Archived Angry "Extreme" couponers

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Abuse, theft, finding other ways to 'make things right for the guest' without using them....
 
Good to know. We found a stack of them in the pharmacy & we dropped them to the cash office. Now I'll know what to say if someone tries to use one at the pharmacy.
 
Aww, I liked the apology coupons. Best way to calm down a cranky guest. I've never seen any successful fraud with them. One time I had a guest try and used photocopied ones, which of course I denied. But that was just one, isolated incident.
 
They want us to "deescalate" the guest/situation in the moment, thinking that guest would rather have it "made right" in the moment, instead of having apology coupons given to them for a later time.

As far as the apology coupons go when cashiering, the POS system won't accept them, but they are still valid if the guest tries to use them. Call your GSA/GSTL over and they will tell you to do a target coupon for $3. Or really impress them and do it yourself. ;) Your GSA/GSTL should have talked to you about this last week sometime.

That being said...Is this the right move? We'll see. I've had many guests that were unhappy with cashiers or a sales floor team member or a price or instocks or the toilet paper in the bathroom or the way my shoes looked or how there soda tasted...you get the point, that I have given apology coupons in the moment that "made it right".

I've also been able to deescalate the situation without the coupons. It really depended on the guest. Meaning, some complete jerks like the guest who verbally and physically threatened me a few weeks ago because I speed weaved him to a lane that took longer than he liked (yes, he did that for waiting an extra 2 minutes) wouldn't be deescalated nor would apology coupons work.

In the end, it saves spot money. Simply put. Which at the end of the day, means more money for the company, which could possibly mean more money for team members. (Yes, i'm being optimistic)

It does take more time and effort and relational capital between Cashiers and the GSA/GSTL to trust each other in the moment and to partner with each other in the moment to "make it right" and create a great "vibe" moment.
 
I hope no one minds that I pose this question here but... has anyone found a way for cashiers to deal with extreme couponers/coupon fraud at self checkout? A GSA and a GSTL at my store have said we cannot allow them to check out at self checkout, and tell us we need to make them check out on lanes. But I'm not sure how we can force a guest to checkout elsewhere. Mostly because those people don't listen to us anyways and get rude. Said GSA told me that we need to tell them that coupons aren't working at self checkout and hope they would be willing for us to check them out on the nearest lane. When another cashier tried that route, the guest said that "they worked last time" and still scanned their coupons. :mad:
 
griezmanns said:
I hope no one minds that I pose this question here but... has anyone found a way for cashiers to deal with extreme couponers/coupon fraud at self checkout? A GSA and a GSTL at my store have said we cannot allow them to check out at self checkout, and tell us we need to make them check out on lanes. But I'm not sure how we can force a guest to checkout elsewhere. Mostly because those people don't listen to us anyways and get rude. Said GSA told me that we need to tell them that coupons aren't working at self checkout and hope they would be willing for us to check them out on the nearest lane. When another cashier tried that route, the guest said that "they worked last time" and still scanned their coupons. :mad:
Click to expand...

I've heard of a store that's put up a sign saying no coupons at the SCO. When I see a guest pull out a stack, I will sometimes stand by and watch or ask to see their coupons. Typically I stop them and let them know that in order to use their coupons, I will have to finish ringing them up at a register. They do grumble and complain and usually walk away, but oh well. I love shutting fraudsters down :)
 
ks0202 said:
They want us to "deescalate" the guest/situation in the moment, thinking that guest would rather have it "made right" in the moment, instead of having apology coupons given to them for a later time.

As far as the apology coupons go when cashiering, the POS system won't accept them, but they are still valid if the guest tries to use them. Call your GSA/GSTL over and they will tell you to do a target coupon for $3. Or really impress them and do it yourself. ;) Your GSA/GSTL should have talked to you about this last week sometime.

That being said...Is this the right move? We'll see. I've had many guests that were unhappy with cashiers or a sales floor team member or a price or instocks or the toilet paper in the bathroom or the way my shoes looked or how there soda tasted...you get the point, that I have given apology coupons in the moment that "made it right".

