As these are manufacturer coupons, they should be deducted after the sale price of $1.88. But that’s not what happened to her. Instead, the register took her ecoupons off the pre-instant-savings price of $2.88, then auto-adjusted her instant savings down to $1.88, post coupons — effectively giving her the same price as not using any coupons at all. Take a look:
Here’s the sale. Buying five drops the price of each to $1.88.
She loaded ecoupons from JewelOsco.com for .40 off Fiber One bars and .50 off Cookie Crisp cereal, assuming that she’d pay $1.48 for the bars and $1.38 for the cereal after the ecoupons. But here’s what happened:
In each case where ecoupons were used with this sale, Jewel’s register took the ecoupon off the $2.88 price, then automatically adjusted what should have been a $1 instant-savings per box to a .60 and .50 discount per box. The boxes still cost $1.88, as advertised, but the price is the same as if she hadn’t used any coupons at all! Had she used paper manufacturer coupons, they would have deducted correctly, and she would have paid $1.48 and $1.38 for these items.
What to do? Saver21 writes, “I really don’t think it would have made much of a difference any way to say anything. Most of the employees don’t realize Jewel has ecoupons anyways.” But that’s not the point — if she went to the trouble of loading the ecoupons ahead of time, she should have benefited and enjoyed a lower price at the register. And, because these are manufacturer ecoupons, Jewel’s records will show that these coupons were redeemed by a shopper, even though the shopper didn’t actually receive a discount at all.
While that was going on, I was experiencing an issue of my own at Jewel. I spotted Beech-Nut Fruities baby food pouches on clearance at my Jewel for .24. I had a $1-off-3 coupon. Even though the pouches would total .72, Jewel’s current coupon policy says that shoppers are allowed to keep their coupon overage:
Cents off Coupons ‐ will be accepted for the full face value on a “cents off” coupon provided
the customer has other purchases against which to credit the additional amount.
I had plenty of other items, so that extra .28 in overage should have applied to my other groceries, but the register automatically scanned my $1 coupon at .72. I immediately asked the cashier about this, and she said they weren’t allowed to adjust a coupon any more if it scanned at a different amount than it said. I said that was not what the current coupon policy says, and I asked if something had changed. The cashier called a manager over who said it was fine to override the .72 and enter the full $1 value of the coupon. But what if I hadn’t watched the coupon scan and noticed it scanned for less?
And, continuing the “coupon issues at Jewel” topic, reader Calibabydolly wrote this morning regarding the “Great Deal” printables and Catalinas that were available a few weeks ago. She had gotten a Catalina at the register good for $1 off any Great Deal item. She writes, “Well, I searched online and found a bag of oranges that said they were a “Great Deal” that week, so I used my $1 off coupon on a bag of oranges on the last day I could use my coupon and it scanned in at ZERO off! Naturally I saw it after I got home because it seemed my other normal coupons came off just fine that day. I just let it go…but that sure does seem like a bait n switch to me.”
I too noticed that my printable coupons for Great Deal items (I used $2.50 off an Equaline product and $2 off a Wild Harvest product) scanned at $0 at the register too, even though I had bought ten Great Deal items to use them with. My cashier automatically corrected it, but I didn’t realize at the time that others were having issues with these scanning at $0 too.
Lastly, on the “Watch your registers” theme at Jewel, reader Brian emailed asking me to remind readers that if you use a second coupon on a Buy One Get One Free sale (which also is allowed under Jewel’s policy) the second coupon scans at $0. It has been doing this since Jewel updated their registers back in March of 2012. In my experience, many cashiers are aware of this and will know what to do to enter the second coupon’s value, but again — watch and make sure you are credited for all coupons scanned.
Pollysmom says
This seems like a REALLY long time for Jewel to still be having these issues…remember when Target wasn’t giving full credit for some coupons and that was all over the news and in the Trib. My Jewel cashiers STILL don’t automatically correct 2 coupons on a B1G1F sale and I very recently had a cashier say to me “this coupon scanned a zero, that’s never happened before!!” So everyone needs to pay very careful attention to their receipts. I won’t send my boyfriend to Jewel with coupons unless I’m with him because he won’t know what to look for.
