Petrol coupons = SCs

[Lace Neil Singer]

Once again, we are running the petrol coupons. To anyone who's never read my moans on petrol coupon SCs, these are coupons which entitle the customer to five pence off per litre of fuel. You get one if you spend fifty pounds in mainstore, excluding such things as phone credit, stamps etc.

We are coming to the end of the run now; the store has stopped giving them out, and the vouchers last end dates are coming to an end. I had an SC yesterday who simply would not grasp the fact that a) his coupon expired two days ago and b) I could not put it thru the till. The tills will not accept expired coupons no matter what I do. No, I will not make an exception. I will get told off if I accept an expired coupon and scan another so that you can get your piddling discount. You should have checked the expiry date before you filled up your car.

The really stupid thing is that the expiry date is clearly written on the coupon, but so many people just don't see it or if they do, they think that an exception should be made for them. The same goes if you forget to use yours. I am not your mother. I am not required to remind you to use it. Don't go to the manager and tell fibs about me "refusing" to use your coupon and saying you had it in your hand when you didn't, and I have two collegues to back me up.

An actual SC did this. He made a giant fuss but the manager refused to let him have his discount, telling him that she was sorry but we can't put coupons in after the transaction but it's still got five days on it. He threw a massive tantrum and said he'd never come back. I saw him come in yesterday. -.- If only SCs wouldn't raise our hopes like this.

[blas]

BP started with those coupons a few years back, and people never read the fine print. You had to get at least 8 gallons to get the discount, yet people would just put in $5 and try to get it for free, or ya know, smaller amounts of gas.

[fireheart]

BP started with those coupons a few years back, and people never read the fine print. You had to get at least 8 gallons to get the discount, yet people would just put in $5 and try to get it for free, or ya know, smaller amounts of gas.

The petrol stations around here all have a minimum limit of $2.

The coupons around here work as follows: Spend $30 at <various stores> you get a voucher that gives you 4c off per litre at the pump. People constantly try to bitch that because they spend $180 they should get six vouchers (or some stupid amount)

Next person who does that will be getting the lecture of how a friend of mine who no longer works for <Company> had to drive a long way every time she had a shift at my store and managed to do so on one petrol voucher a week. This is actual true, my friend had to move wayyyy out into the country because she was struggling with rent at her former place. She now works closer to home thankfully. (this is the same friend from my "We are not tied to you for life" thread)

[Dave1982]

Back when the Bent Staple issued paper coupons for recycling ink cartridges, we had the same problem. They actually went so far as to issue rubber date stamps to all the registers so there'd be no issues with the date being unclear, but that still didn't help. Finally they did away with the paper coupons entirely due to the SCs and scammers. [/threadjack]

[blas]

Oh yeah, the grocery stores do that around here. In recent years, both the mega corporate grocery store (the one I worked at in high school) and the Greedy Bastard grocery chain (started out with just one store, then he bought out all the smaller stores in the city I live in, then he bought out small gas stations and made them extensions of his grocery store) have "pump perks" where a certain amount of cents per gallon is discounted depending on how much you buy in groceries. Of course, they are only good at their gas stations.

I'm a Kwik Trip kinda gal, they only have cents off per gallon redeemed by points with their credit card, which I don't have and won't have, but I really only use their gas stations anyway.

[mharbourgirl]

I kind of like the way the local grocery chain (Sobeys) does their gas coupons. You get 1c per litre off gas at Needs/Fast Fuel for every $50 worth of groceries you buy, and you can stack them. So if you save them up for a few weeks you can get a decent discount on your gas. 13c off per litre in one fillup is a nice discount even with the price of gas around here now.

Oh, and you get a small grocery coupon at Needs when you buy gas, amount depends on how much gas you get.

They probably have to deal with some arsey customers over it all, though. Some things are never a good enough deal for some people.

[blas]

From what I've heard, you can only use the Mega rewards or Greedy Bastard rewards coupons one per purchase (and they are only good for a few weeks after purchase), I can only assume people buy tons of groceries over a period of time, ignoring the dates, and try to get a huge discount all at once.

[Lace Neil Singer]

These ones are one per purchase, tho you can have two pumps on one purchase, ie filling two cars, if you so wish.

[mattm04]

A grocery store chain in my area used to do paper coupons. Basically spend X in store in a transaction get a coupon for Y off per gallon at any of their stations. Now it is for every dollar you spend you get a point, fro every X points you earn you get Y per gallon off.

More then once, I have seen SC argue with the gas station cashier. As stated on the receipt and big signs in the store and at the station in the lot, the points expire after 30 days. Deal with it.

[Gizmo]

Slightly off topic: My father in law is mightily upset with those coupons because they only calculate the discount to the round litre. Meaning if you put 30.2 litres in that they are 'stealing' 1p from you.

That's a fun conversation I get to have a few times a year.

[brucetiki]

The petrol stations around here all have a minimum limit of $2.

The coupons around here work as follows: Spend $30 at <various stores> you get a voucher that gives you 4c off per litre at the pump. People constantly try to bitch that because they spend $180 they should get six vouchers (or some stupid amount)

You can then get an extra 2-4c/litre off by spending an extra $2/$5 in the service station on non-fuel purchases.

Mates who used to work in one of the major chains that have this scheme would have customers literally pay for their shopping in $30 increments so that they could get multiple vouchers!

[EricKei]

A chain here does that -- For every $50 you spend, you get either 5c or 10c off per gallon of fuel (not sure how it decides which one you get); there is no practical limit on the discount aside from (a) a time limit and (b) a gallons-per transaction limit (20 gals, I think). If you have, say, "$5 off" accrued (maybe buying for a Shelter or somewhere that gets food daily...?) but if gas is "only" $4/gal that day, you get 20 gals of free gas and still have $1/gal discount left over for next time.

The really nice part is, you earn the discount by using the store's "sales don't count unless you use this card" card, and you get the fuel discount by slotting the same card in before you slot your credit card at the pump. No vouchers, no paper bullcrap, and you can find out how much your discount is/when it expires by calling a toll free number on the card.

The downside is, the only chain it works at is one that already had inflated pricing, and which promptly jacked up their prices even further when this program came into effect. They typically charge 20-25c more/gal than other major, non-discount stations, even in situations where you'd think they would have a price war, like being across the street from two competing stations x_x The upshot is, you need to save up a discount of at least 30c to make them reliably cheaper than the other guys ~_~