Blatant Coupon Fraud

[Dave1982]

The other day I got dragged into the copy center self-serve area by some woman. She wanted me to make her copies for her. I guess the machines were too hard for her.

I explained to her how to use the machines, but I was not about to make her copies for her. The purpose of the SELF-SERVE area is that you make your own copies. If you want us to make them for you, there is a different price.

Then I saw what she wanted to copy: a sheet of paper that had about 30 coupons taped to it on both sides. Many of them were duplicates of the same coupon (only about 5 or 6 different coupons in total). And every single one of them said "reproduction prohibited."

Me: Ma'am, we can't copy these. Coupons are not reproducible.

SC: No, it's OK.

Me: No, it's NOT ok. This is coupon fraud. It says right on these coupons that reproduction is prohibited. We can't allow you to use our equipment for this. Besides, no store is going to accept copies of coupons.

SC: It's OK, this is for my daughter's school project.



Oh wait, you're serious?

Me: I'm sorry but we still can't copy these.

Eventually, we (myself and Dale, who was covering the copy center at the time) managed to stonewall her enough that she left.

Seriously though, how gullible do you think we are? I'm reminded of a very old story from here on CS (from one of the comic strips) where someone trying to copy bank notes claimed it was for a school project and wasn't counterfeiting.

And the kicker? If she had managed to get more than 2 brain cells to work together and actually figure out the copier on her own, she could have made all the copies she wanted and we'd have been none the wiser.


BONUS TALE!!!

Another store faxed over a copy of an obviously fraudulent coupon someone made up in Photoshop and attempted to pass off as a legit coupon.

Just one problem......the coupon was for $300 off a purchase of $350 or more.

Yeah, like THAT isn't going to put up a red flag!

[tropicsgoddess]

What an idiot. Like copying coupons for a kid's school project is gonna fly, let alone ASKING somebody in retail to do it for you because you're too dumb to know how to put in the paper and press the copy button on the copier.

[OfficeSlug]

You made me thank any retail deities above that I no longer work in a copy center!!!!!

Goodness, the things people would try to pull..... I might have to go back and think of some of the better stories now!!

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Haven't there been a bunch of fake e-mail coupons around in the last several years that haven given stores a ton of a grief because they aren't legit and SCs are demanding they honor them?

[Dave1982]

Haven't there been a bunch of fake e-mail coupons around in the last several years that haven given stores a ton of a grief because they aren't legit and SCs are demanding they honor them?

Yes. At my previous store, this was an ongoing problem.

[mattm04]

Haven't there been a bunch of fake e-mail coupons around in the last several years that haven given stores a ton of a grief because they aren't legit and SCs are demanding they honor them?

Just a few days ago A SC tried to pass off a "take 95% you total order of $1 or more." Ummmm, no.

[bainsidhe]

I recently bought some Kohl's coupons on ebay. $5.00 off of a purchase is a pretty sweet deal. Each coupon can only be used once. They scan fine and I walk out with a discount. Pretty awesome, right?

Last week I had a Kohl's cashier in my checkout line and we were talking fraudulent coupons. Lo and behold, I learn that these coupons are mostly fraudulent, even though they still scan. So I was basically promoting fraudulent coupons. Man that ticks me off.

[ThirdGenRetail]

Haven't there been a bunch of fake e-mail coupons around in the last several years that haven given stores a ton of a grief because they aren't legit and SCs are demanding they honor them?

Yup, that IS a problem. For a while, my first year working at Red Vest Hardware, we had taped at our registers a paper that said "DO NOT TAKE THIS COUPON" and showed a black and white photocopy of a 20% Off Purchase coupon for Orange Competitor. When the actual coupons popped up, they looked real, felt real... They weren't real. Even Orange Competitor wouldn't take them - Neither them nor us has a coupon for any % off greater than 10%. So all these customers would come through, and try to get us to honor these fake coupons... And we had to keep explaining "We can't take them, the other place won't even take them, you've been sent a FAKE coupon." One of my managers even explained to someone who wouldn't believe me... Now and then the "20% off coupon" pops up, and once again we have to explain, "That's not a real coupon - You've been had by whoever sent it to you."

