“We can confirm that we are not providing hundreds of free coupons to the show or its participants.”
Extreme Couponing often shows shots of its participants humbly clipping coupons out of the newspaper at their kitchen tables… but most of the coupons they’re using on the show don’t come from any newspaper. Free-product coupons continue to number from the dozens to the hundreds on Extreme Couponing.
After last Monday’s season 3 premiere, my email box blew up again:
“Really, more free pizza coupons?”
“The first shopper got 100 free pizzas?”
“Did you see that cart full of coupons for free pizzas?”
They were hard to miss. The first shopper in the Season 3 premiere, Erin Sanders, dumped many coupons for free Freschetta and Tony’s pizzas in her cart:
I’ve been reaching out to manufacturers whose coupons have appeared on the show in large quantities to inquire about the coupons’ origins. Freschetta, Tony’s, and Red Baron pizzas are all made by the same manufacturer, Schwan’s. Is it possible Schwan’s has been providing free-pizza coupons to multiple Extreme Couponing shoppers over the past two seasons?
On May 31st, Schwan’s Communications Manager Chuck Blomberg responded with a statement:
Hello Jill,
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We can confirm that we are not providing hundreds of free coupons to the show or its participants. We cannot speculate on the origins of the coupons. We are continuing to look into the matter.
I also reached out to Chris, Perry, Joni, Erin, and Joyce via their respective email addresses, blogs and online channels, asking where each of them obtained their free coupons, while expressing my concerns about the coupons’ legitimacy if they did not come from the manufacturer.
At the time of this writing, Joni Meyer-Crothers is the only person who has responded. Via email:
“Thanks for your concern. I, myself, take the issue very seriously. I confirmed with the store directly that all the coupons I used were reimbursed and none were counterfeit.”
poetangel says
I just hope it doesn’t mess things up for us ‘regular’ shoppers. I have a free Frescheta coupon, which I received in the mail from them due to a quality issue I had with a product. It looks exactly like the one in your post. I already have so many issues with my local Woodman’s – they don’t accept more than one like IP in a transaction, and only one FREE coupon per day per person.
Pollysmom says
The comment from Joni was interesting, but she still didn’t day WHERE the coupons came from…..
cmsvmom says
She should tell the source of her free coupons – bought on ebay, gifted to her from family, donated to her for use with her shopping trip by individuals.
There is no way that any one individual can have that many of the same coupon distributed by the manufacturer for this purpose without doing something illegal like buying it, supporting a counterfeiter, or having people en masse contact the company.
Its real interesting that the future minister still says nothing. You can be sure if he applied for a job at my church, I would make sure he talked loud and long. We take a dim view of this type of deception among clergy.
These people really think this is going to just go away if they pretend nothing is wrong.
I read a comment elsewhere, maybe it was on this blog on on facebook, from someone who was new and bought coupons on ebay – and recognized a counterfeit. She contacted the seller who never said oh this is where I got it from the manufacturer – instead, the seller said “no refunds, it worked for me”. IT WORKED FOR ME? That means they have loads of em as as long as it passes, well ok…..that is so wrong.
Free item coupons should all have the holograph strip and be suspect if they do not have it, even if they scan.
And Ebay should shut down the counterfeiters and the sale of free item coupons. Why the justice dept doesnt crack down on this is beyond me. I guess this isnt fueling terrorism, just crooks.
2kidsby30 says
Both the promotional FREE Coffeemate coupon I received this year and my Coke Rewards FREE coupon have holograms. They’re not small so I doubt a cashier would miss them. Plus the hologram is on the same side of the coupon as the barcode so it’s not like it’s something they have to search for. Kudos to the industry for this change. Hopefully it helps.
allintime says
I know a few people that work as sales reps in the food and beverage industry for different companies. I have in the past been given several free coupons from my friends that get them from work for various food items. Not in these quantities, I’m talking 5. If I were Schwan, I would take a close look at who has access to the boxes of free coupons that are stored somewhere to distribute as customer relations, sales, or good faith gestures – someone, somewhere is “skimming off the top” and selling the coupons on ebay and making some extra money. That’s my guess.
miriamlevy says
during the episode I think her first…she was shown using her computer and admitting to using a “clipping service”…when I saw the all-star episodes and then the finale I knew that poor Perry was out of her league (I wasn’t a fan of Perry, but that’s just because her personality rubbed me the wrong way) however I likely would have been in the same mind-set (sticking close to $700 and hoping the other two would mess up with $5k+ goals…and to be honest, clearly Perry did win the episode, had she not messed up with the sponges…after all, Chris cheated and likely so did Joni, if not on purpose….fame and being on tv and trying to prove a point will make honest people do things they normally wouldn’t do…i’m always the first to give someone the benefit of the doubt, but clearly this whole thing was rigged…at least charities were benefitting and not the psychotic stockpiles