Corporate policy or no corporate policy? That is the question.

If you think Kmart is bad, try RALPH'S GROCERY STORES! If your a
RALPH'S CLUB CARD MEMBER or a member of the PET CLUB CARD/WINE CLUB
CARD PROGRAM then this one's for YOU!

Ralph's Pet Club Card Program gives you $9.00 for every $100.00 you
spend on Pet Products. It's a CASH REBATE that prints automatically
at the bottom of the register tape at the end of the shopping trip
that qualified. The "coupons" or "cash rebate certificates" are
assigned an expiration date by Ralph's and its usually within days or
purchase.

The Checker is suppose to point out the coupon so you don't miss it
and loose your reward. A lot of times they don't print for whatever
reason (tapes sticks, the Checker tears it too quickly and gives it to
the shopper behind you instead etc.) and if you are concerned that you
missed yours then you can bring in your Club Card and the Manager can
scan it and give you any rewards that are earned without the coupons.
They track your purchases on your card.

I found out that these CASH REBATES don't really EXPIRE at all!
Ralph's assigns an expiration date in hopes that you cannot possibly
use it in time and when you don't they claim the money as "unclaimed
property" without an taxes or penalties.

I was in line the other day when an Elderly Couple tried this and they
found that they had over $300.00 in earned rebates that had
accumulated & the Manager allowed them to have it. NO EXPIRATION
DATE!

So flash forward a few months and I see that certain STORE MANAGERS
are being fired for this as Ralph's is calling it UNAUTHORIZED
DISCOUNTING for allowing People to have their rebates earned. When
the Manager enters the code from the coupon/rebate the Customer earned
by swiping the club card, the register allows it and there is no
EXPIRATION DATE. The club card program has gone on for years now and
these rebates just keeping adding up to $100's of lost dollars for
Consumers and Shoppers.

So I tried this for myself last night, and found that they allowed me
to use these rebates that are years old now by swiping my club card.

Funny how that Manager can still be employed and do the same thing
that the others did and were fired for?

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS CORPORATE POLICY ANYWHERE? IF THERE IS CAN
SOMEONE PLEASE POINT IT OUT FOR ME?

Wow! You have some fucking nerve!

I shop at Meijer for groceries and often they have chex mix bags buy
one get one free, and i also have a coupon for save .50 on 2. It does
work, because one bag costs around $1.79 - so I get 2 bags for that
price, but then they take .50 off and another .50 (double coupons) so
I get 2 bags of them for .79. Pretty good deal, but they're not free.
I paid for 2 (1.79) and got the coupon taken off. If it were a b1g1
free coupon, I wouldn't expect it to work.

Best solution. Do away with coupons and reduce the prices across the
board but we all know you would loose money because not everyone uses
coupons.

Most sales such as this and coupons themselves do not allow double
dipping and that is what this is. The computer would not allow this
to happen because it has a bigger brain than the cashier.

A customer had a coupon with no limit on it and is trying to buy an
item
that is "buy one get one free," how many times are we allowed to scan
a
coupon for this purchase?
Only one coupon can be used when a customer is purchasing a Buy 1 Get
1
free item, because the customer is only purchasing one item.

Any store coupons or discounts are completely separate from a
manufacture coupon, so you can end up getting items for free.Maybe the
store employees and just too incompetent to know that.

Wait, what happened?

It was buy one get one free...what was the problem with that? I don't
get it.

I agree with you on all your points. However, let me play devils
advocate for Kmart since I am a Training Coordinator of a Corporation
and I know first hand about this kind of situation.

When people are hired and trained, they are bombarded/flooded with a
vast amount of information about the rules and regulations of the
company, employee benefits, not to mention meeting all sorts of
people. Once they start their training, often the next day, they are
once again bombarded with information-all of which they are told is
crucial to remember. In their honest effort to remember
everything...they retain very little and it's not their fault. I
blame the company and supervisors who do not followup with new
employees with a training plan to ensure that they KNOW the things
they are supposed to. If not, one badly trained employee mimicks
another badly trained one and it goes unchecked until the CEO can't
figure out why no one is shopping at their store.

In your case, I'm willing to bet their is a policy at the front desk
and no one knows where it is or has never been shown!

