As of September 1 Walmart has made some changes to their internal coupon policy and to the register systems. I will tell you about what the changes are and why. I will also tell you about what to expect and what you can do to avoid problems. You will not see any changes to the Public Walmart Coupon Policy, the changes are more procedural and clarifying then they are a change in policy.
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.
2. All coupons must be scanned on the flatbed scanners, the handheld scanners are not supposed to be used any longer.
3. The coupon must scan (not a new change) . Cashiers/CSM’s or Managers are not allowed to override or manually enter coupons.
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. This can be a negative and a positive- 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.
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.
At my local WM, They follow the limits of products for PM, like if the ads says limit of 2 boxes of green giants, and I’m buying 3 coz I got coupon off for 3 boxes. The cashier won’t allow me to take 3 boxes because the ads says limit 3, she will take the 1 box away, never cleared shelves coz I only buying 1 Sunday paper. Orher cashier when I handed my coupon, even the coupon went through she still checking the size of the product and make sure it match the picture of the item, the guy behind me got mad to the cashier, he said to the cashier you dont need to check the coupon and the product the coupon didnt beep means its ok, your holding the line. The cashiers says their been told by the manager to do that. I only had 5 coupons that day. The people behind me are so nice, coz I feel bad that they have to wait, I’d said sorry for them for waiting, they saids it wasn’t my fault. From then I don’t go to Walmart unless, I really really need something its the only store closest where I Live. Had bad experience from Walmart doing PM and using coupon.
she should just ring the last box up at regular price. It seems a little silly but it is within the right of the store to do. That is what would happen at the store you are price matching at. You would still be allowed to use your coupons.
Oh Geez. I guess I need to buy a laser printer. Paul what printer did you go with?
When I read this the other day, i was thinking, oh great, more coupon drama from Walmart. I already have enough issues with them, I hate using coupons at Walmart. However today, 9/20, I went with about 12 coupons, and I can tell you that almost all of them did NOT scan at the regular scanner, they had to use the handheld for almost all, and one did not scan at all, she had to manually enter it in as a vendor coupon. So, either my store did not get this new memo, or something, but I am quite happy that’s all I can say. I’m just glad they took my coupons!
hi Paul,
I was at Walmart bought 4 HE and I was trying to use the $3 off 2 HE and 2 Bogo, but the cashier called a supervisor and she told me that I can’t use 2 different coupons for 2 products. So i let go of my $3 off of 2 and found out that they only put 1 bogo, they were putting me in a lot of embarrasing situation, I am not going back to walmart anymore. Please enlighten me, thanks, Storm
If I am understanding the situation right they should have allowed you to use 2 coupons. Either one of the coupons you were trying to use covered two products.
Yes she could of used only TWO coupons, she by her explaination was trying to use THREE…..1 $3/2 and TWO bogo. Can’t use a 2nd bogo if you already are attaching a coupon to a product. They did however seem like in the confusion of it all not credit it her w/her second coupon. Just wish you’d of clarified that w/your readers.
I was wondering why she can’t use the three coupons? She was purchasing 4. The 3/2 would be applied to the ones she has to pay for, the BOGO can be applied as well, last thecoupon another BOGO for the last two items, correct? Please let me know, thank you.
because each coupon is for 2 items. Walmart applies BOGO coupons to the one you pay for and the free items you can’t use coupons on. I hope that helps.
I went this weekend and they would NOT take my internet printables that were in black & white. They didn’t even try to see if they would scan just said NO. The manager came over and said the same thing. I always shop at this store and have never had a problem until this weekend. I won’t be going back for a long while it was very embarrassing.
Walmarts coupon policy states that print at home internet coupons are acceptable in black and white or color. Call 1-800-walmart and file a complaint.
I went to my local Walmart today. I had a BOGO on Pledge, two $2 off coupons for Herseys Simple Pleasure candy and two other coupons. The $2 off coupons would not scan on the flatbed scanner and I was told they no longer took BOGO’s. I removed the associated items from the bags and had them taken off my receipt. I talked to customer service and was told the same thing. I came home and called 1-800-walmart. They were surprised with what had happened. I have filed a complaint. I printed off the coupon policy and all the BOGO coupons that were on the Walmart web site and I am going back tomorrow to talk to the manager. I am not backing down. I will file complaint after complaint if necessary. Why should I have to drive 20 minutes to another store to use my coupons when Walmart is 5 minutes away?
I went back to Walmart this morning with a copy of the corporate coupon policy in my purse. I had 5 BOGO coupons (one was from the Walmart website) and the two $2 coupons that wouldn’t scan yesterday. I collected all my items and then went to Customer service and asked to speak to the manager. I explained what had happened yesterday and asked if it was true that they did not accept BOGO’s. It wasn’t. She said that the BOGO’s require an override. She scanned all my items and the coupons with the handheld scanner and there was no problem. Don’t give up on using your coupons at Walmart- stand your ground! You are in the right as long as you are following their corporate policy.
@Debbie – I tried to stand my ground night before last and the CSM didn’t like the fact that I was presenting policy so she refused to accept any coupons period. She didn’t even try to scan them.
At that point I would state to everyone in line that Walmart refuses to follow their own coupon policy, and I would walk out without buying anything.
I have been reading about the new updates for a few weeks now. The updates finally hit my store yesterday. I am a WM employee and I had a customer come through my line with her purchase. She hands me 3 coupons, the first 2 scan with no issue, the 3rd coupon scans and then I get a message that says “pending” after a few seconds the error goes away and I complete the transaction. At the end of the receipt I get a message that reads along the line of ” Coupon was scanned, but was rejected by the system, please give the coupon back to the customer or discard.
I asked the CSM about this and she of course was clueless, today I asked 2 different CSM’s and I got a “I don’t know” and I got this response, “for each coupon that comes up as pending or if we try to manually enter a coupon the pending message will appear and a CSM has to approve the coupons. I explained to her that the customer had the item that the coupon was for, she does not know why the coupon was rejected, “new system working out the kinks” was her response and to be patient. I told her to tell that to the customers. Don’t know how it is at other stores, but at my store it takes a CSM forever to get to your registers when called. We can have 3 CSM’s working and it still takes them 10 minutes to come to you for a price check. Hopefully the kinks will be worked out soon, because at my store we have a lot of customers (including me) that use coupons
I realize that these changes cause a lot of headache for those of us who use coupons, but I am glad Walmart is making the change. Coupon fraud is infuriating. It discourages stores from accepting coupons and manufacturers from distributing coupons. I think it’s very good that stores are taking the steps to protect themselves and I am especially glad that some of the new coupons are coded so they cannot be used on products for which they aren’t intended.