Jan was surprised to take one of those fancy coupons with a foil Purina logo to Petsense recently for a free bag of Purina cat food and have it refused by the store manager, who said they no longer take any coupon over $5 because they were not getting paid for them! She made Jan feel as if she was personally responsible for the problem. In the past, Petsense was very cooperative, even sending down a bag from their Griffin store a couple of times when Jan had a free voucher in order to do a pet food blog review. So Jan emailed someone who is now at the company's Scottsdale, Arizona headquarters and asked about this.
He responded, "We stopped accepting manufacturer's coupons for free bags a few months ago when we noticed a large uptick in the amount of fraud. When we accept a coupon, we don't know if the coupon is valid for over a month, after a clearing house processes it. We found that company-wide, we were losing hundreds of dollars a month because of fake coupons."
We understand any store not wanting to lose money to any type of fraud, but since we're a multiple pet household of limited means, Jan dances a jig (no pictures available) whenever she receives a free coupon.. We assume the coupon fraud problem is national, so we're curious -
Have any of you had a problem using a valid coupon - free or otherwise - at any store (not just Petsense) in your area?
Oh, in case any of you saw a strange post from us in your Reader or on Facebook yesterday, we apologize for Miss Bad-Aim. We were working on today's post when Jan said she needed the computer, reached over Percy, and hit "publish" before he could hit "save." Yes, it was Jan's bad aim that gave you our notes before today's post. .
purrs and purrayers to Ludo's family at this very sad time...
ReplyDeleteXOXO
I haven't had any problems, so far, with coupons for cents off on cat food. I've never had a free food coupon so I wouldn't know. Our grocery store recently stopped accepting internet coupons for free stuff, only the ones cut out of coupon mailers, you know, shiny pages. They apparently are having problems with people using more than the allotted number of coupons per person. Though how they'd know who used what coupons is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteI work part time at the PetSmart and we have been told not to accept certain types of coupons because of fraud. It is sad that there are so many dishonest people in the world that ruin it for the rest of us!
ReplyDeleteThe only coupons I've used lately are from Wellness and you're only allowed one coupon per person and your name is actually on the coupon. It's a shame there are so many bad people out there that mess it up for the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteI was sorry to hear that our sweet woofie friend had gone to the bridge. I am also sorry that some people spoil it for you for the coupons. Hope they sort it.. Hugs GJ xx
ReplyDeletePet food coupon fraud? Oh Bast, what's next?
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that someone always finds a way to make a fraud on something. That ruins it for those nice folks just wanting to use their coupons. I always thought the stores had to accept coupons but obviously that isn't the case. Is there another place where you could use this coupon?
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting about Auntie Penny. She would have liked to see her piccure!
ReplyDeleteThat sucks about the coupon. I hope they will honour it.
We don't have Petsense here, but momma has never had a problem having a coupon accepted. That's awful that they are not accepting valid coupons because of fraud.
ReplyDeleteyour pal,
Garth