I have a question. Is the purpose of these boards to insult everyone?
I have been reading several and none of them are very nice.
Constructive criticism is one thing, but most of these posts are
insulting, condescending, and rude. Some of you people need to take a
look at what you are saying to others. It is almost like some enjoy
being hateful. I feel sorry for you if that brings you pleasure.

While I completely agree that coupons and good deals rule... I'm not
sure of how something like this would work. I would think that you
have to actually BUY one to get one free meaning you would have to pay
for one for every one you get free. If there are stores that do this,
perhaps you should keep an eye out for a store that does it.

The real issue here isn't the use of the coupon though. It is the
lack of a policy in place at KMart. I find that even when there is a
policy in place, it is often misunderstood by the employees and even
the managers. They often do what they want anyways and by time it
comes to the attention of the corporate office, you missed the sale
anyways. The suggestion that they have a policy in place isn't an
unreasonable one though.

Will you coupon scammers stop trying to pull this business!!! So help
me when the day comes where coupons are done away with because people
can't use common sense and follow the rules. You are going to ruin it
for the rest of us!!

I have never had a problem with a coupon in my life!! I wonder why
that is?

I guess we're going to see this again as there is another coupon out
this week.
"Buy and Max Factor lip or eye product and get a Max Factor lip or eye
product FREE"

Consumer terms: Redeem ONLY by purchasing the brand size(s) indicated.
May not be reproduced. Void if transferred to any person, firm or
group prior to store redemption. You may pay any sales tax. Any
other use constitutes fraud. LIMIT ONE COUPON PER PURCHASE

Sorry all you coupon traders, that's against the rules.

I'm sorry i f i tried to say you were getting freebies. What you were
attempting do was really resourceful on your part. Kmart should have
a iron clsd policy for all the stores, not letting managers make them
up as they go along.

According to the coupon website you are in, I read that the coupon is
working for the 2000 (calorie?) mascara only and a woman in there had
taken all the different makeup to the register to scan to find out
which one it worked with.

I think that you are getting me mixed up with the OP. I never asked
for anyone's approval. I thought that this forum might be good to
debate this issue in a civilized manner. It seems that there is no
reasonable debate - no middle ground. If you disagree with someone,
you come out in attack mode.

A scam artist tries crying to Planet Feedback.

Anyone with an IQ above 3 would know that you can't get stuff for free
which you were trying to do with your scam.

I work at a different store and our system requires that you actually
pay for an item to get the buy one get one free, or if a coupon is for
so much off the purchase of 2 items and we have a buy one get one free
offer on it, then you won't be able to use the coupon. "Purchase"
means "paid for", so if you are taking advantage of the BOGO sale we
are having on the item, you can't count the free items you are getting
from that as "Purchased" items. Therefore you cannot use a BOGO
coupon to get all of your items free, because you didn't buy enough
items to use it. If a coupon is good for $1.00 off two and you use a
BOGO sale, you haven't purchased two.

I see this all the time at our Service desk too. We quite often have
a sale where you buy one pair of shoes, get the second pair for $1.00.
People will buy two pairs of shoes, then try to return one and expect
to get the full price back. No, you only paid $1 for the second pair
of shoes, you are not going to get back the full price and keep the
other pair for $1....when you return one that negates the sale deal so
you only get back $1....sorry.
Stop trying to get something for nothing...K-Mart was perfectly within
their rights to refuse your BOGO coupons in this instance as you had
not fulfilled the purchase requirements as stated on the coupon. Your
only legitimate beef is with the confusion on policy at the call
center.

A friend just emailed this to me.

http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/kmart/55966-free-max-factor-makeu
p-oct-7th-13th.html

What is BOGO, anyway?

How many items were you trying to purchase, anyway?
In order to use the buy one get one free coupon, you'd have to get at
least 3 items, not 2.

Item #1: You pay full price for this
Item #2: Free, due to the store's BOGO sale
Item #3: Free, since you already paid full price for item #1.

