Borderline scammers, but sucky nonetheless.

[theredbaron47]

I dusted this one off from the annals of my memory, dating back to maybe mid-July.

I work for a well-known nationwide drug store, whose name rhymes with "PBS", as an intern. I've worked there for 9 months now, and while I have learned almost everything I need to, I still have a ways to go, as I only work somewhere on the order of 8 hours per week.

It's sometime in the evening, around 7PM, two more hours left until closing. We weren't completely dead in the pharmacy (or in the main store), but we did have some customers. This pleasant couple of foreign descent (and as such, I cannot understand them all too well) comes into the pharmacy and drops off a prescription for their two-year-old. No problem, happy to help! They said they had some shopping to do and they'll be back for it.

We fill it and go about our business and they come back to the pharmacy to pick up their son's prescription and check out. I notice, as they're making their way back to the pharmacy, that they have a buggy loaded, as in stacked high to the top, with merchandise from the store.

I've been previously told by colleagues in the pharmacy that if people have more than, say, ten items or thereabouts, we should really ask them to check out up front, as it will bog us down from our pharmacy work. Seeing as it wasn't busy at all, I decided to be nice to them and ring them up with their script, so they wouldn't have to wait up front.

I'm merrily ringing out, and as I'm doing so, I notice that the wife has 6, 7, maybe even 8 of the same product, which I thought was rather odd. She then pulls out a small blue purse, which is overflowing with coupons.

My heart sank when I saw this.

The next 20 minutes consisted of her trying to use every single coupon on every single product she has. She tried to use 8 copies of the same coupon for 8 bottles of Pantene Pro-V shampoo, and the coupon (most of them were manufacturer's coupons) explicity stated that it may not be combined with other coupons, so of course the register didn't accept it. Let's not forget the handful of expired coupons, which is a separate issue altogether (apparently, "expired" was not in either of their vocabulary).

By this point, the pharmacist is telling me to call a store manager to sort things out, as neither she (the pharmacist) nor I knew enough to deal with this kind of thing.

(Keep in mind that this couple has not been overly sucky yet in terms of their attitudes. I chaulk that up to the fact that neither of their English skills were very good, and they more often than not said nothing instead of tried to argue with me. They would just look at me as if I'm crazy when I said they can't use more than one coupon because the register wouldn't let me.)

So then my store manager comes back and asks what the problem is. I bring her up to speed on the problem and what the couple wants to do, and she deals with them for a good 20 minutes or so.

Long story short, my store manager accepts all the coupons (except the ones that had expired, say, LAST YEAR), and the family walks out with a $50 purchase... they they paid $3 for. $3! They had a $20 store credit card and enough coupons to wallpaper a house, but then that STILL wasn't good enough for them! They had apparently worked out the math before hand, and they had reasoned that the amount of coupons they had clipped would allow them to buy what they bought without paying for it. That was when they really raised a fuss, in semi-broken English, with the store manager, who flat-out told them no, and to appreciate what they got for $3, and leave. They left quietly after that.

The audacity of people! You were told NO. You got $50 worth of merchandise for $3! (I think it was actually $2.xx they paid, if I remember correctly). Leave, and quit penny-pinching, for God's sake! My SM really was too good to these people, though. She even was complaining afterwards that they cleaned the store out of Ritz crackers, peanut butter, Pantene Pro-V, and several other items.

Bottom line:

1. Penny-pinchers annoy the hell out of me.
2. I think what this couple was doing was tantamount to scamming the store, but kept my mouth shut.
3. I really need to listen to colleagues when they give me advice.
4. The line between treating customers well and caving in to scammers, for my SM, is apparently razor-thin.

I've never worked as a cashier for the front store, so I really have no experience with this kind of thing. We have plenty of our own sucky customers in the pharmacy, but almost exclusively relating to the pharmacy somehow. This one gave me a slight headache. Filling scripts is one thing, dealing with ignorant people who refuse to read or understand anything is completely different.

Your thoughts?

[Auto]

You got $50 worth of merchandise for $3! (I think it was actually $2.xx they paid, if I remember correctly). Leave, and quit penny-pinching, for God's sake! My SM really was too good to these people, though. She even was complaining afterwards that they cleaned the store out of Ritz crackers, peanut butter, Pantene Pro-V, and several other items.

