My Success Spending RRs at Walmart With the New Coupon Policy

3/18.  The policy has been revised again and clearly states no $$ off entire purchase catalinas.

I’m sure that by now you’ve read about Walmart’s new coupon policy that was released last week.  It’s been discussed all over frugal blogs with reports of varying success by readers.  I wanted to wait until I had personal experience to relay to you before posting about the changes. If you haven’t heard about the policy yet, here is what it means to me:

• Walmart will give overage on coupons (getting them to accept the Q is a different issue, sadly).  
• Walmart will accept competitor Qs for specific prices. Most Wags in ad Qs say “3/$1”, so this type will be accepted.  Most CVS and Target Qs say “$1.00 off any ___” so this type will NOT be accepted. (the idea is that these stores are priced higher than Walmart already)
• Walmart will accept competitor checkout Qs or catalina Qs.  A Walgreens RR is a manufacturer Q and not a store Q, so it falls under this category.

It sounds really great, but you know how changes like this go over in a huge company with lots of turnover.  Sort of like convincing your 70 yr old Dad that the speed limit on Main St. has been raised from 30 to 40: He can see the new sign just like everyone else but argues that they must have made a mistake because the limit has been 30 for 70 years!

So this afternoon my husband was off work a little early and I enjoyed a few hours sans children to run errands.  When I pulled into Target (right next door to Walmart) I called Walmart and asked to speak to a CSM. I fully expected to hear that they didn’t accept RRs and had planned to then ask for a manager.  She said very certainly that they accept catalinas that clearly say manu Q and have a remit address.  I said “ok, thank you” and hung up. I should have asked for her name, but oh well.  I finished my Target returns and shopping and headed next door.  I wanted to spend a $3 RR and a $5RR so I bought about $12 worth after my other Qs just so they’d be more receptive to the RRs and not take the imfamous “you’re stealing from the store” stance.
Here’s a play by play of what happened when I handed over the RRs. (the cashier was super polite and friendly by the way, which helped immensely)

She looks at the policy and scans one. It gave an error message on my screen about checking the log, so she asked me to wait just a minute while she got a CSM to check into it.

(I was nice enough to not point out that they had just accepted 4 $$ off Qs and have accepted them for years)

The CSM not so happily calls and a manager was there in less than a minute!
The manager took a minute to read over the policy and said “Yes, we accept them, but only if they’re scannable”  the CSM was not pleased with this response and chimed in with “but it didn’t scan for her”

Boy is the CSM not happy now

He asks the CSM to do the honors. With the manager watching, the CSM scans the smaller of the two barcodes with the handheld scanner, looks at his screen which says nothing on my side, hits a button and  $3 comes off my total.  Note- he didn’t have to enter an amount, just hit one button- it scanned properly and knew that amount.
(I don’t want to encounter this CSM again because if looks could kill….)
He does the same with the $5 RR and I swipe my GC for the remaining $3.48.  Boy did the GC make him even more unhappy with me.  I politely smiled and said thank you, and headed out the door to call my best friend and tell her the story.

So in a nut shell if you can convince them to even try- have them scan the short bar code and follow the screen prompting.

The arguments that I would use for being able to use them are

• it is not a store Q for $$ off, it is a catalina manufacturer Q for $$ off
• it clearly states Manufacturer coupon and has a valid remit address as stated in the corporate policy.  

If your cashier won’t accept it, ask for a CSM. If the CSM won’t accept it ask for the manager.  Be sure to note the names of the CSM and Manager and report those names with the problem to corporate if they don’t accept it.  In my experience you’ll have a phone call from the store manager the next day because corporate will correct the problem.  That is one thing that I can say for Walmart- they know to keep their customers happy and not following the black and white print of a public corporate policy is a big no no in the world of keeping your customers happy.

Please share in the comments if you’ve also tried out the new policy.