Printable Coupon Problems at Walmart? Let’s talk about it on I Heart the Mart Radio

Join me Wednesday at 10:30 am CST for I Heart the Mart Radio. I am going to be talking about all the issues with Printable or Paper Coupons that don’t scan. I want to hear about what is going on in your store in regard to Printable Coupon Problems and how they are handling it. You can join in the show by calling and talking to me live or you we can live chat and I will answer your questions if you aren’t able to use a phone. Hopefully I can answer any questions you have or give you some ideas on how to overcome issues you are having.

Listen Live 10:30 AM CST Wednesdays!

The Live Call in number is (323) 580-5731

I shared with you that back in September 2012, Walmart made some changes to their internal coupon policy and to the register systems. Here is a copy of the full memo that I thought you guys might find helpful and interesting. I can’t share the whole thing, but  the meat of what I think is important is the frequently asked questions memo below. Click to See Walmart Coupon Policy & Walmart Price Match Policy.

The Q& A’s that I find most valuable are questions 5,6 & 8.

I have made some changes to my initial impressions based on the full memo.

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. According to the memo it will take until Oct for All registers to be updated.

2. All coupons are supposed to be scanned on the flatbed scanners, the handheld scanners are not updated and therefore it is “recommended” that there use is discontinued. This means that a store manager can allow the handheld scanners to be used but I wouldn’t expect it for sure.

3. The coupon must scan (not a new change) . Cashiers/CSM’s or Managers should not override or manually enter coupons.(YMMV)

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.