons print from a second printer at the checkout. There are several reasons a coupon won’t print, most of which are errors on the part of the store:
  • Failing to have the coupon printers on and functional. Sometimes the printers just don’t work right and the store will turn off malfunctioning printers rather than fixing them. Additionally, many stores are negligent about replacing printer paper or ink when necessary.
  • Promotions coded incorrectly in the system. There are often several varieties of the products included in a promotion, and occasionally not all of the valid UPC codes will be programmed into the system to generate the advertised Register Reward coupon.
  • Manipulation of the system by stores to prevent coupons from being printed if any other coupon is used(rumored). This one has not been confirmed, but many couponers believe that some especially unfriendly stores have somehow manipuled their systems to not print Register Reward coupons when another coupon is used. This type of manipulation is fully contrary to Walgreen’s policy and has not been proven as fact.
• Cashiers and/or managers making up phony reasons why the Register Reward coupon didn’t print. For the reasons noted above, Register Reward coupons sometimes don’t print, and rather than admit it was a system failure they make up reasons why it didn’t print. For the record, the manager should either issue you a gift card for the amount of the RR that didn’t print, or re-ring the transaction from another register to make the RR print. A favorite phony excuse is “you can’t get a RR if you used coupons”, which absolutely is not true.
• Cashiers and/or managers refusing to give the customer the Register Reward coupon that printed. Some store employees and managers are taking it upon themselves to decide that customers who have fulfilled the terms of the promotion by buying the specified products are not deserving of the Register Reward coupons because they didn’t pay enough for the item. Again, there is no rule against getting good deals. If you purchased the item you are entitled to the coupon, regardless of whether you used another coupon to make it cheaper.
• Cashiers and/or managers imposing artificial limits on the redemption of Register Rewards coupons. Just because you got your coupon doesn’t mean the battle is necessarily over. Many managers are making up their own rules about the redemption of Register Rewards coupons contrary to official corporate policy, most commonly limiting customers to the redemption of only one Register Rewards coupon per visit. Some have also tried to prohibit the use of Register Reward coupons for items that will generate another Register Rewards coupon. The redemption rules on these are pretty simple: the coupon is valid until the date specified on your next transaction over the amount of the coupon, and you are only limited in the number of coupons you can redeem by the number of items and other manufacturer coupons you have in your order (one RR or manufacturer coupon per item).

Why does Walgreens seem to have so many problems? Well, besides their program not being as well designed as that of CVS, employee training seems to be a huge issue. Their program is newer than the CVS program, so employees have less experience with it. Likewise, Walgreens is seeing many more couponers than they used to, so they aren’t as familiar or comfortable with proper coupon usage policies. It doesn’t seem like there is any formalized training for employees on the program, as most employees seem to regard the coupons spit out by the printer as seemingly random, and even managers seem to have a lot of misconceptions about exactly what triggers the coupons and how the program works. There is also a general bias many retail employees have against couponers, either because of the addition effort required to scan the coupons or the misconception that you are somehow stealing from the store by using coupons (retailers are reimbursed for the full value of all valid coupons redeemed, plus a small handling fee). Add to that a decentralized customer service system that often routes a complaint directly back to the offending store or district rather than the corporate office, and you have a recipe for inaction on consumer complaints and scores of pissed off consumers.

Many of the consumers have decided enough is enough, and have started a thread on SlickDeals to encourage consumers to go after stores and employees that unjustly make life difficult for coupon shoppers. There are many suggestions on what to do, and I have my own thoughts that I will share in another post.  In the mean time, coupon shoppers unite and don’t take crap from anyone!

Hi, I’m [...]]]> As economic conditions worsen, more and more people are getting into coupons and frugality in general. But a lot of people get overwhelmed just trying to figure out where to get started.  I realized this when Shreela, a reader that found this blog from one of my posts on Slickdeals, left this comment:

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.

My intro comment mentioned learning CVS’s ECBs and waiting on my EC card. But after reading a few other blog posts here, I started an account with Walgreens too. Now I’m off to SlickDeals again to sub to some instructional Walgreens Register Rewards threads, thanks.

Comments like this are exactly why I enjoy blogging – it allows me to share my obsessive-compulsive tendencies for the amusement and benefit of others. So as a service to Shreela and others like her, let me share a few of my thoughts about getting started in drugstore deals and coupons:

