Coupon horror stories - feel free to list them

[DesignFox]

I hate coupons.

I really hated them at the photo places. In photography sales, no one should be able to get something for nothing- it wastes the photographer's everything.

1st annoyance- The policy was 1 coupon per group/individual per day. So, if you and your best friend are taking pictures together, I don't care if you each have your own coupons. If you are in pictures together, you are a group. You redeem 1 coupon. Period. I can't tell you how many arguments I had with people over that rule.

And of course, the Free Sheet people. We had customers that literally had been coming to the store for years and never spent a penny. I really disliked those people. What a waste of time and resources. It got to the point where I might check a purchase history before a sitting. If the person had never spent money, they got the new person or got one pose done and were bustled out. Of course, these people were always the biggest complainers and wanted the best photographers, sixteen different poses and the world handed to them on a silver platter. I just started to give them what they paid for...nothing.

At some other jobs, I don't mind the coupons so much. I just dislike the people who obviously go into their email, print the same coupon 25 times, and redeem them all. How cheap are you that you have to ABUSE the coupons? And at the one job, they get away with this because the barcodes are not unique. It's not like you scan it and it doesn't work again- which is how it should be to keep the above from happening.

Coupons should be abolished.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Last year, in an attempt to boost sales, corporate printed up sheets of coupons good for 15% off your entire purchase at the store. We all got a sheet of coupons along with our checks and were supposed to give the coupons to family and friends.

Thing was, half the store was excluded from the 15% off. Optical and pharmacy, two of our busiest departments, were excluded. As was electronics, another busy department. Only about half the store qualified for 15% off; all of softlines and a few other things.

This lead to one of our managers trying to get us enthusiastic about sending these coupons around, even though we knew it would result in nothing but headaches. She told us "If you give these coupons to 4 of your friends and they come in to shop...."

At which point I interrupted. "We'd have no friends?"

[nanciesweb]

There was one night, 5 minutes before closing, two women came to my register, each with a cart loaded with stuff. I happened to be the only cashier on duty that night because it was supposed to be a slow night.

If that wasn't bad enough, they were having a competition on who saved the most in coupons.

I do remember having to put the coupons off to the side because they wouldn't fit in my drawer.

The plus side was that they weren't really bad customers and seemed to be understanding when a coupon didn't go through, but that was the longest I spent cashing out my drawer.

The most interesting thing is that they probably could have saved more money buying the store brands. Coupons are just a scam to get you to buy stuff that you wouldn't normally buy.

[darkcrimsongoth]

$10 dollars off

We had a coupon at our store for $10 off your items over $50 that printed at the end of your receipt to use in January. I had one lady claim it was false advertising that she couldn't use it in December!!!!!

It said right down the bottom in the conditions:

Valid from *date in January til other date of January* that is not false advertising!!!!!!