Many of you have asked me about the new Walmart Coupon Policy, a new policy that many of the stores are hearing about for the first time in the last 2 weeks.
The New Walmart Coupon Policy is really a register update. I initially told you about all of these changes back in 2012, YES! Crazy it takes this long. Yes, many or most of the managers are hearing about this for the first time this week. The new system so far is almost a total disaster. I understand why they had to make changes, fraud is so rampant, I just wish that the system worked better.
I write this hoping that my friends at Walmart can take some constructive criticism. The systems are rejecting many valid coupons and the even bigger problem is that the cashiers and CSM’s are so poorly trained that they cause a lot more problems. People leave feeling cheated and in some cases being treated like criminals.
The new system has a lot of prompts for different reasons and right now it seems that if a coupon beeps everyone is rejecting it, by everyone I mean cashiers, CSM’s and even managers. I don’t blame the cashiers, they fear for their jobs and don’t want to make any mistakes.
The entire purpose of the changes to the system is to take the decision out of the cashiers hands, the problem is that the systems is broken. Not as bad as Healthcare.gov but it isn’t pretty. Walmart needs to make some major adjustments or they are going to push away a lot of good customers. WALMART!!!! Please don’t let a small percentage of bad apples ruin it for the rest of us.
Below is a copy of a management memo of frequently asked questions that is very helpful in explaining the update to the registers. 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 2102 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.
Fraud the 5 letter word. I am fearful the register updates will just compound the issues we already have trying to redeem legit coupons at Wal-Mart. I often wonder if the problem is more the return policy?
Yup. Happened to me a few months ago. It was for Cooper brand deli sliced cheese. A totally legitimate coupon for $1 off 1lb of Cooper sliced cheese. In our area, Walmart is the only place that sells this brand of cheese that we love. Coupon “beeped”, no go. No cheese.
The new policy changes are so confusing that even the managers don’t know what is going on. When I ask the manager told me that the wording is very vague or open to the managers or csm interpretation. I told him if they don’t make it clear couponers will become frustrated and go to other stores. I would rather shop at Publix anyway but go to Walmart to save time with the Ad-matching. I guess I will be going to each store rather than bother with a store that doesn’t really want me as a customer due to the newly revised policy. People that commit fraud ruin it for everyone else and are selfish, vile creatures( IMHO) and I hope they get caught and go to jail.
I love Walmart, but I am finding it harder and harder to shop using coupons there. Everything is getting scrutinized there. I now avoid going there until I have to, and then I use coupons that hopefully won’t give problems (i.e. not using coupons that give overage).
I honestly like the update. I have had no problems with coupons not scanning, in fact its quite the opposite. All the coupons for schick disposable razors, that were beeping, are not beeping now. You just have to learn the quirk of the system. I know it will not take more of 6 of a certain q, I will just break it up into a seperate transaction. Just be patient and wait, and when the kinks roll out It will be all good.
@ Nick, I’ve never had an issue with the coupon ever! Its the cashier saying I cant use four like coupons in one transaction, or even dumber, ” Walmart doesnt give cash back!” I tell her turn on your light please and call the CSM! Sometimes I get mad , tell her (always a woman never a man that gives me trouble , so far) to cancel the whole order, give me back all my coupons, call the CSM and lets start over when she get here! Frustrating!
My printed coupons almost never scan at Walmart. Guess I won’t do that kind of shopping there anymore. 🙁 FYI, I’m pretty sure the scannability has to do with the paper and/or the ink. A few months back I tried out a ticketing system for a place I work, where people who were coming to a conference we hosted received tickets by email and printed them out. We were supposed to be able to check them in quickly by scanning the tickets with a smartphone. 50% of the tickets would not scan at all…and those printed on the same printer all either scanned or all didn’t, if that makes sense. And my printer that I use for my printable coupons also printed a ticket that the phone could not read.
This is the thing, Walmart in Texas , not a big deal , Here in Florida , its terrible, the shelves are bare half the time , unfortunately , i get paid right around the times that too many other people do (1st and 15th) i got sick of going to the store , knowing theres a great coupon deal, and the shelf is empty, and if i find someone , they tell me , oh the shelf will be stocked from the next truck , usually in 2 days or so.. its just a huge hassle , since moving , walmart has lost about 40% of my previous business.. with an 8 person household, you can imagine its quite a chunk of money.. i do know about coupon fraud , nothing makes me angrier ,
and i understand why they would change the software
did you know over 30 cents out of every grocery dollar goes to walmart nationwide??? thats an insane amount of money .
Coupon doesnt scan i dont buy the item , its frustrating, especially since certain things are only found there, but .. i figure if they wont scan it , perhaps i don’t really need the item(s)
Florida has Publix, they take EVERY coupon, from EVERYWHERE! they stack store and competitor coupons mine takes target , winn dixie,whole foods and walmart, Year around.
