The first time I saw this I thought they might be one use each but I've since used the $9.99 one several times. I have no idea what they're thinking with this.

Pizza Hut is all about giving people options. Sometimes you feel as though you're getting too good a deal on pizza, in which case you shouldn't be forced to pay less than $10 pre-tax for your dinner.

OutKastz in Orlando snapped this picture at a local Boston Market:

Do they mean they don't have any of the chicken that goes with the $1 meals left, or they don't have any chicken at all? The latter would be a pretty serious problem for a restaurant that primarily sells chicken.

Boston Market has since taken the coupon down from their site, but Buxr has an uploaded version available. The chain is still running their Kids Eat Free (two free children's meals with one adult meal purchase) promotion. As Chicago Now's Frugalista points out, if you have kids, the free meals deal may work out almost as well as the $1 coupon. The kids' meal promotion ends today, and the $1 coupon expires on Sunday.

Ironically, this promotion was timed to compete with Monday's grilled chicken giveaway at KFC. Because we all know how well KFC's original grilled chicken giveaway went.

Speaking of free food, you can get a free Blackjack Taco at Taco Bell tonight after dark.

More cheap chicken: $1 Boston Market meals [Baltimore Sun]
Deal Report: $1 Meals at Boston Market [Frugalista]
Boston Market: $1 Real Chicken Meal [Buxr]

(Photo: RBerteig) [If you liked this picture, check out the Cats in Hats You Bought at Target group on Flickr.]

Use "Catalinas" right then and there- coupons that come out of the register when you buy certain items and are used like cash on your next purchase. Guess what? That next purchase is now. Use the Catalinas right away.

Combine store sales with coupons - If it's on sale for $1 and you have a $1 off coupon, you just got it free.

Find coupons online - Get started at sites like super-couponing.com. There's a million of them out there. So...

Narrow your search - Find a coupon blog that deals with your local area.

Results may vary - Cashiers with different training, or in different moods, may react unevenly to certain coupon combo moves.

What are your favorite coupon tricks?

Supermarket Sweep - Using coupons to get free groceries [Slate] (Thanks to Joanne!) (Photo: laurgasm)

On a 32-inch HDTV the visual difference between a Blu-ray disc and a DVD played on an upscaling DVD player is negligible, but if you long to take the Blu-ray plunge, now is certainly a better time than three years ago, when there were barely any movies out on the format and you couldn't find a player for cheaper than $500.

Netflix Coupon for New Netflix-Enabled Insignia Blu-ray Players Brings Price to $99 & $149 [Hacking Netflix]
(Thanks, Mike!)

Master coupon ninja Tara Kuczykowski bought $91.97 worth of items at CVS for $15, and received a $10 coupon for her next CVS purchase—effectively bringing the cost of her trip down to $5.

Here's her haul, and methods:

(3) Tide Stain Release Liquid at $4 ea. (reg. $4.49)
(3) Tide Stain Release Gel Packs at $4 ea. (reg. $4.49)
(1) Dawn Dishwashing Liquid at $1 (reg. $1.99)
(3) Mom's Best Oatmeal at $1 ea.
(2) CVS AA Batteries at $2.99 (BOGO)
(6) Chunky Soup at $3.19 (BOGO)
(4) Cheerios Single Serve Bowls at $1 ea.
(2) Fruitopia Shampoo at $1.99 ea. (reg. $3.99)
(2) Fruitopia Conditioner at $1.99 ea. (reg. $3.99)
(2) Viologie Shampoo at $1.99 ea. (reg. $3.99)
(2) Viologie Conditioner at $1.99 ea. (reg. $3.99)

And here's how I did it:

(1) $5/$25 CVS purchase coupon
(1) FREE Tide Stain Release coupon (from BlogHer)
(3) $1.50/1 Tide Stain Release (from various magazines)
(2) $1/1 Tide Stain Release (from in-store machine)
(1) $0.25/1 Dawn, exp. 10-31-09 (P&G 9/27/09)
(3) $0.75/1 Mom's Best Naturals printable
(3) FREE Chunky Soup coupon (can't recall where came from)
(4) $1/1 Cheerios printable
(4) $2/1 Fruitopia coupons (Reinventing Beauty Magazine)
(4) $2/1 Viologie coupons (Reinventing Beauty Magazine)

What would really be amazing is if those items were the exact things she happened to need at the store.

My Fantastic $15 CVS Shopping Trip [Deal Seeking Mom]
Five EXTREME Savings: How I got $91.97 worth of stuff for $5! And other great coupon deals [WalletPop]

RELATED:
Coupon Master Spends $4 Weekly To Feed Family Of Six
Save Money On Groceries, Save The World ...Er, Wallet
If The Coupon Doesn't Apply, You Must Not Buy
Amazing Coupon Queen Saves 97% On Grocery Bill

Ask Deals/Coupon Search [via Reuters]

Courtney snapped this picture with her iPhone and wrote:

Saw this at my Kroger. Some thoughtful shopper decided not to use a coupon he/she'd clipped, but left it for the next lucky shopper looking to buy. What a great thing to do instead of just throwing them out :)

That is pretty nice, especially if a shopper in need of that coupon does wander by. But what if someone doesn't?

