Storytime!: "The CEO said I could!" ~ 3rd party coupons are evil edition!

[flyonthewall]

Fly is here to share a new story! This story is interesting in that the customer was not MEAN. She was still sucky, but I give her credit for being civil, not that that made her any less exasperating. We shall call this woman "Crazy Old Lady". COL for short. COL has a history of bringing in third party coupons for 50% entire purchase or some . And the thing about COL is she SEEMS normal at first. Like, if you met her on the street you'd be like, "Oh, that's a nice old lady." But my friend who is a manager and has dealt with her says "Everything is standard customer interaction and then BAM! Crazy hits and she can't be reasoned with."


Okay, well our corporate overlords are and indulge these people and then say "But it's only this one time, because we're nice!" But if you give a mouse a cookie, they are going to ask for a glass of milk and then their own mouse size Corvette plated in gold. Yeah so back to the story, a senior level manager actually explained our coupon policy in detail, printed out pages of corporate policy and gave her her PERSONAL card with her personal information for her future questions. The manager said, "If you have any questions, feel free to contact me." This manager was super nice to her and gave her the 50% off. Our company was out about $250 on a $500 sale. We though we had put this behind us and COL was back to being a nice old lady who would be a normal customer. NO.


Two days later: Old lady comes in with a 75% coupon she got off Jerkwad Couponers Central(I refuse to say the name of the site). She's gotten a $750 haul and is expecting us to honor this 75% photoshopped abomination. But this time she's got a royal flush to play! She called our CEO and he said she could use a 75% coupon! The managers congregated in the manager room discussing what would be done and beginning the investigation and such. A senior manager said, "If *CEO name* wanted her to have this deal, he would've had it shipped directly from a warehouse to her home." So the managers contact the office of the CEO and ask WTFH is going on. The CEO is in a rural part of some Asian country investigating potential factory contractors and was unreachable. So a manger asked when she called and she said, "Oh I called yesterday." Umm, okay so how could CEO dude have okayed it? We got CEO's PA on the case and she said CEO dude had gotten a voicemail from the lady about the coupon. CEO hadn't had time to respond because he was in a remote land without cell phone service. She said to one of the managers, "Here's his office extension if you want to call him." And the manager responded, "I already have *name*'s office extension." And the lady had a cat butt look on her face. WHA? You people actually talk to each other?

Conclusion: COL had dug up CEO's office extension, left a message and decided that her leaving a message meant the CEO said she could use her fraudulent coupon that would result in our store being corporate audited and employees being fired. WTF. Somehow the store got to get her to back off but this is one of the more bizarre cases of 3rd party coupons gone wrong. Our company doesn't do coupons. Coupons are for lesser companies or some shit. Occasionally there are promotions but these promotions are slips that have the customer's address and personal info on it that say "Jane Doe at 123 Main Street has $10 off a $250 purchase." I did a "fly by" on the sales floor to get a good look at the lady, lol. She looked normal.



While the internet is a great place for retail peeps to share their stories, it's also a great place for SCs to share their scams. I don't know if it's comforting that some of them don't know that what they are doing is stealing. Maybe they wouldn't do it if they knew? Some couponers get freaking belligerent and act like it's OUR fault that 3rd parties do these things. FML.


Have you guys had any run ins with crazy couponers? How I despise them. In my fantasies, retail corporate lawyers sue the websites into oblivion. It's mostly one site that does it.

[eltf177]

If EVER there was a reason to perma-ban a suctomer this is it. Seriously, an unanswered message left for the CEO = Permission to use an outside coupon?

Let's hope flyonthewall's CEO is less than amused with this situation and drops the banhammer!

[Rosco the Iroc]

Dumbasses were foaming over a $90 off anything over $95 from a grocery store chain on facebook last week.
YEAAA right oh look they deny that they would be so stupid and the coupon is fake are you that dim to even think it would be real?

[mjr]

I also partially blame the "extreme coupon" people and shows. The people who piss and moan and complain to try to get $1,000 worth of groceries for $100.

Because then EVERYBODY thinks they can do it, and it makes things VERY difficult for the cashiers, managers, and so forth.

[Lovecats]

Dumbasses were foaming over a $90 off anything over $95 from a grocery store chain on facebook last week.
YEAAA right oh look they deny that they would be so stupid and the coupon is fake are you that dim to even think it would be real?

Yeah, our local news had that one on a few days ago. And you know some people (make that a lot of people) will still try to use it at the store.

