I shared with you a couple of weeks ago that as of September 1, Walmart made some changes to their internal coupon policy and to the register systems. I have since had a few managers send me a copy of the full memo that I thought you guys might find helpful and interesting. I can’t share the whole thing, but the meat of what I think is important is the frequently asked questions memo below. Click to See Walmart Coupon Policy & Walmart Price Match Policy.
The Q& A’s that I find most valuable are questions 5,6 & 8.
I have made some changes to my initial impressions based on the full memo.
Walmart Coupon Policy Changes:
1. All Walmart Register systems were updated to accept the GS1 Date bar Codes that most coupons have switched to and all eventually will go to. According to the memo it will take until Oct for All registers to be updated.
2. All coupons are supposed to be scanned on the flatbed scanners, the handheld scanners are not updated and therefore it is “recommended” that there use is discontinued. This means that a store manager can allow the handheld scanners to be used but I wouldn’t expect it for sure.
3. The coupon must scan (not a new change) . Cashiers/CSM’s or Managers should not override or manually enter coupons.(YMMV)
4. If a coupon does not scan they are instructed to return the coupon to you. This applies to Printable Coupons and newspaper insert coupons.
Here are a few major reasons for these changes:
1. Coupon Fraud- My local Walmart took a hit of over $6,000.00 in August of fraudulent/counterfeit coupon. The highest month they had exceeded over $20,000 and are consistently over $10,000. The average dollar amount of coupon fraud per Walmart location has been as high as $10,00 per month. This number doesn’t seem like a huge number for a store that does millions of dollars in sales, but this number comes right off of the profit margin. There are nearly 4,000 Walmart Stores in the US, if you take the number of stores by the average amount of fraud the numbers get as high as $40,000,000 per month.
2.Employee Coupon Fraud- There have been several stories about massive scale coupon fraud being perpetrated on Walmart stores by there own employees.
3. Coupon Bar Decoding- Yes, another form of coupon fraud. The old bar codes had a lot of info that could be deciphered and used on products that they were not intended for. The new GS1 bar codes will eliminate that.
How Does This Affect You?
1. I am looking at this as a very positive change overall. I know a lot of people have viewed this as a negative, but here is me thinking. The decisions have been taken out of cashiers hands, the computer knows all and determines all. If the coupons scan they take it, if not they don’t. If you have a Walmart that knows you and likes you they still have the ability to override but it does have to be done by a member of management.
2. All Printable Coupons should be printed at the highest quality, it doesn’t have to be color but it should be the best quality available.
3. This will hopefully severely reduce the amount of fraud and eventually lead to the return of higher value coupons.
I think there are going to be some growing pains in the fusion between the GS1 Databar and the systems that accept them. One would hope that all of the kinks would have been worked out prior to their launch, but I also realize that the absurd amount of coupon fraud led to some knee jerk reactions.
I know that many people are going to have similar knee jerk reactions in who they will blame for the changes. The number one scape goat will be TLC’s Extreme Couponing. We were on Extreme Couponing with one of the biggest culprits of Coupon Fraud/ Bar Decoders in the industry. I do think that TLC is culpable in as much as they didn’t screen the people or the process nearly well enough. I can also be sure that there isn’t enough info on the show for people to be able to figure it out. The people that deciphered the fraud and explained it step by step have just as much responsibility as anyone. The bottom line is that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Coupon Fraud is the same, people make their own choices an unfortunately we all have to live with them.
Hey Paul! I want to thank you for the share.I printed out the above info that you shared and one Walmart i went to told me that it was false information but the second Walmart i went to said that was the exact guidelines to follow! Apparently some stores don’t wont to follow the memo and some do.
Thank you for sharing and keeping a happy Walmart shopper like myself up to date!
Mr. Paul, is there anywhere where it explains what a certain message means when couponing?
Just wanted to thank you so much on the update! OH, and I love your “guns don’t kill people” quote. It’s the truth. I work SO hard to make sure I am using ALL my coupons according to their wording and intent and it KILLS me when I see people doing otherwise. While checking out I often hear “WOW it’s like that show…”. I turn to them and tell them kindly, “That show is a bunch of BS!” They laugh.