I've also been able to deescalate the situation without the coupons. It really depended on the guest. Meaning, some complete jerks like the guest who verbally and physically threatened me a few weeks ago because I speed weaved him to a lane that took longer than he liked (yes, he did that for waiting an extra 2 minutes) wouldn't be deescalated nor would apology coupons work.

In the end, it saves spot money. Simply put. Which at the end of the day, means more money for the company, which could possibly mean more money for team members. (Yes, i'm being optimistic)

It does take more time and effort and relational capital between Cashiers and the GSA/GSTL to trust each other in the moment and to partner with each other in the moment to "make it right" and create a great "vibe" moment.
Click to expand...
This change really isn't a change for me. We've never really used apology coupons at my store. I'll agree it does take a little more effort to deescalate the situation, rather than just handing out free money, but this is the way it should be. Any leaders who have an issue with this should just ask themselves, "do I intentionally hurt store profits and cut corners in my work?" The answer should be no. Much in the same way that we avoid charge backs, but choose to repackage instead, we should avoid apology coupons as well. Also, leaders can still give out target giftcards if necessary.
 
griezmanns said:
I hope no one minds that I pose this question here but... has anyone found a way for cashiers to deal with extreme couponers/coupon fraud at self checkout? A GSA and a GSTL at my store have said we cannot allow them to check out at self checkout, and tell us we need to make them check out on lanes. But I'm not sure how we can force a guest to checkout elsewhere. Mostly because those people don't listen to us anyways and get rude. Said GSA told me that we need to tell them that coupons aren't working at self checkout and hope they would be willing for us to check them out on the nearest lane. When another cashier tried that route, the guest said that "they worked last time" and still scanned their coupons. :mad:
Click to expand...

What my store has done is put up a sign that says we don't accept coupons at SCO and just in case they do try to still insert their coupons in the slot, we blocked it off from the inside with cardboard or tape. I haven't really seen what it is. So when they bring it to our attention that they have coupons, we notify them of our policy, void the coupons, have them pay and add their coupons at a register using their receipt with the Fix a Mistake/Missed Coupons route.

I've seen that more Targets are starting to do that, at least the one I usually shop at.
 
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TargetHEEL said:
In Electronics, people looooove to try to coupon fraud me bc they think I won't know/care about what they are doing. This one dude prefaces his purchase by saying "I want this all on a gift receipt" which already causes me to side-eye him from the get go. He rings up a bunch of trial size shampoo, toothpaste, and disposable Colgate toothbrushes. Then he hands me four $20 coupons for some hair restoration cream I've never heard of. When I tell him he didn't purchase this item so I can't accept the coupon, he of course pulls the "oh my bad, my bad" and gives me another stack. This stack contains some $5 coupons for electric Colgate toothbrushes. When I mention that he isn't purchasing the electric toothbrushes but instead the disposable ones, he shrugs his shoulders and says "maaaaaaaaan my wife put me up to this shit." Then he just walks away.
Click to expand...
They do this at pharmacy as well. They seem to think we aren't "regular cashiers," so we will just take whatever they give us. We have a guy who keeps trying to buy large amounts of gift cards as well. When we tell him we can't sell them at pharmacy, he usually just leaves (without the gift cards);)
 
We don't ring up any credit card giftcards at the Pharmacy anymore. We just added it to our list along with alcohol and locked merch. We had one shifty person and we decided to shut that down afterwards.

We don't do massive amounts of coupons either. We don't have the space to ring up massive amounts of product, so we usually don't deal with more than one coupon in a transaction.
 
RXninja said:
We don't ring up any credit card giftcards at the Pharmacy anymore. We just added it to our list along with alcohol and locked merch. We had one shifty person and we decided to shut that down afterwards.

We don't do massive amounts of coupons either. We don't have the space to ring up massive amounts of product, so we usually don't deal with more than one coupon in a transaction.
Click to expand...

Our pharmacy has adopted the same policy as electronics. 10 items or less, no alcohol, and if there's no lines up front we reserve the right to send you up there. Our registers are for guests of our department, and we often ring out other people to provide a good guest experience, but we can't be ringing out a full cart of crap because someone doesn't want to wait three minutes in line.
 
