The worst customers with coupons aren't always the ones with the expired offers. Retail workers tell their craziest stories about people with coupons going crazy. Forget the small print, read the rest of the agreement in very large print.
(Content has been edited for clarity.)
“I Spend HUNDREDS Of Dollars Here Every Week!”
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“I work at a chain crafts store that always has a coupon. As a cashier, we have no coupons on hand at the register since they are widely available online, in the newspaper, though the app, or through email. In this scenario that happened today, I’ll be M for Me and the customer will be Crust.
Crust: ‘My phone died while I was loading the coupon.’
M: ‘I’m sorry about that.’
Crust: ‘So I can’t get the coupon?’
M: ‘I’m sorry ma’am, I don’t have any up here for me to scan. If you’d like, you could bring the receipt and coupon back next time you come in and we’ll refund you the amount.’
Crust: ‘No, that’s a hassle. You have a phone! Just look it up for me.’
M: ‘I’m not able to do that.’
Crust: ‘Well that’s ridiculous. Where’s your manager? I spend HUNDREDS of dollars here every week! It’s not even my fault my phone died. It was almost fully charged when I walked in. Y’all don’t offer in-store WiFi so it died trying to load the coupon!’
I have never seen this woman in my life. I work five days a week at this store and know almost all of the regulars. Also, she spent approximately $30. The manager let her use a coupon off his phone but said it was only for this one time and it was her responsibility to bring it in.”
To Her, It Seemed Like A Fishy Policy
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“A year ago or so, a couple would come in every so often and load up numerous carts full of merchandise. We’re talking three carts basically overflowing between two people. What they would do is actually stupidly ingenious:
We price match, which is nothing new. But we also apply coupons to price-matched items. This is something hardly any customers knew about, except for this couple evidently.
They would clear out the store for every item that had a price match, as well as a coupon. Say they wanted a broom which normally costs $5. Now we offer a coupon for $2.50 off, so it’s now half price. But wait, they are price-matching this broom for the dollar-store price of $1.00, but there’s a coupon which is for $2.50.
$1 – $2.5 = -$1.5
This means we now owe them a dollar fifty. You heard that right. Apparently, the policy wouldn’t just make the item free, it actually put us in debt. This couple would go to insane lengths, amounting to roughly $200 that we ended up paying them every time they came in every few weeks.
Essentially, they got hundreds of dollars of merchandise not for free but were essentially paid to shop in our store.
Obviously, our company has since edited this policy.”
His Counting Skills Were Less Than Admirable
“This is a story from my days at a grocery store that is very popular in New York and New Jersey. The week this story took place, the store had sent out in its ‘Sunday Coupons’ a coupon for some money off eight rolls of toilet paper. When this man got to my register this is what went down. Me = Me, Customer = C.
Me: ‘Hello welcome to (store). Do you have any coupons, rainchecks or your store card?’
C: ‘Yes, I have this coupon for this toilet paper.’
When he hands the coupon over, I immediately check the date on the coupon and read all the fine print. I immediately see that the coupon says the discount is for eight or more rolls, but I can clearly see that he is putting a four pack on the belt.
Me: ‘Excuse me sir, do you have another package of rolls with you? This coupon will need 8 or more rolls to be authorized.’
C: ‘No, it says four rolls equals 16, so I have enough.’ The package did say four equals 16, but I know it means the PHYSICAL rolls, not what they can replace.
Me: ‘I’m sorry, but the coupon is looking for what is actually being purchased, not what you are replacing. You will need to get some more rolls to make this coupon work.’
C: ‘But I have 16 rolls.’
Me: ‘No, you don’t, you have four.’
C: ‘But it says 16!’ He was getting a bit upset at this point.
Me: ‘Sir, it could say 16, 32 or 2,340. You still would only have four rolls in the package.’ I am still calm at this point, but getting a bit frustrated that this man can’t count physical objects.
Me: ‘Would you want me to get a manager to help explain things?’
C: ‘Yes!’
I am about to call a manager when the store manager comes over having seen the commotion.
Manager: ‘Is there an issue?’
Me: ‘Yes…’
C: ‘He won’t let me use my coupon!’
