"Its false advertisement!", no you just can't read

[cashierbex]

One of the statements I aboslutely loathe. Today was a good example of this:

Lady comes in. Grabs some stuff and has a slip of paper. Now, we have a deal going on with certain hair products that if you buy a certain amount, you get 5 dollars back on your next purchase. That slip of paper is an advertisement on what you can get. Its not a coupon. It even says it, twice. The lady calls it false advertisement (not my store, the company that makes the products). She was nice and praised us for doing our jobs, but really? I almost opened my mouth to say something. I mean, the damn thing says it multiple times that it is not a coupon. In readable letters, and all caps too.

We also have an aisle that is seasonal (xmas, valentines, back to school, etc). A lot of stuff gets misplaced and its hard to organize. Some people bring up something expecting it to be a certain price when its not, and blames us for false advertising. No, thats people being lazy and expecting us to always pick up after them. Plus, thats not gonna make me change the price. Sorry, you are SOL

[dragon_wings]

Oh my gods. This. So this. I hate those 'this is not a coupon' things too.
I have a regular that comes in every week (or so) and every time he tracks down an employee and asks the employee 'what does this mean?' and hands us one of those (for a different product). I, personally, have told him at least 3 times it's an advertisement not a coupon.

[jjc927]

I had to deal with those on a regular basis when I worked as a cashier. The first 5 explanations were never enough.

[retailworker7]

When I get people who think the advertisements are coupons. I show them what a coupon looks like and explain that if there is no code then it is not a coupon.

The signs for the Valentines clearance stuff in our store clear state specific items. If something is not on sale I point that out on the signs. Depending on the item and how busy I am I may ask the manager on duty if an item should have been included. I have just been pointing that out to customers. If someone is being obnoxious or rude I page a manager to deal with them.

[TonyDonuts]

Woman walks in after trying to get a car wash at the code box outside.

She had been trying to enter a number on the card she had with her.

She looked very confused, and asked me, "Am I reading this wrong?"

The card she had is part of a cross-promotion we have going with the tire and auto place next door. It is a coupon which gives you three bucks off our best wash.

Confusingly enough it reads, "Present inside for Three Dollars off a Best Wash." It has our company logo and store address and phone number.

She had been trying to enter the phone number as her car wash code.

I read the card to her, and then clarified by explaining the whole "coupon" concept. She looked at me as though she had never heard of these "coupons" before, but accepted my explanation, and paid for her car wash.

I was actually kind of proud of myself, I didn't say something like, "'Am I reading this wrong?' sort of implies that you read it at all, doesn't it?" Because I am a nice man (I am worshipped as a figure of great calm in many cultures) and I didn't think of it until she was getting back into her car.

[Bright_Star]

What part of "It's NOT a coupon" don't they understand??

[staticradio]

Usually most coupons have that pesky UPC code.

[Dreamstalker]

Our Catalina machines are spitting out a lot of grocery ads. Yesterday I had one woman try to use a promo ad as a coupon (I think it was buy X number of Brand Y, get $3 off your next order). I was prepared to let the customer down gently, but the MOD forced through a vendor coupon for the amount On one paw cashiers are discouraged from manually entering coupons if they don't have it in-hand, on the other...

The transaction is fully visible to the customer on the large monitor, so any unscannable thing that might be a coupon becomes "blargleIWANTMYDISCOUNT!" even if I'm being told by the computer that it cannot be used under any circumstance. The 'correct' (read: keep the customer happy) response is to do what MOD did; as a responsible coupon-user this irks me. I don't know what I'd do if Extreme Couponing ever discovers my store.

Maybe some people are so used to those machines giving coupons that anything coming out of it magically becomes a coupon.

[XCashier]

Quoth jjc927

I had to deal with those on a regular basis when I worked as a cashier. The first 5 explanations were never enough.

They're playing stupid, hoping that you'll eventually get fed up and just give them what they want. Too bad for them that I can drag it out as long as they can.

[cashierbex]

Another one that happened today:

Our ad shows that there are coupons in the Sunday papers. They just shove the ad in our face and expect us to honor it when it clearly says that its in the Sunday paper. What I want to say to them is "You are an adult. You can read what the ad specifies, and you can buy the paper or go without the coupon, your choice" Their idea of "false advertisement" is implied even though they don't say it.