Uh...Most Stores Do That

[NateTheChops]

I don't think this needs much explanation.

Had a woman complain because we wouldn't take a coupon that was expired a month ago. It was a five dollar off coupon if she spent 75 dollars or more. It was not, I repeat, NOT a rewards coupon.

Rewards coupons are good after the expiration date, so long as we can verify that no one has used them all ready. (We do this by calling the home office, but fortunately I haven't had any of those today)

Regular coupons, which even count the ones the Bent Staple mails out, are not accepted once they expire.

She said it was unfair and that I (Yes, me personally) shouldn't send out coupons that we aren't going to accept.

Mind you, I did ask her when she got the coupon. As the Bent Staple, flawed though it is, is not prone to sending out coupons that expire mere days later. She couldn't give me an answer to that query, but it was still our fault.

[MoonCat]

How hard is it to understand expiration dates?? Lord, the stupid makes my head hurt.

[NateTheChops]

I'm used to the stupid. It's the stupid that tries to come off as smart that burns me.

[Sapphire Silk]

I'm used to the stupid. It's the stupid that tries to come off as smart that burns me.

Ah, but if she'd succeeded she would be smart, or so her thinking goes.

People like her confuse browbeating with intelligence all the time . . . and get away with it just often enough that it makes a useful tactic.

[Android Kaeli]

I get the opposite, when Random Craft Store gives customers at the registers coupons, it's always good for the next week. The customers then get pissed off when they come back in the next day and are told that their coupons they want to use, don't start until the next week. All because they couldn't take the two seconds to read the coupon properly.

Had a few customers bring in coupons that were over a YEAR expired. When the old ASM was called for a couple of these, he laughed at the customer who complained that we always took expired coupons and, in the nicest way possible, told them they couldn't use it, they could buy their stuff or GTFO of the store.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Where I work, we sometimes have petrol vouchers. These are given out in the supermarket, if you spend a certain amount and entitle you to 5p off per litre. Now, these have an expiry date on them; also, if they are expired, they won't go thru the till. The amount of entitlement this spawns when they go out of date is annoying. People stand there and bitch, "Why can't you just put it thru anyway? It's only one day/one week/one month/one year out of date!"

We can't. Even if we wanted to, the till won't allow it to go thru. In any case, the expiry date is there for a reason, it's not just there as decoration.

[Gizmo]

I get the opposite, when Random Craft Store gives customers at the registers coupons, it's always good for the next week. The customers then get pissed off when they come back in the next day and are told that their coupons they want to use, don't start until the next week. All because they couldn't take the two seconds to read the coupon properly.

We are doing some christmas coupons over the last few weeks and we are now on the third book. Each book is given out for two weeks and redeemable for two weeks.

Last week I had to explain half a dozen times that we couldn't take book 3 until the following week as the dates printed on the front of the coupon stated. I had to void over £30 of products on a single customer since he then decided he didn't want them.

[vikingchyk]

How hard is it to understand expiration dates?? Lord, the stupid makes my head hurt.

Then you have the Big Beautiful Bath stores that will take their coupons past the expiration date (or their competitor's coupons, when they still had one) I had an asst mgr tell me they would take them expired AND you could use as many of the $5 off as you wanted per transaction. I think he was high at the time I haven't been there in a while, maybe they finally changed that policy...

[BrenDAnn]

Let me relate to you the worst expired coupon story I have. The city I work in sends out these booklets, with different business in it, offering discounts. Ours is a free medium single topping pizza with the purchase of a large specialty. A few years back it was with the purchase of any large. Anyhow, I was working kitchen one evening, and someone called in saying they had one of said coupons, and ordered a large single topping and a medium single topping. Now, this was the year AFTER it had changed from any large to a large specialty that they had to buy, and I was well aware of it, so I informed the customer of this. I got hung up on, then called back by SC's husband and torn into because "the coupon says ANY LARGE!" Well, turns out their kids had kept the current coupon last time they'd used it, and the SC's were looking at last year's for whatever reason. The husband DID apologize, but WOW! READ YOUR COUPONS, PEOPLE!

[PepperElf]

How hard is it to understand expiration dates?? Lord, the stupid makes my head hurt.

all you have to do is look at the top 25 at PFB to know how hard it is...
you know to what i am referring

[Trishlovesdolphins]

That's lame. I'm a huge couponer, but I literally go through my coupons every time I cut them and make sure I don't have any expired. Though, if she were a new shopper, I can see asking, I've seen a few places that will take expired ones, but you don't argue over it for craps sakes. You know what happens when stores have crazy coupon bitches that complain all the time? They stop taking coupons.

[Peppergirl]

That's lame. I'm a huge couponer, but I literally go through my coupons every time I cut them and make sure I don't have any expired. Though, if she were a new shopper, I can see asking, I've seen a few places that will take expired ones, but you don't argue over it for craps sakes. You know what happens when stores have crazy coupon bitches that complain all the time? They stop taking coupons.

This.

I coupon also. And these kinds of nasty bitches ruin things for the rest of us, because we all get lumped in to the 'crazy' category.

I'm so anal about making sure I have the right size, quantity, expiration, etc. I also try to go during off peak times, so as not to hold up the lines.

Sorry for the threadjack. Just gripes my ass to see stories like this, because the good couponers are thought to be just like these assholes.

[ohsobitter]

Then you have the Big Beautiful Bath stores that will take their coupons past the expiration date (or their competitor's coupons, when they still had one) I had an asst mgr tell me they would take them expired AND you could use as many of the $5 off as you wanted per transaction. I think he was high at the time I haven't been there in a while, maybe they finally changed that policy...

Nope, just went there yesterday and probably used about 10 for my purchases.

[NateTheChops]

This.

Sorry for the threadjack.

No threadjacking as far as I can see. I agree completely.

I happen to like the Bent Staples coupons because it's basically like they pay you to shop there. I like the SHC system too.

If the coupon was a day or two old, we might make an exception. We did it once for a woman who was sending care packages to soldiers in Iraq. Okay, maybe that sounds like a double standard. But again, it was only a day old and it was for a good cause.

This particular woman's coupon was over a month old.

A few people have asked how hard it is to read expiration dates. Rember, these are the people who will pound on the door half an hour before the store opens, with the hours posted right there on the door.

[Sleepwalker]

I rarely get around to the store before the coupon expires. Did this the other day with a coupon for free eggs, presented it, and the girl looked like I was about to hit her before she told me was expired. I'm glad our policy at work is 'take them all' because man, she looked terrible. I wouldn't want that to be me.