Me: ‘It says it’s for eight or more rolls and he only has four.’
Manager: ‘You will need eight or more to use this coupon. I’m sorry, that is just how to coupon will work.’
C: ‘Okay. (Turns to me) Why didn’t you just say so?’
Me: (wishing my eyes could burn people into ashes) ‘Sorry I wasn’t clearer in my wording.'”
Are You Calling Her Mother A Liar?
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“I work in a large department store. The other week, I was working on the registers when I had an interesting encounter. Around midday, a middle-aged lady came up to my counter with some nightgowns. I rang them up and tell her the total was $60.
She looked absolutely stunned and checked a sticky note she was holding in her other hand, ‘Hang on, they’re 50% off.’
‘No ma’am, they’re full price. These are new arrivals.’
She tutted and held out her little, yellow sticky note for me to read. ‘50% off nightgowns in X store’ was scribbled on it.
‘My mother wrote that, are we not in [X store]?’ Her condescension was reaching dangerous levels.
‘I’m sorry, but we don’t have 50% off any nightgowns…I don’t know what led your mother to believe we do, but-‘
‘It was advertised,’ She snapped.
‘Great, I’ll just need to see some store authorized advertising material or coupons to make the markdown.’
‘But she saw it on TV and then she wrote it down on here!’ She thrust the sticky note dangerously close to my face.
Abort.
I rang the manager, ‘We’ve got a valued customer who’d like some assistance.’ ‘Valued’ is code for, ‘Strap yourselves in for the-customer-thinks-they’re-right-syndrome.’
My manager arrived, instantly recognized the lady, and shooed her away from my register on sight.
Later I found out she’d been banned from the store for sticking clearance stickers on full priced items and getting caught. She got busted trying to buy a $100 iron on ‘clearance’ for $5.50. Probably not the brightest of bulbs.”
She Just Had To Get Obnoxious As She Walked Out
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“I work at a certain Large Makeup Retailer, located in a Deep South Suburb. Most of my customers are too Proper to throw tantrums, so most have passive-aggressive hissy fits about ‘never coming back,’ and leave it there. Most relevant to this story is that my store has a membership program that sends customers a coupon for a free birthday gift. These coupons come via email on the day of the person’s birthday and are good for about a month after that so that people have time to come grab their item. All they have to do is show us the email, we scan the barcode and grab the freebie, and we’re done.
Should be simple, right?
Today I have a guest come in and pick up a couple things. Midway through the transaction, she asks if we have the birthday gift, because today is her birthday.
Me: ‘We do, do you have your coupon with you?’
Customer: ‘No…’
Me: ‘Could you maybe pull it up on your phone?’
C: ‘My email isn’t on my phone.’
She’s about halfway through paying at this point so I put on my best retail smile and retail voice.
Me: ‘Well I’m sorry you don’t have it today, but those coupons are good for about a month, so there’s no rush. Just print it out or take a picture of it so you can get your gift the next time you come in.’
C, looking like she started sucking a lemon: ‘Do I have to have the coupon?’
Me: ‘Yes ma’am, you do have to have the coupon.’
She doesn’t say anything else to me, but takes her phone out and calls someone. I’m printing her receipt out and putting it in her bag when whoever is on the other end answers.
C, at her phone: ‘Did you need a coupon when you got your birthday thing?….Yeah, this girl is saying something else.’
She takes her bag and walks toward the door, which is maybe three yards off to my right. Halfway there, she starts talking again, and her voice is suddenly very high pitched and nasal:
‘You have a month to come in and get it, just bring your coooooupon…’
I had to stop and think for a split second if she was honest to god mocking me like that. Another split second to realize that yeah, she was. And honestly, all I could do was be louder and more obnoxious when I told her to have a lovely day.
Like, I get that I have a retail voice, but you have to be so petty that you make fun of me, in front of me, because I didn’t give you a free thing? I hope your birthday drink gives you a hangover.”
This Crazy Couponer Was Also A Crazy Cat Lady
“Way back before I opened my own business, I had a job at a chain convenience store type place. Sort of like a department store with food, housewares, and everything else where just about everyone came to at one point or another.