[No Coupons 4 You]

Because of all the coupon scammers our company has gotten rid of double coupons and paper coupons. The only coupons you now can use is loaded on your savings card.

[flyonthewall]

Sometimes I just want to say to SCs:


"Do you consider yourself a good person? Ya know, someone who is going to heaven and takes the moral high road in the face of adversity?"

SC in my fantasies: Yes?

"That good's to know, because what you are doing is called fraud and people lose their jobs over it. That money the company loses doesn't come out of the fat cats' $600,000 salary. It comes out of all the grunts' $250 yearly bonuses and the jobs that get laid off. Our company recently cut its HR department in half because of loses. That HR person who got laid off at our store? She had four young girls and she became a single mom two years ago after her husband started beating her and the kids. Please leave."


My fantasies are epic.

[Dreamstalker]

I'm sure I've posted here about an SC who always used the line: "[Shithead] said I could do this and he always does it for me!" Okay, go to him then. If the excessive coupon use triggers an audit, I'll be the one thrown under the bus because my SCO card authorized it. You wanna scam the store and Shithead is letting you, his name is going to be attached to this. Not mine.

Because of all the coupon scammers our company has gotten rid of double coupons and paper coupons. The only coupons you now can use is loaded on your savings card.

I wish we would do that, but the load-to-card coupons have their own problems. Not showing up clearly (they only show on the receipt as "Personal Disc" which leads to tantrums when they don't think it came off the right item), not showing up at all (I know you printed out the "Loaded to card" screen but that's not proof we can use), etc.

We double coupons, but only if the barcode allows it (manually doubling a coupon is verboten as there have been incidents of cashiers doing it for coupons that explicitly say "No Doubling"). SCOs have a loophole where any manually-entered manufacturer coupon will double regardless of the coupon wording; if no-doubling coupons won't scan I just send them to the service desk.

[Argabarga]

If you haven't understood the concept of "no stealing" by 12, you will never get it. You'll only get better at your rationalization. When someone is clearly trying to split hairs with me on prices, I go with a firm "no" followed by "I'm calling the cops to remove a trespasser "

You'll get called all kinds of names, but they will leave empty-handed.

Oh, and you have to be non-corporate therein lies the trick .

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Uhhh, coupons. Fucking kill me.

The swamp is huge on coupons. Pretty much every single weekly ad has a coupon good for $10 off a $30 "home and clothing" purchase. Clothing is obvious enough, but home means....whatever the customer wants it to mean. Including all the exceptions listed like electronics and paper products, because they're going to use those items at home. Duh.

I even saw one of those coupons printed in the local newsrag that also contained the weekly flyer, so a person could actually score two of those coupons.

If this is what we have to do to move product out the doors, then maybe we shouldn't be open anyway. Especially since 99.9% of people who use the ocupon then return something from their purchase and demand their coupon back, because they technically didn't qualify to use it.

[depechemodefan]

The company I work for doesn't take 3rd party coupons. Though the other day someone had a coupon that looked 3rd party but wasn't from one we heard of, and the register allowed the coupon to be used.

Yesterday one of my aunts posted a coupon for a grocery store that said, "85% off of the purchase of $100 or more". I really don't think that was legit. But seemed my aunt was able to use it.

[Deserted]

My niece is trying to learn how to be an extreme couponer. She showed me some of the coupons she found for things I actually get, and I told her I could save even more. How? Don't buy name brands; generic are just as good for many things, especially food. (One exception: store brand Dr Pepper tastes NOTHING like the real thing. "Dr K" can bite my shiny metal ass.)

[Lace Neil Singer]

We don't accept third party coupons. This, however, doesn't stop some idiots trying to use them. Luckily, our manager doesn't take no shit from such idiots.

[Sparklyturtle]

Exactly what is a "third-party coupon"? Is that when I get a "Save 3 dollars on Zegerid" coupon off the Zegerid website and use that at my local grocery store? (Zegerid is a treatment for heartburn. Works great.) Or are you talking about coupons you get off Groupon and similar sites?

[flyonthewall]

Exactly what is a "third-party coupon"? Is that when I get a "Save 3 dollars on Zegerid" coupon off the Zegerid website and use that at my local grocery store? (Zegerid is a treatment for heartburn. Works great.) Or are you talking about coupons you get off Groupon and similar sites?

It's a coupon that is not issued by the retailer. IMO, that includes manufacturer's coupons.


We've had people try and use our website free shipping code at the stores too and then they get upset when they can't because the items have already been shipped to the store. FML.