Bad Shopping Experience with Coupons

[Jessica MOM]

My story is a bit long, sorry!

I will first admit that my shopping trip last night was larger then
normal because for the past month I have only been shopping for the bare
essentials, we have been living off our coupon stockpile.  Being a rare
occasion without any children I had time to wander the isles to find
other in store deals.

Rewind to last night Monday at 10:00 P.M.-not my finest hour but I
had to complete the last check-out on the last store to go home. A few
things I noticed as I am pulling my cart up: 1. One Cash register open
(not an issue, the store is dead) 2. Cashier is having a chat session
with the customer ahead of me in line lasting a lot longer then normal
3. Cashier is not happy! Yikes this isn’t looking good! After I get
everything all scanned I hand over my stack of coupons (this right here
is rare because I usually hand my coupons one by one, but since the
cashier asked for them all I just handed them over.) Ready for the
“fun?” The cashier takes one look at me, one look at the coupons, looks
at back at me with a dirty look and asks are these all valid? I reply
with a smile and a yes m’am. She starts: Scan, Scan, Beeeeeeeeep with a
message “no matching item” so the cashier re-arranges all the bags until
finding the correct product and unhappily punches in the numbers on the
bottom of the coupon and it magically now works (come to find out the
cashier was scanning the new barcode and the store register system isn’t
set up for this yet.) Again Scan, Scan, beeeeeeeep once again we find
the item and I could feel the tension rising. The cashier gets irritated
and MAD now the coupons start getting yanked apart and separated by
product to verify that I do have all the products and the correct
amounts. Now, don’t get me wrong this doesn’t bother me when someone
wants to double check the coupons. But, what bothers me is when my
organized cart gets disassembled with the bread and eggs now at the
bottom of the cart with the soda and milk on top.

The line has lengthened and now my face s getting red because not
only does the cashier voice an opinion aloud about the coupons, but
presumes that I am committing fraud by somehow manufacturing these
newspaper coupons myself and muttering curse words under breath. I stay
calm through the entire process because I was getting so embarassed by
the things the cashier was saying! At one point I was even told that I
should never come in this late at night with coupons because its too
hard to deal with. We finally get to the last coupon with the total
being $43 and the cashier accidentally pressed $50 instead of 50 cent
coupon making my total now -$7!! Now she’s MADDER assuming that I once
again am committing fraud I politely laugh and say “oh no its because
the last coupon was put in at $50 instead of…” cashier interrupts loudly
“OH NO I DID NOT make a mistake it was your coupons!”  So I just let it
go, and wait for the manager to come over to help. The manager arrives
basically repeating what the cashier says about not giving cash back and
I repeat myself that its because of the last coupon, with the cashier
interrupting again “I TOLD YOU I did not do that, it was your dumb
coupons” Applying the managers code, they re-checked the computer to see
that low and behold it was in fact the $50 coupon that the cashier
inputted. Once done the cashier yanks my card out of my hand and says
“DON’T COME IN THIS LATE AGAIN”

My second order (transaction if you want to call it that) is for my
neighbor who asked me to pick up some things. I glance behind and see
the line is now at least 15 people deep and another cash register has
yet to be open. I literally had less then fifteen things and wanted to
go hide in a hole, if I thought the first transaction was bad I was
mistaken. It continued with the cashier SLAMMING, slamming, pounding
glass bottles all while  muttering and cursing under breath. Not just
one time, but ever item it was a new swear word about how big of a “dirt
bag” I was for using coupons. I thought I wanted to hide before now I
wanted to die-literally every word she said made me sicker and sicker to
hand over my tiny stack (maybe 5 coupons.)  Once I hand over the
coupons  she starts getting MAD and YELLING why can’t you come in some
other time to do this and you can’t use any of these coupons on this
order because they have restrictions. I stayed composed and calm stating
that none of these items I have are the same as the first order.  While
she scans the coupons she continues her rant (out loud) about how
ridiculous I was.

By this point the bagger had opened another cash out line, because
there were so many people waiting. Holding back tears I made my way to
find the manager because I wanted to leave some feedback about the
experience I had. Passing by the bagger I heard “I am sorry that the
cashier treated you that way, but the manager left for the night.” As I
am leaving the store I had to once again pass by the cashier only to
hear the cashier belittle me to all the other customers in line. I get
in my car and started  tearing up, I could not believe what I had just
went through.

The whole checkout took over hour and it was the worst couponing
experience I have ever had.  I wanted to share my experience with you in
hopes to see your feedback, but not to scare you, instances like these
do not happen very often. Often time bad experiences happen but you have
to think about what happened before I walked up to that register, what
was the long conversation about between the cashier and patron ahead of
me? I decided to write this, this morning so that it was not a rant but
something that you can learn from.

Has this ever happened to you before? What did you do?

[Sheen E. Hatti]

I had my first bad coupon experience at Dollar General in Hattiesburg, MS on 4th St. They would not take my coupon because it would not scan, but it valid. Also the cashier did not know the difference between laundry detergent and Downy. He argued with me and said Downy was a detergent and would not take my coupon because it stated detergent or Downy. I fixed the problem by going down the street to your competitor Family Dollar who took my coupons with no problem.

[MadAtWalmart]

The day I had my horrible experience with "the clerk that hates coupons" at my local Walmart, I sent a complaint to the store via the corporate website. I strongly suggest that you formally complain when you encounter rude employees or have a negative shopping experience. Couponers are legitimate customers; the only difference is that the manufacturer is paying the store instead of us.

I'll say it again: YOU ARE NOT RIPPING OFF THE STORE BY USING COUPONS!

The assistant manager of the store called me and apologized, then offered me a gift card in the amount of the coupons the clerk refused. I need to go back to the store for canning supplies (Walmart is one of the few stores in my area that has them), so I will accept their offer. Now the store has retained a customer and, hopefully, my future experiences with them will be positive.

God bless,
Pam