BrohemianRapcity said:
What my store has done is put up a sign that says we don't accept coupons at SCO and just in case they do try to still insert their coupons in the slot, we blocked it off from the inside with cardboard or tape. I haven't really seen what it is. So when they bring it to our attention that they have coupons, we notify them of our policy, void the coupons, have them pay and add their coupons at a register using their receipt with the Fix a Mistake/Missed Coupons route.

I've seen that more Targets are starting to do that, at least the one I usually shop at.
Click to expand...
The store I work at if you use a coupon the SCO will say "A team member is coming to approve your coupons." and you can approve or deny the coupons at the SCO under help mode. Also at my store if you use your own bags you have to have a team member come to approve your bags. I think it's an okay system and it makes it inconvenient for coupon fraudsters that have a wad of coupons to wait for someone to look over them
 
I found a story about an "angry" extreme couponer that was actually kind of touching.
This is a case where as a cashier you need to be careful who you get snotty with or you will be watching your speed scores go straight down the tubes.



“After paying for my groceries today, I was preparing to walk away when I saw the cashier rolling her eyes and sucking her teeth at a young lady and young man who were putting up their groceries. They obviously didn’t have a lot of money, and I had a really strong feeling that I was supposed to stay close to these youngsters. Well, I stayed and watched as the cashier slammed through their things. The final total was $123.40.

The young girl looked nervous but scanned her food stamp card and again the cashier rolled her eyes and smirked when it came back that the balance on the card was only $95.30. She took great pleasure in repeating this, so I stepped up and said ‘First of all, you need to lower your voice, And second, I’m gonna help them out and don’t you roll your eyes at me. I’m not a young girl.’

She didn’t say a word. I took out my coupons and stood there and very slowly went through all three of my coupon carriers, after finding what I could for these young people. I handed them to the cashier. Then, I gave her my E-card so they got double the coupons, which really seemed to piss the cashier off. The young lady and young man were so excited because they not only had enough—the $123.40 went down to $68.22. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had young people jumping on me so happy and excited.

After they packed up and we were walking away, I looked at the cashier and said, ‘Why?’ She looked like she was gonna cry, but said nothing!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know why she was going to cry.
She just had to spend 25 minutes going through them finding coupons for an order that had been rung up.
Payback is a bitch.
Treat people when they are down the way you would want to be treated.
 
commiecorvus said:
I found a story about an "angry" extreme couponer that was actually kind of touching.
This is a case where as a cashier you need to be careful who you get snotty with or you will be watching your speed scores go straight down the tubes.



“After paying for my groceries today, I was preparing to walk away when I saw the cashier rolling her eyes and sucking her teeth at a young lady and young man who were putting up their groceries. They obviously didn’t have a lot of money, and I had a really strong feeling that I was supposed to stay close to these youngsters. Well, I stayed and watched as the cashier slammed through their things. The final total was $123.40.

The young girl looked nervous but scanned her food stamp card and again the cashier rolled her eyes and smirked when it came back that the balance on the card was only $95.30. She took great pleasure in repeating this, so I stepped up and said ‘First of all, you need to lower your voice, And second, I’m gonna help them out and don’t you roll your eyes at me. I’m not a young girl.’

She didn’t say a word. I took out my coupons and stood there and very slowly went through all three of my coupon carriers, after finding what I could for these young people. I handed them to the cashier. Then, I gave her my E-card so they got double the coupons, which really seemed to piss the cashier off. The young lady and young man were so excited because they not only had enough—the $123.40 went down to $68.22. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had young people jumping on me so happy and excited.

After they packed up and we were walking away, I looked at the cashier and said, ‘Why?’ She looked like she was gonna cry, but said nothing!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know why she was going to cry.
She just had to spend 25 minutes going through them finding coupons for an order that had been rung up.
Payback is a bitch.
Treat people when they are down the way you would want to be treated.
Click to expand...
Realistically she could have suspended it and voided the snap payment. And apologized.

I've done the same many times. But I've not run into rude cashiers like that except at my local target that isn't mine...and she'd never let me ding the speed store to get at me.
 
