(Cr)App Coupons

[XCashier]

Our fabric store chain has a free app from the App Store, and it's quite popular with customers. It offers coupons every week to use in the store.

Except this week. The customer sees "15% off entire purchase" coupon with a barcode on their phone, so it must be for store use, right? Wrong. In small print, it states that it's online only. I try to scan it or input it into the register, I get an error message.

The customers have been ticked off about that, and to be honest, I can't blame them.
1. They put an "online only" coupon on a phone app.
2. They put a barcode on an online only coupon! You don't scan a coupon to use it online!!!
3. They put "online only" in small print halfway down the coupon, instead of at the top where it normally is!!

Yeah, really bad execution there. And of course, guess who gets the strip torn off them? Grrr...

[notalwaysright]

I didn't see that one! I haven't been trained on the registers, so I don't get all the complaints cashiers do. Speaking of the app, we have a lot of scammers who get to the register and say their phone just died but they promise they have a coupon! Or, you know how they get the total purchase coupon if they sign up for texts? Yeah, it's only good for US based phones. It doesn't say that anywhere, so that becomes a problem. Also, now the app only had 30% coupons, and everyone gets upset. "Why is there no 40% coupon!"

I hate the app.

[XCashier]

Yeah, the app used to be pretty good, but not anymore.

What's also bugging me are all the third-party coupon sites that have coupons they claim are ours. Some work, some don't, and the customers just do not comprehend that some of these sites are no good. Honestly, I'm wondering if some of these sites put viruses or worse on peoples' computers. But trying to get a customer to go to our website and get the real coupon is like pulling teeth. They always insist on going the roundabout, more difficult way instead of simply typing the store name dot com in.

[notalwaysright]

I know, I get so many people who say they'll just google it to get a coupon. And if they can't figure out how to do it, they want you to give them one. Or they don't want to turn their data on to download the app.

Oh, I almost forgot! A happy shiny moment. Our District Manager was in the store and paging about the text coupons on the speakers. Lady comes up, wants the 20% total purchase coupon. Doesn't have a phone. District manager gets her to sign up for the physical mailers. Customer says, "so I get 20% off today?" Manager explains that it is only for new texting signups. Lady has a fit about how it isn't fair to those who don't want to get texts or don't have phones. District Manager... Stands her ground. That's right, she did not give in! And this lady is normally a typical corporate clone spouting "customer service first" blah blah. It was amazing.

[Trixie]

My company sends out tons of emails with photo offers and they are only for online orders. I hate these emails. I'm constantly getting people trying to use these coupons on their orders. Most of the time I'll honor it IF they're nice and I know if I called the manager they would tell me to do it. But when I have people trying to use the online coupons for their passport photos. No. Pay the $11.99 and go away. Okay, that's rant for another day.

[NotAlBundy]

Our app used to have a game where you could play to win a buy one, get one half off coupon. The coupon code would have letters in it. Guess what our registers don't accept as part of coupon codes? Right! Numbers only, no letters. I made it work anyway.

What's killing me now is Retail Me Not. My company does NOT accept third party coupons. If you want coupons, you're supposed to sign up for our rewards program. Customers throw the mother of all his system fits when you tell them you can't take the coupon.

I even had one lady say, "Well, you haven't sent me any coupons lately!" Coupons are not a right, they are a privelage. I kind of wish we would stop doing them all together.

[Dreamstalker]

Someone at my company came up with "e-offers" that can be loaded on a customer's card if they register it online (glitchy, and forget it if you ever lose your password but that's another rant).

These offers are in the weekly flier, listed as such that it's an extra sale on top of the existing sale. Yes, but ONLY if you go online and load it on the card! Someone at Corp missed including that part or if they did I can't find it. So I regularly get hissyfits about "This should be X price, it says in the flier!" Yes, but see the word 'e-offer'? You have to go ONLINE and register your card to get that sale. Not good enough. No, I cannot change the price. Okay, you don't want it then? Fine. (I wish us grunts could see sales numbers and voids of these e-offer items so we could explain exactly why this is happening). I know we're trying to get people to use the website more, but it would be easier to emphasize the mobile app and/or just push the offers out to the cards.

[wolfie]

What's killing me now is Retail Me Not. My company does NOT accept third party coupons. If you want coupons, you're supposed to sign up for our rewards program.

