BTW, I’m in South Jersey. I’ll be teaching a couponing class on Saturday May 9 to a bunch of people from church. I’ll be doing a similar class in June for Catholic Charities.

Thanks for your blog. It’s just great!

Thanks!

Also – there are a finite number of combinations to be made with a 5 digit code (since the first 5 digits are usually the manufacturer). Companies may not want to use up all of their barcodes on, for example, a separate barcode for the 16 oz size of salad dressing than the one for the 8 oz size

HOWEVER, many coupons are now starting to have a second barcode on them to try to rectify this problem. While this is great, the technology to read both hasn’t seemed to trickle down to many stores. Ever see a cashier fold your coupon in half to scan it? It’s because the 2nd barcode on the coupon is making the register beep!

Great post! We’re using this to help our Educators communicate proper coupon redemption practicies!

Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Kristin @ BeCentsAble

I respectfully disagree Mindi. Your assumption cannot be “king” as there are just too many gray areas in couponing (many of which both Crystal and Shannon have made reference to).

Still, I’m thankful that you shared your perspective.

A few things:

While I have allowed all comments on this post to stand, the conversaation is teetering close to being uncivil. Please attack the issue, not the person. Despite my love of sarcasm, I would like this site to remain an encouraging place where nobody feels “chased away”.

To those people who have sent me nasty emails over this issue: Right back atcha! That is the extent of a reply that you will be getting from me!

As for calling the company and asking their intent….unless you speak to the CFO or a Director of Marketing or whoever is “in charge” of the coupon program, I disagree with “if they say it is ok – then it is fine”.

Many of us have called companies and received different replies on the same coupon issues, depending on who you are talking to and what day it is and what mood the person answering the phone is in.

People complain constantly about (for example) different coupon policies at different stores. I live near 4 different CVS Stores. Two of them will allow using a BOGO coupon on a BOGO sale, 2 will not. The ones that won’t will do it if you get the “right” cashier.

As for knowing their intent….I firmly believe that they make their intent clear when they place wording and pictures on the coupon. They usually place a picture of the most expensive product, hoping the customer will assume that they must buy that product…an example would be the $5 Huggies coupons that said “good on any Gentle Care item” on them. They were hoping that putting the picture of the $12 pack of diapers would make people buy the diapers. But by saying it was good on an “item”, not “diapers”, they allowed the use on the $6 package of wipes.

Crest does the same thing with their coupons. They put out $1 coupons with a picture of the most exapensive toothpaste and a long list of more expensive varieties that it is valid for…but at the very end of the lsit, they say “any 4.2 oz tube”. This opens the coupon up to be used, not just on the $4 tubes, but the ones that frequently go 10 for $10. They know that people are going to start reading the 7-line description and not read throught to the end and assume it can only be used on the “premium versions”…but they leave it open so that the coupon can be used on ANY toothpaste.

Many other companies do this as well. They put out a coupon for “Save $X ON SUPER NEW FLAVOR OF OUR PRODUCT” and then in tiny tiny letters they will have “or any other flavor”. The intent is clear: to pomote and move the new-pricier product, but allow the use of the coupon on others in the same “family” of products.

I remember once being at a store and almost arguing with a cashier (before I told her to just take it off my order) over a $.75/2 Ortega coupon. I was using it to get seasoning packets for free and she didn’t want to accept it because she didn’t think that Ortega “intended” for it to be used on the super-cheap packets. Just as I didn’t think that she should be trying to be a mind-reader, I don’t think that we should either. The wording of the coupon HAS to be “king” in order to ensure continuity!

I have worked in marketing for years and often times a variation can play off of an intitial marketing strategy. The company that manufacturer’s the coupon may be glad that they have sold any of their product line with the coupon because it gets their name brand out in people’s homes everywhere and that is a good thing.

Someone may see that product in your home or you may tell them how incredible that product is and they will go out and pay full price for the product and that makes the manufacturer very happy. My point being that we don’t know their intent so unless you have worked in the couponing industry for a manufacturer and have spoken with several other manufacturer’s about the their operations then you are just guessing about their final “intent.”

Market share is also important to manufacturer’s. If, for example, several thousand couponers use coupons to get a reduced price on the items that they like (which are not listed on the coupon), then the manufacturer will see a spike in the sale of these items and they will be able to say that they are the premier seller of this item and that also brings in more buyers for their product (most of which will probably not use coupons). Marketing strategies are very complex. Don’t assume that the manufacturer is “upset” that we are using these coupons for a different item. My guess (and it is just a guess so don’t assume that I am an expert in this area) is that they are glad that we are using our coupons to buy any of their products.

Only time (and a few phone calls) will tell.

Having appropriate information brings light to these ethical issues. There are many gray areas in couponing.

There are a few posts here that are emotional in nature and are not well thought out; they are just rants. It is not wise for these people to respond from emotion. It is best not to respond to a rant (but entrust yourself to Him who judges justly).