Coupon Maven says
FYI: I just received an email from Jewel-Osco corporate that they are looking into these issues.
cnarbone says
I argued with the cashier that my eCoupons didn’t work. She was of no help. Ugh. I sent Jewel corporate an email. Waiting.
eztupp says
a few weeks ago i posted here about my coupon being reduced to the price of the item. i would have only gotten a penny so i wasnt too worried. the checker at the time told me that it happened automatically. so from now on if i am to get any overage i will ask her to override the register.
seachicago says
Another to watch out for: yesterday I did the Orville popcorn deal (BOGO), and used a 75cent off *2* q. The coupon seemed to scan fine, but when I checked my receipt, it had taken off only 38 cents! Again, essentially not allowing a coupon on the free item.
Here comes the rant (please feel free to skip): I find that the cashiers and managers at the store I go to are not familiar with the coupon policy, and so I just don’t shop at Jewel much anymore (anybody in corporate reading this?!!). And there is no excuse for registers that have been in place for almost a year to not be programmed correctly. The fact that people are reporting that this doesn’t happen at a few stores seems to indicate that the registers *can* be set up properly, if the store/corporate really wants to. Frankly, Jewel should just admit that they’ve changed their policy to *not* allow two coupons on a BOGO sale, because that is effectively the result.
Between the register issues at Jewel and the awful J4U at Dominick’s, I try to do as much of my shopping as possible at Aldi. The price is the price, and you can take it or leave it. At least you’re never surprised by your total at the end of checkout!
firegod97 says
I had the BOGO issue with the Wondeful Pistachios. I had 8 bags, and 7 q’s. 4 rang up at $.50 and 3 at $.00. The cashier (who’s tag said she’s worked there since 1989!) said if it came up $.00 she couldn’t do anything. I asked her to call a manager, who said to override them…How can someone with 24 years service not get this?
eztupp says
i am looking at my last jewel reciept when i did the last popcorn deal. under the first popcorn there is a $.75 credit for Avenue savings! i thought avenue went away last year? i also got credit under coupons for my $.75 mfg coupon for the popcorn. if i knew how or if i had a smart phone i would email the reciept to you. but it definitely says avenue. something is not right with their system. i havent had any problems in a long time at jewel regarding the 2nd coupon coming off with a bogo deal. but the last couple of weeks have been wierd.
llamalluv says
At least you got to use your coupon. I had mine rejected by the cashier because the item was $0.99 and my coupon was $1.00 (Beechnut Fruities). I tried to show her the coupon policy, but she said she couldn’t just take my word for it, that anyone could type up anything and put Jewel on it. Ugh.
Coupon Maven says
Jewel corporate sent over a statement today:
After reviewing the issues you described, we recognize that in some situations we have potential offer collisions occurring at JEWEL-OSCO. This is an issue we’re working to resolve quickly and permanently, and we appreciate you bringing it to our attention.
I’ll let you know when I hear more as to whether the register issues have been resolved.
theresa1740 says
This is copied from Shoppers Apprentice site and from MashupMom. Heads up on what is happening with the Jewel registers.
Here is a rundown on some of the issues you might experience while trying to redeem coupons over at Jewel, provided by Rachel from MashupMom. Her bottom line? Watch the registers like a hawk, know the Jewel coupon policy (maybe even carry a copy with you?), and be prepared to ask that the cashiers make it right when things go wrong. Here are the issues:
On a buy one get one free sale, Jewel’s policy still allows for the use of two manufacturer coupons, one on each item. Unfortunately, their registers are still automatically reducing the value of your second coupon to $0.00. This has been happening since they switched registers last summer, so you should be aware and ask your cashier to adjust your coupon value manually.
The same issue applies with overage. Their July 2012 coupon policy allows for overage, or for a coupon that’s over the value of an item to scan in at full value, the “overage” there applying towards other items in your order. Well, the registers helpfully automatically reduce the value of your coupon to the value of the item, meaning that you don’t get your overage unless you argue for it. Many cashiers are unaware that Jewel now allows overage, so be prepared with a copy of the policy or be prepared to talk to customer service.
