Coupons - the fine print
 

How many of you have been - sort of - excited about a 50% off coupon - only to get to the check out counter and find out that the item one wanted to buy is in the excluded group?

For some coupons, by the time I get to the end of the exclusions, I am no longer in the mood to shop at that store.

As far as a store/corporation not choosing to carry a particular line of products - I figure it's up to them. It's up to me to shop where I can find the products I want.

(But it is frustrating when the only place(s) available are on-line or a long distance away. Sigh.)

The trick that irritates me is the 50% off. Until you get to checkout and find it is buy one get one at 50%. That means you have to buy 2 at 25% off. Do they really think this is a deal?

I don't mess with coupons. I buy if I need, want something, otherwise they can sting someone else with their coupons.

I despise the “buy 2” sale. I don’t want 2, end of story. Or the restaurant that has “buy one meal, get second of same or less value for 50% BUT you must buy 2 beverages ! So my savings is somewhere in the neighborhood of a quarter. Geesh.

I've learned to really read my coupons after a couple of checkout disasters. I've also found that I can online shop for items even if I'm going to buy in the store to compare prices and deals. Joann wouldn't honor the 50% off coupon for an Oliso iron. So I went online shopping. I found one at Bed, Bath & Beyond. They let me use my 20% off coupon and I had a bunch of gift cards I got with credit card points. End of the day, it cost me some $29 dollars in cash and I got free shipping. I was happy and Joann lost getting any sale at all.

I had a coupon for a "sewing notion" at Joann. I picked up an Omnigrid template and was told, that was a quilting notion - not eligible for the coupon. I was directed to a wall on the far side of the store. Found an almost identical Omnigrip template, $1 more. Somehow THAT was not eligible either, despite coming from the "notion" wall.

The cashier was very nice and worked with me to override it and get down to almost the coupon value.

I detest "2 for the price of 1" coupons, especially at restaurants. I am single so they don't do me any good unless I enlist a friend to ride along … and that often means I am buying, so those coupons are worthless. Same with theater tickets or other events. When will advertisers come up with something to entice us "singles" to shop? I know I'm not the only one out there.

I got one in the mail today... It says $30 credited to a certain credit card if you charge $300 in one month. Well, that's pretty easy... but in the small print, you had to spend the $300 in one shopping trip at a named hardware store. It went in the trash quickly.

The ones that are particularly annoying to me are the ones that say 50% off any regularly-priced item. Then you get to the store, and find that nearly everything is "on sale", even if it's just a few cents below the regular price, preventing you from using the coupon. I don't know if all of their stores are that way, but our local store is. Unlike two of their nearby competitors, they won't ring the item up at the regular price, either, so that you can use the coupon. I've pretty much given up on shopping there. :(

Add to that, the expensive regular priced items (like round cutting blades or scissors) are too often "out of stock" only on sale day. So tempted to hide them among the fabric bolts the day before the sale.......