If you’re a current Shopmium user, here’s a change to the app’s terms of service that you need to know about. Previously, Shopmium offers could be stacked with manufacturer coupon discounts, as is the case with several other rebate apps. However, Shopmium changed its terms this week, and if you pair a manufacturer discount with a Shopmium offer, you will not receive the cash back from Shopmium.
From Shopmium’s site:
Can I use other coupons?
We do not allow coupon stacking! At Shopmium, we take into account coupons associated with your item’s final line price. If you upload a picture of your receipt showing a Manufacturer or Vendor coupon* applied to your eligible item, you will be asked to submit a different receipt within the offer’s campaign dates. Our final rebate amount takes into account any other special offers or coupons that are listed on your receipt and relate to the product. The rebate we offer cannot exceed the final price paid for the product and will be adjusted accordingly. *Manufacturer & vendor coupons do not include retailer promotions or loyalty programs.
Quotient (the parent company of Coupons.com) purchased Shopmium back in November 2015. It will be interesting to see what happens with other apps like Ibotta and Checkout 51. Last summer, NewsAmerica (publisher of the SmartSource coupon insert) purchased Checkout 51. I would not be terribly surprised if the other rebate/cash back apps follow suit at some point in the future.
SavingStar, the oldest rebate/ecoupon app of the bunch, has never allowed coupon stacking on its single item offers, though they do allow stacking on “One Or Many” (multiple-purchase threshold) offers.
wolverine70 says
This seems to be a trend. At certain retailers, if you stack manufacturers coupons with their offers, their offers are cut back or cut off. This could be construed as ‘rationalizing’ promotional offers, but it strikes me as perhaps an overreaction. There does seem to be more and more signs of a backlash towards consumers who attempt to maximize offers. I guess retailers, rebate sites and manufacturers are free to do what they wish, but the ability to stack offers is the only thing that makes prices something near competitive at any but the largest retailers.
Coupon Maven says
If you didn’t see this article, it’s a great read:
https://couponsinthenews.com/2016/03/31/coffee-company-criticizes-couponers-for-redeeming-its-offers/
Marley Coffee recently ran cash-back offers on Ibotta, Checkout 51 and Shrink, all at the same time they were running a high-value manufacturer coupon. With no restrictions on stacking, shoppers were using them all to buy the coffee, and the brand flipped out in the most unprofessional way, attacking bloggers and crying “abuse” to shoppers.
You know, when NewsAmerica both -owns- Checkout 51 and advertises the app within the SmartSource coupon insert several times a month, most consumers are not even going to know or realize there is a stacking issue (from the industry’s perspective.)
Andrew F. says
Most Shopmium offers, even when it was a stand-alone company included a line in the terms indicating it was not to be combined with any other offers. Practically, this only meant they would reduce the rebate to actual after coupon price, not totally exclude and deny payment. The recent and more explicit terms change when Quotient took over has been a two-step process.
Quotient began adding some of their typical printable coupon promotions as in-app rebates about 2-3 weeks ago. Those rebates had language generally mirroring the old wording present in most historical Shopmium offers, namely “rebate cannot be combined with any other offers.” On April 7th, they added anther round of offers. Among those were offers on Suave Gold and Playtex Sport products. Most of the larger coupon blogs picked up on these new rebates on April 8th and began trumpeting stacking the Suave Gold and Playtex offers with manufacturer’s coupons and having a moneymaking scenario. After a few hours, people started chiming in about Shopmium historically trimming rebate values to account for other coupons, so many posts were updated to say just “free” and not moneymaker. These rebates allowed up to 20 redemptions and initially had a 4/7/2016 to 5/7/2016 offer period. After the word “free” spread like wildfire, these offers were redeemed at break-neck speed and ultimately terminated on 4/10/2016 at 2 PM because the ultimate redemption limit for the offer had been reached.
On Monday, all the terms for all Shopmium offers had changed to what one can see now. A separate, partially bolded statement excluding use of the rebate with any other coupon of offer. Previously, this statement was further down in the terms and easier to miss if you weren’t really paying attention.
Personally, I had noticed the deals on 4/7, and also noticed an upcoming $10/$25 instant savings Meijer Schick/Playtex offer starting 4/10 for my Sunday market. With a $3/1 rebate and $4.19 each per box, buying 6 and redeeming via Shopmium seemed like a perfect freebie/nearly free purchase to donate to the local food pantry. I did two transactions Sunday morning and was able to submit for the rebate. I intentionally avoided using coupons due to the terms. I’ve yet to hear back on the submission, but based on the site FAQ, I should be approved since only a store promotion applied. There are many comments on the original blog posts of users indicating Shopmium had completely denied payment due to coupon stacking.
I would agree the rebate apps are likely to move this way. Even with Checkout 51 since NewsAmerica took over, many of the offers now include terms indicating no other coupons are to be used. The Kimberly Clark offers over the last few weeks all have language in the terms excluding products for which a coupon was also used.
Coupon Maven says
Andrew, thanks for all of the detailed info. I saw the Playtex offer getting around, but honestly — I haven’t even looked at the app in months as I felt like the offers in the app were really lacking. The feedback I hear from readers are that there are “too many apps,” so I’ve put more of my focus on the ones that my readers seem to read more (statistically speaking.) For my blog, that’s Checkout 51 and SavingStar, with Ibotta a close third.
With Coupons.com’s ownership, the Shopmium offers seem to be improving now — the change to disallow stacking would also seem to indicate there will be better/larger offers continuing to come.
I’m in several bloggers’ networking groups, and yesterday, Shopmium/Coupons.com reached out to some of our bloggers asking them to stop writing deals involving app stacking & to change any posts that were currently online that involved stacking Shopmium with manufacturer coupons.
Regarding the (high!) redemption limit of 20 per person on these offers — did they learn NOTHING from Snap’s demise? Snap would do the same thing, have crazy-high offer redemptions for things like $2 off Huggies baby wipes, which are $1.97 every day at Walmart. I had so many complaints from readers when I’d post those deals that I actually stopped — people would go buy the item, then go to redeem it in the app, and the app would say that there were no more redemptions to be had. Those offers dry up quickly when people are buying 20 or more of the same item.
And, of course, Snap (in grocery app form, anyway) is now extinct.
Andrew F. says
The offers have significantly increased in the last two weeks. There are even more offers than most people actually realize. When you open the app, you’re placed on the “featured” tab. If you look towards the top of the app, you’ll also notice “Personal Care” and “All Offers” tabs with at least a dozen more offers most people probably don’t know about. Shopmium really needs to make that selection process more intuitive than it is now.
Andrew Bennett says
So THAT is why I went to H-E-B on April 11, trying to redeem the Suave Gold rebate that was promised to end later that day, and yet the offer had closed and the ending date had CHANGED in the rebate description.
They never did email me back as to why they did that. Sounded shady to me.