I wrote this post about 6 months ago, I have been getting a ridiculous amount of questions about price matching and using coupons so I thought it would be a nice refresher.
This is an excerpt from a memo that went out from out to Walmart Management clarifying points in the Coupon & Price Matching policies as they pertain to using coupons with BOGO ad matching. This memo is from July of last year but it is absolute proof that Walmart has always intended for the policies to be used together.
Here is the example used:
* Ad match should be completed first
-Buy one shampoo @ $1.50 get one free is the Ad Match.(quantities limited)
-Walmart’s price is $2.50
*Price override two bottle of shampoo that are required in the BOGO ad match to $.75 each(tax)
-Review quantities on coupon/ad
*Scan the BOGO Manufacturer coupon and enter $2.50 as that is Walmart’s retail price.
-Ensure that $2.50 is written on the manufacturer coupon.
-A minimum of 3 items must be purchased(accounted for) when using this ad match/ coupon combination
So… What does this mean. Let’s break this down into what I think is the most important.
1. This should completely eliminate ALL of the “you can’t price match and use a coupon issues”. (assuming this went out to all stores)
2. You should now be able to use a BOGO Mfg coupon in addition to a price match BOGO sale.
a)You will need 3 items to do this type of transaction.
b)Your transaction will not be completely free. In example 1 you will get 3 items for $1.50
3. This memo completely spells out the cash back policy just in case their were cashiers/CSM’s or Managers that think otherwise.
4. It looks as though Walmart is going to enforce all limits on ad match deals.
The way this memo went is worded will completely confuse many people, especially cashiers and managers. I have sent an email in to corporate to clarify the total price for their example scenarios. By splitting the price match BOGO ad portion they are assiging a price to the item, therefore allowing a BOGO coupon to be used on it.
I know this went out to all Store Managers at the time. I can’t be certain they all read it, but it is very plain English that you can Price Match and use a coupon. I would love to hear your comments and feedback, the good the bad and the ugly. Just don’t be ugly please.
I have to say walmart is very hard to price match at if you have a coupon..i went there a few weeks back when there was a coupon $5.00 off kellogges cereal well i went and got the cereal and when i went up to the cashier i told them that another store had them on sale 2/$4 and here is my coupon well the lady looks at the coupon and calls the manager over needless to say i went somewhere else..At walmart i could only buy what was on the coupon other wise my coupon wouldnt work and it even said on any kellogge cereal but the manager said only what is in the picture on the coupon you can get i said fine i will go elsewhere and left all 15 boxes of cereal at the register..
Good for you. I had a same kind of ad for Kellogg’s cereal awhile back 2/$5, showed the ad, then had coupons and they were able to take it that way. The cashiers knew what to do and no manager was called. Sounds like the people at your WalMart needs a little bit more training, Stacy. Report them by going to corporate and tell them your situation. I did this recently on a problem involving a Nintendo game and it had gotten all the way to the top and I had made sure there was a change on exchanging video games, DVD’s, etc. What I did works!!! Good luck, Stacy.
This is still very confusing. The memo says you must buy (or account for) a minimum of three items, yet they only explain how to scan the first two. Is the third one scanned at the regular Walmart price, and then that price is taken off with the coupon? They need to clearly explain that to cashiers/managers.
Also, the green memo from Walmart is hard to completely read because of the Tide Pods ad on the right hand side.
I agree Stacy. I am new to this but have been taking my time to learn each store’s policy and terms when i use my coupons. Have to admit, Walmart is a bit of a hassle. Still shop there for almost everything, but not when having to price match and use coupons for the item. My situation is that when we had the Tylenol Precise Patch or Creams for $5.00/1 MQ and they were Originally $5.47 at Walmart and $5.00 at Walgreens, I took my ad in, since all of the time the cashiers will not adjust the price without seeing it in paper. Well sadly after calling a Manager over, his words to me were: You cannot use both, either price match or use your MQ. I took it using the MQ and paid the $0.47 but was highly ticked off!