I had worked there once before and came back after moving away for a while. When I returned, they hired me on as assistant manager. Basically, it just meant I had a key to unlock things and could fix register mistakes. Now at this store, we had a woman who we all called the Coupon Queen. Not because she was good at couponing, but because she thought her coupons made her untouchable.
Anyone who works in retail and deals with coupons knows the rules. Some coupons can only be used once, multiples will be rejected. Some coupons have very specific items and amounts they will discount, no substitutions. And some coupons can only be used at certain stores. This woman did not care.
Most days, we could get by and would force through a few coupons to keep her happy, but this day was much different. The system at this store could only allow you to force a coupon through if an item hadn’t already been discounted. Once all items had a discount, coupons couldn’t go through and there was nothing that could be done. The Coupon Queen arrived with a massive amount of cat food and a bunch of coupons for ‘buy one get one free.’
The way the register works is that, instead of giving one item for free, it cuts the price of the two items in half instead. So every time I ran a coupon, two items were discounted. Then at the very end, she hands me coupons for $2.00 off five or more cans of cat food.
The coupon won’t go through. I cannot force it through because all items are already discounted. When I try to explain that the coupon can’t be used, she absolutely flips her lid and demands to see the head manager. I argue, but eventually get the manager who can’t do anything I haven’t already tried. Now she’s twice as mad and so is the manager. He starts trying to explain to her what ‘one per transaction’ means.
We all know a ‘transaction’ is the total purchase, but she is completely sure it means every time I scan an item.
Suddenly she is screaming and starts throwing the cat food cans at me (despite how I have been silent the past 10 minutes) and the people waiting in line have started to abandon their things and just leave. She ended up storming out after my manager went to call the police, but it didn’t do much good.
Apparently, she called the corporate headquarters and left a complaint about us not helping her….and they gave her $50 in gift cards to make up for it. The customer is always right – even if they are completely insane.
I pressed charges though, so she wasn’t allowed in when I was working. Sadly, after I left, she had free reign once more. The Coupon Queen simply could not be stopped.”
She Looked So Normal…Until The Coupons Came Out
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“The third guest who came through my lane one day looked normal enough. She was getting three small lotions and two packs of disposable razors. Simple. The lotions were on special for buy three, get a $5 gift card. Then she pulled out coupons, one per item.
Oh boy, here we go.
The lotion coupons scanned just fine, no issue.
But the razor coupons were for $4 off, and her packs were only $3.99 each.
Me for me, CL for coupon lady.
Me: ‘Ma’am, unfortunately, we can’t accept these coupons as the discount is more than the item’s price.’
CL: ‘Well you’ve accepted them here before.’
Me: ‘I don’t know anyone who would’ve done that because we’re all trained to not take coupons that have a higher discount than the item’s price.’
CL: ‘BUT YOU DID IT HERE BEFORE.’
Me: I just switched on my call light and beckoned a front end manager over.
I told the manager (M) what’s going on and she repeated the same thing to the guest.
CL: ‘But the coupon says ANY pack. If you look up ‘any’ in the dictionary…’
And then my manager cuts her off.
Manager: ‘I understand that ma’am, but the system still won’t let us accept this coupon.’
CL: ‘Well, last time I called CORPORATE about YOUR problem with my coupons, they told me if I had any more problems at THIS LOCATION, to get a receipt that says that you denied me my coupons.’
Manager: ‘That’s not even a thing that we can do.’
CL: ‘So are you saying corporate is a liar?’
Manager: ‘I’m not calling them liars, I’m just saying that’s not a function we have on our machines. Let me go get the other front end manager.’
CL: (As manager is walking away) ‘It’s the right coupon, get over it.’
So about ten minutes pass while my manager goes to find another manager and discuss what to do about CL. I’m refusing to make eye contact with her because she’s just glaring at me. The other cashiers are guiding people to other lanes since mine’s out of commission for the moment, and everyone is giving me sympathetic looks. Eventually, the manager shows back up with a printout of our coupon policy.
Manager: ‘So we actually have the right to refuse any coupon that doesn’t scan and because this one isn’t scanning and it’s for a higher discount than the item’s price, we can’t take it.’
