So many people forget about rainchecks, or are worried that they will seem “cheap” or greedy if they ask for a raincheck. But you know what? Rainchecks ar your FRIEND!
Two weeks ago, Giant had a Gas deal where you could save $0.20/gallon on Gas when you bought 7 items in a certain grouping of products. Totino's pizza rolls were included in that deal at $1 each. My sons and husband happen to LOVE Totino's (and we entertain friends quite a bit and like to keep quick snacks in the house) and I have a 24-gallon tank in my car. If you do the math, I could have spent $7 for 7 boxes of Totino's and saved $4.80 on a fill-up….essentially getting 105 pizza rolls for $2.20!
Of course, I wasn't the only one who figured out what a no-brainer this was, so when I went to Giant on Tuesday, there wasn't a box of pizza rolls to be found in the store!
Did I get upset? Nope! I simply walked up to the customer service desk and asked for a raincheck!
Why You Should Get a Raincheck:
- If you don't need the product RIGHT NOW, it allows you to take advantage of the same deal 2-8 weeks after the deal has ended (make sure that you note the expiration of the raincheck…some are only good for 30 days and some never expire. It just varies by store)
- You won't let a cleared shelf cause you stress….simply get a raincheck and get the deal the following week (or whenever).
- If it was just a “good deal all by itself” and there weren't any coupons for the deal, this gives you a few more weeks (or months) to gather coupons to make the deal even better!
There really is only one disadvantage of a raincheck: if you have a coupon for the item that is expiring before the sale ends, you won't be able to “pre-pay” for the items and use your coupons (then again – see #3 above)
Do you ask for rainchecks?
Oh – and a tip for Giant of PA shoppers:
Remember that Totino's deal that I wanted to do? Even though Giant had pretty much every other item in that deal in stock, I still got a raincheck for the Totino's, and they wrote at the top of the raincheck “Add 200 points”. Matter of fact, I got 3 rainchecks for that deal!
If you go in to the store for 1 specific item in a Gas Deal and they are out of that item, but still have others, they WILL give you a raincheck for both the price AND the points! (note: Giant Rainchecks are “Limit 6”, but I have never had a problem getting a raincheck for 7 or more when it is part of a Gas Deal…a manager will just have to come to the register and override it when you redeem the raincheck).
Looking for more Extreme Couponing tips? Make sure that you check out all the posts in my Coupon 101 and Coupon Ethics sections!
Mindi has been blogging since 2008 sharing her best frugal living tips, recipes and more. When she isn't writing, she spends time as an unpaid cook, maid and chauffeur to her 3 children!
Thanks for explaining how this works with gas points! I wouldn’t have been sure if they would give the points as well or not.
I must say this is really Informative Blog. I would like to thank to Mindi Cherry for giving such a great hints and tips here, I also love to use rainchecks for purchasing any products. I must say, we all can get products any time without stress with the help of it.
Thank you for this post my giant was out of hefty foam.plates. I.asked for a rain check I wanted to do the gas points.more then once but she would only give me one rain check. She stated I was only entitled to do the offer once.
Hey Jazzy! I would go back and ask for more rainchecks. Assuming you are talking about the deals that started today (4/13/2014), you are allowed to do that deal up to 10 times.
So (if you REALLY need the plates), they are 3 for $5 and you save $0.50/gallon wyb 6
In theory, you could buy 60 packs of plates and get $5 off per gallon of gas! (of course, the deal is for ANYTHING in that grouping…so you can’t but 60 of the plates if you want to stock up on anything else in that group)