There are a couple of stores I go to, that when I give them a coupon I printed off the internet, they give it a funny look. They try and swipe it, and of course with my luck it doesn't seem to go through, so they even further examine it, like it is some how fraudulent. I even had one cashier say it didn't go through because "photocopies" weren't accepted (Which it was not! Because that would be illegal!). Anyways, I have given up using printed coupons at those stores because I'd rather just waste the few bucks rather than having a scene at the register and being made to look like a criminal. Are there stores you frequent that give you a hard time with coupons you print off the internet?
I haven't had that issue before, but I don't print coupons often. Instead, at this point, I use all digital. My store accepts digital coupons so I just load them directly onto my shopper's card and use them automatically at checkout.
That's a fear of mine, but they have all gone through. You have to make sure the ink on the bar code is all solid, so if the ink is low it may not scan. If it's a good value coupon I will print it out, but many do allow them to be sent to a loyalty card. Most cashiers will tap in the coupon manually as they can do that. In my local CVS they do that when the coupon won't scan to override it.
I do feel that cashiers scrutinize them, and the glossy newspaper coupons for that matter too. They are probably used to people accidentally presenting expired ones, or not for the right sized item. That is a nice thing about the digital coupons I guess, less room for error. But when I have a great printed coupon, I still go for it! Attitude can make a big difference too, both the cashier's and mine. There is a big difference between being thorough and being skeptical. Some seem to assume you've done it wrong before even looking at the coupon! I just try to be as pleasant as possible, because one never knows what kind of day that person is having.
I had just the opposite problem ! Old Time Pottery (one of my favorite stores) sent me am email saying that there was a couppon with a 20% discount; but when I went to the store and showed them the digital coupon, they said they couldn't accept it. they told me that it had to be printed out before they could take it, so I asked them if they might be able to print it out for me there at the store and they said they could not do that either. I ended up not being able to use the coupon at all because they couldn't scan it , and would not give the discount even though they could see that i had a coupon for it.
I don't really coupon anymore, but I was really into it about 4 years ago, and I never had a cashier give me a hard time or even the side-eye when I used printed coupons (even when my printer was running out of ink and I had to print them all in black and white and they were all faded haha!) You would think that they would be even more common now, 4 years later, and that cashiers would be so used to receiving them that there would be absolutely no stigma about using a printed coupon. That said, if a cashier or store was giving me a hard time about using coupons, I'm the type of person who probably would not go back or would not use them again there because I'm so non-confrontational. I know some of my friends will call a manager and argue the situation, but that's not me.
