Archived Coupon Limits

[squirrely]

My store has now changed its policy to accept only 4 coupons total. Someone said it came from corporate, but I'm not too sure if that's true. We're also to not accept expired coupons anymore as well (which I agree with). The problem is people buying stuff with coupons and then selling it on FB sale sites or returning it without a receipt and getting back the full value.

As a couponer (not extreme), I'm kinda bummed about this. I save a lot of money with my coupons and kind of think maybe the issue is with Targets extremely lenient return policy.

Thoughts?

 

[squirrely]

Sorry, meant to post this in general

 

[Flabbergasted]

We usually limit 4 coupons to the same item per guest. So for example, if the guest has 6 $1 off coupons for 6 Norelco brand "model X" (made up for this example), then we will inform her we can only accept 4 of those coupons, and she will need to buy the other two at full price. She can still use additional coupons for her other items.

 

[squirrely]

We usually limit 4 coupons to the same item per guest. So for example, if the guest has 6 $1 off coupons for 6 Norelco brand "model X" (made up for this example), then we will inform her we can only accept 4 of those coupons, and she will need to buy the other two at full price. She can still use additional coupons for her other items.

That's what my store used to do! But unless someone told me wrong, they told everyone at huddle today that's it's 4 coupons total.

 

[Flabbergasted]

That's what my store used to do! But unless someone told me wrong, they told everyone at huddle today that's it's 4 coupons total.

That's a really strict coupon limit and will likely net a few calls to corporate. Hopefully your DTL is aware of this.

 

[squirrely]

I'm going to ask a GSA tomorrow if it's true. Otherwise, I feel really bad for the front end when they have to tell guests this!

 

[commiecorvus]

quirrely, post: 201628, member: 13559"]Sorry, meant to post this in general

All moved.

 

[pookiesma]

It should be a limit of 4 identical coupons. The register should prompt that the limit for that coupon has been reached when you try to scan a 5th coupon.

 

[GoldenSun4]

My store has now changed its policy to accept only 4 coupons total. Someone said it came from corporate, but I'm not too sure if that's true. We're also to not accept expired coupons anymore as well (which I agree with). The problem is people buying stuff with coupons and then selling it on FB sale sites or returning it without a receipt and getting back the full value.

As a couponer (not extreme), I'm kinda bummed about this. I save a lot of money with my coupons and kind of think maybe the issue is with Targets extremely lenient return policy.

Thoughts?

doesn't target get money back from the coupons though? i thought i heard that they weigh the coupons and we get reimbursed. so if we get a guest using multiple coupons it might benefit the company. if this doesn't make any sense, just ignore me lol...

 

[squirrely]

doesn't target get money back from the coupons though? i thought i heard that they weigh the coupons and we get reimbursed. so if we get a guest using multiple coupons it might benefit the company. if this doesn't make any sense, just ignore me lol...

They do get reimbursed + 8¢ shipping and handling per coupon. I know the extreme couponers wipe out stock frequently, especially if it's a gift card deal, so maybe that's why?

 

[redeye58]

Doesn't matter if we get reimbursed for the coupons if all they're doing is cleaning out our shelves during a sales promo then returning the merch, some of which will go red defect & will have to be destroyed.
Much of consumables/HBA goes red upon return so it's a loss.
The 'limit 4' harkens back to the day in which 'Target reserves the right to limit quantities in order ensure availability for all our guests'.

 

[Kartman]

Just shoot me in the head.

 

[redeye58]

Careful, I'm in an open-carry state

 

[HardlinesFour]

The 'limit 4' harkens back to the day in which 'Target reserves the right to limit quantities in order ensure availability for all our guests'.

I remember seeing signs about"reasonable limits" long before I even started working at Spot.

 

[squirrely]

Doesn't matter if we get reimbursed for the coupons if all they're doing is cleaning out our shelves during a sales promo then returning the merch, some of which will go red defect & will have to be destroyed.
Much of consumables/HBA goes red upon return so it's a loss.
The 'limit 4' harkens back to the day in which 'Target reserves the right to limit quantities in order ensure availability for all our guests'.