CL: ‘Well I’ll be calling corporate about this AGAIN.’
CL then proceeds to wait around in front of the registers for another 10 minutes while on the phone before finally leaving. I guess now I’m officially initiated into the world of retail.”
He Refused To Believe That He Couldn’t Use The Same Coupon Twice
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“It was a pretty rough Saturday at ye old pharmacy-chain store. One of my cashiers got their shift ‘covered’ (not really…) so that left me with one cashier after 1 pm. A couple was being helped by this cashier and were getting their passport photo taken and printed out. The cashier printed out the passport photos, gave it to the couple and then waited on the obnoxiously long line. I hopped on a register to help out. Eventually, they made their way up to me.
AG = annoying guy, Me = me, CW = clueless wife.
Me: [rings up passport photos, scans their rewards card] ‘OK that will be $43.’
AG: [slides me two printed out coupons that say ‘$2 off passport photos’]
Me: [scans both] [register makes angry beep after the second coupon is scanned] ‘Oh I’m sorry sir, this is a duplicate coupon. I cannot put this through. Do you have a different coupon?’
AG: ‘I am buying passport photos so I should be able to use both.’
Me: ‘This coupon was printed out twice. I can only use it once.’
AG: ‘Just do it in two separate transactions.’
Me: ‘Uh…no sir, I can’t do that.’
CW: ‘I don’t understand. Why can’t we use the coupon? We are buying passport photos.’
AW: ‘I don’t know, it’s some new stupid thing they’re doing. [turns to me] Call the mana- [looks at my name badge] …What’s the total?’
Me: ‘$41 with your coupon.'”
She Couldn’t Get Her Way, So She Threw A Little Tantrum
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“I work in a grocery store and have for about a year an a half now. I meet lots of people, some nice, some not so nice. One day, I met this lady at my checkout. She had over 20 cans of cat food and three coupons for them. I rang everything up with the three cat food coupons and gave her the total.
Lady: ‘What’s going on here? Why is the total so much…What about my coupons?’
Me: ‘I added the coupons, they only take a dollar off one can per coupon.’
Lady: ‘No, I’m positive that those coupons get me a certain amount off every can.’
Me: ‘I’m sorry miss, but the coupon says one coupon per can and you only have three coupons, so I can only use the coupons for three cans of cat food.’
Lady: ‘I’m sick of this store, you think I’m stupid or something. I know how to read coupons. You know what? You can take this cat food back to the shelf and stack em all back up again cause I’m not buying them anymore since you wanna get smart with me.’
I only got to say, ‘I’m sorry, miss…’ Before she tossed two cans of cat food over the cash register at me and pushed about five of them to the floor.”
He’s Doing It Wrong, Or So She Claims
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“I work at a pharmacy retailer in Canada.
This woman came in and bought two shampoos, and had a $2 off coupon. I go through the transaction as usual, but she comes back and asks why I took the $2 off at the end of the transaction, rather than before, because it affects the amount of tax. I tell her this is the procedure and she proceeds to comment that a good cashier would know that the coupon comes off before totaling the transaction and that the cashier at a different grocery store does it that way. Once she said that I was done being nice. You do not tell me that I don’t know what I’m doing when I’ve worked here for over five years.
I snap and say, ‘You have to pay the tax on the full value of the product.’ She then shows me the fine print of the coupon which literally says: ‘To the consumer: Applicable taxes charged on full value before coupon redemption.’ I read it out loud to her and she starts grabbing her things off the counter and starts walking away.
As she does, she again says that I did it wrong and that a good cashier would take the value of the coupon off the product before adding tax.
I bet she says that a lot.”
“It’s Not Fair!”
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“In the last ten minutes of my shift, there was a super ticked off woman. Our store emails coupons to customers and most of them just open their email app and use the coupons straight from their phones. The problem with this is…the internet sucks in our building. Many people complain about this, but we’ve worked out a workaround: go outside where the internet actually works, pull up your coupons, take a screenshot, come back in and pay.