What is "Retail me not"? From your description, it sounds like their business model is simply to issue coupons for stores without checking with the stores in question - so why would stores accept a coupon generated by a random entity (not the store or the manufacturer of the product)?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Pretty much. Seems like coupons for people who don't want to sign up for a loyalty card.

As for why stores would accept these coupons: customer satisfaction. Better to just give the customer the discount so they don't leave a nasty comment on a survey. There's one retail chain in particular that trumpets the fact they are spineless and will "find their yes" and cave in to any customer demand, no matter how unreasonable.

[DerangedHermit]

Someone at my company came up with "e-offers" that can be loaded on a customer's card if they register it online (glitchy, and forget it if you ever lose your password but that's another rant).

This store can't even program regular store coupons in a way that would make sense, which is doubly mindboggling when you consider they worked better pre-POS upgrade.

[MoonCat]

Why on earth are these corporate idiots trying to promote WEBSITE use? If they want to keep people coming into the actual stores, this seems counter-productive.

That's a big "if", I know. Quite possible there's a long-term plan in place to get rid of the stores eventually so they don't have to pay all the associated costs.

[NotAlBundy]

What is "Retail me not"? From your description, it sounds like their business model is simply to issue coupons for stores without checking with the stores in question - so why would stores accept a coupon generated by a random entity (not the store or the manufacturer of the product)?

What happens is that people that are signed up for the Rewards program will take a screen shot of their valid coupon and then upload it to the Retail Me Not website. So in theory, the coupon is valid (even though it states that obtaining coupon codes on the internet is not a valid way to coupon).

Our Rewards program is structured so that people get different coupons at different times. Like, you get 25% off your birthday month. If you haven't been in for a while, sometimes they will send a 40% off coupon to entice you to come back. The people that share these online are giving away discounts that other people are not entitled to.

Don't get me wrong, when I am ordering things online, I will do a google search to see if I can find a coupon. But if I am face to face with the employee, I am not going to try and use a coupon I know I am not entitled to.

I wish our system would just email the customers to tell them their coupons and then pull them up on our system when we scan their card.

[wolfie]

What happens is that people that are signed up for the Rewards program will take a screen shot of their valid coupon and then upload it to the Retail Me Not website. So in theory, the coupon is valid (even though it states that obtaining coupon codes on the internet is not a valid way to coupon).

Our Rewards program is structured so that people get different coupons at different times. Like, you get 25% off your birthday month. If you haven't been in for a while, sometimes they will send a 40% off coupon to entice you to come back. The people that share these online are giving away discounts that other people are not entitled to.

I wonder how long it'll be before some with-it retailer issues coupons that "break" Retail Me Not. Specifically, issuing coupons that incorporate a serial number, where the store system will reject any coupon whose serial number has already been used. Upload your coupon to RMN? If someone downloads it before you get to the store, your coupon is no longer any good. Alternately, tie the coupon to the loyalty card - the name on the coupon MUST match the name on the loyalty card in order to use it.

[notalwaysright]

Our store manager says that the company I work for has some agreement with Retail Me Not. So the coupons are valid (not copied) but are generally not as good. Like there will be a 40% off one item, but NOT the 25% off total purchase. I've used this site for online shopping, when you just copy/paste the code and hope it works.

And as far as "breaking" it, I have various coupons for Fred Meyer which must be used with your rewards card. I had one for $3 off $5 worth of produce (yay a coupon for something other than junk food!) and it said that it was specific to your account and not to copy or forward the email. Whether this is all true I have never tested.

[Dreamstalker]

This store can't even program regular store coupons in a way that would make sense, which is doubly mindboggling when you consider they worked better pre-POS upgrade.

Indeed. Technically we're not supposed to enter coupons manually (why is the system such a piece of crap that 90% won't scan then?), yet one or two managers tell newbies and everyone else to do it anyway even if the coupon is visibly altered. If it doesn't have a valid, legible date (and met any purchase requirements) I won't take it.

B&N's email coupons are now serialized and tied to the email address on the account; it used to be you could use as many per account as you wanted as long as it was one per transaction. The ones we send out in 'personalized' mailers are not; anyone can use them as long as they have a card. The Catalinas (except for 'buy X amount, get $Y off your next purchase' ads) also aren't account-specific, despite the wording on some.