… even the 5.00 off 25.00 purchase… so how can i go wrong ..
Let me tell you about a bad experience at Wal-Mart. I was price-matching one item. My 18 year old son was with me so I was going to price-match 2. I handed my son the money and she scoulded me in a loud voice that I can’t do that. She said she saw me hand him the money to price-match. I politely told her that their policy is one per person for Murfins dollar price-matching. She continued to yell telling me that I am trying to get her fired by doing something illegal. WHAT! I’m so tired of seeing people use their EBT cards being treated like royalty and I’m trying to save money and being treated like a criminal. Wal-Mart used to get $700 from me and now they are lucky to get $100 a month. Just sayin!
The comment about those that use EBT is uncalled for. Not everyone who has EBT is a bum mooching off the system. Sometimes they are grad students who make less than a $1000 to cover their rent, tuition, and gas because in some career fields you have to take on an internship or assistantship for low pay to gain the job experience required. Don’t judge someone when you don’t know their story.
thank you for letting me know the changes. I don’t shop at Walmart that often, but in the last two weeks , I did have some coupons rejected. Its amazing that a company like Walmart want spend the time retraining their employees. HEADS UP there are employees taking pictures of your TDL and pictures of your checks. It happen to a lady at the Walmart in Humble becareful. I only use cash or gift card their.
I have already had an issue with 2 coupons that would not scan correctly. System said they were expired when they clearly had not. The coupon was for ground turkey and the cashier pulled them right off the package herself. She said she had noticed alot of the coupons coming through her line were scanning expired.
Can I get a copy of the memo? I don’t think my local Walmart recieved it because they ALWAYS give me problems about my overage.
Yesterday was my 1st experience with the new system and it was so frustrating!! The lady I’m front of me ha a coupon for Tide and I had a higher valued one so I have her mine. The cashier scanned the lower value one and them tried to scan the higher value and seemed puzzled that the register wouldn’t accept the 2q for the item. That should have been my 1st clue! So when I began to check out, I told her that I had some items to price match and she rolled her eyes. I price matched my items and had to provide the ads because she told me I could go to the service booth and get the ads myself if I thought it was the store’s responsibility to provide them. Ugh, I ok a deep breath and smiled and handed her my q’s. She began to scan and here came the beeps. Out of the 30 or so q’s I had, only 7 scanned. I asked her to call a manger and she told me that it wouldn’t do any good because they wouldn’t change a thing. And for some reason, she thought that if she put ma’am before or behind anything she said that it made it better. It only came off ride and condescending. I paid, asked for my coupons that didn’t scan back and she continued to tell me that it wouldn’t do any good and so on. At that point, she was arguing with me about the managers taking them. Another deep breath and I headed to customer service. They checked every coupon and redeemed all but 4 saving me another $23. They made a note of the coupons that were giving me trouble and pillows that cashier off of her register and were very apologetic! Awesome!! I did learn that if the a says “as indicated” it means only what is on the picture of the q. At least that’s what they said. I assume that this will eventually straighten itself out, I just hope I have 46 extra minutes every time I go to WM to explain their policy, be insulted and stand in line at customer service
I have been to Walmart the last 2 weeks to use coupons on certain items. I know for a fact they are legit because I get them every week out of my Sunday papers. I have had a problem and the cashiers and the managers told me I could not have the items because the items didn’t match the item shown, even though that is no indication of what products I can use them on because it is the wording that is the deciding factor at all stores. Especially when the coupons says “Save $$ on ANY *item of that brand*” I tried explaining this, but they would not give my my discount and still took my coupons “because they had scanned it” So frustrating! Never had a problem until this! And especially I can use that coupon at another store just fine!
I live in Illinois and the changes to the system just went into affect at my Walmart. It’s a nightmare. None of my coupons scan. It’s just so ridiculous. I have basically stopped shopping there. I am now doing more of my shopping at Aldi’s and Hy-Vee. It stinks because I used to save a ton of money at Walmart:-(
recently my Walmart has been giving me problems when using 2 manufacturers coupons with a BOGO from a competitor.
I don’t see anything about that in the official policy
They are supposed to divide the price in half of the item you are BOGO matching. they both should have a value and therefore be allowed to use a coupon on it.
With respect to the overage, their guidelines were out long before manufacturers started putting “no cash or credit in excess of shelf (selling) price may be given to customer or applied to transaction”. Don’t believe their guidelines trump the manufacturer’s instructions on the coupons. I know where I am, the cashiers are to adjust the coupon down to the selling price when the coupon value exceeds the selling price of the item.
Problems with coupons at Walmart? Call 1-800-925-6278 or 1-800-963-8442