Sunday, June 2, 2013

Coupon Ethics

Coupons themselves have rules and regulations that guide them....they are printed ON the coupon itself!! Yet day in and day out we see people violate these rules and not care.

"Everyone else is doing it".

"I saw at least 3 other people do it to".

"Other people are posting pictures of their hauls too".

These are common phrases tossed about in a few of my couponing groups.

Guess what people, just because other's do it, it doesn't mean it is right, and it sure as heck doesn't mean that you and everyone else should run out and do it too! 

People mis-using coupons effects everyone who uses them. We are seeing lower coupon amounts, for example $.25 off of charmin...I mean seriously, $.25 off of a big pack of toilet paper? It's one of the worst coupons out there, it's a nice bonus, but I base when I buy my toilet paper based on the sales I find, because the coupon itself doesn't even really help me. P&G coupons use to say 4 like coupons per transaction. That means you could do more then 1 transaction to buy more then 4. I am not a huge fan of multiple transactions, but I have done them before, when needed. Unilever products are all no more then 2 like coupons in a transaction, and let me tell you, THAT limitation stinks! But now P&G has gone and changed their rules again. Now their coupons say no more then 4 like coupons per household, per day. That's right folks, 4 per day, that means no more multiple transactions at the same store to get all your deals at once.

Yet here we are, in some areas there is a great deal on a P&G item, everyone in that area who coupons is running out to buy it. I am seeing pictures of 20 of the item with the title "I did 5 transactions", or 28 in the picture with them saying "I asked the manager and they said I could do more then 1 transaction'. Guess what, you just violated the writing on the coupon and that my friends is coupon fraud. It does NOT matter what anyone else is doing, it does not matter what the manager of the store said. It is wrong, and you are just hurting all of us when you do it.

Maybe if everyone tried to actually follow the rules, the rules wouldn't be getting worse, and the stores wouldn't be so strict against us couponers.

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