Was asked not to shop at Shoppers anymore. Can't handle my Volume

[krazytwacy]

So this last redemption with the kraft BP program rolled around I did four redemptions. I did one redemption at one store and then attended my local store to do three more. I live in a small town and my local store had chocolate bars and other BP items. I went into the store and I picked up enough ritz, chocolate bars and cookies just to replace the points I was using (no coupons) and did three redemptions. I got school supplies, and other food items and a lot of toilet paper. I didn't clear any shelves infact as I was doing my redemption the cosmetics lady came into the aisle where the chocolate bars are and she emptied the shelf into a basket and she informed me that another lady had called and asked her to hold all the chocolate bars for her. I didn't mind as I used gum, ritz and chocolate cookies my kids can't live off Chocolate alone. I only took enough to replace the points I was using. The cosmetics person cleared the shelves not me. I did my redemptions and was very pleased with the customer service and if they were busy I let every other customer go a head of me so I wouldn't hold anyone up. I was very polite and considerate and I asked the supervisor before I did anything.
The bonus redemption days came to and end and I went in and did normal shops nightly went in and bought Pierre water and mio. I did do two more redemptions for four cadbury caramilk chocolate bars as I didn't get any of those due to the Cosmetics lady grabbing all the chocolate bars that night. Another woman came in just as I did my chocolate bars and she did a regular redemption on chocolate alone which was 170.00 worth of bars. I was lucky to get my eight. She then did a redemption of ritz which I watched. She then asked if I wanted to do a redemption of ritz as she would help. I said okay they had more than enough ritz so I did one. As we were ringing through mine the cashier said " I am just a cashier and so who am I to judge what are you going to do with all that ritz". I was kind of thinking its really isn't any of her business.
We both left the store and I went to my van to organize the purchase. I kept the snack bitz but bagged the regular ones and walked back into the store to the cash registers to put half of the ritz that I got into the food bank bin and as I approached the front tills all of he staff and a few customers were standing around the front of the store with a supervisor and they were not saying nice things about the lady and I that had just left. I pretended not to hear them and pushed my cart up to the front and the supervisor was like "shhhh"
I placed the donation in the box and the cashier said "oh thats what I like to see"
I went back to the store on the 13 of sept as they had decided to change the kraft promotion. One I was missing 8000 points from one of my Kraft promotions and two I wanted to do a redemption just for the food bank. My local store was always really good with this. Like one time I could get soup for 9 cents each there was a limit of four and they let me do alot of transactions for the food bank.
I approached the supervisor and I told her of my missing points and she said "Didn't you get enough points? I am not awarding you any points because you got enough." She went on to advise me that I cleared the shelves when I didn't clear any shelves. There cosmetics lady did. "Be happy with the points you got cause I am not awarding you anymore"
I then asked about the food bank and if I could do a redemption on ritz for the food bank. She pointed to the sign of the promo change and I advised her the date was the 14th and today was the 13. She said "you can do four for the food bank" I said your not going to relax on the limit for the food bank. She then said why should you benefit. I advised her that I would not benefit other than replace the points that I spend to get the ritz and everyone would go into the food bank box. She asked why I was putting this on her and said she was going to call the manager so that she didn't have to decide. So I just said forget it, I had been belittled and embarrassed in the front of the store enough. I left the store.

I advised shoppers of my interaction with this employee via there facebook page and I went in for my nightly Perrier water and Mio. While in the store and going through the till I was handed an envelope with my name on it. I had also heard rumors in my small town that I had been quite the topic of discussion in a staff meeting. There were also rumors that I didn't live in the small town which I do and that they had me confused with the other lady with the boxes of chocolate bars. That was not me.
I called the number left by the front store manager and he said " Yes we would like to ask you not to shop at our store anymore as we can not handle the volume that you shop." I was thrown aback. Shocked and hurt as I have always been polite and considerate. I didn't steal, I wasn't rude. He explained some of the stuff to me that the other woman did and I said that was not me. I do live in the small town. This is my store. He advised me that I used to many coupons and I said I only use coupons on 20x points days and special points events.He said well we can't handle it.
I again complained on the facebook page I was so hurt. I was now hearing that people with binders were being targeted in the store and approached and told they can only use so many.
I was now in touch with corporate and they said they were investigating and they came back with this letter to me. They also did award the 8000 I was missing. So should I take the 50 dollars, or write a news paper article cause in my small town this would be news or seek the advice of a lawyer. What do you guys think??

