You may have heard of SnipSnap. It’s a couponing app that was recently featured by Katie Couric and Dave Ramsey over the past week.
What does SnipSnap do? In their own words:
Never forget your coupons at home again. SnipSnap is the 1st app that lets you scan and redeem ANY type of printed coupon on an iPhone. You’re welcome, America.
With the SnipSnap app, instead of carrying your coupons with you, you can take photographs of your coupons. SnipSnap converts your photos into clear, scannable bar codes. And, once coupons are loaded into SnipSnap, you can view, share or use any coupons that anyone else has loaded as well.
What could possibly be wrong with this? Everything.
First, most store and manufacturer coupons have a non-transferability clause that voids the coupon if it is copied or transferred. SnipSnap does both. Second, there are many free-product coupons on SnipSnap that were likely issued to a single person, but now they’re being shared by thousands. And worse, when a customer hands their phone to a cashier to have the barcode scanned, they don’t see this low-quality photo of someone’s hand holding a coupon:
(Note that I’ve blacklined the barcodes for my SnipSnap screenshots. But if you download the app, your barcodes are perfectly clear.)
SnipSnap’s Facebook wall is filled with complaints from shoppers that stores like Kroger and Target are no longer accepting SnipSnap coupons — as they shouldn’t. But unsuspecting cashiers may scan the app, believing the offers were authorized by the store.
Blogger Tiffany Ivanovsky opened a discussion of SnipSnap’s legitimacy on Facebook today, and while SnipSnap has deleted some comments, most remain at this link. She also wrote a great post on her blog after speaking with Target’s corporate, which confirmed that they “do not accept coupons in this app” as it violates their coupons’ transferability clause. Definitely read her post too as it contains some interesting commentary from SnipSnap’s CEO.
SnipSnap maintains that they intend their app to be used on store coupons, not manufacturer coupons. He stated to Tiffany on Facebook, “Manufacturer coupons cannot be shared or redeemed through the app. Period.”
It took me less than two minutes to locate a manufacturer coupon on the app. Here’s a $2 On Your Next Order Catalina that clearly states “MANUFACTURER CPN” across the top:
– This app is not the intended form of distribution of these coupons. Distributing them in this way violates the copying and transferring portions of the terms of many of these coupons.
– Many of these coupons were intended to be limited to specific people. The app contains many free-item coupons that were likely distributed to a limited number of people. You can find photos of coupons for just about anything and everything:
None of these coupons are intended for the masses – they were issued to a limited number of people. But, by allowing thousands of people to share the same photograph of the coupon, far more products are potentially walking out the door than the creators of these coupon campaigns ever anticipated.
Interestingly, SnipSnap seems to know its offers may or may not work at the register, so you can even provide feedback as to which coupons worked. These are moved to the top of their highest-rated and “Staff Pick” coupon lists:
I think there’s an enormous amount of liability hanging over SnipSnap for encouraging this kind of coupon copying and usage. And regardless of it recently being in the headlines, I can’t recommend that people use it. If you wouldn’t walk into your store with a handful of photocopied coupons and try to convince the cashier to take them (and you shouldn’t!) then you shouldn’t use this either.
Interestingly, last month I received an email from SnipSnap’s PR agency asking me to write a story about their app. I replied with several questions I’d already had in mind – why do they feel they can encourage redistribution of coupons that the store won’t be reimbursed for or aren’t authorized? They never responded to my inquiries.
Well, SnipSnap, I finally wrote about your app. But I’d guess this isn’t quite the story you had in mind.
cg1 says
I’m confused how a CVS coupon got a Staff Pick.
At least for CVS which ties specific coupons to cards as mentioned, these won’t work. The registers reject unless they match. I remember grabbing some CVS coupons from the table that were generated from another household member’s card and them not working because the card wasn’t the same. Now when I get home I write my name on the CVS coupons to correctly match them.
Catalinas won’t either since CVS says they’re not accepted there and the register will reject it, so looks like this tech is defeated at CVS at least. I could see the snipsnap CEO using that logic- it may say manufacturer’s coupon but is actually a store coupon since that’s the only place it can be used.
sebrugger says
Last week at Target I used a $5 off $50 target store coupon that was mailed to me. The register prompted the cashier to reject the coupon if it was electronic, or accept if it was an original paper copy. The cashier had said she hasn’t received a prompt like that before. And I hadn’t ever seen a prompt like that either. Maybe it is because of this app the target register prompted with this message?
shandelle says
I had only started to hear about this app on a couple blogs in the last couple weeks but now that I’ve seen this post, I’ll definitely steer clear. Thanks, Jill!
Fortunately people won’t be able to sneak this past the self check machines either, since those will not proceed without a coupon being dropped in. Some small, grocery only Walmarts in the city have been burnt so bad by coupon fraud, they’re now making a cashier stand with you and override each one on the screen so you can move forward. It’s super irritating and I’m really frustrated with all these scammers and schemers who are ruining it for us.
stephne says
What is this c**p! I’m scrolling through the APP and looking at the pictures of the “coupons” some don’t show the expiration dates and others are just pictures of the bar code. How do you even know what coupon you’re redeeming when all you see is the bar code? I’m considering printing information about this app out and giving it to all of my local stores so that they know not to accept coupons from this app. This was a good concept gone completely wrong.
It’s pretty obvious they’re not getting permission to post these coupons from the stores. I would make the assumption that if it was a store okayed coupon it would look much more professional. Instead of allowing the stores to share them offers they allow users to share offers with each other, WOW!
Aren’t they risking a huge lawsuit?
rswehrle says
One day the manufactures and the stores are just going to stop making ALL coupons.
There is just TOO much room for fraud with this app. If we see that fraud could happen, and it already is, then why can’t the creator of this app.
Have we not learned from the past, that there are a lot of people out there that coupon unethically? I see the purity of the app, in that Ted hated forgetting his coupons, but this is not the solution.
I suggest that he get better organized and create and app to help him not forget his coupons.
Happily couponing while they still exist. :)
stephne says
I sent some photos your way.
Coupon Maven says
Over the weekend, readers have been emailing me screenshots of more manufacturer coupons on SnipSnap. Here are some of them.
Clearly, there is no automatic safeguard in place to prevent manufacturer coupons from being uploaded. There are many more.
Update: Search for “Nabisco” and you’ll find fifteen copies of the Buy 3 Get 1 Free Go Cups coupon from the newspaper inserts in the app. Fifteen different instances of the same coupon (thanks to Carol for the heads-up on that one.)