1. Manage your expectations. Rome was not built in a day, and neither was the incredible stockpile of random stuff many of us have acquired through our dealing and couponing. It takes time to gain the experience and knowledge to walk out of a store with a cart full of stuff for a stack of coupons and some pocket change. Don’t get discouraged if you can’t match the exploits of some of the boasters on SlickDeals or in other forums. Just remind yourself that if you got stuff you will use for less than what you would have otherwise paid, you are coming out ahead. Also remind yourself that a good number of the people on SD are probably exaggerating anyway!
2. You don’t need to buy ten copies of the newspaper every week for the coupons. In fact, I don’t use newspaper coupons every much at all. Why? Part of it is the expense of buying the newspapers ($1.75 each in Houston, ouch!), and part of it is the time and hassle of keeping up with the coupons themselves. Unless someone gives me their inserts or I find a stash of free Spanish language newspapers with coupons, I typically just use the printable manufacturer and store coupons from the internet for my deals. As many items as there are that are advertised as free after rebate/Register Rewards/Extra Care Bucks, you can do very well without using a single manufacturer coupon. I’m sure you could get more with coupons, but a lot of times it isn’t worth it to me. The only exception is I will periodically order coupons from The Coupon Clippers for upcoming sales I am aware of and know I’ll be buying.
3. You don’t have to do every deal. Due to my obsessive-compulsive nature, I still struggle with this. However, if you are a guy living alone do you really need tampons, even if they were free? Or another ten tubes of toothpaste when you already have a cabinet with 100 more? Or is it worthwhile to run all around town to find the $1.99 tube of lip balm that is free this week? There are times when you just have to tell yourself the deal isn’t worth chasing and move on.
4. Learn from the best sources. There are a number of great free sources for learning about deals. I most often frequent the Drugstore forum at SlickDeals, although there are forums at HotCouponWorld and AFullCup as well that are very informative. There you can usually find drugstore ads weeks in advance, and often other users will match up deals with known newspaper and internet printable coupons. At SlickDeals you have the option to “subscribe” to your favorite threads, and I always subscribe to the weekly Walgreens and CVS threads so I don’t have to go searching for them every time I visit. Note: Fatwallet used to have a grocery coupon forum, but those dirty bastards closed it down long ago, keeping with their long tradition of sucking.
5. Remember you are just being a smart shopper, no matter what any store employee or manager thinks. For whatever reason, some store employees seem to think that anyone trying to use coupons or get good deals is trying to scam the store. I can’t tell you how many times I have had a cashier try to reject a coupon claiming they can’t take the coupon because it would make the product too cheap (duh, why do you think I’m using the coupon?). As long as you are using legitimate coupons (i.e., not copies or fakes) and abiding by the terms of their advertisement, you are doing nothing wrong. Stores will be reimbursed for any coupons presented for items purchased in their stores, so it does not hurt the store at all for you to use manufacturer coupons. Likewise, store coupons are normally issued by corporate and for internal reporting purposes do not count against an individual store’s performance measures, meaning the store manager will be compensated the same whether you use your coupons or not. As someone noted on SlickDeals, coupons are merely another form of payment, so just because your receipt has a total of 17 cents doesn’t mean that is all the store is being compensated for the product you purchased.

CVS Free after ECBs (Good May 1 – May 31 2008)

A few days ago I posted a list of ECB [...]]]> Longtime readers of this blog know that I frequent CVS, normally with printable in-store coupons in hand. However, the powers that be at CVS apparently don’t like what I am doing, or at least they want to try to keep you from replicating my deals.

A few days ago I posted a list of ECB deals, and with it links to two printable in-store CVS coupons. Note that these were simply links to sites owned by CVS that hosted the coupons, not PDF reproductions or scans of coupons. My desire to share with you these valid coupons got me the following nastygram from OpSec Security Group, hired gun of CVS:

April 25, 2008

OpSec Security Group320 Congress Street , 7^th Floor

Boston, MA 02210

Email: CVS_Enforcement@opsecsecurity.com

 

VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL

DMCA Complaint

cheapencounters.com

 

Re:       DMCA Notification

Dear copyright agent:

On behalf of CVS Pharmacy, Inc. (“CVS”), I write to notify you of infringements of CVS’s intellectual property rights on your website, cheapencounters.com.

CVS is the owner of the exclusive rights protected under copyright law and other intellectual property rights in CVS coupons.  The following link is a specific example of a web page that infringes upon CVS’s intellectual property rights.  CVS hereby notifies you that the following constitute or incorporate unauthorized excerpts of CVS’s intellectual property, and are infringing and unlawful.

http://www.cheapencounters.com/?p=231

CVS requests that you act expeditiously to remove or disable access to all unauthorized copies of CVS’s intellectual property, including the infringing file identified above.  CVS further requests that you destroy any and all unauthorized reproductions of CVS’s intellectual property, or unauthorized portions thereof, within your possession, custody or control, including, any unauthorized reproductions in computerized or digitized form, and cease and desist from further unauthorized reproduction, distribution, publication, archiving, or other exploitation of CVS properties.

The undersigned has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner described herein is not authorized by CVS, its agents, or the law.  The information in this notice is accurate.  Under penalty of perjury, the undersigned is authorized to act on behalf of CVS with respect to this matter.

Please be advised that this letter is not intended as a complete statement of the facts or law as they pertain to this matter.  CVS reserves all rights and remedies.

Sincerely,

OpSec Security Group, Inc.

So apparently the position of CVS is that a link to a site that they maintain that is also linked on other sites is somehow a violation of the DMCA in this case. Yeah, that’s not abuse of the law!

Now considering the only income this humble blog brings in is the occasional ING referral bonus and a Google Adsense account that at this rate will reach the minimum payout level in about another year, I don’t have the resources to fight this ridiculous request. Therefore, I have taken down the links to the coupons. However, if one was to go to a place where the DEALS are SLICK (hint, hint!), you may be able to find those same links again.

It is kind of funny how when CVS’s biggest competitor, Walgreens, is working to make their deals easier for customers by allowing online submission of its EasySaver Rebates, CVS is choosing to make their deals harder for customer by harassing customers and actively discouraging customers from using valid coupons.