Sorry, but I have no problem with people trying to save $. It's not like CVS is eating the cost of those coupons -- it's the manufacturer.

Outdated or photocopied coupons is another matter. Combining coupons when you're not supposed to is another no-no. I hate customers who do that and I really hate managers who let them get away with it.

As for cleaning out the store's inventory of Ritz crackers and the like -- so what? You can have a new shipment arrive in 24 hours.

I would have rung up the pharmacy items and made them ring up the rest at the front registers.

[theredbaron47]

Sorry, but I have no problem with people trying to save $. It's not like CVS is eating the cost of those coupons -- it's the manufacturer.

Outdated or photocopied coupons is another matter. Combining coupons when you're not supposed to is another no-no. I hate customers who do that and I really hate managers who let them get away with it.

As for cleaning out the store's inventory of Ritz crackers and the like -- so what? You can have a new shipment arrive in 24 hours.

I would have rung up the pharmacy items and made them ring up the rest at the front registers.

As I said, these people were borderline scamming the store. Trust me, I try to save money wherever and whenever I can, but these people just went too far. First off, they weren't too pleasant throughout the transaction (more neutral than anything, when they weren't arguing or yelling with/at me or my SM... kind of like the proverbial icing on the cake), and they were deliberately trying to pass expired coupons. The wife tried to argue every single expired coupon that I wouldn't accept. Neither of them were gracious at all when it became apparent that my SM was doing them a huge favor.

CVS does not get reimbursed by the manufacturer for expired coupons. My SM should have not accepted them, but she did. That burns me up more than anything. It also angers me when people try to use them when they know they are expired in the first place.

As for them emptying stocks of certain products -- as another poster said, we receive truck shipments weekly. Not daily. While there is no limit on the amount of non-sale items you can buy, completely relieving the shelf of its 12 jars of peanut butter is unnecessary, and just plain rude to other shoppers (especially when you consider that they're purchasing them all while using coupons that they really shouldn't be allowed to use...). I heard from my SM that the next day, a customer asked if we had any more Ritz crackers in stock, and was disappointed and somewhat angry that we didn't.

The coupons they had were generally "buy one, get one free", so in essence, SM gave half of the stock of whatever they were buying away for free. I'm still not quite sure how that contributes to good business sense... to encourage these people, and people like them, to continue the same practices in the future?

The people didn't even give one word of thanks, to anyone.

I hope this helps clarify why I was put off over this incident.

[Peppergirl]

Sorry, but I have no problem with people trying to save $. It's not like CVS is eating the cost of those coupons -- it's the manufacturer.

Outdated or photocopied coupons is another matter. Combining coupons when you're not supposed to is another no-no. I hate customers who do that and I really hate managers who let them get away with it.

As for cleaning out the store's inventory of Ritz crackers and the like -- so what? You can have a new shipment arrive in 24 hours.

I would have rung up the pharmacy items and made them ring up the rest at the front registers.

Uh, even if this were true, why should another customer who showed up an hour later for something go WITHOUT because the scammer from an hour ago cleaned the store out of the item?

It's just not right, and I'm personally appalled that her store manager let them get away with it.

This is the reason so many SC's continue to be SC's - because spinless managers kowtow to them.

Think about it - if you had no integrity and scammed places, and got away with it, what would be your motivation to stop?

The only thing that will motiate these people to stop this entitled behavior is for managers to put their foot down and put a stop to this kind of nonsense.

[jrh215]

I don't so much mind people using coupons, but it really is a borderline obsession for some people. We had a woman at our store who carried around one of those Five-Star zipper binders FULL of coupons.

Although retailers do get reimbursed by the manufacturer when we turn in the coupons, there are still terms of use clearly printed on them, i.e. you cannot combine the one coupon with others. Of course, no one is really ever going to notice stuff like that since all of our 6000 stores send their coupons to the same processing office, but technically it could be considered fraud. To me it's the principle of it--no manufacturer sends out coupons with the intentions of scamming assholes getting dozens of their products for next to nothing.

Just my opinion....

[Boozy]

Hmm....I think this is a sucky management issue more than anything. Customers are going to try to get the best deal, and there's nothing wrong with that, especially if they aren't rude about it. Sometimes a manager's job is to step in and prevent customers from making out like bandits.