Good morning ;

I am actually out of the office today but wanted to follow up with you regarding your concern. Firstly, I would like to say that it was certainly not our intent to cause you any upset and should the store have mistaken you for another customer I/we sincerely apologize. There are definitely ways to manage difficult situations and it appears that your experience could have been managed more professionally and as such I have discussed with the store their approach with you during your experience and how it could have been managed differently. I have inquired with the Pharmacist/Owner to clarify their policy/procedures for our extreme couponing customers so that we can accommodate everyone. Please see the following;

Customers can use a maximum of 10 coupons per customer per day
Customers can use a maximum of 4 coupons per like item ( e.g. Ice cream. 1 x choc, 1x van, 2x straw = 4 like items )
There is no particular time of day to shop but one cannot come right before closing as they may be refused due to the time it takes to process these coupons. Purchases can be made no later than 9:30 pm at the cash register.
No extreme coupon transaction will be processed at the pharmacy cash registers. All customers will be asked politely to go to the front cashiers.
The coupon policy is posted at all check outs at this location.

As you are a valued customer of Shoppers Drug Mart and in appreciation for your patience as we investigated your concerns and for the opportunity we had to investigate I would like to send you a Shoppers Drug Mart Gift Card in the amount of $50.00 which we hope you will enjoy redeeming on any item at any Shoppers Drug Mart location. If this is to your satisfactory please let me know and please confirm your mailing address with me so that I can send it out as soon as possible. Looking forward to your reply.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours,
Shoppers Drugmart.

[c_mcarthur]

You should contact Pat Foran on Consumer Reports.
Hes great at exploiting companies that treat customers like crap.
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/more/bios/pat-foran-1.282277

Id still take the $50 gift card altho it doesnt make up for how they treated you

[tjthemanto]

I think you should take the 50 GC.

You are doing a good cause like donation etc , but still at the end of the day they have a right to limit quantities.

They lose lot of other customers , who don't come in anymore because the shelves are empty. These other customers unfortunately don't care whether you are donating to a good cause or not , all they want is to buy some stock for themselves.

Lot of these promotional items are sold At cost or below cost . They are loss leaders for the store, but they are sold just to generate traffic, so that people come in and buy other stuff as well. so I guess your SDM doesn't want to lose all these other customers who also come in looking for these promotional items but also buy other stuff along with it.

They don't want these other customers to walk out and not come back again as their sTore is always out of stock , since they lose an opportunity to up sell high margin products to these guys

[KrazE]

Another unpopular response....

While I totally get the whole 'its their own fault for how the kraft promo/redemption played out' I would totally agree with limiting any customer who 'went overboard' during the promo; whether they choose to completely ban a customer is of their choice, and there are certainly more professional ways to go about it, but I'm going to be completely unpopular & agree with Shoppers in the sense that there are those who should have limits to their purchases.

I do think that there was a lot of abuse from the Kraft promo in MY OPINION (which I am entitled to), and it appears that some Shoppers locations may feel the same way too.

It is unfortunate, but sometimes things like this can happen considering the economy right now.

~~~~Exits stage left

[krazytwacy]

Well put lol can't spell your name so I copied and pasted it ha didn't work very well. tjthemanto



but again I didn't clear any shelves. I made sure that there was a lot there and would be a lot left over after I was done. They had me confused with someone else. This promo was a Kraft promo as well Kraft paid for it. I completely understand the limits and the fact that they had to change the promo I get that for sure. However the way I was treated/ talked to and then asked not to come back was very upsetting to me.

[Poirot]

They are holding chocolate bars for another customer and they treat you badly.They are nuts.Take their $50 gift card.Spend it then take your business elsewhere.

[krazytwacy]

Another unpopular response....

While I totally get the whole 'its their own fault for how the kraft promo/redemption played out' I would totally agree with limiting any customer who 'went overboard' during the promo; whether they choose to completely ban a customer is of their choice, and there are certainly more professional ways to go about it, but I'm going to be completely unpopular & agree with Shoppers in the sense that there are those who should have limits to their purchases.

I do think that there was a lot of abuse from the Kraft promo in MY OPINION (which I am entitled to), and it appears that some Shoppers locations may feel the same way too.

It is unfortunate, but sometimes things like this can happen considering the economy right now.

