January 5, 2015 - MikeG
Those coupons
So my Target, which shall remain locationless and not in Charlotte, NC, is one of the worst for AP and theft. The AP people are good, the community is sh!t. My gripe is with the couponers that fraud the store out of thousands of dollars every day, and the managers do zero (0) about it. I’m a seasonal, started in mid-Nov. I was a victim of a BJ’s coupon (a COSTCO like membership store) where the person was buying large amounts of mucinex and basically getting them free because the coupons were for $10 off and Target sells the mucinex for 9.79. You can only use the coupons at the BJs store. I was ashamed of myself after I took a second look at the coupons later and realized I had been had. Manager did and said nothing about it other than maybe next time. I then took it upon myself to check every, single, coupon thereafter and have all but broken up a coupon ring that used the wrong coupons to get items free (getting the trial shampoos and using the full size coupon). For two months they’ve tried to get through my line unsuccessfully, attempting to combine the buy two or four items, get a $5 gift card sales and then using 4 coupons for buy two get $5 off coupons for 4 items (essentially getting everything free). It’s always shampoo or lotion or razors. I’ve caught around 30 “guests” doing this, most of them the same people that don’t realize they’ve been caught by me before. I stopped one family (that had tried my line 3 different times) before they left and told them if they came back through doing the same thing I would have them banned or arrested (an empty threat, obviously).
However, my problem lies with the managers and other cashiers not doing a damn thing about them. They’ll just wait until I go on break to hit another cashier, sweet talk said cashier, ask them when they come in again (just trying to strike up conversation but really seeing when they can come back to do it again), etc…One manager and a cashier were fired during the almost two months I’ve been here. However, they’ve only increased their fraudulent runs since then and no one has been fired or reprimanded. I’ve made sure to remind the other cashiers to check every coupon, since many of the larger coupons have fraud warnings on them. Only one other than me actually cares. My manager told me to stop worrying about it and make sure I’m not publicly accusing the guests. I am very tactful about who I catch and often times try to politely tell them their coupons won’t work and I can’t use them or I could be fired.
Does anyone else have this experience? I’ve seen it done with mucinex, transformers toys, aveeno, nivea, razors, toothbrushes (using a $20 sonicare electric toothbrush coupon for a battery powered one, significant difference in price) etc… It has really crushed my will to ever have anything to do with retail again. Real scum of the Earth people. Target is losing thousands every day just at my store alone. I may hate working at Target but I at least care enough not to let people run fraudulent schemes like that.
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Don't feel bad. For every customer with a fraudulent scheme, Target has 10 more of their own.
Just do your best. But that is target's fault in the first place for being stupid and letting those fraudulent coupons though when the data breach happened. If you read though earlier posts, it was target policy to accept all coupons even if they are fake or for the wrong item. Those people figured out target will accept them now to gain back lost customers. Which was stupid in the first place. It's not just target. it's everywhere. I've had one guy basically cut off the entire coupon and only leave the barcode and try to use it. Declined them. There was this lady once who tried to use a coupon without the mailing address, terms and conditions, etc, supervisor who was on a lane behind me denied the coupon and was like this isn't even a coupon. Think lady later went to complain at customer service or tried to use it.
It's very hard to extreme coupon up here though but you still get those idiots who try to use them on the wrong item. I only use coupons when the manufacturer dumps them on us.
I think you are describing coupon stacking. According to target policy, you are allowed to use one target coupon with one manufacturer coupon.
I probably should have described it a bit more. There are good couponers out there that do the legit coupon stacking and it's impressive and I wish I could do that. These people are just flat using obviously wrong coupons in an attempt to get free items and re-sell them on Facebook. That's how I found out about the whole thing, I found them on Facebook trading the fake/wrong coupons and talking about the different stores that were accepting them to hit up and reselling the items for $5 online. I never actually realized it was Target policy to accept all coupons. I don't hold up any lines checking them if I remember seeing the item and I just ring it up as normal. I only check them really closely if they have two carts full of shampoo and lotion.