I don't think that giving $50 worth of products to a customer for $3 was a wise financial decision. While your manager has definitely guaranteed themselves a repeat customer (and I'm sure this was their thought process), its highly unlikely that these folks will be willing to spend more the next time. They'll just expect the same treatment with their coupons. And now a precedent has been set, and your manager may find themselves dealing with SCs the next time someone says "No".

As far as these people cleaning your store out of several products, this is again a management issue. Perhaps they should consider a policy of "Management has the right to limit quantities." Without this policy in writing, where customers can see it, you're pretty much out of luck there.

Managers are suppose to be the advocates of the company in business dealings. These transactions can be a bargaining session, and your manager allowed themselves to be outplayed.

[BookstoreEscapee]

If you have 8 valid coupons and 8 bottles of shampoo, I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to use them in one transaction. It's not the same as using 2 coupons on one bottle or something like that. But if they're expired, well, then, sorry.

enough coupons to wallpaper a house

now there's an idea I haven't seen on Trading Spaces (yet)

[wolfie]

On occasion I've combined discounts to get free merchandise (actually, better than free - got me 1 cent off the remainder of my purchase), but the discounts I combined were both issued by the store, and neither said it couldn't be combined with other offers.

The specifics: local grocery store chain has (in the store-made salads section) fruit and yougurt bowls at $3.99. When a store-packed date-coded item reaches the day before its "sell-by" date, they slap a discount sticker on it (these bowls typically get $2 off stickers). Occasionally, a flyer special will be "buy one get one free" on these fruit and yougurt bowls. If there are 2 "almost stale" ones, it's $3.99 for the first, second one is free, but look - $2 off for the first, $2 off for the second, leaving a total of negative $0.01 for the 2 bowls. Of course, I always get something else at the same time (it would be pure SC to get only the 2 bowls and demand my 1 cent as well, plus management would be likely to cut off the doubling).

This chain also has an "it's fresh or it's free" policy (items which have reached their "sell by" date, but don't already have the discount stickers - bring one to the service desk along with a non-stale of the same item, they dispose of the stale one and give you the non-stale one free). I stopped by to get a tub of (prepack by outside contractor) one type of salad - they had 4 of that type, one fresh and the other 3 over a week out of date (hello - anyone heard of checking expiry dates?). I brought up all 4, explaining that one of the stale ones was for the "fresh or free", and the other two were (as a courtesy to them) to get them off the shelf (since it was a single error in not checking dates in that section) before someone else used them for a "fresh or free". The counter person told me that if I wanted, I could get 2 more salads free, but I only wanted the one (and told them that this flavour of salad was the only one I liked, and if it generated too many "fresh or free" deals, that management was likely to stop carrying it because it lost the store money).

[Auto]

Uh, even if this were true, why should another customer who showed up an hour later for something go WITHOUT because the scammer from an hour ago cleaned the store out of the item?

Why should the store care who buys as long as someone buys?

As a retailer, I want to maximize my revenues in the shortest time possible. No way am I not selling something today in hopes that someone might buy it tomorrow.

There are lots of places to buy peanut butter. If there's a stock out, the customer can walk down the street to another store.

Everyone seems to think selling general merchandise and groceries in a drug store is like doing triage in an emergency room after a bus accident.

But if I have 10 manufacturer's coupons for 10 items and there are 10 items on the shelf, I will buy all 10. I'm not going to inconvenience myself because another person MIGHT want to buy one.

A stock out is a stock out. Who cares if it is caused by 10 customers each buying one item or one customer buying all 10? Give the other 9 and raincheck and be done with it.

[BookstoreEscapee]

A stock out is a stock out. Who cares if it is caused by 10 customers each buying one item or one customer buying all 10? Give the other 9 and raincheck and be done with it.

I can see both sides of the argument. It's annoying when you run out and people get all pissy about it (though in books it's rare that people buy more than one, maybe 2, copies of a popular book, so I never dealt with this exact scenario); but as an employee, if I knew that one person bought all the stock on something that is popular and I have to deal with the pissiness, I'd be a little annoyed at the person who cleaned us out when I know we might not get more for several days...then again, with books we just place an order for the customer and call them when it comes in, so they don't have to go running around to other stores if they don't want to.