How to use coupons as cash discussion

jenniewb

look_after_the_pennies wrote: »

I have used coupons on the last two occasions this month at my local Tescos and I have noticed that the SA's have made a big point of checking that I had purchased the goods. Luckily I had, so that saved me some embarrassment! Going to go to the bigger Tescos near where I work, so I will try out some coupons there on the Self Scan tills, without buying the product.

doubt it will be much different- you scan the coupon, you poke it through the advised coupon box and then a message pops up to have the coupons checked before you can continue with paying/getting the recipet and going. Its then they go through your bags (in my many experiences, without asking first) and allow/deny your purchase.

Be careful!

mealeys

My Tesco in Hanley, Stoke on Trent, used to accept all the coupons you gave them as cash as long as they sold the product, up to the value of your shopping. NOW, they only accept 10% of the total bill and coupons from magazines or internet ones by safecoupon. I am disappointed, it seems different policies apply all over their stores nationally! I don't bother going there unless I'm in the area, I stay local even though it means shopping at Morrisons with no money-off!

Anon

cakey wrote: »

when you take that coupon to the store and it redeems against the product you haven't bought, the supermarket still charges the cost of that coupon to the Brand.. thus the brand ends up giving you money back thinking you have purchased their product. if this continues brands will stop offering coupons thus meaning when you genuinly want to use one you cant. You wouldn't still 50p out of someones purse, why steal 50p from a brand

I could agree with you, up to a point. However, because Tescos have millions of people shopping with them on a daily basis, someone will have bought the product but not used a coupon - hence, when they come to redeem the coupons against their sales they will still be justified and the manufacturer will not be charged more than the total products sold (but the manufacturers marketing tracking will be slightly skewed :rolleyes:).

Anon

Pudfish63

Coupon-mad wrote: »

First of all, many thanks for posting some friendly advice from a Tesco employee - and I agree with your warning about not using the same coupons again in the same day (in the same store).

But sadly, I am not surprised people 'argue' with the manager if your store didn't read the official policy when it was sent out to stores in June 2007 (over 18 months ago!)...

The official policy has no '30% or £5 of coupons' restriction and should have overridden your store's policy from June 2007 onwards. The information was clearly set out in a CSM Daily update - but many store missed it or didn't realise what it meant & forgot about it. I believe there was another update again in December 2008 reiterating the 'no limit, one of each' policy (posted by Hales on this board somewhere).

Janina79,your question is a difficult one because some stores have no idea that their own store policy isn't correct if they missed the official policy update in June 2007. :rolleyes: But I hope you are lucky because some stores are fine.

You will not find the policy in writing - unless your store has it written in a book at the CS desk or at the tills. Thank goodness, couponing without buying the items would soon be stopped if it were widely publicised. Shhhh, we should be fine as I am sure no-one else will read this...

You could start by strolling up to the CS desk -when you have at least 30 minutes to spare - and asking a leading question like 'could you let me know if your store accepts money off coupons as per the national coupon policy please?' Plan your wording carefully and don't just ask what their coupon policy is, whatever you do!

If your store is a small one like a Metro then you may have your work cut out - as the chances are they won't know or might say 'you can use one coupon'. Which is wrong but a common misreading of the official policy.

But don't give up, keep the query at your own store level, referring up the line there as necessary. Stay polite of course, and be confident you are doing nothing wrong (whatever some staff may say). Be prepared to show them your coupons and state what you know to be the policy, which you know 'from a friend who works for Tesco' (or 'from the internet' if you want to make it a more interesting discussion!).

I don't recommend emailing/phoning Dundee (Dundee are not Tesco Head Office, they are just a call centre anyway). If you do, you may well get the wrong answer and would just be flagging up 'yet another query about coupons' (which gets their back up sometimes, depending on who you speak to!). Dundee were never sent the CSM Daily update in 2007 as they don't get the same info as stores get. Silly innit?