Anywho… thanks for all your hard work! Have a wonderful week full of amazing deals!
Hi Paul,
Per the policy, should Walmart accept printed Target coupons?
Thank you!
Mackenzie
Only if they state the price of the item. Coupons for $1 off are a no go.
Thank you!
Thankyou Paul!
Now I hope the cashiers realize that the Compt.Coupons are a ad match! Ive had some issues with that stuff! It’s like if I go to Walmart during the day its a totally different experience & at night its opposite..lol I don’t get it! I just wanna save money!
I’m worried about this BC everytime I use a q with the gs1 barcode it doesn’t scan the first time so they have to clear it out & rescan it… I see a lot of headaches in my future
my question is will we ever be able to tell if a coupon will double that only has the new barcode?
it used to be a 5 would double and a 9 wouldnt…now its a mystery
Half my wet and wild coupon scanned and half did not so they argued that they couldn’t take them because of the new policy but since half them scanned meaning they were real, they manually entered the other half. So frustrating though!
Hi Paul 🙂 thanks for the update. I had a couple of questions, while waiting on the store manager to call me back, my store hasn’t switched over yet but I was told by a cashier today they would be getting ready to, no date yet (which is frustrating in itself as I have limited time to debate with cashiers and plan shopping trips lol) but that I would no longer be able to use copies..I was like okay I’m not using copies, the printable ones are black and white b/c thats what our library uses..She was like no these copies and showed me my multiple tidy cat coupons. I was like those aren’t copies they are just multiples. And she told me whatever that that would be stopping to and I couldn’t do multiple transactions either…My store is usually very great with coupons. In reading what you posted I saw nothing like this cashier was telling me, so either she has misunderstood or I have misunderstood. Are they to your knowledge going to stop allowing multiple coupons/items in a purchase? TIA
no, this will eliminate the need to. If a limit is on the coupon then they should enforce that.
TY, thats what I thought I think she was confused on what “copies” meant. I follow the guidelines to a T so I was caught off guard by her telling me I was using copies.
I went this last weekend and was not able to use any black and white printed coupons. They said they will no longer take them no matter if they scan or not…
You need to get the store manager and/or call 1-800-Walmart. Make sure you have your coupon policy with you.
I got the manager and he grabbed the coupons and said no we will not take these because there is no color in them. I didn’t have this new part of the policy printed or with me at the time. I was treated so poorly I will not be going back for a while it was so embarrassing.
Coupon Network coupons NEVER scan for me in our WalMart. I have tried in color and black and white–cashier always has to override those with the coupon key. That will be limiting my use of those coupons to only other stores. Anyone else having those problems with Coupon Network coupons?
The only problem I have here is using the flatbed scanner, they are so scratched up and half the time don’t scan ( even the non printed manuf news paper coupons) it’s so aggravating when I know I’m legit and I do right by the coupons and policies yet I may suffer due to walmarts inadequate registers !!!
Jonette – I agree. The scanners at my Walmart are horrible! The clerk usually has to manually enter at least one item every time I go through there because the scanner won’t read it. And this is for items I am purchasing – not coupons.
I couldn’t agree more. I have had so many bad experiences with Walmart and coupons, I don’t go there anymore. The last straw was 3 months ago I had the manufacture coupon for Bayer aspirin for 3 dollars and the aspirin was 2.28, well anyways the cashier was changing all the coupon values so I wouldn’t get the difference toward my bill, and told me they never give you more than the value of the item! I asked her to get a manager, and he said the same thing. I just took my coupons back and left. I did call district and the real WM manager called me and apologized, big deal I was so embarrassed and decided I’m over the whole price match, coupon BS at Walmart! I go to Target they are cheaper, I love their store coupons. I have never had a problem with using coupons, they always scan right through!
Walmart lost me two years ago…. can’t beat the double coupons
I know of two people that were treated incredibly rudely over coupons since the new policy took effect. Most of their coupons would not scan and they were accused of trying to use coupons for products they did not buy (which was incorrect.) Neither woman will shop there anymore.
