Archived Coupons

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Not sure if this is the right place to post and have this discussion but here it goes and mods feel free too move it.

So I am wondering if anyone is having this issue at their store. I am looking really for perspectives on it or store specific ways you may handle it.

My store just moved around TL's so I'm new to being a GSTL and really handling this type of thing on an all the time basis.

We have a few guests that buy a ton of items mostly Hba all with mfr coupons and then are returning the items and get full retail back making money on the coupons.

I have been told that there is nothing we can do and that it is not an ap issue because target gets reimbursed for the coupon and gets to resell the item.

My problem is that I find it wrong and fraudualent (although technically not).
Tonight one transaction refund total was over 600.00 and on the original receipts cash payment tendered was only 78.00.

That's a weeks pay for some people!!!!!

Then I have my TM's who work soo hard to recover the store who now have to put out a cart of smalls at the end of the night.
 
That seems to be a major problem every where the only thing you can do is enforce the right to limit quantities to a household size.
 
The worst part is the increased amount of work for the team with so little hours.

Also a tm asked ap if there is nothing wrong with it and that they can do, "What if a tm did it?". They were told they would be terminated.
 
Okay I'm going to "out" myself as a "couponer" (although not an "extreme" one by ANY means) and I belong to a couple of groups thy deal with couponing. The ones I belong to, however, do NOT condone this type of behavior and we DO consider it "fraud". Why? Most coupons state "no cash value" or some fraction of a cent and these people are basically "trading" them for cash. AND, it gives people who use them responsibly and how they're MEANT to be used a "bad rap".

Now, on the flip side, when someone DOES this, if they were to bring the stuff back and Target (or whatever merchant) ONLY gave them back whatever they actually paid out of pocket, it creates a PR NIGHTMARE because there's no way to return the coupons used (or even TELL what coupons were used) so they will then be submitted to the manufacturer and "the merchant" would then be reimbursed for a coupon on merchandise that was never actually sold.

Now, there IS a way to "solve" the problem, but it's a MAJOR undertaking, and would probably cost more than it's worth (so it's doubtful that Spot would do it)...the system CAN be programmed to "match" coupons with products and the Catalina system can then be programmed to reprint the coupons used when an item is returned. The only issue would then be when a coupon does not "match" and has to be manually "overridden" (which sometimes happens even when the items match).
 
As a modest couponer, I agree with Mamak1.
It's a matter of what happens to the reimbursed funds Target receives if the guest were only refunded what they actually PAID vs what the value was. Retailers shouldn't be allowed to be reimbursed AND be allowed to pocket the refund difference. As the purpose of a coupon is to bait the consumer into purchasing said product to get them to try it, they're the 'winners' if they return the item without trying it. What chafes my hide is that some HBA returns go red & CAN'T be resold so that DOES constitute a loss.
Target coupons are completely different because Target is the 3rd-party so they can deduct the coupon cost upon return/refund.
Upshot, make sure that all coupons not only match but that the item pictured matches. We have devout couponers who know the rules, we have the novices who try to argue their way out of tens of $ & we have several who are frauds whose coupons we always deny.
 
if the coupons are no cash value, then the guest should not be reimbursed for their coupon savings. Target is getting reimbursed either way, and I think i'd rather have Target keep the money than a bunch of scammers!

People should only be refunded what they PAID. Coupons have no cash value, so they should NOT count.

We have to restock the ************ anyway, so serves them right.
 
Target policy is to not adjust the refund price of any item even if a manufacturer's coupon was used discount the original price of the item.

All of my district's ETL-APs treated this very seriously. GSTLs should be supported in enforcing "reasonable household quantities," especially if you recognize these individuals to be people who return them back for tons of money. Although Target does get reimbursed, team members are required to follow the manufacturer's rules for redeeming a coupon, such as expiration date and purchase of all items needed to use the coupon. We would also require that same coupons could only be done in multiple transactions, and that the guest would need to go to the end of the line for each new set of similar coupons used. Usually this would drive these people away.

The people who did this were generally younger (17-19) and appeared, for lack of a better word, 'sketchy.' After stopping the purchase or allowing the purchase of a few items, they would leave, and we would notify the GSTLs of the 2 nearest stores. If the same occurred at their store, they would in turn contact us.

Our ETL-AP sent a lot of emails to other ETL-APs and his DAPTL to come up with this approach. It was a tough decision but we never prevented the average guests from redeeming any valid coupons.
 
We have a mix of regular devout couponers. They know the drill & don't abuse the system, are very courteous & I've seen one offer extra coupons of a particular brand to a fellow guest in line.
Then there are the ones who try to see what they can get for 'free', argue with every cashier/GSTL who denies their coupons & are just plain rude. This includes the fans of 'Extreme Couponing'.
Finally, there are the ones who are in it just for the returns. They'll buy the max allowed on tooth-whitening kits using $10 coupons then return them the next day pocketing about $50 extra & sometimes the returns go red.
 
Just an FYI, in our District, they allow the policy of the One per transaction vs. one per item. If it is one per item, we allow the standard one per item manufacturer and Target coupon. However if a guest brings in any that say one per transaction, we consider a transaction one trip through a line. We don't allow them to separate that transactions into several mini transactions either, stating that the other guests shouldn't have to wait for them and giving them their own TM to ring them up for 20 minutes for 15 transactions is not justified. So we tell guests who are trying to work the system they need to leave the store and come back in order to use them. It has cut our coupon fraud loss by 18% by one of our TPS's count!
 
GlobalGuy said:
We don't allow them to separate that transactions into several mini transactions either, stating that the other guests shouldn't have to wait for them and giving them their own TM to ring them up for 20 minutes for 15 transactions is not justified. So we tell guests who are trying to work the system they need to leave the store and come back in order to use them.
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GlobalGuy, exactly my point.

We bent the rules slightly when a guest wants to use one extra similar coupon, rather than cause an uproar that might turn negative for the business. The policy has to be sensible, allowing regular guests to make their purchases and catching abusers before they S.
 
Ours is 3 per trans unless otherwise stated. We've had some real pissy-ant fights in the lanes but these are the abusers, not our regulars.
 
NorCalTL said:
Target policy is to not adjust the refund price of any item even if a manufacturer's coupon was used discount the original price of the item.
Click to expand...
I wonder if this changed recently because I bought some items after work the other night and my receipt printed out a "refund price" below some of the items I bought with coupons...the strange thing is that it didn't do it on all of them???
 
mamak1 said:
I wonder if this changed recently because I bought some items after work the other night and my receipt printed out a "refund price" below some of the items I bought with coupons...the strange thing is that it didn't do it on all of them???
Click to expand...

It will do that for items that were used with Target coupons. The T coupons are linked to the items &, since Target is the discounter instead of a manf, Target can automatically deduct the coupon from the return amt because they don't have to wait for reimbursement.
 
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