Charlotte, NC huh (despite claims that's not where you work lol)? I happen to be located at a different store in that city (likely a different store anyways). I am those kinds of people's LEAST favorite cashier because of my being incredibly nitpicky with what the manufacturer and store specifies on the coupons. I don't care if the ETLs tell me we're meant to take them, I'll listen to the TLs and actually watch the coupons. Those people are committing fraud, which is so against the law big time. The team leads at the store I work at actually watch those people and tell us to watch the coupons closely. I do this for all those people and they know not to come back to my line. One lady did this the other day and just said "why don't you just scan these coupons and see if they go through?" I said that's not how it works, ma'am. I was literally going through the whole order to make sure the items were correct (even pulled some items from the bags). She was like "I don't have time for this, you will be at this all day long". I completely ignored her and after I started denying her coupons she dared say to me "you're so serious for a pregnant lady" as if it was supposed to upset me. I just said to her I'm trying to do my job correctly to ensure that the store gets reimbursed properly and blah blah blah. She literally ended up buying a few of the many items she tried buying, as I took none of her coupons.
I'm sick of dealing with this kind of bullshit for slightly more than the minimum wage. I don't care if I aggravate such people, if I ran the store those customers would NOT be welcome. Why would you want con artists trying to scam you for thousands of dollars a day? Why welcome "customers" who don't want to pay for your stuff and try to hide so by using many coupons for items that clearly don't qualify? You can't make everyone happy, so it would seem logical to try making only those who can be happy well happy. Not by Target's "logic" (errr rather lack thereof).
I'm sorry you're dealing with the stupid extreme couponers and that management does not support you doing the right thing. It's sad the store I work at doesn't like accommodating people with reasonable needs but at least they don't like the extreme couponers either.
lol and yet target complains they are losing money. Maybe if management stopped accepting the wrong coupon for shit, maybe they would lose less money.
there are people who attempt to use expired store coupons. And when we are told to tell them we'll take it this once time as a courtesy and that next time we won't take it again, the guy was like if you don't take it, i'll just use it at a different store and wait till someone takes it. Omg don't they scan? don't they go though? um these things never scan? We have to manually punch them in so we normally look at the expiry date as well.
reminds of one lady who tried to use manufacturer coupons on store brand items.Sheesh.
Just remember the greatest threat to following policy are the spineless ETLs.
YES! God knows those ETLs tend to be the most spineless people on the planet. At least the store I work at the TLs actually have more of a backbone and stronger leadership qualities. The guest service ETL at my store literally tells the TLs that we should "accept coupons anyways to keep guests happy", even if it clearly violates Target's coupon policy. Ugh!
yeah they cause all the issues
They seem to cause all the issues in all aspects of Target store operations, not just with the violation of coupon policy either. Why does Target insist on hiring shitty ass people for their management positions with no good leadership qualities who simply look pretty on paper with a 4 year degree?
I shit you not, a week before I quit I had a "guest" come through my line with a $900 T.V. saying it was $200. Now, not being an idiot I called someone over to check. THEY DIDN'T EVEN CHECK. I was sent on my break right after that and I walked over to electronics and LO AND BEHOLD the TV they got was $900. Alllllll I did was walk over there and saw that they were clearly lying. But you do what you can do, if they like losing the money, freaking let them. I know this wasn't about coupons but hey!
WOW you gotta be joking. For such a big price difference, you would assume that someone would've went to go check (SUCH a simple process). Someone asked one of the team leads how much something at Starbucks was. The team lead was sarcastic and said "it's free. Go tell them you heard someone say it was free to them". Someone said to him "did you really just tell them that?" then he said "Why not? We give everything else away for free". LOL true facts of life right there in the world of Target Corp.
Was a stupid question anyways. Starbucks prices are uniform across the board. Can't charge cheaper or more expensive than the corporate locations
That and they could have just simply went over there and asked the Starbucks team as well. Either way, it was a funny response. The team lead who said that is probably one of the most anti-Target team leads, along with another one at my store who literally hands out the Integrity Hotline number and calls it her "business card" to cashiers.
And they cut TM hours because they are not making enough $ to cover payroll geesh
And the fact they just can't keep up in the Canadian market. May be the fraudulent coupon users are part of the reason why Target is losing so much money there and elsewhere. Why should TMs take the fall for the failures of the company when they in fact try to make the stores better places to shop (and the fact the ETLs suck at managing the coupons their whiny shoppers use)?