What could you do if you are accused of coupon fraud at the register?

I recently had an email exchange with a lady who did a Rite Aid deal and used internet coupons. The store manager started to throw around words like “coupon fraud”, displaying disrespect and an inability to rationally deal with customers.

Presuming all your coupons are legitimate, what do you do if you are accused of coupon fraud at the register?

Well, I must say this lady handled the situation fabulously! When she couldn’t reason with the store manager, she left and contacted corporate. A resolution was reached via district manager where she was issued a written apology and a gift card!

Some proactive approaches would be to carry a letter from corporate with their policy concerning coupons and internet printables. Have the 800 number of the stores you visit frequently in your coupon binder or folder. Ironically the lady in my email exchange did have a written letter from corporate regarding internet policies and the store manager did not care. Proactive is not “fool”proof!

So, what are some steps you can take if you are in the same situation? The first thing to do, after you get over the initial shock, is to quietly ask the clerk (manager), “What did you say?” At this point many in the customer service field realize they crossed a line and either apologize, make an excuse, mumble “nothing” or in some other way back away from their slanderous words.

However, on occasion, there is a completely irrational clerk who continues (usually in a loud voice). At this point ask for a manager. Produce the letter with coupon policies if you have it. The manager should quickly realize the clerk is being unreasonable and irrational. Yet there are a few managers out there that are also unreasonable and things could escalate quickly. You can now call corporate right in front of everyone. It is amazing how quickly a situation will defuse when corporate is being injected into the situation.

If calling corporate is impossible because you do not have a cell phone, or you do not know the number or it is outside of normal business hours, get the name(s) of the store workers involved. Call corporate at the earliest possible moment to register a complaint and follow up with a written email or snail mail letter. Make the letter coherent, literate and use correct grammar and punctuation. Leave the b2b for texting. You will be taken seriously with a business-like letter versus a “he said, she said” letter filled with misspellings and rambling. I’ve read some doozies in my time. Remember, it isn’t a blog, it is a business.

Extreme situation: if the situation is out of control ask for your coupons back and leave. Leave the entire shopping order and leave the problem to be dealt with at another time. If they won’t hand you back your coupons, I don’t advise a physical altercation to get them back. Leave without them. Nothing is worth your safety is the situation has spiraled out of control. Truly I’ve only heard of one or two incidents that been very unreasonable. It is doubtful you’ll ever be in that extreme situation.

The most important thing is a situation like this is to keep calm. Present whatever evidence you have that the clerk is wrong, contact a manager if the clerk continues, escalate to corporate if store level is unreasonable.

While shopping with coupons can be fun and rewarding there are the occasions where you wonder why you bothered. These situations are few and far between and a little advance planning can go a long way towards mitigating them. Best of luck!

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