No Frills refuses $5.00 McCormick coupon

[dagney]

Attempted to use the $5.00 McCormick coupon to buy 2 gravy packages. Cashier/supervisor said she could not use it not even if they revised the price to match the actual cost. I asked if she could check with the supervisor and she said she was the supervisor. Phoned to her manager and told me that they could not take the coupon at all.

[Chantel]

Is that the gourmet herbs and spices coupon? Because it's for HERBS and SPICES, not sauce mixes or gravy. The cashier and manager were in the right here.

[Addictedtodeals]

Not necessarily. the mail out from save.ca is only good on the herbs and spices, but the tear pad is good on any (and thus gravy and sauces). danger, I've had this problem at a few stores too, but I've just given up arguing and use them at stores that don't misconstrue the picture as the only product that can be purchased with the coupon.

[Cake]

My No Frills is notorious for not accepting coupons. My favourite reason was that the cashier could not read the fine print because she didn't have her glasses.

[dagney]

It was the tearpad coupon good on ANY gourmet McCormick.

[flemeth]

These coupons are either a hit or miss. Mine was refused at the Frescho close to me because its not the product in the picture, And I completely stop shopping at the No frills close to me because the keep refusing my coupons say for example you have 2 coupons for a product and you wanted to buy 2 of that product you can only used 1 coupons even though the coupons does not say one per customer. At the RCSS I shop at its either a hit or miss I can sometimes get the product and the coupon value reduce which is fine with me and some times the full value.

[johnb56789]

This coupon has just been tricky anywhere and everywhere people try to use it. I mainly try Walmart to get the overage they are suppose to give in their Coupon policy. So far I've tried TEN Walmarts and trying THREE more over the next few weeks, and five of the ten have accepted, with one beginning to deny. I have 24 left and just want to get them used up and over with. I've have heard everything for them denying the coupon including; "One coupon per transaction", "It's a store coupon, not a manufacturer", "We don't give overage", "It's too much overage, so we don't give it", "It HAS to be the one in the picture, despite the ANY wording". This is a love/hate coupon for me.

[Natalka]

^ wow, that's a lot of coupons!

OP, I didn't know they made gourmet gravy - what type is it?

[torontogal12]

I don't kno wnaything about this coupon so I can't comment on whether it is valid or not, but when you say "even if they revised the price to match the actual cost," if you mean that you wanted them to increase the cost of the product for higher than it scans, no computer would allow that

[flemeth]

^ wow, that's a lot of coupons!

OP, I didn't know they made gourmet gravy - what type is it?

There are quite a few Poultry, peppercorn and roasted Gravy. Not sure if there is any more out there

[flemeth]

I don't kno wnaything about this coupon so I can't comment on whether it is valid or not, but when you say "even if they revised the price to match the actual cost," if you mean that you wanted them to increase the cost of the product for higher than it scans, no computer would allow that

I don't think that s what the mean the product sells for $1.89 regularly and Walmart gas it on roll back for a while for $1.47 so at Walmart there is a $2.00 overage on each coupons

[dagney]

I wanted to revise the coupon down to 2 x $1.49 instead of $5.00 so no overage.

[ClipClap]

[flemeth]

There is also a three cheese sauce

[bhlombardy]

I wanted to revise the coupon down to 2 x $1.49 instead of $5.00 so no overage.

They can't do that legally. The coupon entitles the store (Walmart, Loblaws, whomever) to collect all the coupons they receive and claim the face value of the coupons back from the vendor (in this case McCormick). This is to ensure the retailer doesnt take the loss on the coupon. They give you the discount, and claim it back from the vendor. They can't devalue the coupon at the register, despite your "verbal approval" request because when they claim it back to the vendor and get the face value, it's MORE than the discount they gave you at the register. On paper that would constitute an act of fraud and would quickly be picked up on an audit. So unfortunately, you don't have the authority to allow that. It's not up to you to "permit" it.

The same also holds true if they increased the price of the item at the register to prevent the overage (as others have suggested in this and other similar threads). Despite your verbal agreement to it, the law doesnt allow them to increase the price at the point-of-sale to then produce a "false discount" -- be it a coupon or otherwise. That's along the lines of price-fixing, collusion, and also fraud. Again, regardless what you "say" at the register (which could never be substantiated), there is now a document (a sales receipt) that shows they adjusted the price and applied a false discount.


Stores can maintain a policy where they dont allow for overages and that seems to be what they are doing. If the ONLY things you bought were those items with those coupons, and there was a negative balance at the end of the tally, then whatever their policy is in-store is what it is. If you were to have purchased those items with other items, and perhaps buried the overage into a larger sale, their policy *might* have differed. They gave you $2 off your total receipt, and they'll get $2 back from the vendor. That's more "legit" than any of the above scenarios, HOWEVER it's still not entirely kosher since McCormick isnt extending the discount on your spices/gravies to also include your purchase of say Froot Loops...

So the other problem stemming from that is depending on the coupon procedure (which may vary from vendor to vendor), the retailer may have to submit copies of the receipt the coupon was used on, and it may result that the coupons would be rejected if the sell price of the vendor's item(s) were less than the value of the coupon. This is happening more and more, thus you'll find more and more retailers rejecting overage-bearing coupons with the possibility (likelihood) they'd be rejected on submission to the vendor. Since keeping the staff up to date as to which vendors do and do not, it's easier (and safer) for their store managers to instruct their staff not to do it at all.

ADDED AFTER POST: I'm not suggesting EVERY retailer responds this way... nor even every location of a major national chain. But just offering up an explanation as why they do what they do, and why they can't do adjustments that otherwise seems logical to most customers.