Sunday, October 3, 2010

Victory for the Customer!

I have definitely been an avid fan of couponing and money saving blogs especially since I have been married. It has been a learning process but I have come so far. I am still no where near as good as the people whose blogs I read, but I am still able to get excited when I can get alot of items for a really good price, or even free.


I recently had read that the new Gain dish soap was on sale at Walmart for $.97. There is a $1.00 of coupon that is around too making these free. I had been to Walmart twice and completely forgot about the coupon until last Saturday. I picked up a few items I needed and was happy to see the Gain still on sale so I picked up that too. Unfortunately for me my cashier would not accept the coupon for $1 off because it was over the $.97. Really? I told her that I know she could do it. (I read like 3 blogs where people bought like 8. I knew 1 was completely acceptable). I asked her if she could just adjust it down then instead of giving me the $.03 extra that proctor and gamble will give them back anyway. She said she would have to check with someone.


She walked away and came back a minute later and said "No, I can't do it." I was already too frusrated at that point to make a bigger deal about it. I honestly don't think she asked anyone. So I asked her to remove the item and I paid for my stuff and left. Honestly, I was way more upset than I needed to be. But it was the principle! I had to know what the deal was and if I was in the right or not so I would know for the future. I might not have been so upset if this wasn't the second time I have had trouble at this Wal-mart. The first time the cashier and even a manager was telling me that my coupon said buy one get one free, even though it said FREE. Sometimes they really just need to read the coupon. Do I really look like I am trying to pull a fast one? I must.


I checked their corporate coupon policy online and did not really state anything about overage with coupons. So I did what any frustrated customer does these days. I wrote a letter via their website to corporate addressing my confusion, the specific incident and how I do not appreciate being treated like a criminal. I sent it off and felt better that I had done my part.


Last week I was pleasantly surprised to be contacted via phone by the manager of the Wal-mart I go to. She was very apologetic and expressed that it definitely is their coupon policy to take those coupons. She said their were had a meeting about it and were having another with cashiers and managers to address coupon policies. It was good to hear from her. Even though I wasn't able to use the coupon before it expired it just felt good to be acknowledged and armed with knowing that next time I will stand my ground and have management backing me up. 


Victory for the customer!

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