Do you live near a closing Borders store? Did you receive an e-mail last week promising 10% off in addition to rewards-card discount and liquidation markdowns? Devin did, and he and other customers were frustrated when Borders employees wouldn’t give him the discount promised in the e-mail. Except the message didn’t promise any additional discount. Or maybe it did.

Here’s the coupon in question:

Devin wrote:

So I was at my local Borders Store today, which happens to be one of the stores which is being liquidated. The reason I decided to stop by was because I received an email stating that from now through the 6th everything was an additional 10% off even though everything is currently 50%-70% off.

After I had made my selection of a Blu-ray movie, which was now marked down lower than the amazon price I had been eying for a while and was getting ready to pay I noticed an older man in front of me with a print out of the email which I had gotten talking to one of the employee’s behind the counter. They were telling him they knew nothing of the additional 10% and that they couldn’t even mark the prices down because they were already set in the computer. They also noted that they no longer took coupons and that they were no longer Borders but owned my the liquidation company.

I preceded to show them my phone with the email on it stating that this discount was only to this location and was NOT a coupon. To there surprise this is the first time the employees had heard anything about such a discount or an email and they had to get the store manager. Unfortunately the store manager said their was nothing she could do for me or the older man and that everything was in the hands on the liquidation company and offered to give us a number to call.

I left purchasing the Blu-ray considering it was only a 10% discount and it was cheaper than it would have been if I would have ordered it on Amazon. My qualms with this discount snafu is that is seems like a deliberate miscommunication between Borders and the liquidation company to drive more people into the stores so that they can squeeze out a few more bucks before they shut their doors forever. I wonder if this email went out to any other closing Borders locations and if the other stores also had this problem.

Did anyone else out there experience this? We reached out to Borders, and they insist that there was never an extra ten percent discount: the e-mail blast is advertising the liquidation sale and mentioning that rewards card discounts still apply. A very helpful Borders representative answered:

The additional 10% discount is something our Borders Rewards Plus loyalty program members enjoy for being members of the program. I don’t know why employees at the store did not know this. We introduced the program in September of last year and employees have been talking to customers about it since then.

It is true that closing stores do not take coupons, but this wasn’t a coupon as the reader indicated – it was a communication about closing store discounts plus this additional discount Borders Rewards Plus members enjoy.

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