Coupons - did i do wrong?

Pink.

Hi cagneyfan,

As your thread has dropped down the Old Style board I've moved it to the Grocery Shopping board where you should get more opinions.

Pink

Middy

I get customers giving me vouchers for our competitors' own label stuff or coupons saying 'Only to be redeemed at (competitors)' name. I politely tell them that I cannot accept this coupon.

jenniewb

If your talking about using coupons on items you did not purchase, its not new, many others do this, its up to you if you see this as right or wrong but companies have been in trouble as a result of this and in the past Tesco for one had a clamp down on "you have to have bought said item/s for us to accept the voucher" so it can rebound on everyone else if enough people take the same attitude. The reason Tesco did this is because manufacturers were losing out and passing this on to Tesco. There are consequences to everyones actions and sometimes they are not as obvious as you think.

Thats one part of your post, but wasn't sure what you were meaning by including the roll-back thing and the cheaper-to-buy-two-smaller point, thats a separate issue and its up to us to take responsibility on what we purchase and not be so lazy by assuming bigger=better, it doesn't always! Most people have a calculator on their mobile, very easy to use, others (such as myself: no mobile at all) it just takes some simple maths to work out prices to compare, doesn't take 2 minutes if you do it regularly

That said if you were mentioning the prices instore as a way to justify your coupon use I'd say
1. If you feel you need to justify anything then you do feel concerned at your actions and its up to you what you do with that, it may just be easier to trust yourself more and think about your conscience not that of other people and make the right choice for you.
& 2. Don't try to right a wrong with another wrong: two wrongs don't make a right!

Marvel1

Doesn't matter, the cashier accepted it, they could have easily rejected it.

Justme29

I will always try to use coupons even if I don't buy the product, and in my experience it depends on the cashier.

Went to Asda the other day, and tried to use a coupon for an item I hadn't brought, and the cashier refused it, but when I went back the next day, another cashier accepted it with no problems.

When I used to work in a supermarket, customers loved me, as I would accept any coupons they had, even if they hadn't brought the item, supermarkets make enough money that I didn't feel guilty helping the customer save money.

JAG

cagneyfan wrote: »

My extremely smug friend said that I was guilty of fraud.

It is a long time since I studied the law but from what I remember, and I am sure I have also read it on posts on this board relating to whether a store is legally bound to let you have a product where it is clearly a misprice.

It comes under "Offer and Treat"

Goods on display in shops are generally not offers but an invitation to treat. The customer makes an offer to purchase the goods. The trader will decide whether to accept the offer.

Therefore you could offer forms of payment instead of money and it is up to the seller to either accept or decline the payment.

So in theory you could offer say an apple in payment for a newspaper.

So in your case the supermarket has accepted your offer of a coupon as part payment. It is then they that are defrauding the manufacturer if they claim the coupon value back from them.

So you are not commiting fraud, but the supermarket would be in the sense they are telling the manufacturer they accepted the coupon in payment for the actual product.

sweetilemon

Its not the supermarket that will lose out its the company your coupon is for as the supermarket will redeem the value back from the company. tescos vouchers they send out only work if youve bought the item. personally i only use it for things ive bought as i would be embarassed if it was questioned but its not the end of the world.

cagneyfan

rosieben wrote: »

some shops do still accept vouchers as long as they stock the item; the shop isn't losing anything anyway as they just reclaim the voucher value, so don't worry about it; I've seen far far worse things advocated on these boards

I hope you reminded your extremely smug friend about the stationery and stamps - that is definitely theft!

I Haven't seen her yet. But even if I remind her (assuming I can get a word in edgeways as she has a habit of cutting you off to get you off your stride!) she'll probably either deny it or somehow justify it!

cagneyfan

jenniewb wrote: »

If your talking about using coupons on items you did not purchase, its not new, many others do this, its up to you if you see this as right or wrong but companies have been in trouble as a result of this and in the past Tesco for one had a clamp down on "you have to have bought said item/s for us to accept the voucher" so it can rebound on everyone else if enough people take the same attitude. The reason Tesco did this is because manufacturers were losing out and passing this on to Tesco. There are consequences to everyones actions and sometimes they are not as obvious as you think.

Thats one part of your post, but wasn't sure what you were meaning by including the roll-back thing and the cheaper-to-buy-two-smaller point, thats a separate issue and its up to us to take responsibility on what we purchase and not be so lazy by assuming bigger=better, it doesn't always! Most people have a calculator on their mobile, very easy to use, others (such as myself: no mobile at all) it just takes some simple maths to work out prices to compare, doesn't take 2 minutes if you do it regularly

That said if you were mentioning the prices instore as a way to justify your coupon use I'd say
1. If you feel you need to justify anything then you do feel concerned at your actions and its up to you what you do with that, it may just be easier to trust yourself more and think about your conscience not that of other people and make the right choice for you.
& 2. Don't try to right a wrong with another wrong: two wrongs don't make a right!

Hi, I agree that two wrongs don't make a right. I was trying to point out that the shops do a lot of sneaky things that we may not realise until afterwards (rollback for example - giving you the impression you're getting something cheaper when in fact the original price prior to rollback was cheaper). My point was that if they think it's ok to try and wheedle extra cash out of us, is it not just as ok for us to try and save a some money tool

cagneyfan

JAG wrote: »

It is a long time since I studied the law but from what I remember, and I am sure I have also read it on posts on this board relating to whether a store is legally bound to let you have a product where it is clearly a misprice.

It comes under "Offer and Treat"

Goods on display in shops are generally not offers but an invitation to treat. The customer makes an offer to purchase the goods. The trader will decide whether to accept the offer.

Therefore you could offer forms of payment instead of money and it is up to the seller to either accept or decline the payment.

So in theory you could offer say an apple in payment for a newspaper.

So in your case the supermarket has accepted your offer of a coupon as part payment. It is then they that are defrauding the manufacturer if they claim the coupon value back from them.

So you are not commiting fraud, but the supermarket would be in the sense they are telling the manufacturer they accepted the coupon in payment for the actual product.

Oooh I'd love to be able to get all that out to my friend before she interupted me! I never thought of it like that.