Using Coupons: Unethical, Immoral?

randan

I don't think the consumer is doing anything wrong in this case as they are paying for the goods.

The sale of an item involves some/alll of the following:-
Offer to sell item
Acceptance of offer to sell/offer to buy item
Acceptance of offer to buy item
Offer of payment for item
Acceptance of offer of payment for item

It does not make any difference what the method of payment is as long as it is accepted by the vendor.

You offer to pay with coupons - they accept that method of payment - done deal.

If a supermarket is willing to accept coupons then people should be happy to pay using them.

That is my understanding anyway.

shays_mum

i think your are in the wrong place mate!, the last time i looked this whole site was dedicated to moneysaving!

point3

Personally I would not try to use a coupon against something I haven't bought. However, if supermarkets are happy to turn a blind eye to families that do 'penny-pinch' in this way, then who are we to criticise?

Happyroly

stebiz wrote:

Sorry but my attitude is my family comes first. What ever little I can do to make their life better I will. If that means using a coupon (or a number of them) and therefore I can afford better meat/fruit etc, and in return the shareholders of large multi national companies make a few hundred pound less out of me per year - tough. These companies make far too much money as it is. Morals are CEO's of large companies getting 600k plus a year in wages and me scraping enough to live by even though I and my wife both work.

Stebiz :beer:

Well said Stebiz.

hilary1

serpico786 wrote:

This is just an opinion... but i think its unethical and immoral that we're using coupons in supermarkets and not buying the products... using codes is different as at least we're giving them our custom, albeit at a reduced cost.

but here the supermarkets are the real winners ... and the manufacturers suffer as they have to reimburse the coupon value regardless... no wonder Tesco mostly accept these vouchers... they have no morals.. just look at their profits!

isnt this therefore theft and fraud? clearly we're obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception.

Or am i taking things way too seriously?

Lets not be too serious here but how can using a code you are not entitled to be ethical yet using a money off coupon not be?

Surely we are giving them our custom either way.

If the vouchers werent there to be used they wouldnt print them and if Tesco dont care about us not buying the product why should we.

We all want to save whatever we can and if I can get £5 off my shoppiing I will. I doubt if any businesses lose out in any way but we as customers would.

Lets face it, supermarkets dont really care about ripping off customers, they wouldnt rush up to you and say 'you've bought that product heres a coupon' would they?:rotfl:

flufff

another view could be that perhaps if we were financially better off raising famillies in this country or in retirement ,better paid jobs then praps we wouldnt have to do this in first place.I understand we are one of poorest paid countries in europe.
I can but dream of the day I win lottery especially as most weeks I dont have a spare £1 to play it!:rolleyes:

scooper

i agree with one post who said they wouldnt make these codes available if they didnt want to be used.
but also i dont quite understand why you wouldnt want to save money if you can use these codes/vouchers,at the end of the day you probably spent alot of money in these stores and you are just getting back some kind of ''thankyou'' from them in a way.
but all said,it is down to personal choice

ManAtHome

I don't think using the "it's ok they're richer than me" argument stacks up - burglars and muggers have been thinking this way for years... Trying to harrangue a cashier into accepting a voucher aginst store rules also isn't on.

However, if Tesco are prepared to offer a 'consolidation service', betting that they'll order/sell more of a product than they'll have coupons for, can't see where there's a problem. Suppliers will (or should) be well used to higher redemption rates by now and adjust their offers accordingly.

hellofreebies

[
However, if Tesco are prepared to offer a 'consolidation service', betting that they'll order/sell more of a product than they'll have coupons for, can't see where there's a problem. Suppliers will (or should) be well used to higher redemption rates by now and adjust their offers accordingly.[/QUOTE]

thats my concern...i think sooner rather than later tesco along with the others will have to tighten up the coupon policy due to abuse. if a manufacture redeems xx amount of coupons but have sold less then the xx amount of products...then who will pay joe bloggs wages at the factory etc....
thing is some people are grateful for a few pounds shaved of their shopping bill each week but there is a minority who milk this system for what its worth...a minority of mser's proudly boasts on here how they pay only a couple of pounds for each weeks groceries or travel out of town daily to load of piles of duplicated coupons they have accumulated by whatever means.... every man for himself 'so grabbit while you can' is it not the motto of MSE?

ben500

taxiphil wrote:

Using coupons against products you haven't bought is nothing new - some of us have been doing it since the 1970s.

You'll have a job convincing me that diddling the odd 50p out of huge billionaire multinational corporations like Nestlé and Unilever is immoral. If you think they're "suffering" through coupon fraud I suggest you have a look at their profits.

Being one of "Us" I'm with you here