Extreme Couponing.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Now when I first heard of Extreme Couponing, I thought that it was people who were clipping every coupon they could get their hands on and militantly scanning the sales fliers for things like "Double Coupon Days" and other sales that would maximize what they could get for their coupons.

Then I had a daughter work at Walmart and I learned what it really is. It's fraud.

There are websites out there that cover this, but it seems that with the huge number of items out there in the marketplace, in order to speed up transactions instead of dealing with a megamart's database of items by looking up and doing a complete match between the coupon's UPC and the item's UPC, the systems are often streamlined to only check the first 4-5 numbers of the code to have it match up.

So you have a $5.00 off coupon for say a one gallon jug of Simple Green concentrate which can retail for $17-$19. Now the UPC Code also matches some other item that only costs $2.00. So you buy that and a bunch of other stuff, hand the clerk a coupon for the simple green, the system sees that indeed one item scanned does match the codes and you just got the item for free and another $3 knocked off your total cart.

My daughter had to call over a CSM to double check after someone had a full cart full of goods and the register stated that Walmart owed her $15 dollars.

A full cart of groceries that can run between $100 and $200 (depending on the items contained therein) being allowed by the computer Point of Sale system to walk out the store without payment *and* saying that the store fork over $15.

Yes you read that right.

When the CSM had my daughter re-scan the items and check the coupons versus the items in the cart, the EC'er got huffy and stormed out.

Now that Walmart has a policy in play that every coupon must be sorted out and be placed with the items that they're supposed to go with and this is pissing off the EC'ers.

Now my wife and I are avid couponers. We'll watch the sales, clip our papers until the living room floor looks like someone exploded a confetti factory. We usually can save about $50 off our bi-monthly shopping trips and we use that money to go out on a much needed date.

And we think we're doing alright doing that. But if these EC'ers keep having their way, how long before coupons become a thing of the past as no one will be willing to take them at all?

[SongsOfDragons]

My local supermarket prints their own coupons for you whenever you go through the checkout. It's tied to your loyalty card, and not only can the coupons be BOGOFs or money off they also offer 'Xp off litre of fuel when' and 'More Points!' ones; and that's before they do the usual shelf-edge offers.

But the ones I've not seen elsewhere are ones stemming from the Orange-and-Maroon supermarket's pricing war with the other major supermarkets, giving you a coupon for £X.xx off depending on whether your shopping could be bought cheaper in the Green Evil supermarket, the Blue Stripy supermarket or the Yellow-and-Black Northern supermarket (I love these obfustications )

It might be because of these that I don't know whether this form of couponing would even fly in the UK; they may be more inclined to say no if it's not Orange-and-Maroon's coupon. Any Brits able to say whether we have this phenomenom?

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Not sure about the UK, but in the US there are coupons offered by the manufacturer of the products. Usually to bolster flagging sales of a product, as a way to entice people away from another brand of a similar item (say Tide offering a tidy discount to pull people away from using Gain laundry detergent), or as a way of introducing a new product to the market and enticing people to try it.

These manufacturer coupons are good at any store that accepts coupons. These are the ones that are abused to all hell by the EC'ers since with a huge UPC database it can really slow down the cashier's processing times if it has to look through the entire database of a Walmart Supercenter which is both a department store AND a grocery store (and a garden center...automotive service center...craft and hobby store...etc).

Hence the easy to exploit "only check the first few digits" trick to streamline the system. A system based on trust that was abused by the EC'ers. Likely still is since as far as I know it's only my local Walmart that's changed the policy.

Others still tell me to wait until the end to give them my coupons.

[HYHYBT]

Why wouldn't the computer check the number, and all of it? It's what they're good at, after all.

[Andara Bledin]

The computer doesn't store the whole UPC mostly likely because the system running it was created during a time when it wasn't feasible for it to do so. Or because the programmers were lazy. Most likely a combination, really.

This is a problem that could be fixed with a system upgrade, and Walmart has the clout to get their POS supplier to do it. I don't know why it hasn't happened, yet, to be honest.

[Aethian]

One of the stores in my neck of the woods has one person for each district putting in various manufactors coupons so that they can't pull that trick. The best I've ever done was 76.4% savings and that's because I hit a good sale and every item had a coupon to go with it. I*know* I may never see that again. My average excluding that one is43%.

But you can tell around here that stores are lessoning what kinds of coupons they will accept. Which is sad.

[siead_lietrathua]

So you have a $5.00 off coupon for say a one gallon jug of Simple Green concentrate which can retail for $17-$19. Now the UPC Code also matches some other item that only costs $2.00. So you buy that and a bunch of other stuff, hand the clerk a coupon for the simple green, the system sees that indeed one item scanned does match the codes and you just got the item for free and another $3 knocked off your total cart.

most coupons have a fine print that the coupon can't exceed the value of the item. in our store, if someone tries to use a $10 coupon on a $5 item we say no. even if the till stores the barcodes for the coupons, cashiers should still be checking if the coupons are valid (date, conditions, etc). and not scanning ones that are higher than the value of the item. >.<

only bothers me because people try to pull this in our store, and we never ever allow it.