I have tried this at my local Paris, Tx Wal-Mart. They will not accept more than one coupon because they say you are only paying for one of the BOGO items. They are NOT coupon friendly and do not have the ability to accept the coupons that are printed and do not have the “older” bar code (the first one when there are two). Our CSMs are very ugly (everytime) and just say if its printed and won’t scan we don’t accept it. I know there are some out there frauding coupons and thats always their excuse. I wished our Wal-Mart managers would read this memo and implement. Cash back is a no-go also the cashier calls the CSM over and they tell them what to adjust the coupon for so there is no overage!
This is great info, I must just be lucky ive never had any issues at walmart with coupons or price matching. We always go to the same cheker and shes super awesome about it all.
I tried to price match the scotch tape from target at .50 each and use 12 coupons for 1.00 off of one, which should of made me 6.00. But the cashier did not think that you could do both so she went to ask the manager and was told I could use the coupons but not get the overage. I paid my bill and went over to customer service and asked the manager myself about the coupon policy not stating that you could not get overage while price matching so she did give me back the 6.00.
So far, I haven’t had any issues at my WalMart when it comes to ad matching and using my coupons. Even though the coupon policy had said that you do not need the ad from another store, there are cashiers at the same WalMart that I do not trust and I always made sure to bring the ads anyway and they also take my coupons. I’m going tomorrow with the ads and coupons along with the list raring to go. I will let you know how things go.
I have a wonderful walmart!! I always price match and use coupons (although I’ve never tried the bogo sale with bogo coupon before…) and have never had a problem!! today I was price matching pork chops, and had a cashier who had never done that before, so she had to ask for help, but no biggie at all. I do almost all of my shopping at walmart, which I had completely given up on when I first started couponing…their recent changes in their coupon policy and ad-matching has helped tremendously!!
I have a great walmart also, I haven’t had to many problems. When I go to price match I bring the ad, but I write all the price’s down on paper and tell them as they scan the item. Works realy well now, even when I don’t bring the ad because you don’t have to have it..
So glad you brought this subject up again. Couple of weeks ago Walgreens had B.O.G.O. on star war action figures. Plus I also had a coupon for the same. Worked real good at Walgreens, but not many to pick from. Si I went to our local WalMart here in North Port,FL. and tried this three different times and WalMart’s prices were lower so they raised the price to their’s and then charged me half on the second one. Totally did not make sense to me or the idiots that work there. So I did not get any there. Called corporate and they had the manager from the store call me and he was also stumped. Said not sure how to handle it. I told him he needs to train the cashiers better. Thanked me and that was the end. Yesterday a cashier would not take my coupons cause they did not scan, yet my husband went to the cashier next to me and the guy punched them in manually. Go figure…..
I would just ask the Wal-Mart you shop at. I went in with the corporate policy printed out and showed it to the cashier asking for clarification and she straight out told me they don’t do what corporate says. At first I thought she was joking with me but she was dead serious. Then, I was worried about how I was going to do my deals but it quickly turned out for the better! She told me about some really great price matches I didn’t even know about and all my coupons worked beautifully! All that time I worried for nothing. Now if I were to go to another Wal-Mart down the hill, I would definitely ask them their policy and not assume they’ve adopted the same attitude, er, policy.
I had a terrible time trying to use the $3 off BOTH Clorox 2& All. I price matched Kmart for 2.97 on the All. The cashier did not even try to scan the coupon, she just typed in 2,97 and told me she had to adjust the coupon to the price match as and that I could not get overage on a PM. I tried several times to explain to her that there was NO overage because I had to purchase BOTH items to use the coupon. She went as far as to pull 3 cents out of her pocket and said” if you need the money that bad I will just give you the difference”. I was very upset at this point and told her to call a manager. I read the coupon to the manager and told her what happened. She asked if the cashier had even tried to scan it and I said no. The manager scanned it and of course it went right through.