When you void a payment (other than target gift cards), the payment is voided but the hold on that amount often remains. If $95 was all she had on the card, it often takes up to 24 hours before that $95 would be available. Maybe it works differently at different stores.
 
SallyHoover said:
When you void a payment (other than target gift cards), the payment is voided but the hold on that amount often remains. If $95 was all she had on the card, it often takes up to 24 hours before that $95 would be available. Maybe it works differently at different stores.
Click to expand...
I'm talking before the transaction finished...not a post void. I've never checked, but I've never had a complaint either.
 
commiecorvus said:
I found a story about an "angry" extreme couponer that was actually kind of touching.
This is a case where as a cashier you need to be careful who you get snotty with or you will be watching your speed scores go straight down the tubes.



“After paying for my groceries today, I was preparing to walk away when I saw the cashier rolling her eyes and sucking her teeth at a young lady and young man who were putting up their groceries. They obviously didn’t have a lot of money, and I had a really strong feeling that I was supposed to stay close to these youngsters. Well, I stayed and watched as the cashier slammed through their things. The final total was $123.40.

The young girl looked nervous but scanned her food stamp card and again the cashier rolled her eyes and smirked when it came back that the balance on the card was only $95.30. She took great pleasure in repeating this, so I stepped up and said ‘First of all, you need to lower your voice, And second, I’m gonna help them out and don’t you roll your eyes at me. I’m not a young girl.’

She didn’t say a word. I took out my coupons and stood there and very slowly went through all three of my coupon carriers, after finding what I could for these young people. I handed them to the cashier. Then, I gave her my E-card so they got double the coupons, which really seemed to piss the cashier off. The young lady and young man were so excited because they not only had enough—the $123.40 went down to $68.22. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had young people jumping on me so happy and excited.

After they packed up and we were walking away, I looked at the cashier and said, ‘Why?’ She looked like she was gonna cry, but said nothing!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know why she was going to cry.
She just had to spend 25 minutes going through them finding coupons for an order that had been rung up.
Payback is a bitch.
Treat people when they are down the way you would want to be treated.
Click to expand...

Where the hell did you find this? No offense, but it sounds like a click bait, "when you hear what she does, you'll shit your pants!!!" kind of stories.

What kind of person rolls their eyes at someone for just buying food? Don't most people only gripe about food stamps if the person looks like they DON'T need it? And who the hell is perceptive enough to basically read people's minds? This God like lady sure makes a lot of assumptions about this cashier's intentions. Maybe the cashier just has a shitty face? Maybe she was pissed because the lady was slow and judgmental, not because she was helping someone in need.
 
Target NPC said:
Where the hell did you find this? No offense, but it sounds like a click bait, "when you hear what she does, you'll shit your pants!!!" kind of stories.

What kind of person rolls their eyes at someone for just buying food? Don't most people only gripe about food stamps if the person looks like they DON'T need it? And who the hell is perceptive enough to basically read people's minds? This God like lady sure makes a lot of assumptions about this cashier's intentions. Maybe the cashier just has a shitty face? Maybe she was pissed because the lady was slow and judgmental, not because she was helping someone in need.
Click to expand...


As someone who has had to use food stamps and has got some side eye by customers (never by cashiers thank goodness) I can sympathise.
We seem to have reached a point now where people have decided it's okay to attack people for using food stamps.

 
commiecorvus said:
As someone who has had to use food stamps and has got some side eye by customers (never by cashiers thank goodness) I can sympathise.
We seem to have reached a point now where people have decided it's okay to attack people for using food stamps.

Click to expand...


That's may be true in some cases. But it doesn't change that story from being a huge steamy pile of Facebook garbage.
 
commiecorvus said:
As someone who has had to use food stamps and has got some side eye by customers (never by cashiers thank goodness) I can sympathise.
We seem to have reached a point now where people have decided it's okay to attack people for using food stamps.

Click to expand...



Luckily never seen anything like that at my store, though if I did she'd be getting told to leave and not to return.
 
signingminion said:
I'm talking before the transaction finished...not a post void. I've never checked, but I've never had a complaint either.
Click to expand...
Doesn't matter if you completed the transaction or not. Once they swipe the card and put in their information for it, the payment is on hold for the next day or so.
 
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