Saturday, March 27, 2010

Purchase vs. Transaction

I'm so annoyed. SO ANNOYED!

Hi, I haven't written in a while. I'm sorry.

So I'm like..3 weeks in on this whole couponing adventure I've taken on. I've had awesome experiences..most of the time. I remember when I didn't used to even CHECK my receipts. I remember walking out of the store over a $3-$5 discrepancy because, whatever, $3. Who cares? Why would I make more work for someone and be THAT customer over a measly $3-$5? It's not that important to me. Wasn't until I started couponing and realized just how much stuff I can buy with $3-$5! Holy geeze!

So, I needed to go out and buy a couple of birthday presents for the birthday party the boys were invited to attend tomorrow afternoon. Cool, I'll just bring my coupon binder with me and get some other good deals I've been thinking about since we're going to be at Target anyway. (wanna see my binder?? You do?! Okay!)


don't mind the loose coupons that I haven't put away yet.




Gloriousss!!!!!

So, everything's going great..I've gotten some *awesome* deals and then I get to the register. We're the only ones in our lane..the woman looks jolly enough. I even tried to do her a favor and put each coupon (or couple of coupons..like a Target coupon with a Manufacturer's) on top of the item it belongs with. Tried to save her some trouble. Then? Then I said "I have a question about this item right here.." and asked. Oh, no. A manager had to come up and go investigate for me and everything. Look, I try my best to read each coupon and compare it to the item on the shelf to make sure I'm not screwing the company out of money or cause trouble..ya know. There was a little more confusion..but whatever, we got through the transaction. So we left..and I'm thinking..ya know..$42 just seems like more than I anticipated..by at least $10..let's see what's going on here. I'm tired and sick and hungry and annoyed anyway..so when I see that she charged me for 2 Johnson's Buddies when I only bought 1..charged me for 4 Reese's cups when I only bought 3..and didn't use one of the $4 coupons I handed to her..I was like..okay, let's turn around and head back. That's not something I'm just gonna go home over. Nono!

Orion drops me at the door, I go in and wait in line at Customer Service. "Hi, I was just here like..5 minutes ago.." and I show her on my receipt what my issues are. I figured it was just going to be a quick "oops..sorry" and hand me back the money I was owed. Nope. She goes to the register I checked out at..digs through the drawer and grabs all of the coupons I'd handed over..as well as talked to the checkout woman and called a manager over. Roughly 10 minutes later, they all marched back over to me and the manager starts to get things worked out. Okay..$4 back for the unscanned coupon. $1.30 back for the Johnson's Buddies..$.90 back for the extra scanned Reese's cup..(and something else that I can't remember because my receipt blew out of the car after I got back in. The receipt even quit! It plum gave up!)..and then? Then she tries to tell me some bullcrap. Total bullcrap and I KNOW IT'S CRAP but cannot prove my case and I'm SO tired and SO hungry that I give in and just say "ya know..I don't even care anymore. It's late..I just want to go home. You're wrong..but let's get this done." Employees are giving one another THAT look..that "we've got a bitch in line" look. You know the one. You know what line she tried to give me? If you use coupons..you might be able to guess.

"Ma'am, for these other items (friggin..super clearanced pads that I could NOT pass up on. The deal was too great! and the Reese's), it says one coupon per purchase. Do you want to return those items or do you just want to pay the difference?"

WHAT WHAT WHAT?! So I say "right. I have 2 coupons for the Always pads and bought 2 packages of them. I have 3 coupons for the Reese's and I bought 3 of them. Each one is a purchase." and she said "no, they would need to be purchased separately" and I said "no, it doesn't say one per transaction..it says per purchase. Just about all coupons say per purchase. Am I supposed to buy everything separately?" and she's NOT giving in and I'm like..whatever..it's like $2..just get me out of this freaking store. So after she gives me back the money I was owed..she seriously did another transaction and had me pay the $2.20 that she believed I owed her. Sigh. I said "I'm not trying to be sneaky about this, ya know..I know how coupons work and I didn't do anything wrong.." but I told her I was sorry for all of the trouble..and I left.

That's when my receipt jumped ship.

I had to check online JUST in case I was wrong. JUST IN CASE I was uninformed.

Guess what? Yup..I wasn't wrong. I CAN USE ONE COUPON PER ITEM PURCHASED

So now, I will be spending a small amount of time looking up each store's coupon policy and printing it out to keep in my beautiful green coupon binder..because that was crazy and made me feel crazier.

(in a side note..as I was walking down aisles and scouting awesome deals with my binder spread eagle in my cart, a woman said to me "that's a really nice coupon binder you have there" and I said "thanks" and she said "you read all of those coupon sites, don't you?" "I sure do!" and she was all "I can tell" and we laughed. There ARE cute moments like that when I go out shopping, too. I pretty much never have a problem..but apparently, I need to be more prepared for them! Because try to avoid it as much as I want..they will happen.)

So..manager lady at the Target in Honolulu (Michelle.), you will not deter me. Try as you might, I WILL be back with my coupons a plenty! :)

8 comments:

Hannah said...

Your binder is absolutely lovely my sweet sis.

And of course you were right about the purchase/transaction thing. Some cashiers seem to think money is coming out of their paycheck by people using coupons. It's ridiculous. But you know what I do when I have a cashier who won't understand? I just say "oh ok then. Let's just split my order up so I can use these coupons." It takes more time for them especially since I always use debit. Just about every time they will say "I'll let you do it this one time" Ha! You'll let me follow the rulles? Gee thanks, but it seems to satisfy them enough without arguing. I never argue. No deal is worth that to me.

DeeDee Catron said...

I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to start following your blog, I ran across this searching for something and I just have to say.. jeez. the gall of some people! it drives me nuts what they think they can get away with.. and working retail I'm incredibly annoyed by the fact that you can remember more than ONE time when you've left a store overcharged... that is by no means your fault, it is your cashier's.. and I hope from now on (in light of your coupon binder) you DO go back and confront them.

♥DeeDee

Mrs. Indecisive said...

I love your binder though I doubt I could pick up another hobby. I'd go back and bitch out that manager for taking your money!

Abby said...

Jenna, I was soooo tired at that point and had a contact flipped inside out in my eye and it was begging to be taken out haha. But, as childish as this sounds, I did smile a little thinking about all of the extra paperwork they got that night from that mess. I remembered back to my days as a manager of a retail store and the frustration that comes with trying to balance a register out when there's been a confusing transaction. Heheheheheh Dollar thieves twice over!

Sarah said...

Yay for you, Abby! I hate ignorant chashiers too!

I'm green w/envy over your binder!

YogaNana said...

I've had them break up my order to use all the coupons. It annoys the cashier and it annoys the people behind me in line, but if that's the way they wanna play, that's the way we'll play.

Btw, it's hard to feel the outrage of the situation you're telling about when Fiona Apple is singing, "Across the Universe" as its soundtrack. :o)

Anonymous said...

Target seems to give the most issues. I am not a happy camper with the Commissary either.

Question what base/post are you at? My sister and her fiance are at Ft. Schofield (?) She is pregnant and I just wanted to see what stores are there.

Thanks.

Abby said...

Hi, Courtney!

We don't live on post..we live in a military housing community. AMR (Aliamanu Military Reservation)..Schofield Barracks isn't far from where we live.

What stores are on the whole island? A lot. 2 Targets, Walmarts, Kmarts, Sam's Club, Costco, the commissaries, Safeway, Walgreens, Foodland, Sack n Save..the list goes on. Was there a particular store you were wondering about..?