It really comes down to luck of the draw. Some stores are just horrible from the top down. Here in Richmond the one in Short Pump falls into the horrible category. They refuse to take any coupons for more than item value. Called corporate while I was there, “we don’t quote policy”. Asst. manager was so rude, even told me she didn’t have a store or regional manager when I asked. So not only wrong and rude but totally dishonest (corporate on phone listening gave me both names) but left messages for both later and NEITHER returned the call. Will NEVER shop there again.
Yesterday at a different WMT checking out with 24 items….coupons were $1/1 and scanning fine. CSM saw me using multiple coupons and just walked over, “let me see those”. She decided to stop the checkout about 12 items in because the coupon said, “one coupon per purchase” and she decided that meant I had to checkout one item and one coupon at a time even though there was no limit per transaction. Clearly they don’t know the difference and didn’t care when I tried to show her the difference on some I was using on other items that were 1 coupon per purchase and limit 4 per transaction. Luckily I had time so rather than fight it or walk away, I made them do what she wanted! 30 minutes later…..they got to the next customer. CSM is Customer Service Manager right? Ha!
these stories make me want to send roses to my cashiers at my walmart. we have developed relationships with several and i haven’t had any problems lately with price matching, coupons, etc. one even told me about management trying to hide coupons on special k, they had them turn the boxes backwards because of people taking them off without purchasing the items. she wanted me to know it was there. good luck folks.
Paul,
Thanks for the proof and clarification! I really admire your hard work in putting together all the hot deals. Thank you!!!
Could you upload a more legible copy of the memo, perhaps in pdf? I am aging like a rotten tomato, and my eyesight can’t seem to keep up.
I have this ongoing dispute with my local store. They no longer accept money makers they will follow everything in the coupon policy except money makers.
If item is $1.50 and I have a coupon for $2.00 off they will bring the coupon value down to $1.50.
They’ve accepted them before but now management in the past months has said no to them because that’s what “they are being told” is what I keep getting. I show them their own coupon policy and they said we can’t do that. How do I go about getting them to realize there not following their own coupon policy?
Jose, go to the store manager if you have not done so. there were some issues at the walmart i shop at and i work there. me, my mom, and on other employee coupon and we always exchange coupons when we are at work and talk about all the deals we got. we had issues with the price matching and using a coupon. we went straight to the store manager since no other manager would deal with us. he told us everything we wanted to hear so now when we have an issue with the new cashiers we tell them to get our store manager. its amazing how many cashiers get mad about coupons. if your coupon clearly states $2 off then they have to give you $2 off. when they send that coupon to the place to get paid they get that $2. so if they lowered the value on your transaction then they are ripping you off.
hiii… “Jose” i had this problem like 4 months ago…
i called corporate, and they never returned my calls… Since them i never went back again like for 2 monthss..
SOooooo … i entered Walmarts facebook page and left my horrible experience on their feedback… i also specify the store were i had the problem, with store # and address…
At the next day i received an e-mail from them apologizing for the problem and leding me know that the manager from that store was going to get in touch with me…
he called me like one week later…. he was sooooo… nice , he told me that i could pass by the store any time… and that if i had any problem just let him know , so he will resolve it for me … also gave me his name….
The next week i went back and all my coupons passed and had a wonderfull exerience since then…
maybe if you do the same you can solve your problem…
My local Walmart flat out told me they don’t price match and use coupons together. I explained by pointing to the ad match guarantee RIGHT ABOVE HER REGISTER that is says I can use both. She called the manager who never came out to look at the product or the coupons in question and told her to not let me do it. I had to put the things back after agruing with her for twenty minutes. I haven’t gone in the store since. I refuse to be treated like a child because I’m only 25 and I know more than they appear to. I’m definitely going to go to their facebook page and corporate about it, I’m tired of their behaviors. It’s gotten REALLY bad lately.
I wish that was the case with me I asked to speak to the manager and she was the store manager and that’s exactly what she told me. I also called corporate but didn’t get a call back from the regional manager. I’ll try the facebook like you did. thanks for the heads up