On a buy one get one free sale where you have a coupon for “X cents off two items,” the registers are sometimes reducing the value of the coupon by half. Essentially, they are attaching half the value of the coupon to one item, and half to the “free” item, and ringing the half they choose to attach to the “free” item up as: $0.00. We saw this most recently with the Orville Redenbacher $.75/2 coupons on last week’s buy one get one free sale, which many of you mentioned rang up at $.38 off rather than the full $.75 off you were entitled to receive. Again, watch for this and be sure to mention it to your cashier so that they can enter the value manually.
On an instant savings deal, such as last week’s “buy five participating General Mills items, get them for $1.88 each” sale. When you load e-coupons onto your card from the Jewel site, and then use them on items that are on an instant savings deal, it reduces the amount of instant savings you get. The registers automatically negate the e-coupon, and just make the price after instant + e-coupon that same $1.88, so you basically get nothing for your coupon. This was happening to some of you on another GM instant savings deal a while back, and I was informed it was fixed, but unfortunately: not. There’s not much you can do here, since it’s convoluted and most Jewel staff at the store level don’t seem to know that they even have these new e-coupons available.
Some store coupons have automatically been scanning in at $0.00 rather than their face value — but don’t beep, so you won’t realize this unless you are watching the register or check your receipt later. Jill mentions this happening with some of the “great value” coupons on the Jewel site a while back — but I’ve also had it happen with Catalinas and with other store printables. Watch when they scan a store coupon to make sure your total actually goes down. If not, they’ll have to enter the value manually.
choppette says
I also got the .75 off from avenue for purchasing the popcorn and was wondering what that was. I never loaded anything to my card from the avenue program and I got a new card with a new number when the fuel program started.
crosson says
I no longer do “big shopping” at Jewel, because it’s just too hard to monitor too many coupons. Last night was the perfect example. I bought $30 worth of groceries, to use my $3 of $30 store coupon, $10 off my $13 ham, $2 store coupon of a $2.13 cent piece of skirt steak, free box of cereal and free 2 lbs bananas with $10 purchases and $1.50 store coupon off any salad dressing. Mine was $1.49. Since we all know about these problems with the registers, I watch very carefully to see the deduction on the screen. Even if the cashier says that she saw the amount go down, I still ask to see it on the screen. We BOTH saw the $1.50 come off on the screen, right under the dressing. when I got my receipt, I stepped off to the side, and looked it over ( to bask in the glory of my savings!) The $1.50 off salad dressing was NOT on the receipt! The cashier was free so I went back to her and asked for her help reading it. It wasn’t there! I went to the service desk. Wasn’t my first time at my neighborhood store, so I went to the far side of the desk, to interact with the helpful associate. The other associate did jump in and say, “Yeah, that happens sometimes, that it doesn’t show up on the receipt, but it still comes off of the total.” The helpful associate just didn’t even respond. He looked over my receipt, asked the cashier for my coupon from her drawer, and refunded the $1.50 to me. He apologized and said that he has noticed that the registers, the screens and the receipts do not always process the same information. He advised me to always check my receipt. On a side note, I think I’ve had three previous situations with the other associate. On one occasion, the store manager was telling her that he wanted to honor my FREE gallon milk coupons for purchasing two Oberwiese half gallons BOGOF. She was arguing with him – telling him that I wasn’t entitled to use those coupons for that purchase. It was kind of funny for me! You know all the arguments that we have had with cashiers or customer service. This woman was arguing with her BoSS! The store manager! Telling him, basically, that he could not make the customer happy! Since I was getting what I had asked for (because “that’s what Jill told us we could do – It was the only time in my life that I ever had Oberwiesse chocolate milk. Thank you Jill!) it was a really entertaining exchange. I don’t know who the associate was more ticked off at – me or her manager. Sorry, I’m rambling. the point is, we have to check our receipts very carefully.