Thursday, October 20, 2011

Why it pays to keep store policies with you at WALMART




I had to run to Walmart this morning.  Expected it to be a quick trip, as I only needed a few things for dinner and I wanted to redeem a few coupons I had for free items (Listerine & Schick razors).  The Walmart I usually go to was always out of stock on those items, so I thought I'd go to the one that's actually closer to home.  It's also the smallest Walmart in the area.

So I find everything I'm looking for, they even had my "free" items.  The 2 trial sizes Listerines, priced at $1.72, and I had $2 coupons, making them free, and the Schick razors.  If you remember, there was a printable coupon recently for $6 off any 2 disposable Schick razors, excluding the 2ct packages.  They had the 12 ct disposable Schick razors marked at $1.97.  I bought 4 of them, 2 for each coupon. 

$1.97 + 1.97 + 1.97 + 1.97 = $7.88 - $6 coupon - $6 coupon = $4.12 money maker

I get up to the register and everything's going fine, until the razor coupons beep at the cashier.  She looks at my order and tells me she can't accept the coupon because the razors are only $1.97, and the coupon is for $6.  I told her that's not Walmart policy, and she gets the CSM.  CMS drags herself over to the register and says they can only take off $1.97.  I grab my coupon binder, take out the Walmart printed policy from the WALMART WEBSITE, and show her where it says if there's an overage, I can get it back in cash or towards my basket purchase.  She calls the manager.  I told her I'd prefer to see the manager face to face instead of getting a message from her.  (I wanted the manager's name in case she wouldn't accept the coupon, because I would have reported it to corporate for not following their own policy).

So I wait.  

And wait. 

Finally the CSM comes over and tells the cashier to "Suspend her transaction" so she can ring up other customers.  She tells me I have to finish ringing up at the courtesy desk, after the manager calls her back.  Grrr..   So I go to the courtesy desk, policy in hand.

The manager calls and I hear the CSM say "is it a manufacturer coupon?"  She responds "It's one of those INTERNET coupons" (like I made it up myself!)  I said it was a manufacturer's PRINTABLE coupon off of Coupons.com!  She keeps talking to the manager on the phone and then she tells the other CSM "she said to just take it because we get reimbursed anyways". 

Really?  I went through all that so you could be told the obvious?   So the CSM finishes ringing me up at the courtesy desk, and as I put my policy back in my binder, I hear "whoa look how organized she is!  She must be one of those extreme couponers like on TV!"    I look up and there's suddenly like 5 people leaning over the counter to get a glimpse of my binder.  One asked me if I was one of those "coupon queens" like on tv!  Ha!  I said NO WAY!  That's fake couponing.. my couponing is REAL.  Then they started asking me questions about my binder, my couponing, the extreme coupon show, etc!  It turned out to be pretty funny!  I let them know about how fake EC was, and how the average person can't live off of 100 tubes of toothpaste, 200 boxes of pasta and 100 packages of tic tacs  :)  

By the time I left, they were at least a little bit educated on how fake the Extreme Couponing show was, and how the average person coupons!  They were all laughing, even a young guy customer in line was talking to us about how that show "goes overboard" as he says.  LOL  

Anyways, the moral of the story is, keep an updated copy of the store's coupon policies with you at all times, stick to your guns when you know you're in the right, and spread the word on how much Extreme Couponing sucks!   LOL

14 comments:

  1. Thank you!! They gave me problems on my coupons too, of course I was running late and couldn't argue with her.. Thanks for the update I am going to print it off now!!!

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  2. Glad one person in the store had a brain :O)

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  3. ohhh my goodness i do i hate that show!!! since it came out...all the stores in my area have not only limited what i can and can't buy, i now have to literally pay for the stress that it causes...before a simple shopping trip that took about a hour takes 2 because i have to prove my case on every coupon...getting if i did not NEED to coupon i wouldn't. lol

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  4. I always keep the policies in my binder too, only had to whip them out once.

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  5. I am VERY new to couponing. Yesterday was my second trip. Although I didn't go nuts with it and didn't save 95% or anything I did knock $40.73 down to $23.83 and was quite proud of myself. I went through self-checkout at walmart (oops) and of course, as usual, self-checkout wouldn't take my coupons. So a cashier comes over and does them for me manually and would not ring up a single coupon until I pulled the matching product out of the bag and show her. When she got finished and saw that my coupons were perfect and saw my discount her eyes almost popped out of her head. All I could do was give her a smart a$$ grin, get my bags and literally skip to the front door! LMBO!!

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  6. great story I am going to print a copy of all the stores I shop.

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  7. is the $6.00 coupon still available?

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  8. No, the coupon was only available for a day or two from Coupons.com a while back.

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  9. I've been aggravated with the Extreme couponing show ever since it came out. I've been saying all along, they're going to ruin the system that most of us use just to try to feed our family's on a small budget.

    Sure enough, our local stores are changing their coupon policy because people are wiping out the shelves with their 50 coupons on one product. Really? Who needs 50 bottles of mustard?

    So, I go to the store the other day on the new coupon policy. They had a hard time scanning my coupons because I have a new ink cartridge and they printed very dark and they almost didn't take them. Meanwhile, I have people lined up behind me getting aggravated because they're checking every coupon with a microscope. Well, would you believe that an actual store coupon that printed at the register wouldn't scan either because the ink was too light. Well, they had no problem taking that one though!!

    I think some people will get frustrated and quit couponing. I'm still a stay-at-home mom on a budget so I'm a coupon queen for life!!!

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  10. I did almost the same thing today I went to walmart to take advantage of the Axe coupon and also the Renuzit because they had a coupon on facebook earlier today for 1.00 off and it is 98 cent at walmart so it would have been 2 cent overage. Well anyway I did self check out too because all the other lines were to busy and I had to do 2 transactions. The first transaction went ok, ( I don't like to do coupons in self checkout) anyway the worker that was working the self check out had to come scan them which was embarassing enough. but for my second transaction I bought a Cafe Stimmer 1.00 off got some egg rolls because I knew there would be overage from the Axe and the Renuzit. Well I got the coupon part and my coupons wouldn't scan that was embarrassing enough but she wouldn't take my Axe coupon even tho on the coupon it said ANY SIZE she was like yea, I don't think you can use this I think you have to buy a bigger size I was like yea I can and it doesn't say travel size on the coupon. (Most coupons say trial sizes excluded. I whipped out the coupon policy and kindly read to her the coupon policy she didn't want to take it but I ended up paying 3.44 cent or over 9.00 worth of products and ended up having to go to her counter but I got thro it. She also almost wanted to argue about the Reuzit coupon but I was ready to fight her on it and she didn't like it. I think she knew I was going to fight once she saw the coupon policy. So it always pays to have it.

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  11. That is just awesome!! Whoot whoot for you!! LOL

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  13. northmainer - regarding your comment "but it also says they do NOT accept internet coupons for free items.....that is why it beeped at you..." - that is incorrect. They don't accept internet coupons that are specifically for "FREE ITEM" - meaning the coupon is only for a FREE ITEM. These coupons were not for "FREE" - they were for $6 off which they ENDED UP being for free - but they were not "FREE" coupons.

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