There are many gray areas in couponing and many believers do not see things in black and white in the same areas. I think that you need to follow your conscience because you are the only one that is accountable to God for your choices. We will not answer to each other on this issue; we will answer to the Father. It is wonderful to share our perspectives as it causes all of us to think carefully (so thank you Mindi for sharing your perspective which caused me to think).

My personal plan to investigate this issue. I will contact 10 manufacturer’s to find out how flexible they are on my coupon usage so that I can be armed with information. I will report back to Crystal with the information when I have a chance to make the calls. I had planned on working on this project next month anyway so this post is a great impetus.

For the rest of you out here posting; be careful with the assumptions that you make. You are accountable for every rash word that you make.

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I am sorry but that is just putting another nail in the coffin, I can understand that you mistakenly used the coupon or that you used it because you did not find the mentioned product (do not agree but still forgivable). But telling that you spent ink and gas on the coupon, entitles you to use a coupon that is not legitimate, is just wrong. Then the people who create pdfs out of coupons, modify barcode etc should be rewarded for their “hardwork” (time spent on computer, power, any software they used etc) . Don’t you think? We are the choices we make, it is our choice to print or not the coupon, it is our choice to use the coupon or not and it is our choice to consider it ethical/unethical or try justifying it but problem is the brunt of your choices are mostly suffered by the people shopping in the same store after you (who are watched and scrutinized just because a shopper before them decided to use the easy way) .There is white and there is black and then there is grey or simply put what works/benefits for us and grey does not make it right.

I have seen many posts by big bloggers that I didn’t feel were personally ethical (even though no one else seemed to even see an issue with it). However, since I consider a lot of couponing ethics to be gray areas and personal choices, I do not judge or think ill of these people. I hope that we can all agree to disagree on some points, and not pass judgment on people. I agree with Heidi in that if I use my ink and paper to print a coupon from a company and then travel to at least two different stores trying to find the deal, I should be able to use the coupon if it is programmed for any item.

Here is an interesting question. The B1G1 coupons with the B1G1 deals are no question for me. That is ethical because they are getting the amount for that coupon so they are still profiting what they were expecting off of the sale. But what about when you have a B1G1 coupon and a regular sale. Is it ethical to use a non b1g1 coupon on the item that you aren’t getting for free? I have always assumed that the items involved in the coupon were required for the coupon making them ineligible for another coupon because of the 1 coupon per item clause in the coupons. A couple weeks ago I used a b1g1 on the schick razors at walgreens with the store coupon too (nonissue). Then I saw a post with someone saying to use the $4 off coupon from another insert on the one that wasn’t free. If I had known we were allowed to do that I would have used that too. The same thing with my bacon peelie the other day. $.55 off bacon when you buy 2 biscuits. Is it really ethical to use a coupon for the biscuits since technically the coupon was off the bacon or is that wrong because the coupon for the bacon required the biscuit purchase.

That being said, it is not my job to judge and I don’t believe that I have done so. If people read my post and continue to decode bar codes, it’s not as if I am going to turn them in or anything

But I cannot and will not support using coupons for other than they are intended…and just like any contract, the wording of the coupon is the offer.

With that in mind, I made my feelings known on this subject and hope that I educated a few people about some bad information that many have been getting, both on the news and some coupon classes.

What they do with that information from that point on is up to them!

And I’d like to expound upon the mention of “Well I called the company and they said it’s okay” argument that you mentioned. Honestly I don’t see how you can refute this. If a company is the one responsible for it and they say it is okay, then there is no issue.
Just like if I had a coupon for Chick-fil-a that said “Valid at Chick-fil-a in City A.” Well if I took it to city B and asked the manager if I could use it there, and he says yes, then there’s no issue. Final say is up to the company, and if they say yes, well there you go.
And intent doesn’t sit right with me either. CVS doesn’t intend for all of us to just get free stuff all the time, but we do. If we always base everything on what companies intend, we will have to stop doing all the deals that get us free items, or even get us overage.
I think it’s just a balance though. I’m not sure we can just apply one answer across the board. I didn’t feel right about the Aveeno coupons after mentioning them on my site, so I removed them. It’s about listening to our guts I think.
I do believe this is a gray area, and you must do what you feel is right. I will in the future be very careful in the coupon deals I promote, because I do not want to cause anyone to stumble. Thanks for the post, and I am very blessed by it. We all do need to continually re-evaluate our couponing practices to make sure we stay honest and ethical. I answer to a higher power for what I do, and I know that He will convict me if I run into a deal I shouldn’t do.

They put out a $2 for the specific flavors because they are new and they are promoting them.

(oh – just as an aside, I wouldn’t say that she was “lying”….she just said that she hadn’t seen the flavors yet. Oftentimes new products and flavors are slower to reach some areas than others)