[IAmFrugal]

I am SO happy now I can't even stand it!
I wrote twice to someone higher up at RA corporate, instead of going thru the website, and this is the response I got today. You all are going to want to print a copy of this, and sticky this thread probably.
I'll attach a pdf that you can print and carry with you.

Hello XXXX,

I apologize that we did not get back to you sooner with a response to your email, when in fact we did immediate react to the issues you raised. Your original communication made us aware of the need to more effectively train our store teams on our recently modified coupon policies. Over the past several months we have begun using new promotional channels on the internet and have loosened previously conservative policies on coupon acceptance, but apparently did not do a thorough job in educating our stores teams.

Since your original email, we have begun to re-educate our teams around our new policies on coupon acceptance and in fact plan to send another communication package to the stores tomorrow. Tied with this, we have created a “Coupon Policy” for our customers that will be available at our stores upon request (I have attached a draft copy of this document).

Thank you for taking the time to pass along your observations, which became the catalyst for improvement. If you have any further problems in our stores or would like to pass along additional feedback, I would be happy to assist you. You can reach me either by email or at (XXX) XXX-5555.

Sincerely Yours,

VP, Store Operations

Rite Aid Pharmacy

[kren]

Excellent...thanks so much for taking it upon yourself to follow up on this.

But one sentence troubles me a LOT:

"In the event that the item is on sale for less than the value of the coupon, we accept the coupon for the retail price of the item."

So say an item is clearanced for 50 cents but is regularly $2.50 and I have a coupon for $1. Does this mean I get a dollar off $2.50? I surely hope not, but I've tried reading this over and over and that's what I'm seeing.

[IAmFrugal]

Originally Posted by kren

Excellent...thanks so much for taking it upon yourself to follow up on this.

But one sentence troubles me a LOT:

"In the event that the item is on sale for less than the value of the coupon, we accept the coupon for the retail price of the item."

So say an item is clearanced for 50 cents but is regularly $2.50 and I have a coupon for $1. Does this mean I get a dollar off $2.50? I surely hope not, but I've tried reading this over and over and that's what I'm seeing.

What they are trying to fix with this sentence are the issues where something costs .99 and a cashier says they can't take a $1 coupon. It means they will be able to take the $1 coupon because the original price is higher. We all know their registers automatically take off the amount of the coupon as long as we buy the correct product. I think officially if they adjust coupons down, that is fraud, since they will get the entire coupon value from the manufacturer.
So in your example, you will get .50 overage. I wouldn't point that out to any cashier though, or they might try to adjust the value anyway.

[kren]

AH, OK, I see what it is they're trying to fix. But believe me, that is one confusing sentence... if you have dialogue back and forth w/ this VP dude, I would suggesting rewording that sentence to make it very explicit what its purpose is...

And thanks again for this!

[brook6]

I think it means they will adjust the Q down to the price of the item, in your example - 50¢ ...no overage

[IAmFrugal]

Originally Posted by brook6

I think it means they will adjust the Q down to the price of the item, in your example - 50¢ ...no overage

That's what I thought at first, but then shouldn't it say "we will accept the coupon for the SALE price of the item"?
Doesn't retail price mean the actual price when an item isn't on sale?

[wendy1214]

So, I am reading that that a $5/$25 will be accepted BEFORE other coupons are deducted???? If so- woohoo!!!!

[sillytray]

THANKS!!!!! I sure wish all stores would have a policy this simple and clear for customers... I think it would clear up a lot of confusion for everyone.

[Time4mom2]

I hope ALL store MANAGERs READ and enforce this policy in their stores in the near future.
They are losing money and customers because of so many issues with coupons.

OP for going to extra mile and getting results!

[Time4mom2]

Originally Posted by IAmFrugal

I am SO happy now I can't even stand it!
I wrote twice to someone higher up at RA corporate, instead of going thru the website, and this is the response I got today. You all are going to want to print a copy of this, and sticky this thread probably.
I'll copy/paste plus try to attach a pdf

Hello XXXX,

I apologize that we did not get back to you sooner with a response to your email, when in fact we did immediate react to the issues you raised. Your original communication made us aware of the need to more effectively train our store teams on our recently modified coupon policies. Over the past several months we have begun using new promotional channels on the internet and have loosened previously conservative policies on coupon acceptance, but apparently did not do a thorough job in educating our stores teams.

Since your original email, we have begun to re-educate our teams around our new policies on coupon acceptance and in fact plan to send another communication package to the stores tomorrow. Tied with this, we have created a “Coupon Policy” for our customers that will be available at our stores upon request (I have attached a draft copy of this document).

Thank you for taking the time to pass along your observations, which became the catalyst for improvement. If you have any further problems in our stores or would like to pass along additional feedback, I would be happy to assist you. You can reach me either by email or at (XXX) XXX-5555.

Sincerely Yours,

VP, Store Operations

Rite Aid Pharmacy



Rite Aid Policy – Coupon Acceptance

To Our Valued Customers:

We gladly accept your manufacturer’s, Rite Aid "valuable" and Internet/Print at Home coupons in all Rite Aid stores as detailed in our coupon acceptance guidelines listed below:

GUIDELINES:

Multiple Coupons

We accept a manufacturer’s coupon and a Rite Aid coupon for the purchase of a single item. However, the coupon redemption amount can never exceed the value of the item.
We accept multiple identical coupons for multiple qualifying items as long as there is sufficient stock to satisfy other customers.
We reserve the right to limit bulk purchases of items if the purchase will deplete our supply for other customers.
Buy One, Get One Free Coupons

We will accept a Buy One, Get One Free coupon for an item that is in our flyer as Buy One, Get One Free. The cash register will compute any sales tax due, which varies by state law.
Internet/Print at Home Coupons

