I think I caught a coupon scammer

[Imogene]

Yeah...
I've seen this guy in the store many times, and he likes to hand me a stack of coupons folded in half and crumpled up... and usually, about half of them he just doesn't have in his purchase. And he tosses in coupons for $5 off things like Antihistamines, but he just doesn't buy them. I've started to watch his coupons very closely, cause I can just tell he's expecting me to ignore what he bought as he always comes through UScan...

[ServantofthePeople]

I have a couple people that come to my store and deliberatly use coupons that they dont have items for. They play it off by just saying "ok" and taking the coupons back really fast. Their logic is, someones going to override the coupon and accept it.

I just make it habit at not letting them

[bainsidhe]

U-Scan is such a pain, I'm surprised he'd think it's so easy to scam. Not sure if your U-Scans are easier to override, but ours had a whole process to ring in coupons and they weren't that easy to override if coupons didn't scan. But a regular register? Just a few clicks and away we go. Which is why scammers hunted down the newest and youngest employees and knew which ones let things slide.

[thansal]

Don't most POS systems scan the coupon and deduct things automatically? Like, if you scan a coupon for Antacids, and he hasn't bought any, it's not going to take any money off.

I'll admit, that's one of the random things I like about CostCo (as a shopper) is that they scan one coupon from the circular and that's it, everything you bought that was in the circular is adjusted.

[Imogene]

Don't most POS systems scan the coupon and deduct things automatically?

Yes, but, as our system tends to be terribly flaky, due to the way items are put into our system, I tend to double check with the customer to see if they actually bought the item on the coupon, and overriding the error is usually a two to four step process... No biggie, it's just that this guy will routinely throw in coupons for a ridiculous amount off, just in case I override them for him...

[Cookie]

I'll admit, that's one of the random things I like about CostCo (as a shopper) is that they scan one coupon from the circular and that's it, everything you bought that was in the circular is adjusted.

Sometimes I've forgotten my coupons and looked at my receipt and found it was all taken off anyway. They've got the same barcode on all of the coupons, and they just keep one behind the register and scan it by default.