Gift Card Lady

[coffee_drinker247]

Hello everyone! I have been busy so I have been gone from the forum for a bit, but this story happened just yesterday so I wanted to post it while it was still fresh in my mind.

So yesterday I'm running around doing my regular managerial duties in my store (women's store) and my cashier calls me over the walkie to come back to the register because a lady's coupon isn't scanning. Context: We send out tons of coupons monthly for things like $5 off your purchase, or the lovely $10 off $30, $15 off $40 ones. Most customers don't realize you have to be at the minimum amount BEFORE TAX to get the coupon otherwise the system literally won't scan it and accept it. So I was thinking when the cashier said this over the walkie that maybe this was the case, or that the coupon was expired.

I walked back there and my cashier says, "Oh never mind I figured out why." The lady had a $10 off $30 or more purchase coupon, right? Well she also bought a $25 GIFT CARD (UM HELLO) and then a purse for $12.99.

I'm like, wut. You have got to be kidding me, right? It clearly says on the coupon that it cannot be combined with gift card purchases. So I inform her that you cannot use a coupon on a gift card that you are purchasing. You're putting $25 on a gift card. And the purse you are buying is $12.99. GIFT CARDS DO NOT COUNT as part of your transaction toward the coupon. A gift card is a completely separate entity. We cannot take $10 off of your $12.99 item just because you are putting $25 on a gift card for someone. That does not count as part of your purchase, because the gift card is meant to be spent LATER by someone. That money comes back to us at some point. I cannot essentially give you $10 for free.

Now, if she were spending $30 before tax plus the gift card ($55 total) she could use the coupon on the items that she was purchasing for sure. That's totally fine. You just can't use the gift card purchase toward the coupon itself and expect to get your one item discounted just because you're buying a gift card.

So she seriously looks at me and goes, "Oh I see what you are saying but I just thought it would take $10 off the purse."

NO NO NO NO NO NO

I hate people who scam. The look on her face was smug so I knew she knew she couldn't do that but she saw my tiny little cashier who looks young so she thought she would try to scam her way into getting the purse for $3. So I explain again that the coupon does not include gift card purchases and that she has to spend $30 or more before tax on her items before it will take the coupon.

Luckily, it ended there and she didn't keep complaining because she of course knew what she was doing and she knew I wasn't going to take her crap. I just don't understand why people think they can try to get away with these things. Our POS system is very detailed and is built to not accept coupons, etc. if they are expired or like in this situation combined with a gift card purchase and the rest of the purchase does not meet the minimum spending requirement. I walked away shaking my head and couldn't help but laugh to myself. This lady thought she would get away with it and I LOVE IT when a customer is denied.

[emax4]

At least the better P.O.S. systems are in place to aid cashiers and prevent stuff like that too. I wonder what her reaction would be if you'd have given her the same smug look.

[coffee_drinker247]

At least the better P.O.S. systems are in place to aid cashiers and prevent stuff like that too. I wonder what her reaction would be if you'd have given her the same smug look.

Yes, thankfully the POS has a pop-up and beeps when a coupon is expired or they haven't met the minimum purchase requirement and it says, "Error: Invalid Coupon" so you can't even use it.

I do keep some extra coupons at the registers for people who are really nice, or who legitimately forgot their coupon and are not demanding about it. I've made someone's day by letting them use the coupon (the good thing about this is that we are liberal with coupons and can use them for customers at our discretion because we do not keep track of them, and the same coupon can be scanned for multiple transactions until it expires). I don't abuse it too often but like I said, I reward the good customers, or the kid who just barely doesn't have enough cash on them and it's no skin off my teeth.

It's the entitled ones who demand things that get the, "Sorry, my system won't allow me to accept your coupon, better luck next time." (Not those exact words, but that's the context.)

But yeah this lady definitely knew what she was trying to pull and if she didn't, she's an idiot for thinking that she could basically get $10 in her pocket from us. I did feel a little smug when denying her little coupon scam, which made my day just a little bit better yesterday.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

At least the better P.O.S. systems are in place to aid cashiers and prevent stuff like that too. I wonder what her reaction would be if you'd have given her the same smug look.

I'd say one of two scenarios:

1) she'd demand a manager because you "have an attitude with her"

2) she'll walk out without buying anything swearing she "won't shop here again" (ie, see you next week)

Either way she'd be an even bigger SC than she already is.

[prjkt]

Wonder how many times the phrase, "Computer says no" has been uttered in these situations

[Ironclad Alibi]

Wonder how many times the phrase, "Computer says no" has been uttered in these situations

Sounds like the Magic 8 Ball has been upgraded.

[MelindaJoy77]

What's worse is when you get the SC's trying to scam you one way or another who say "well I just did it last week" - I had a customer the other day try to ad match an outlet store that we don't match - it says right in our ad that restrictions apply to the ad matching and to see the store for details. Well, we don't match outlet stores because they get discounted stuff that's basically left over after all the regular stores order their merchandise, or whatever. So this lady tries to match a bunch of produce from the other store and I deny her, saying we don't match that store, and she starts with the "I just did it last week" bit. Granted, we have a lot of new hire cashiers recently who probably don't know this - our training is not all that great. So she asks for a manager who tells her the same thing, but she doesn't accept his denial either. He mentions the policy is at customer service, so she asks if she can go there and I tell her to go ahead. I waited to make sure she went there because I wouldn't have been surprised if she just tried to walk right out the door without paying at all. Well later on I went to customer service to drop off my returns and found they had denied her too and her cart full of produce was sitting there. Score one for us! I hate it when people try to scam and when I have doubts that's when I will pull out my ads (I carry them with me every day so I am familiar with the sales and such) and I have no problem holding up the line to make sure people are telling me the truth. I had a few regular scammers when I first started working there so now I carry the ads with me.

[drjonah]

Ugh, at my old job we had a customer who would troll the new cashiers like that. He would take a really old ad that had hamburger meat for 99 cents a pound, fold it up so you could only see the hamburger part of the ad. Then he would come in the store, walk slowly past the cashiers to see who was working. If he saw a 'sucker', he would go get a 10 pound package of hamburger and go check-out and just show the cashier the folded up ad showing the hamburger and price.

Finally he got pwned when one of the new cashiers liked that price so much she wanted to see the ad for herself and grabbed it right out of his hand. That's when she noticed the ad was from 2004 and at the time it was 2007!

[coffee_drinker247]

I'd say one of two scenarios:

1) she'd demand a manager because you "have an attitude with her"

2) she'll walk out without buying anything swearing she "won't shop here again" (ie, see you next week)

Either way she'd be an even bigger SC than she already is.

Lol, if she had demanded to see a manager she would have been met with great surprise because I am the manager. Hahaha. I actually love when that happens. "I need to see your manager." "Oh, hey!" The look on their face is always utterly priceless at that point. I actually relish moments like this so I can put SCs in their place. I look somewhat young (I guess most people would assume early twenties although I'm definitely not) so I am often met with an incredulous look from SCs when they figure out I'm the boss, because they assume I'm a college kid or something. LOL

Number 2 is far more likely of an occurrence in my store, honestly. I hear this phrase at least once a week, and lo and behold the next time we have a big sale I see the same SC scurrying around furtively in the clearance section.

[simplyanother]

When I worked at Glitter Hell, I had a woman try to use one of the 50% off coupons on the 100$ Visa gift cards... To this day, I'm not certain if she was scamming, or if she was just clueless. She didn't put up a fight, wasn't rude, it just stuck with me, because...duh.

I get the "well, I did it last week" things all the time. I answer "Well, it wasn't with me..." and then we continue with the order, or...they go away. Either way is fine with me.