Your coupon expired 17 months ago!!

[Palsgraf]

I waited on a woman and her two children today - they were my first table. After giving me her order, she later called me back to the table to check to see if she could use her gift card and coupon.

I already knew the answer to the coupon question. We don't take coupons that are expired - even if it's just a day late. Our boss gripes that if he can't use expired coupons at the grocery store, then our customers shouldn't get a free ride either.

Her coupon (a plastic card) expired back in March ... of last year. Seventeen months ago!

I politely told her I'd ask a manager (though all it did was give them a good laugh), then returned and politely explained that we couldn't accept it.

(The expiration date was clearly visible - not on the back in fine print, but on the front of the card in bold print).

She then canceled half of her order - the to-go portion (perhaps she'd thought that I'd already started it, and would just let her go ahead and use the coupon card anyway rather than throw-out the order), and asked to see a manger. I tried again to explain that a year and a half is a long time, but she continued to insist on speaking with a manager. She obviously felt as if she was being mistreated.

After arguing with one of our managers (who didn't give-in, thank you), she wrote his name down on a napkin and took it with her. I suppose she'll call corporate and complain about how rude we were. And I suppose they'll send her an apology letter, along with a free gift certificate worth twice the value of the expired coupon-card.

I'd actually arrived at the restaurant the same time this coupon lady did. As I watched her drive her minivan from one spot to another, and to another, and to another, and to another before finally parking, I though to myself, "She's nuts."

I was right.

[MrSunshineState]

What exactly was her argument or justification?

[Banrion]

What exactly was her argument or justification?

I'm sure it was probably something along the lines of "The asshat is always right!"

[Bright_Star]

The coupon was expired. You told her. The mangager told her. She didn't like it? Oh well...sucks to be her then....lol.

[Kara]

Okay, I'm guilty. Target takes expired coupons, and I have used a few (only a small amount, I promise) that I knew were expired because I knew they'd take them. Sometimes the cashier will say something like, "Oh, I'm surprised it took that!" But their system accepts them.

But seventeen months later? I've never used one that was more than a few days expired.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I used to refuse all expired coupons, but if the customer was nice and it was only a day or two I would take it. If they were SCs I would say no and make them ask for the manager

(usually the manager would take it but at least I had a little fun...)

[Palsgraf]

Okay, I'm guilty. Target takes expired coupons, and I have used a few (only a small amount, I promise) ....

Agreed. I see nothing wrong with trying. But I'd be too embarrassed (sp?) to complain to a manager and then take that manager's name down for a complaint to corporate (He's new, and was actually shaken by the experience).

My company did a direct mail promotion back in February, sending coupon cards out to households. The card had "$10 Gift Card" printed on the face which, coupled with our one-coupon-per-table policy, just created headaches.

And we're (waitstaff) stuck in the middle, since this restaurant requires manager-authorization to apply coupons to customers' checks.

I'd been waiting on a large family - maybe 12 or 14 people - and everything was great until they tried to give me two coupons. To make sure (and to appease my customers), I brought the $10 coupon and $10 "Gift Card" coupon to my manager and was given the "Why do you keep asking me stupid questions?" look once again.

I returned to the table and started explaining that they couldn't use both when one of them began arguing with me: "A gift card is like cash! It's not a coupon!"

I read the fine print aloud: "Not valid with any other cards or ..."

"But the other's not a card - it's a newspaper coupon!" one of them interrupted.

"... any other cards or coupons," I finished.

I explained again that it was out of my hands, since my manager was the one refusing to allow them to use both. They asked for her name, of course.

But one of them continued to argue with me: "Someone paid money for that card!" I knew that wasn't true. And she probably knew that wasn't true, too.

Then one of the older adults told me that I'll have to excuse their "aspiring lawyer" of a daughter, and another asked me to come back and they'd have it figured-out for me.

They 'figured out' how to leave me a crappy tip.