~~~~Exits stage left

I asked for opinions and yours again very well put, you didn't attack I respect your opinion. I didn't go crazy though, I didn't clear shelves and I completely agree there was a lot of abuse but feel I was wrongly accused I guess is the best way I can put it. I agree there was a lot of abuse however I don't feel I was one of them and didn't deserve to be treated this way. I feel that Shopper should have predicted this and is there fault for not foreseeing it. I don't understand the coupon limits as non were used in the redemption and I only use coupons on special points days.

[MillieH]

I think you should do what makes you feel ok. .. $50 is not worth having negative energy eating at your gut. If you need to be heard contact the paper, or a lawyer. Only you can decide. If it were me I would refuse the $50, I would write a letter to the store owner , the manager and their facebook page explaining everything. I would ask for an apology and to have the ban removed. I wouldn't take it to the paper or a lawyer because I don't handle stress well. I have to resolve things quickly and move on. You need to do what will give you closure.

[lghend]

In my opinion, coupons should only be used for the purpose they were intended.....to entice a customer to try a product. They shouldn't be used to extreme or for anything more than personal use. The manufactures end up losing and then the rest of us pay for it. If you want to donate to a food bank, use your own food/cash. Would it not be more reasonable that 100 shoppers benefit from 100 coupons/products than 5 people grabbing all the coupons/products?

[torontogal12]

I don't think they can refuse you because of "volume." I think they can only stop people who are stealing.
And shouldn't they be happy to get your business?

Take it from me, I used to work in the news biz. Your local paper is probably the best bet. Call the switch board and ask to speak to the city editor. If there's only 2 SDMs in the town, being banned from one of them is a big deal, especially when you did nothing wrong. A reporter could be sympathetic to you because you were trying to help a food bank and being banned from one of the two stores in town is huge. But newsrooms are skeleton staffed so they may not even have reporters to write this. In small towns, there is often one reporter who does everything and has to cover all the main town news so can't do other stuff like this

Don't bother calling those guys like Pat Foran. The only go after obvious "news" stories like "Did you know you need a smoke alarm in your home?" And he regurgitates distributed video from Consumer Reports in the U.S. Most of those people you see are Americans who were interviewed by Consumer Reports.Doesn't even bother to get Canadians. Those consumer reporters won't go after a store that refused you business. They only go after scammers. TV news is hard to produce and stories that have no video cannot be done. And SDM would definitely not let TV cameras in to get video for a story that would make them look bad.

And causing rumours in the town? Disgusting.

[torontogal12]

She wasn't using coupons.

In my opinion, coupons should only be used for the purpose they were intended.....to entice a customer to try a product. They shouldn't be used to extreme or for anything more than personal use. The manufactures end up losing and then the rest of us pay for it. If you want to donate to a food bank, use your own food/cash. Would it not be more reasonable that 100 shoppers benefit from 100 coupons/products than 5 people grabbing all the coupons/products?

[krazytwacy]

I didn't use any coupons in this instance. I used my points which I pay for by paying higher prices at shoppers drugmart to get though. Please if you guys are going to give me your opinion (which I respect) read the story. I redeemed my points which I earned by instead of shopping at Walmart I paid more money at shoppers to get the points on 20x points days. I do use coupons on 20x points days but really not that many and even sometimes not at all.

[torontogal12]

To some cashiers one coupon is too much. Yesterday I used two whole coupons and she made a comment about how I have "so many coupons"

I didn't use any coupons in this instance. I used my points which I pay for by paying higher prices at shoppers drugmart to get though. Please if you guys are going to give me your opinion (which I respect) read the story. I redeemed my points which I earned by instead of shopping at Walmart I paid more money at shoppers to get the points on 20x points days. I do use coupons on 20x points days but really not that many and even sometimes not at all.

[krazytwacy]

To some cashiers one coupon is too much. Yesterday I used two whole coupons and she made a comment about how I have "so many coupons"

I know exactly. Geeze lol

[Darth Penguin]

i am not a lawyer so...

Unless the letter is a "cease and desist" letter warning you of probable legal actions against you,I doubt it is a serious threat. This sounds more like a CYA letter though.

HOWEVER, shops are private property and they can refuse admittance/service for several reasons unless they fall under certain protected classes ie disability, colour, sexuality...but being a couponer isn't a protected class, sadly...sighs.

IMHO, try to find a sympathic news-reporter or if you are close to a law school, ask there for a free/pro bono consultation with a student or law professor. Sometimes they will take on odd-ball cases as a class project.