Terrible coupon experience today!

A question about : Terrible coupon experience today!

I decided to do most of my big(ish) shop in Asda this morning, and used about 6 coupons from Supersavvyme. When I gave my vouchers to the lady on the till..she looked at me as if i'd just confessed to murdering her children! She then said 'you haven't bought all of these items..' and of course i had. She was so rude and refused to even scan them. I said that if they weren't accepted i wouldn't buy any of the shopping - i only ventured to Asda to use the coupons because the particular items were on sale there!

She then called over someone else who then phoned somebody else....who eventually after about 15 minutes said on this occasion they would accept them.

meanwhile the whole queue was tutting and muttering at how ridiculous all this was. I tried to stand my ground but it's difficult!

I THEN realised when i got in the car i'd forgotten to use one 50p off coupon for fairy liquid, so nipped in and went through the self checkout with only the fairy liquid.. i scanned the coupon as normal and put it into the coupon bit of the till. I was about to put my money in when the assistant rushed over, didn't say a single thing to me and stood right in front of me and stood on my foot...i asked what the problem was..she didn't reply but kept on pressing buttons on the till but not actually doing anything. I said 'excuse me, whats the problem? the till didn't say there was a problem, i was just looking for where to put my money in'. she said rudely 'where have you put the coupon?!' i told her in the coupon bit of the till....she looked at me like i had just robbed a bank ha! and she said that she couldn't check it if it had been put in there. but thats what the till told me to do! if she hadn't spotted i'd used one there wouldn't have been a problem. And there shouldn't be one anyway! the coupons weren't copied or fraudulent, they are completely valid.

THEN on my way home i decided to pop into Morrisons to pick up one bottle of bold (with my Ј1 off voucher) and some E45 soap (Ј1 voucher). The guy at the checkout said he'd have to ask his supervisor, who went off to chat to another two colleagues - when she came back she said she can't accept them because 'they're just print outs, they're on normal paper' i explained that this was because they ARE from the internet, but completely valid and if they were scanned they would work. She then went back and phoned somebody who then said that on this occasion they would accept them but next time they wouldn't. Meanwhile the queue was getting very annoyed and kept huffing and puffing.

Whats going on?!? I don't understand, i was polite..used proper valid coupons. What's the problem?!

Best answers:

• Maybe you should shop on the internet only and not face to face
• oops wrong thread.
• Thanks Bananababe, very helpful - thanks for the link. I'll complain and see how that goes.
• Yes definitely complain to head office. A while ago I had some luncheon vouchers. I checked on the Sainbury's website that all stores accepted them before going there but they refused to accept them in the store. I emailed CS and they replied saying that the store should have accepted them and would next time, plus sent me a Ј10 voucher which was quite nice!
• here is a response from A CS after I complained (Jan 2014):
  ****
  Thanks for contacting me regarding our coupon policy.
  I'm sorry you were unable to redeem your coupon at our *** store, as my colleague advised we no longer accept these.
  As mentioned on our website, we accept all manufacturers' coupons (including internet coupons) in line with their terms and conditions. You must buy the product to redeem the coupon.
  I've now contacted ***, the General Store Manager so *** can address this
  with *** team and remind colleagues of our policy.
  It's important our colleagues are aware of our policies and procedures and if they're unsure, check with other members of the team.
  You're very welcome to take a copy of this email with you on your next visit to store.
  Thanks again for getting in touch, I trust I've helped you with your query. If you need help with anything else, please call me or one of my colleagues on 0800 952 0101.
  ***
  hth
• On the self service checkouts in my local ASDA if you use a coupon it says please put coupon aside, which then an assistant needs to verify and authorise before putting in the coupon slot.
• How horrible. Especially having your foot stood on. That's surely physical assault, albeit minor.
  If you can avoid those stores again I would do so but hopefully you'll have a final visit to spend some vouchers sent as compensation.
  I shop mostly at Aldi and Heron Foods, as the staff are so kind and helpful and the prices so low. You can't use coupons but the amount of money you save is far more than any coupon
  I would also contact Supersavvyme as Proctor and Gamble are a massive corporation. They will not be happy that companies like Asda are not assisting sales of their products and need to be made aware, especially as many of the coupons are store - specific.
• The problem with printed coupons, is that many are counterfeit. I've worked in a shop and we lost a lot through counterfeit coupons being rejected by valassis (the main coupon company).
  This puts people on edge, because ultimately if they accept counterfeits the company can hold them responsible to some degree.
  That "fear factor" makes some employees anxious about accepting coupons.
  Low value vouchers like 50p off we would generally put through and just hope they weren't fake, high value vouchers like Ј5 off any unilever product, would put us off. One woman once paid with Ј40ish pounds in either unilever or p&g vouchers, and the cashier accepted them without question, needless to say the store wasn't credited for this, which pushed us closer to the red.
  Just thought I should throw the flip side of the coin, some major retail brands are struggling to stay afloat, often doing flash sales at a loss just to manage the cash flow.
  That being said, I don't think that really applies to these huge powerhouse supermarkets, Just a wee food for thought.
  Especially when you're being made to feel like you're in the wrong for participating in these types of promotions.
  Anyway, for reference, you can always check dubious vouchers here provided they contain a 22 digit code (different to the 11 digit ean or internal sku)
  https://www.safecoupons.co.uk/suspect-fraud/
• I also had a bad experience today. I have never used a coupon before, but after watching too many episodes of 'extreme couponing', I thought I would try it out. I donwloaded a coupon from the tetley tea website 50p off any pack of tea. I popped a normal 80 bag pack of tetley tea into my shopping. I handed my one and only coupon over and the cashier looked like she was going to be sick. She called her supervisor who then went looking through a folder, then they tried scanning it and then said they couldn't accept it! I am still not sure why! It was valid until the end of March. I just don't understand how it can be so different here compared to the USA.
  edit: I sent an email to the store on the Saturday morning and by Saturday dinner time had had a repsonse saying they would retrain staff on coupon policy and would give me a store voucher. Pretty impressed.
• I had coupons come with "change for life" campaign. Took them to Co-op who couldn't scan them though cashier put them through manually...by then there was a queue!
• Another one that's has trouble with coupons I have even asked before scanning at the till. I just do not know what the answer is to this I am sorry for your bad experience it's upsetting
• Tesco u just put coupons in coupon slot once scanned , never had mine checked
• I wish that all supermarkets had a card (could be your point card like they do in boots) and an app which u can just put in a special code or scAn the barcode and would be automatically on yr card so you can use . Boots have started this n it's brilliant as I always forget about going to the machine to see if there is any coupons
• asda are awful for accepting coupons i used 5 coupons today the cashier scutinised everyone of them in detail, made me dig the goods out that i had packed by this point to prove i had bought them and double checked against his till roll before agreeing to scan them (i now know why i stopped shopping there but the goods where cheaper there than anywhere else!). Tesco however just scan them no questions its really strange.
• I'm sure some of these 'assistant' go out of their way to be difficult. Can we start to name and shame then?