Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

BOGO insanity or...no you can't get three discounts at once.

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • BOGO insanity or...no you can't get three discounts at once.

    We run a sale from time with a simple concept: Buy 2 get 1 free.

    Of course the LOWEST price item is always the free one as is customary in...oh I don't know...almost EVERY SALE EVER!

    On top of that, we also do not allow customers to stack up/combine offers just like many other establishments.

    Unfortunately, many customers just don't get the hint, so every time we get a notice another "Buy 2" sale is coming up I brace myself for more of...

    "I want to buy these two and get this one (being the most expensive) free!"



    And today I had a lady who just could not wrap her head around the idea that the cheapest one is free.

    SC: I want to buy these two and this will be my free one.
    Me: The cheapest one will be the free one.
    SC: But it's buy two get one free! I am BUYING these two and getting this one for free!
    Me: It doesn't work that way, the cheapest one is free.
    SC: But the signs say Buy 2 get one free as in I pick two out to buy, then I pick a third one I want for free.
    Me: I'm sorry it doesn't work that way.
    SC: Well it should! Those signs are misleading.
    Me: Ma'am, regardless of which one is free, the fact remains that you will have to pay for the other two games, hence Buy two and get one free.
    SC: So I can't get this one free then?
    Me: I'm afraid not.
    SC: That's stupid, I can't believe you rip people off like that. You should follow what the sign says! *slinks off*

    And more fun!

    In addition to "Buy two get one" we are running a couple of other promotions currently too. I had not one but several SCs get very upset with me when they were told they could only get one promotion on their transaction. This includes one guy who wanted to stack THREE promotions together to get three games for practically nothing. Sorry it doesn't work that way and no matter how much you whine, you won't get your discounts. Also bitching about the recession will NOT help your case or make me have any sympathy for you.
    "If we refund your money, give you a free replacement and shoot the manager, then will you be happy?" - sign seen in a restaurant

  • #2
    ah...gotta love BOGOs! We have coupons for buy one drink get a second one free...and so far I haven't had any issues since working here (previous places of employment have create my hatred of this promotion) but the other day I finally had a special one. She came up and told me that she wanted to buy a small drink and get a medium for free...not asking but telling me that's how I was going to ring it up! She threw a fit when I told her that's not how it works and stormed out. Geez..its tells you RIGHT ON THE COUPON/SIGN that it's the lower priced item for free..and it's the same EVERYWHERE! ....but then again....silly me thinking customers should actually read!
    Now, if you smell the roses but it doesn't lift your spirits, you're either allergic to rose pollen or you need medical intervention. ~ Seshat

    Comment


    • #3
      Exactly. Customers don't read or they deliberately choose not to. Back in my Media Play days, we'd have the "buy 2 get one free" specials every month or so. Every single time, I'd have multiple customers order me to ring up two $8.00 DVDs and get a $30 DVD free. Always the most expensive one was "supposed" to be free and I was always ordered to do it, very seldom was I asked if I could. About half of these people then complained that it wasn't mentioned anywhere and so it was false advertising. Which led me to point to the many signs explaining the sale.
      A lion however, will only devour your corpse, whereas an SC is not sated until they have destroyed your soul. (Quote per infinitemonkies)

      Comment


      • #4
        Have I mentioned I picked the right week to go on vacation?

        Our big Back to School sale starts Thursday. The ad's a big book that's going out to loyalty card members plus a few other people marketing is trying to get in the door.

        I don't recall if there are any BOGOs, but there are a lot of rebates, and many of the school supplies featured in the ad are going to have limits on them, as if customers stop to comprehend those.

        And I'm going to miss it almost completely! The earliest I'll be back to work is the 31st, a day before it ends. It's a good thing I told my manager I already bought my plane tickets. There's two other people from my crew that are going to be gone and it would have been just my luck to have my vacation refused.
        Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

        "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

        Comment


        • #5
          Last I checked, EVERY BOGO ad in existence -- including all of GameStore's -- specifies that the cheapest item is free. Period.

          Maybe this has changed since I was there, but our computers DID allow people to use the 10% off from the discount card -- IF all 3 games were used, and you asked nicely The result was one free game and 10% off the ones you DID pay for, which is reasonable.
          "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
          "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
          "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
          "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
          "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
          "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
          Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
          "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

          Comment


          • #6
            Quoth EricKei View Post
            Last I checked, EVERY BOGO ad in existence -- including all of GameStore's -- specifies that the cheapest item is free. Period.

            Maybe this has changed since I was there, but our computers DID allow people to use the 10% off from the discount card -- IF all 3 games were used, and you asked nicely The result was one free game and 10% off the ones you DID pay for, which is reasonable.
            Erickei's right. Every BOGO ad I've seen has it saying that the cheapest is free. Then again people read what they want.
            How was I supposed to know someone was slipping you Birth Control in the food I've been making for you lately?

            Comment


            • #7
              "Buy one item, get another item of equal or lesser value for free."

              Not rocket science here.

              "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
              Still A Customer."

              Comment


              • #8
                I used to have good offer when I ran pubs"Buy one pay for two get the second one free" the amount of people that fell for that one!
                "Light a fire for someone and he will be warm all day,
                set light to someone and he will be warm for the rest of his life" Sir Samuel Vimes

                Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.