This woman was naturally upset that the internet didn’t work. I told her how to do the workaround, and she kept saying, ‘You’re not answering my question.’ After a few times circling around this, she said, ‘Well I’m not going outside. What happens if my coupons never load?’ I told her I can only issue a discount with a coupon that has a barcode. She told me that wasn’t fair and stomped off to another part of the store. As she walked away, another woman asked me about the internet, I gave her the same directions, and the previous woman shouted, ‘Yeah, that’s what she told me, too. It’s not fair.’ The second woman welcomed my advice and went outside.
I kept thinking, ‘Yeah, okay, it might not be fair, but life’s not fair and this just isn’t something worth getting that upset over… if you get this mad over every single unfair thing that happens to you, your life must be terrible. Learn to roll with the punches, some things just aren’t worth getting that upset over.'”
That’s Not Something You Throw At Someone!
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“I had just started my job as a cashier at a grocery store. After a few days, I was finally on a register by myself and it was going alright.
There was a forecast for heavy snow later that night, so the store was slammed. People were fighting over items in the aisles, fighting over carts, and over places in line. I’m not sure what it is about snow on the weather forecast that makes people lose their minds.
A customer came up to my line and I was scanning through his items. He was complaining about how busy the store was and how long the lines were through the transaction, which was understandable.
After I rang up his purchases, he handed me a coupon for his corned beef. There was a huge discount on it in preparation for St. Patrick’s Day.
However, the coupon didn’t start until the next day. I informed him of this and he said, ‘It’s only one day, can’t you give me the sale price anyways? What does it matter to you?’
After telling him I couldn’t use the coupon, he picked up the package, yelled, ‘WELL THEN I DON’T WANT IT,’ and threw it at me. Hard.
I managed to dodge it, so it just brushed my shoulder and hit the floor with a lovely ‘splat’ sound.
It was so busy that I didn’t want to bother anyone, so I just picked it up, voided it, and finished ringing him out.”
“You Stole My Coupons!”
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“In my few years working a retail job, I have dealt with a variety of customers, good and bad, but one will always stick out to me. At the time, I worked at a retail store that sold lotion, body wash, perfume, etc. Some of our best deals come from coupons that you receive in the mail or by taking surveys. The surveys are usually located on the bottom of the receipt after you make a purchase and once you go online and take it, you receive a code that is redeemable in the store.
So anyways. It is a normal shift and at the time I was working the cash register. In comes this woman with a huge bag from our store (usually means she has some items to return). This is totally fine and I greet her and begin scanning the receipt and items to tally up how much money to credit her back.
Once the transaction is complete, a receipt prints out that proves you returned some items and a survey shows up at the bottom of the receipt. It is store policy to remove it if the customer is only returning a product. So I finish the transaction, cut the survey portion off the receipt, and hand it back to the customer.
This is when the customer begins to flip. She immediately asks why she does not have a survey for the coupon. It catches me off guard, but I kindly reply with the store policy and that she must purchase something to receive it. She begins to go off, I mean screaming in my face, ‘GIVE ME MY COUPONS! GIVE ME MY COUPONS! YOU STOLE MY COUPONS!’
Over and over again before she finally calls for a manager. I stood there, shocked, and hesitantly call for my manager over the radio. Being quite a small store, he shows up immediately (probably from her already screaming). I explain the scenario and my manager backs me up and calmly repeats that it is store policy and we are unable to provide her with the coupons.
The customer, unable to control her rage at not being provided a coupon, begins to continue her favorite phrase, ‘GIVE ME MY COUPONS! GIVE ME MY COUPONS! HE STOLE MY COUPONS,’ but this time in a low growl that I imagine Satan himself sounds like while calling souls down to Hades. At this point, I have overcome my fear and am able to view what is happening from the outside as this comical scenario of this customer repeatedly growling and making animal noises while continuing her phrase, ‘GIVE ME MY COUPONS!’ towards my very calm and collected manager.
I had to hold back my smile and almost busted out laughing behind the counter. She finally leaves and my manager instantly turns to me with a shocked face and asks me to confirm if indeed the customer was growling at him for coupons. I immediately bust out laughing and was unable to answer his question. She was forever known as the growling customer and we never saw her again.”