[LadyAndreca]

At the orange apron, we're not supposed to accept internet coupons that don't have the website on the printout. My store manager is pretty adamant about his stance of "make the customers happy", though, so I'll just call a manager over if something seems unreasonable. (And if a discount comes to over $50, I HAVE to have a manager sign off on it.)

[flybye023]

Just one problem......the coupon was for $300 off a purchase of $350 or more.

Yeah, like THAT isn't going to put up a red flag!

Actually, that's not completely unheard of except that it's usually a rebate, not a coupon, and there's other caveats involved most of the time.

[Auto]

Copying coupons isn't against the law, so who cares what the woman was going to do with the copies?

It's just store policy that photocopied coupons will not be accepted. Only originals. A way for the store to limit how many coupons someone can get/redeem without doing something to earn a second coupon. Like buying another copy of the Sunday paper.

So if she wants to try to redeem a photocopied coupon that reads "reproduction prohibited," let the store be the one to tell her to f-off. I wouldn't waste my time enforcing Safeway store policies if I didn't work at Safeway.

[MilitantLibrarian]

Nice try buddy

I haven't always worked in a Library (although I did think nowhere could be weirder than retail).

This is a story from a few years ago when I did a couple of weeks in a pizza place, I wasn't there long enough to learn all of the dodges, such as the meal deals that don't come with bottomless drinks (a bad idea that's really hard to enforce without an eidetic memory), but I did catch this one guy.

We had all kinds of people in with coupons for various deals, all were for the person named only, so people had to register at the site to print the voucher. So this guy comes in, pale white skin, with a coupon in the name of Verasingalanam or somesuch, I just remember thinking that he didn't look like he was from Sri Lanka, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, however the name was repeated on the coupon as Ms. V, I challenged him, pointing out the line that read "to be used by the person named only", he came up with some tosh about it being his girlfriend who'd printed it, I had to point out that as she seemed capable of registering herself, she should have been bright enough to realise that it was bearer only, and besides, although I didn't use it in my argument, he really didn't seem like he would have a girlfriend having apparently slept on the streets at least the previous night, if not for longer.

He argued away, saying that I had to prove that he wasn't this woman, I had to refrain from asking him to drop trou and in the end convinced him that in this case, the burden of proof was on him, he walked off, trying to slam the door, which was on a slow-close hinge, and muttering vague curses including that he was going to try the voucher in another well-known pizza chain, I wished him good luck as our manager finally arrived to see what all the trouble was. Managers seem to have to have an immaculate sense of timing when it comes to avaoiding difficult customers, which would make sense if the manager had been through it, but this guy was a business graduate straight out of college.

[Darkforge]

Copying coupons isn't against the law, so who cares what the woman was going to do with the copies?

If the coupons say "Reproduction prohibited" then it may well be against the law to copy them due to copyright issues (they will probably have the copyrighted store logo/mascot on them at the very least)

[EricKei]

Copying coupons isn't against the law

You're probably right, but...

So if she wants to try to redeem a photocopied coupon that reads "reproduction prohibited," let the store be the one to tell her to f-off. I wouldn't waste my time enforcing Safeway store policies if I didn't work at Safeway.

In this case, it's not so much a matter of enforcing STORE policies -- tho there may indeed be some in place -- as it is enforcing the policies of the manufacturer who sent out the coupon.

When they say "reproduction prohibited", it's really another way of saying "if you accept a photocopied coupon, we will NOT be reimbursing you for it." That, in and of itself, is a 100% valid reason not to accept them. The accepting store would be the one losing money on a coupon they didn't even put out.

[Broomjockey]

Copying coupons isn't against the law, so who cares what the woman was going to do with the copies?

Actually, under copyright law, it is. The materials specifically state that they are not to be reproduced, thus it's illegal to do so.