I also stopped couponing all together because of how I was treated at my walmart. Everyone cashier I went to acted different and the managers only backed them up everytime no matter what they said. I actually had a cashier apologize to the person behind me and told them “Sometimes we get people like this”. I was so embarassed.
I was told on one store that i could not use a coupon for an item that was price matched. Is this something new? I could not find anything on that.
No, you are allowed to do both. They are completely separate policies. Price matching is an adjustment at the register and coupons are a form of legal tender just like cash.
I went to Walmart today. OMG. What a nightmare! I was not aware of their new coupon policy. So the cashier had to get a manager to approve every coupon. The coupon signaled pending until a manager came over to give the okay. Imagine my frustration– along with the price matching, which apparently has new ways to be entered too. I was frustrated, so was the cashier, who stormed off crying, which left me with 2 managers to complete my order.
I will say that I could have handled it better, but the cashier didn’t know simple math and she was getting nervous and flustered. The managers were trying to figure it out and explain it to me as well. After a while, I was able to follow their “logic,” but if they had done the simple math I proposed, then it would have been way different. Same outcome, one simple step. Sigh.
Oh, I did ask the manager for a copy of the policy and procedures so I will be prepared next time. By the end, the managers were very helpful and patient. We were basically figuring it out as we went along. I so appreciated it. I was sure to affirm, validate, and thank them repeatedly. But oh, what a nightmare.
Thanks for letting me share.
Daphne
Daphne,
I know what you are talking about most of the cashiers don’t know how to deal with all the changes that corporate keeps making to the policies. I was checking out the other day when I had an issue with a coupon and the cashier said oh not another one of these. I asked her what she was talking about and she informed me that it is no policy that if they over ride or hand key coupons they are to be written up or even fired for excepting the coupons that are not real. Mine was real but I know that with all these people turning in fake ones I can see how some companies are starting to get sick of being taken to the cleaners so to speak. I also noticed a something over the summer that kind of pissed me off a little that is when I stopped at a garage sale and noticed that most everything in the sale was new so I asked the lady if she had a shop and she informed me that she used coupons to get all this stuff. I’m sorry I own a company and for someone else to just setup a retail store out the house and get away with not paying taxes is BS not to say defrauding the companies products that she has bought or got for free do to having a coupon. If I was thinking at the time I would have gone and got some coupons and used them at her garage sale and had her pay me the difference on the coupons. Anyway I’m just going on at this point but there comes a time when people need to think cause your right its more then likely not hurting a big company like Walmart but it might end up costing the cashier her job and whatever bonus they get.
I was informed by a cashier today that they are going to be getting rid of their “new system” because it’s causing more hassle than the old one. This week I tried to use two Muir Glen printables (one was printed in color and the other black and white, from two different computers.) Neither of them scanned and said “Pending” and I was holding up the line, so I said I wasn’t worried about it, took my coupons back, and we left.
The thing that bothers me is that I used a Muir Glen coupon last week, too, and it scanned fine. I print coupons from 4 computers in our house to the same wireless printer, so I’m not sure why some of them work and some of them don’t. It’s going to be a guessing game every week, and I’m afraid that next time it won’t just be for 50 cents. This is how we keep to our budget each month.
We’re getting a Hy-Vee in the next year, and I may have to try them out and see if our coupons will scan there. I understand they’re trying to get rid of the fraud, but I’m not being fraudulent. I just wanted 50 cents off my tomato paste, and I’m tired of being accused of being fraudulent.
I was a cashier at Wal-mart from oct 2010 to feb 2012, and I personally believe why people have such crappy experiences at the register is the lack of training. I got one week of training when I started there on how to use the register (meaning which buttons to press, not policies). As far as Coupon and Ad match policies go, you kind of had to learn as you went from other cashiers, meaning the only way to learn a policy was wait until the issue arose, then ask another cashier how to handle it. I think several stores such as Wal-mart and Walgreens need to put A LOT more into cashier training. It would save a lot of frustration for the cashiers, and a lot of frustration for the customers.