We accept coupons printed off the internet from manufacturer’s websites, emails and coupon websites up to $5.00 off per item.
Rite Aid coupons are not considered internet/print at home coupons, even when they are printed from an internet site or an email, and are therefore not subject to the $5.00 limit.
Total Purchase Coupons

From time to time, Rite Aid features total purchase coupons which discount total purchases based upon meeting specific requirements. For example, $5 off a $25 purchase coupon.
Any manufacturer’s coupons presented with a total purchase coupon will be deducted after the purchase total has been determined.
We will accept more than one total purchase coupon as long as they are used in separate transactions with each transaction meeting the minimum purchase requirements. We reserve the right to limit the number of total purchase coupons that can be used in a given day.
Sale Items

We will accept a manufacturer’s or Rite Aid coupon for an item that is on sale.
In the event that the item is on sale for less than the value of the coupon, we accept the coupon for the retail price of the item. No cash back is given on coupons.
General

Coupons and their face value cannot be exchanged for cash
Competitor coupons are not accepted at Rite Aid.

Any CHANCE they will put this on their website? So store employees cannot "say" they never got this info???

[Ibis]

Originally Posted by Time4mom2

Any CHANCE they will put this on their website? So store employees cannot "say" they never got this info???

Yes, that's what I want too. I want to be able to print this thing and show them that it came from their own website. I don't want it posted on their website as a pdf, but as a webpage, so that when it prints, the RA web address will print at the bottom of the page and the date it was printed.

[IAmFrugal]

Originally Posted by Ibis

Yes, that's what I want too. I want to be able to print this thing and show them that it came from their own website. I don't want it posted on their website as a pdf, but as a webpage, so that when it prints, the RA web address will print at the bottom of the page and the date it was printed.

They already have a policy posted at each register of the stores I go to. I'm assuming they will just replace the current outdated one soon.
From the letter:

Tied with this, we have created a “Coupon Policy” for our customers that will be available at our stores upon request (I have attached a draft copy of this document).

[Time4mom2]

Originally Posted by IAmFrugal

They already have a policy posted at each register of the stores I go to. I'm assuming they will just replace the current outdated one soon.

WoW, your store must be in the minority! I've been to several stores in different states and there has NEVER been any coupon policy in plain sight.

[IAmFrugal]

Originally Posted by wendy1214

So, I am reading that that a $5/$25 will be accepted BEFORE other coupons are deducted???? If so- woohoo!!!!

Yep, do the happy dance! That's the main thing I wrote about in my first email, stressing to them that coupons are a form of payment, not a store discount. A few days after I sent it, I had to call the 1800#, and the woman who helped me already knew to tell me it had to be scanned BEFORE manufacturer's coupons, so like this letter said, they immediately started trying to retrain their employees after I told them about various issues.

[CouponCrazyWoman]

Awesome!! Thanks for sharing the goods news!!

I just had a clerk tell me on Sunday that she couldn't take my $5 off $25 coupon (of which she didn't even bother to scan) because my total had fell below the $25 purchase requirement after my other coupons. (Well, duh.....I never spend $25....I always have more coupons!) So I asked to speak to the manager because I have never encountered this issue before. He wasn't positive but asked her to scan the coupon and see if it would scan. Sure enough, it came right off no problems, so he let it go thru. I sure wish I'd had a copy of this policy to whip out and give them both a refresher course in couponing 101 RiteAid style!! Next time I'll be prepared.

[go girl]

OMG!!! I sure do pray that the RA stores do get this and THANK YOU Soooooooo much.
My dh told me that b/c I burned the phone lines up the other day b/c of my rude RA that he hopes for my sake that our RA gets and see this new policy b/c I needed to use the $25 GC.
Just yesterday he had a different tone of "Just Don't Shop There Anymore"!.
I told him that I was only going to use the $25 GC on the rebate items and then I'ld be done with them.
Now that I see this I feel like using a different TONE

[hbeatty]

Thank you sooo much for not giving up and following thru with the situation to get the problem solved!

[couponcrazies]

Im glad Im not the only one having problems with RA. I got into it last week at the Westbrook,ME store. Seriously,if they dont change their tuneto coupons (which more and more people are using), Bye-Bye RA!

[couponcrazies]

Im glad Im not the only one having problems with RA. I got into it last week at the Westbrook,ME store. Seriously,if they dont change their tune to coupons (which more and more people are using), Bye-Bye RA!

[customcrafters]

WOW - this is GREAT, Thanks OP for posting this and all the leg work you had to do to get it I immediatly printed this so I can take it with me... I sure wish I had this last week for the BOGO covergirl makeup though. That's ok, at least I can score some FREE Reese's cups now - happy dance!!!

[CKFreebie81]

THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH. I wanna go shove this in the face of the 2 cashiers that said no to my bogo reese's q on monday. I knew I was right. I'm even happier that I have "permission" to use more than one $5/20 total purchase q. I was always scared to do more than 1 trans per day because it says one per customer.

Im going to do like 7 tomorrow.

[dd1157]

Sounds good, but we'll see how it is implemented.

Now if they would just get better scanners that will actually read most IP's we'd be in business.

I truly have zero confidence from week to week as to how my "deals",are going to go. Since I walk there, if the deal goes wrong for a few dollars I say hte heck with it and just do the best I can, then I always feel cheated as I walk home because a cashier or manager goes anti Q.

But I keep on trying...

[CCWLilSis]

Originally Posted by dd1157

Now if they would just get better scanners that will actually read most IP's we'd be in business...

I always laugh because most of the IPs that the scanners at my RAs don't read are the RITE AID coupons!!!!!! Is it too much to ask that a store actually create coupons that their own scanners could read????

Thanks again for providing the printout. I've got mine printed and ready to go!!!

[Tag010]

You Rock!

[isavealot5]