This week’s syndicated Super-Couponing Tips column is entitled “Cashiers Speak.” Here’s an excerpt:
“I work in a supermarket, and I wanted to tell you something that’s been happening in our stores. Our corporate office is removing the self-checkout U-Scan machines from the store because of coupon fraud. We have had too many of these extreme couponers come in and scan a coupon for something, and then they stick an expired coupon for something else in the machine’s slot! We don’t get any reimbursement for sending those in, plus they don’t match up for what was sold. Sadly this has gotten so out of hand that the whole chain is taking the U-Scans out because the only way to watch every single coupon people use is to have them hand them to a cashier.”
Read this entire column at NWItimes.com.
My Super-Couponing Tips column appears in newspapers around the country to a weekly readership of over 20 million people!
tavdef says
Link to read the rest of column is not working on my computer.
dkbakken says
Unfortunately, couponing is like any other good thing in life–some people will always abuse the system. I agree that the majority of couponers are likely doing their best to save money HONESTLY. Thanks, Jill, for maintaining and encouraging ethical savings on your site!
francesregina says
Sorry, I won’t hand my coupons to a cashier at the beginning of an order anymore after several bad experiences. I would add them up just prior to getting into the checkout line, and if I handed them to the cashier at the beginning I was always shorted coupons quite a bit. If they don’t scan, or the cashier had trouble scanning because something was wrong with their register, they would just toss them to the side and never alert me to the fact that there was a problem. I’d realize something was wrong, but couldn’t figure it out until they handed me my receipt. What do you do at that point? You can’t go to customer service and ask for your coupons to be credited since you don’t have them anymore, and the cashier just slipped them surreptitiously into their coupon bag without taking them off. I do, however, put Buy1Get1 free coupon items at either the beginning or end of my order and alert the cashier to those. I now hand my coupons to the cashier at the end of the order, 1 or 2 at a time, and make sure they scan them and they are taken off. If I have to dig back through a bag to prove I bought the product, that’s fine with me, but usually I don’t have to because I try to go to the same cashier’s who know me and know I use coupons correctly.
Actually, I have an ax to grind myself about couponing. I’m tired of articles and cashiers and other customers treating us like we’re less of a customer than other customers are. I’m a customer too. My dollar is just as good as everyone else’s, and I feel I’ve worked hard to be able to purchase whatever it is that I’m buying at whatever store. I’m tired of apologizing to other people for couponing, and I’m tired of always trying to be overly polite. And I’m really tired of reading articles that tell me I should apologize for couponing to the person behind me, etc. I’m polite, but please don’t treat me as a second class customer or less of a customer any more.
francesregina says
Wasn’t talking about Jill’s site when I said tired of articles. I read another couponing website “krazycouponlady”, and they always have those articles. I also see them other places on the web. I’m just tired of it. Really feel like saying “give me a break, I’m just trying to make ends meet for my family the best way I can”. I’m ethical, I don’t use any coupons in an unethical manner, and I’m just tired of not being treated like a valued customer.