Oh, and finally there are some stores who have introduced a restriction in the full knowledge of the national policy (e.g. some stores won't take internet prints). If that's the case for you then you won't be able to change things. But the post by angel4romabove is more typical, showing a store which has a restriction and have no idea that things changed 18 months ago.

I just looked at this post, referred to by Veggiecar recently, I had not seen it before and I think it is fantastically helpful and good at explaining the Tesco situation, many thanks:T

Coupon-mad

Awww, thanks...veggiecar's helpful links save me typing my spiel all out again when people get a problem!

I don't profess to know everything about couponing but I know the Tesco policy 100% and have 'challenged' my own local Tesco successfully by writing a letter to the Store Manager (previously some of the staff had been horrendously rude to me and really believed the policy was 'just one coupon').

I rarely get any problems now - just once so far this year I had to insist on a Duty Manager coming over to the till to allow my mocs (she was right and the Supervisor was wrong).

shoegla87

WEEGIE wrote: »

She was wrong on two counts
1. If it didn't scan, she should have keyed in the number manually.
2. Tesco sell Purina, so they should have taken it, unless they suspected mis-use.
Please don't let that experience put you off using coupons.

I have been working as a checkout Team Leader in Tesco for 3 years now, if the coupon wouldn't scan then typing in the number will not work either as the computer system does not recognise the barcode. Even though Tesco stocks Purina they may not accept that particular coupon as is the case with some coupons and would be the reason for it not scanning. If a coupon doesn't scan and a cashier accepts a coupon anyway Tesco suffers a loss as this CANNOTT be reclaimed from the company which issued the coupon. This would also result in a till short and could actually get the cashier into trouble for accepting it. Remember to be nice to the cashiers they're only doing they're job!! :j

dervish

shoegla87 wrote: »

I have been working as a checkout Team Leader in Tesco for 3 years now, if the coupon wouldn't scan then typing in the number will not work either as the computer system does not recognise the barcode. Even though Tesco stocks Purina they may not accept that particular coupon as is the case with some coupons and would be the reason for it not scanning. If a coupon doesn't scan and a cashier accepts a coupon anyway Tesco suffers a loss as this CANNOTT be reclaimed from the company which issued the coupon. This would also result in a till short and could actually get the cashier into trouble for accepting it. Remember to be nice to the cashiers they're only doing they're job!! :j

what a load of nonsense!:rolleyes:
a coupon may not scan due to being blurry or faded.

typing in the number shoudl remedty this and Tesco can still get thieir mony of this genuine coupon.

Coupon-mad

shoegla87 wrote: »

I have been working as a checkout Team Leader in Tesco for 3 years now, if the coupon wouldn't scan then typing in the number will not work either as the computer system does not recognise the barcode. Even though Tesco stocks Purina they may not accept that particular coupon as is the case with some coupons and would be the reason for it not scanning. If a coupon doesn't scan and a cashier accepts a coupon anyway Tesco suffers a loss as this CANNOTT be reclaimed from the company which issued the coupon. This would also result in a till short and could actually get the cashier into trouble for accepting it. Remember to be nice to the cashiers they're only doing they're job!! :j

dervish is right but I can see where you are coming from as well.

I think you may have misunderstood the post about a coupon 'not scanning'. The poster meant that the till didn't read the barcode at all (maybe because it was a bit blurred) in which case typing the number in DOES work if it's a valid barcode for a product Tesco sell.

And it's fine for a cashier to do this, of course.

I guess you were thinking of a coupon where the till reads the barcode but emits an angry beep 'no' (like when you might try to use most Tesco coupons without buying the item). In that case, I agree with you, typing in the barcode numbers would not help, you'd still get an angry beep.

No cashier should accept a moc like that.

In my nearest stores they can type the numbers in but are not allowed to enter a coupon as a 'non-scan'. Quite right too, it's a different thing.

gt568

Sorry to be a muppet but what is an MOC?

tigergold

gt568 wrote: »

Sorry to be a muppet but what is an MOC?

money off coupon ;-)