I work at Kmart and we certainly do take BOGO coupons, but I could see
the register not accepting the coupon when it's used in conjunction
with a BOGO sale. About the only real corporate rules about coupons
that I know of are that they cannot be expired (duh) and they cannot
be printed off the Internet. Managers (assistant and store managers,
not service desk supervisors) do have the power to bend the rules some
in order to satisfy the customer.

I think you should have politely requested to speak to the manager on
duty about the conundrum - you may have gotten more results that way.

The point you're raising, about inconsistency on the part of call
center employees, is a valid one. This has become the plague of our
modern age. I have never found any effective way to deal with it,
except perhaps to patronize only those companies who are a cut above
in their customer relations department. That's a losing battle,
because we are pretty much forced to buy from the low rent mall stores
because they're cheaper. They're cheaper because they hire minimum
wage people, don't spend money training them, and buy bulk. Can you
argue with that kind of a business philosophy? Would you even want to,
if it means we spend less?

All over a coupon, maybe if you cried in front of the CSM, or cashier
they would feel bad for you had give you what you wanted.

Common sense says buy one and get one free. A 50% discount overall.
Buy one means there is s transfer of money from the purchaser to the
establishment.

I have no sympathy for people who spend their lives trying to twist
policies into a pretzel shape to suit their own needs. We earn money
to spend money. It is great when we can get a discount on something.
Who doesn't want that? But can't a person be happy getting something
cheaper rather than taking it for free?

Elizabeth : FINALY: I was not interested in the opinion from
individuals on wether or not you thought the idea of the coupon with
the sale was inline with your morals. I wanted to get acrossed that
customer
service was not consistant and sevearly lacking on all employees ends.
Each employee had a seperate answer based on opinion and not corporate
policy. I mean how hard should it be to get a yes or no answer out of
a manager.


If this was your goal, then you could have left out all the detail
about what the coupon was for. You could have stated you went to one
Kamrt and they told me "X" and when I used those exact coupons at
another Kmart, then told me "Y". You chose to state what the coupon
was for and how you thought it should be applied, you also stated how
the cashier thought it should be and what is done at another Kmart.

I feel you wanted the items for free and now you are complaining to
Kamrt because you did not get your way.

You cried? I can think of more serious things to cry about.

Frustrating? Perhaps...

"Reduced to tears" worthy? I'd certainly hope not.

Seriously...pick your battles. If you could get the items at a
different k-mart, why not just go to that one?

If I were in the situation, I'd get annoyed and find a reason to go to
the k-mart that allowed me to use the coupons. I simply don't have
the time to make all those phone calls, trying to ferret out
information on, what? a 4 dollar issue?

Time is money - move on and use it at the store that allows you to do
so with no grief.

The way I see it is that these coupons aren't being used correctly.

When you buy one and get one free, you have to BUY one. Seems simple,
but you can't retroactively use another BOGO on a pair that has been
rung up.
Yes, it shows on the receipt that you purchased 2, but that's really
only for inventory and returns. You only 'bought' one, but you got 2.

It's the same kind of thing with discounts. Let's say, you have 2 10%
off entire transaction coupons. Let's say this example transaction is
$100. The first coupon takes 10% off the $100 to give you a $10
discount and bringing your total to $90. The second 10% discount takes
$9 (10% of $90, it doesn't go back to the original $100 total) and
brings the total to $81. In the grand scheme of things, the 2 10% off
discounts really only add up to 19% off. So even if you had 10 10% off
discounts, it wouldn't be free, the total would actually just get
closer and closer to zero, but never reaching it. (Last sentence is
really math-y, my apologies)

So while it's not exactly the same, it still has to do with
coupons/discounts affecting the transaction so that you can't "go
back" to doubly apply the 'buy one, get one' promotion.

If it has worked for you before, great, the business found a way to
accept the coupons the way they see fit. But, in my opinion, there is
more reasoning not to combine offers such as this, and it is
ultimately up to the business to interpret coupons the way they want.
If you don't like it, you can choose to do your business elsewhere.

I now work with a Loss Prevention manager at Walgreens who used to
work for Loss Prevention at K-Mart. K-Mart closed down in the San
Antonio area but he was hired on by Walgreens. K-Mart has a somewhat
stricter policy about coupon usage than does Walgreens (we're sort of
liberal) so I had to get him up to speed on the subject.