                Comment


                • #9
                  I give give children and teens a bit of slack for not knowing how BOGO sales work, because I think I was fourteen or so when I learned that BOGO is always for the cheapest one. Whatever age I was at when I discovered that Mom was quite happy to drive me to the bookstore to blow my allowance, if I asked nicely, because she actually wanted to go to the bookstore too.

                  I had three books, two the same price and one cheaper (buy two get one), and tried to get one of the same price ones free because it was 'equal or lesser value' and that was equal, right? One "sorry, the cheapest is free", "Aww...", and quick lesson in economics from Mom later, I was a sad LadyA...untill I remembered I was still getting a free book, so then I was happy again quickly.

                  I think I can still claim the 'too young to know better' excuse there, though. And I only needed the one time to learn.
                  It's little things that make the difference between 'enjoyable', 'tolerable', and 'gimme a spoon, I'm digging an escape tunnel'.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Quoth CrazedClerkthe2nd View Post
                    We run a sale from time with a simple concept: Buy 2 get 1 free.

                    Of course the LOWEST price item is always the free one as is customary in...oh I don't know...almost EVERY SALE EVER!
                    Which is why I always picked out three equally priced items for these sales. I'd buy the cheaper one later.
                    "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      You people would love me.

                      Any time there was a BOGO or any variant, I'd put everything in decending order by price.

                      Hell, half the time at the book store, the clerk would just take my word for it, and ring it all through (usually between 6 & 20 books) on my say-so.

                      ^-.-^
                      Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I was actually surprised that so many places don't allow you to stack discounts. I remember a lot of stories where people would wind up gaining money from sales because they stack 50,000 coupons.
                        Kangaroo Squee!

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Quoth Digitalpotato View Post
                          I was actually surprised that so many places don't allow you to stack discounts. I remember a lot of stories where people would wind up gaining money from sales because they stack 50,000 coupons.
                          That's probably why.
                          How was I supposed to know someone was slipping you Birth Control in the food I've been making for you lately?

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            When I worked retail electronics, we rarely had BOGO sales except on movies or music. I still had some customers try to make up their own BOGO sales, though. They'd look at an expensive computer, which would always happen to be on sale that week (so, usually, discounted by about $150, which meant that it was $140 below cost). Then, while I was answering their questions about it, just as they were starting to get serious about purchasing it, they'd say, "And if I buy one, I get another one free, right?"

                            I'd usually laugh and say, "I wish! I'd have a dozen of these by now if that's how it worked." Most gave up at that point, but I did have a few who really expected me to give them a free computer almost as a thank-you for buying one.

                            Only once did I try to explain that a BOGO sale on computers would be a stupid marketing strategy, and it fell on deaf ears anyway. There's only a tiny portion of the population that would need to buy two computers at once. Most everybody else would happily take two, but then would not use one or would sell it so that they ended up with one computer and most of their money back. That customer looked at me like I was a three-year-old trying to comprehend quantum mechanics, like it was cute that I didn't really understand sales. He actually tried to tell me that a store's objective was to reduce product-on-hand by any means possible. He left out any suggestion of turning a profit.

                            Quoth CrazedClerkthe2nd View Post
                            In addition to "Buy two get one" we are running a couple of other promotions currently too. I had not one but several SCs get very upset with me when they were told they could only get one promotion on their transaction. This includes one guy who wanted to stack THREE promotions together to get three games for practically nothing. Sorry it doesn't work that way and no matter how much you whine, you won't get your discounts. Also bitching about the recession will NOT help your case or make me have any sympathy for you.
                            I've been on both sides of that.

                            I don't remember when I learned that BOGO sales meant the cheapest one got the discount, but I must have learned it because now, whenever I shop a BOGO sale, I deliberately find items that are as close in price as I can get them. If it's DVDs, for example, I'll get the two $10 DVDs I want, then get an $8 that will be my free item. Sure, I also want the $15 new release DVD, but I'm trying to maximize my savings here.

                            Once I asked a server at a restaurant if my wife and I could combine two coupons we had (one for BOGO meals and one for discounted drinks) with an in-restaurant promotion for free dessert with meal purchase. She shrugged and said that was fine with her. No whining, no demanding--just a simple question--and I got what I hoped to get. We left a big tip for that one. We tried it again at another branch of the same restaurant franchise and were denied (different combination of discounts). Again, no whining, no demanding--we just picked the one deal that would be best for us and used it and still left a fair tip.
                            I suspect that... inside every adult (sometimes not very far inside) is a bratty kid who wants everything his own way.
                            - Bill Watterson

                            My co-workers: They're there when they need me.
                            - IPF

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Quoth HawaiianShirts View Post
                              whenever I shop a BOGO sale, I deliberately find items that are as close in price as I can get them. If it's DVDs, for example, I'll get the two $10 DVDs I want, then get an $8 that will be my free item.
                              I do the same ^_^ I figure it makes thing simpler. That, anmd I feel that I've screwed myself over if I buy two $12 items and get a $3 one for free >_>

                              we just picked the one deal that would be best for us and used it and still left a fair tip.
                              Ditto. If I get a really nice deal at a restaurant, a chunk of that discount gets added to the tip
                              "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                              "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                              "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                              "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                              "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                              "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                              Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                              "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X