[Peppergirl]

I hate these assholes.

It's true, they're just going to ruin it for the honest couponers like us...they'll just eventually quit taking them due to all the scammers.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Daughter just came home and informed me of a new trick they're trying since the old one isn't working for them.

They'll buy stuff using Buy One Get One Free coupons and then returning the items for the cash value.

Walmart is cracking down on that as well but it's another thing they're trying to defraud the system.

[s_stabeler]

at least that's an easy fix- if you return an item subject to a special offer, you are paid the amount required to bring you to if you had bought the remaining items in the first place ( aka, if it's buy one, get one free, then the free one is the one returned, for a $0 refund, if you return BOTH, you get your money back. if it's an offer that measn the total price of the remaining items is higher, then you are charged for the return.) If the item is faulty, you can exchange it.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I know...but it's an example of how some people are taking something that is a benefit to many and trying to make it into something that rips off people to the point where someone may decide that it's no longer worth it to keep doing it.

And that'll hurt people who use coupons to try and stretch their limited food budgets.

[Cats]

I work at a drug store, and we have some shady couponers that try to use coupons that aren't for the right stuff. The cashiers are supposed to be looking at all coupons to avoid this, and for the most part, it works.

As for the BOGO return fraud, if returned with the receipt, it will only give 50% of the value back for a single item (or 25% if it was Buy one Get one 50%). Without the receipt? Subject to manager approval, and ONLY for store credit. Not fool proof, but it helps.

I wish we did have a "lowest selling price in the last 90 days" type thing for returns without a receipt.

The one potential big problem is people buying stuff for the rewards, and then returning the item later. The system only ties the product the the purchase reward during that week only, and never looks at that info when doing a return.

What irks us? People who buy items just for the rewards (most of them don't commit the fruad in previous paragraph), and want to do it one transaction at a time. So they buiy one thing, get the reward, use the reward on the next item and get that reward, etc. This holds up the line and drives us nuts (not to mention, takes longer). Seriously, suck it up and pay for it all at once, and then you'll get your massive rewards to recycle into your next purchase.

Also, extreme couponers who find those coupons put out by the stores on displays, and take the whol damn thing and don't leave any for others. I don't like you people.

[Peppergirl]

Also, extreme couponers who find those coupons put out by the stores on displays, and take the whol damn thing and don't leave any for others. I don't like you people.

Oh yeah, that too!

I've been on message boards that people have actually defended wiping all 30 (or whatever number available) products on the shelf and not leaving anything for anyone else. Siting the 'first come, first served' rule. And these weren't even extreme couponers either.

What's that old saying? "Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD."

Applies to this phenomena very well, me thinks.

[smileyeagle1021]

Why wouldn't the computer check the number, and all of it? It's what they're good at, after all.

Practicality, plain and simple. Yes, a code could be written to check the whole number, yes the computer system could handle it, but even modern computers have a limit. We think the computer is good with numbers because it processes data much faster than a human, but faster does not mean more efficiently. So now we are talking about doubling or tripling the work the computer has to do at each register. The register though isn't where the computer is, the registers all run off of one central server (this is how inventory is tracked, that and having multiple computers is more expensive and leaves a lot more points of potential failure), and it is this central server that now has to do two to three times the work, not to mention the extra bandwidth required for the network.
It can be done, but it requires a lot of resources to do it.

[wolfie]

I've been on message boards that people have actually defended wiping all 30 (or whatever number available) products on the shelf and not leaving anything for anyone else. Siting the 'first come, first served' rule. And these weren't even extreme couponers either.

There are various degrees of wiping out a store's inventory. Someone buying out the entire inventory of a certain "thank you" card at both drugstores in a small town because they needed X number, and nobody stocked boxed sets is one thing - they have a legitimate need for that many, and it was the only way to get them..

A case from RISKS digest many years back had someone who needed to drill a number of holes for a project, the only bits that would do the job were Black&Decker "bullet" point drills from a set, due to the material the bits wore out quickly, and the local hardware store carried an inventory of 2 sets. Their solution was to buy both sets, drill as many holes as they could, and repeat the following week after new stock came in. A few months later, the store had DOZENS of sets they were trying to clear out - the automated ordering system had seen that this item kept selling out, and increased the order quantity. A (IMNSHO) option would have been to approach the manager, let him know that they needed (let's say) 20 sets of the drills as a one-time purchase, and ask to do a special order. He'd get all he needed in one batch, and it wouldn't throw off inventory.

Clearing out the entire stock of a "loss leader" item (e.g. owner of a corner store stocking up on canned soda during a sale at a supermarket because it's cheaper than their regular supplier), or on an extreme couponing binge, sucks donkey balls. Instead of having a few dozen (or possibly a few hundred) happy customers buying 1 or 2 as part of their normal grocery shopping, you have a VERY small number of people who gain (with the store losing money) buy buying out the entire stock of one item, and the regular customers get pissed off.