I'm not that familiar with K-Mart but this is what he told me.
According to him K-Mart did not allow a manufacturer's coupon usage
(of any type) on top of a store coupon or a sale. Being that he
oversaw about a dozen stores I'm pretty certain that this policy was
not done on a store by store basis but was corporate policy.

My job used to be the processing of coupons and the training of coupon
usage to cashiers. Manufacturers will not reimuburse the store if the
coupon is not handled correctly. Primarily, no store has to take
coupons, for any reason whatsoever. Secondly, coupons carry no value,
or severely diminished value, such as 1/100th of one cent, or some
variation. Thirdly, no more than one like coupon per register receipt
or transaction, also known as purchase. If I filed a reimbursement
claim that had more than one lke coupon per receipt, my claim would be
denied, and my store would lose the coupon amount(s), plus the
handling fee(s). Fourth, coupons are not to be combined with any
other offer, whether stated or not, such examples are the BOGO offers,
in store % off promotions, in store coupon offers, just to name a few.
This means you can have the coupon, or the offer, but not both.
The problem is not the coupons, but certain stores that have
decided to take a loss just to shut up whiney 'costomers'. Customers
that cost them money, should be called 'costomers'. When these
certain stores process coupons incorrectly, 'costomers' expect other
stores to do the same, then get mad when the proper procedures are
actually followed.

The OP is reasonable... Its annoying to have to deal with companies
where you have to argue to use a high value coupon.

They are taking advantage of what Scott Adams calls "Shy Shopper
Syndrome". Most people (generally 19 out of 20) will NOT stand up for
their rights if it involves being assertive or confrontational.

Its not that uncommon for companies to print coupons and then try and
reneg on the coupons. Had a local restaurant try and reneg on its
coupons because when gas prices skyrocketed they where no longer able
to turn a profit if the coupons where used on delivery orders, and
they didn't want to pay the printing costs to change their printing
plates at the coupon printer.

If K-Mart has a sale for a buy one get one free and you have coupons
for the same how can you expect to get them all for free???

ie: if you select 8 items, you pay for 4 and get 4 free.

There is no way you(or anyone else) are entitled to get all of them
free

Wow there are some serious morons on this site!
She did nothing wrong she is just an experienced shopper who knows the
laws and rules of couponing. AND her problem isnt even the fact they
didnt honor the coupon its the fact they have ZERO customer service
and no one policy in order. If this sale was anywhere but Kmart she
wouldnt have this problem.
SHE is not the problem it is pinheads like those of you who responded
with such idiotic replies that are the problem. It is people like you
working at Kmart and giving this and other consumers grief out of your
own ignorance. Educate yourself then speak.
She IS buying 2 products kmart has chose topay for one of those
products at their b1g1 sale so someone needs to pay for the other
product - the manufacturer in this case max factor is paying for that
product. COUPONs are basically just like money because the store gets
reimbursed that amount PLUS a handling fee.

you should have only been allowed one free item in the first place

you would need to go in and out the store 4 times to use 4 coupons.
And if kmart had the same sale, then you can use the coupons another
time. or go to a walgreens or whatever and use them

1st: The ad does not state "not vaid in conjunction with any other
offer"

2nd: The coupon states: "CONSUMER: Redeedm ONLY by purchasing the
brand size(s) indicated. May not be reproduced. Void if transfered to
any person, firm, or group prior to store redemption. You may pay any
sales tax. Any other use constitutes fraud. LIMIT ONE COUPON PER
PURCHASE.

3rd: The cshier scanned 8 items, charging me for 4. And not one
coupon would scan.

4th: Kmart will be getting reimbursed + $.08 handeling for the item. I
as the consumer would be benifiting from the offer given by the
manufacture and the offer given by the retailer.

Kmart would recieve the cost of the item they intended to sell. = No
loss for the retailer.

Max Factor would be still honoring the same offer they had on the
coupon. So they would not be loosing any more money then they
intended to in the first place. Manufactures put out free item
coupons all the time. The thinking behind this is that you would like
the product and become brand loyal.

So everyone would get or offer what they had origionaly promised. ANd
the consumer would benifit from it.