I knew it had to do with returns, but having to defect out a lot of hba items didn't cross my mind. Thanks!

 

[squirrely]

I remember "reasonable family size limits" long before I even started working at Spot.

That's where it's kind of bs. I use at most 2 of the same coupon. I do not abuse coupons or wipe shelves. So it punishes a lot of honest people. Can you imagine having to tell some old lady with 10 coupons that she can't use them all? I don't see this going over well.

A TM also mentioned Target is getting audited for coupons? Or something along those lines. Does that make sense?

 

[HardlinesFour]

The idea behind the limits originally (before all the extreme coupon madness) was to prevent resellers & dealers, from snapping up weekly loss leaders.

The policy was originally supposed to be implemented as needed by a store's GSA/GSTL or LOD, at their desecration. I think official verbiage was "Reasonable Family size limits (4/5?)" and now... the policy has been tweaked to be used for other situations (like coupons).

Personally, I don't understand why anyone need's more than 4 or 5 of something. I don't see a problem with stocking up, but it's unfair to the other guests, if your purchasing 20+ or more of a item.

 

[mrknownothing]

The policy was originally supposed to be implemented as needed by a store's GSA/GSTL or LOD, at their desecration. I think official verbiage was "Reasonable Family size limits (4/5?)" and now... the policy has been tweaked to be used for other situations (like coupons).

That sounds rather unpleasant.

Personally, I don't understand why anyone need's more than 4 or 5 of something. I don't see a problem with stocking up, but it's unfair to the other guests, if your purchasing 20+ or more of a item.

This. Even if you're donating the product, chances are you'd still be courteous to your fellow shoppers.

 

[redeye58]

I'm sure they mean limit four of the SAME item rather than any four coupons per trans.
I know they were REAL strict about limits on soda promos & the like.
Off-topic: Was going thru Cartwell & noticed some prohibit use on CLEARANCE items. wtf?

 

[phoenixv07]

doesn't target get money back from the coupons though? i thought i heard that they weigh the coupons and we get reimbursed. so if we get a guest using multiple coupons it might benefit the company. if this doesn't make any sense, just ignore me lol...

So, fun fact: I've looked at the coupon acceptance policies for a couple of major vendors (Johnson & Johnson and Kimberly-Clark), and they both say that:

• They have the right to audit any coupon batch to make sure that the coupons are being properly redeemed, to the point that they can request transaction records, and
• If even one coupon in a batch is found to have been redeemed against their policy, they can deny Target reimbursement for the entire batch.

Kimberly-Clark also points out that if Target submits coupons that we know have been fraudulently redeemed, that would be considered fraud by Target. (Funnily enough, when I mentioned this to my STL, her answer was "No, they want us to do it!")

Edit: Forgot, I meant to post the link to the Kimberly-Clark policy:

https://www.nchmarketing.com/assets/0/16/35/41/5880A6A2-1772-4FD4-BB62-B80798081333.pdf

 

[Retail Girl]

I'm sure they mean limit four of the SAME item rather than any four coupons per trans.
I know they were REAL strict about limits on soda promos & the like.
Off-topic: Was going thru Cartwell & noticed some prohibit use on CLEARANCE items. wtf?

Cartwheel has generally always had verbiage on there prohibiting clearance items, unless the offer is specifically for clearance items (like the extra 20% off clearance clothing that comes through on occasion).

The trick is, though, that it generally still takes it off the clearance items.

 

[squirrely]

Okay, so I got clarification from my TL and it is 4 like coupons. Thank God because that would be a mess. I do think our store is getting more stick on limiting transactions and items though. Especially after someone just bought a bunch of crap with coupons and had a friend return it all minutes later.

 

[pookiesma]

My store has started to limit health and beauty returns to a certain dollar amount. And also we can only take back 4 of one item. And we are cracking down on people doing non receipt returns, cause we keep getting people with really old bad copies of paper id's we can't read.
Another store we near us doesn't accept any hba returns without a receipt.