Q & A

From an email...

Coupon Clipper: It really just depends on the store and sometimes even the cashier or manager whether they will adjust prices/coupons for you or make you buy something additional!

Example: I did the Colgate deal at my local Walgreen's and they did adjust a price for me so I could use the coupon and get the item for free. But yesterday at the same Walgreen's-
Excedrin was on sale for $1.99/box and you got back a $1RR.

I had a 2.00 coupon so I would have made a $1 RR. The cashier said she couldn't take the coupon because it was for more than the cost and I would have to buy something else. I asked her to just adjust the cost on the product or the coupon and she said she couldn't so I asked her to ask her manager.

When the manager came over he proceeded to tell me that he could not do it and I would have to purchase something else. He told me that it would be fraud. I didn't argue and picked up and .89 candy bar and paid $1 OOP (out of pocket) and got the $1 RR so in effect it was free.

I don't get it, isn't it less fraudulent to charge me $2 for the Excedrin and take the coupon, then charge me 1.99 and then they get $2 back from the mfg for mailing in the coupon. OH well, guess that is on them. I still got it for free :)

Me: You win some and you lose some- but I'm surprised that both of those experiences happened at the same store.

The manager actually did have a partially valid point about adjusting a coupon to make it fraudulent. It is illegal for a store to charge a customer MORE for an item than its marked price. And it is also illegal for a store to accept less then the coupon price from a customer- and still charge the manufacturer the full face value of the coupon.

For example: Say you had a bar of Olay soap on sale for $.99, and you have a coupon for $1.

If you wanted to use your coupon to get the Olay soap for FREE you could ask the cashier/manager to adjust down the coupon to $.99 AND THEN $.99 would need to be written on the face of the coupon. The writing the actual coupon value on the face of the coupon makes the use of the adjusted coupon FRAUD FREE!

I'm surprised that your store manager wasn't aware of this policy. Maybe you should inform him/her... I would!

Coupon Lady Snippet:
It is a bummer when you need to spend the last penny of a coupons worth just because the coupon value is one cent higher than the product price. I try to have ideas of 'filler items' that I can quickly find in each store that I shop in. A Filler Item is anything that you can purchase very inexpensively to boost your purchase price up to cover the slight overage created by using your coupons. Filler Items may include a pack of gum, individual pencils, clearance items...