FINALY: I was not interested in the opinion from individuals on
wether or not you thought the idea of the coupon with the sale was
inline with your morals. I wanted to get acrossed that customer
service was not consistant and sevearly lacking on all employees ends.
Each employee had a seperate answer based on opinion and not
corporate policy. I mean how hard should it be to get a yes or no
answer out of a manager.

Many coupons have a clause on them stating that they cannot be
combined with other offers. Even both in effect, you should not get
one free because you're not buying one...

If an issue like this reduces you to tears, god forbid you ever have
any real problems.

Me, "but I can do it at the other Kmart"

You, dear Elizabeth, are the reason that stores crack down on stuff
like this and make it difficult not only for yourself, but for the
rest of us who aren't so greedy as to try and pull off a stunt like
this.

Just because you got away with it before does not make it right, nor
does it entitle you to do it again. & the coupons typically state NOT
VALID WITH ANY OTHER OFFER. They also do not allow you to reduce the
cost of the product to a negative integer (i.e. you would get change
back) either.

You were already getting one free. You don't get to use a coupon to
get the 2nd one free as well!

Corporate policy or not, it's just plain old common sense that you
cannot use a coupon to get an item free when the one you purchased
already netted you an item free.

Stop being greedy and stop trying to twist the situation to your
benefit by invoking their policies.

GEEZ! I know times are hard, but Seriously!! Some people are just SO
freaking CHEAP!!

At Sears, coupons cannot be combined with other coupons or special
offers. I'm pretty sure it's the same way at K-mart since both chains
are owned by the same company.

Anyhow...the coupons say "BUY one, get one free." IMO, you have to buy
one in order to get one free. That's just what I think. I say, save
the coupon for a later date when K-mart's sale isn't going on and you
can still reap the benefits of getting one free.

I think this is also standard retail practice because I can't tell you
the number of times I've heard on commmericals "offers cannot be
combined" or read in ads that you can't combine such and such with
other special offer.

Well, good luck.

Waitasecond. Kmart had a sale that said buy one get one free, And you
also have a coupon that says buy one get one free. So, I'm still
having trouble understanding how they ALL would be free, since by this
logic, you arent technically buying anything.

My experience with coupons and special offers, not just as a customer
but as an ex-retail employee is that offers cannot be combined. And
this is from basically every store I worked for.

"After my 3rd call I was reduced to tears out of sheer frustration on
the subject." Call me callous if you want, but I dont have sympathy
for you, if you allowed it to get to this point, over couple of
dollars. If you are going to let a denial of a coupon reduce you to
TEARS then you have other issues that Kmart cannot help you with.

HmMmMm maybe KMart views it as double dipping.

Many times I have encountered built in savings when shopping, then to
add a coupon to the same sale product becomes a no go...use one or the
other. Ads/coupons in the paper alert the public of sales/offers
available if they shop during a certain time frame...while other times
shoppers encounter deals while browsing and enjoy savings on the fly.

Perhaps the cashier's machine gave you the built in savings matching
the announcement in the paper regardless of you having a coupon or not
which rendered the coupon useless.

You have to buy one to get one free, that you did. To get both items
free wasnt the goal of this particular deal in store or by the
manufacturer.

Just trying to offer why it was a possible no go.

Perhaps you could have used your coupon had you picked up a third
item. Then you'd have a) bought one b) got one free under the store's
sale and c) got another free with your coupon.

It could be the way the special at K-Mart is in their system. I have
seen BOGO specials that actually just ring up each item at 50% of it's
price. So your coupon may have confused their system.

It is frustrating that you've gotten three different replies to the
same question.

Hope they clarify the situation for you.

You thought you could combine the two offers and get everything for
free? Who thinks that way?

I can understand why they wouldn't let you use the coupons. It's
there in your letter "BUY one get one free" The way you wanted to do
it, you wouldn't have bought anything.

Regardless of the coupon policy, you were not following the coupon.
Both the coupon and the ad specifically state BUY one get one free. In
other words you have to spend at least the price of the product to get
one for free.

Oftentimes coupons and ads such as these will also state something to
the effect of "cannot be combined with other coupons or offers" which
also invalidates your attempt at getting something for nothing.