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**Spork4pedro** · 07-20-2009, 07:58 AM

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!

**bainsidhe** · 07-20-2009, 11:25 AM

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.

**Irving Patrick Freleigh** · 07-20-2009, 12:53 PM

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.

**EricKei** · 07-20-2009, 06:05 PM

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.

**Soulstealer** · 07-20-2009, 06:14 PM

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.

**Jester** · 07-20-2009, 06:55 PM

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

Not rocket science here.

**gaspode** · 07-20-2009, 07:15 PM

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!

**LadyAndreca** · 07-20-2009, 07:21 PM

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.

**Ironclad Alibi** · 07-21-2009, 03:59 AM

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.

**Andara Bledin** · 07-22-2009, 03:54 AM

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.

^-.-^

**Digitalpotato** · 07-22-2009, 04:04 AM

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.

**Soulstealer** · 07-22-2009, 11:36 AM

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.

**HawaiianShirts** · 07-22-2009, 03:51 PM

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.

**EricKei** · 07-24-2009, 01:45 PM

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

Announcement

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

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

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