What do you think of this practice? Consumers helping each other out, or just more store clutter?

Let's see, what have we got here? Something from Zappos, but we can't tell if it's a coupon or just an ad. There's a decent RedEnvelope coupon if you use that site. We always tend to ignore coupons for steak and coffee services, or any type of food membership club really. Same goes for flowers, so that rules out FTD. We're thinking the Johnson & Johnson coupon booklet might potentially be the one worth looking into here.

But really, did this pile of leaflets need a box? They could have at least thrown in some free samples. C'mon, UPS! Make with the cereal bars or razors!

JCPenney Registration Page [Cellfire]

Pizza Hut iPhone App [iTunes Store] (Thanks to Dirk!)

According to the viewer, the radio ad from a company called "Nelson Research" (which apparently chose the name so that listeners would mishear it as "Nielsen") offered $2,000 worth of grocery coupons. A call to the advertiser, however, resulted in a demand for a credit card number, and an admission of a $3 shipping charge — plus more fees down the road. The viewer took a pass, and alerted Matarese, who had a producer sign up. Turns out that shipping charge was just the start of a long list of fees, tied to three separate products.

The grocery coupons came from GrocerySavers.com, and required a $2 shipping fee for each $10 batch of coupons. The other two deals were even better. The "US Patriot" card brought with it a monthly fee of $19, and a second "discount" card, the Liberty Fun Pass, was another $19 a month. Before getting a single discount, cardholders are out $400 a year, unless they cancel during a 14-day trial.

We think Matarese is being a little too kind when he says these offers aren't scams because they hew to the letter of the law. If you really want to save money using grocery coupons, follow the advice of super-shoppers like Kathy Spencer — and stay away from sc*ms like Nelson Research.

Radio Ad for Free Groceries Exposed [WCPO]

(Photo: Editor B)

Similarly, Jenna received this e-mail coupon from online makeup store e.l.f. She wrote:

So I got this email which offers free shipping from 1:00pm to 3:00pm EST at Eyes Lips Face! Sweet! Except... I received it at 4:13pm EST.How was I supposed to take advantage of this deal, exactly?

Why send out useless coupons, internet merchants? Why?

57% of online shoppers and 72% of shoppers in a brick-and-mortar store will continue with the purchase. These numbers come from a poll commissioned by Couponcraze.com. WalletPop writer Josh Smith finds this appalling, and scolds us all for our poor bargain-hunting behavior.

This isn't just a bad idea because of the lost savings at that retailer but when you're use a coupon for electronics, as 46% of shoppers do, buying your item despite a bad coupon can also mean a bigger waste of money. There's a good chance that you ignored cheaper options when settling on the retailer offering a coupon. As painful as it is, if a coupon is declined, your best bet is to start your search from scratch.

When it comes to smaller items like groceries, continuing with a purchase even after a coupon is declined will, in many cases, result in you buying a product you wouldn't have otherwise bought. This wastes money. There's no shame in asking the cashier to remove an item because of an invalid coupon, so unless you regularly buy the item anyway, leave it with the cashier.

I find that my own behavior matches up with this study nicely—I am more likely to abandon a purchase online if my coupon code doesn't work out. In a real-life store, especially a grocery or discount where I might have a large number of items and multiple coupons, I'm more likely to let a non-working coupon go because I don't want to make a fuss and be that customer who wants to put back the Triscuits that were already rung up and bagged.

What about you?

How to avoid the coupon pitfall that costs most shoppers [WalletPop]

(Photo: Lindacat)

Also, heavy coupon users tend to live in affluent suburban areas or in "comfortable country areas" on the fringes of large cities.

Coupon use on the whole has increased after our economy went to hell, but the Nielsen study seems to show that affluent, suburban (or "country spread") customers are the ones most smitten with coupons.

So do low coupon users not use them because they don't offer savings on the sorts of products they buy? Or is it just harder to find the coupons, make time to sort them, and then find a store to accept them? Or is coupon clipping a cultural activity that poorer homes don't participate in? We have no idea, but we suspect the first reason, partly because Nielsen points out that the survey shows that there are "real benefits to companies deploying coupons in their marketing mix"—meaning it's a great marketing tool to drive more purchases, whether it creates real savings or not in your household.

"Nielsen: Affluent Consumers More Likely to Be Heavy Coupon Users" [Reuters]
(Photo: eschipul)

To be fair, Marsh did warn customers of the change through a Facebook status update on Friday morning:

Dear Marsh Fans and guests.. We recently offered a coupon for our facebook fans of Marsh. Unfortunately this offer has been widely distributed in an unauthorized manner throughout our marketing area. Due to the vast numbers of inappropriately transmitted and replicated copies of this offer, we will no longer be able to accept these coupons in our stores. Our sincerest apology for any inconvenience this has caused.

An unauthorized manner? You mean that large numbers of people printed out a coupon uploaded to the Internet? No!

As of this writing, there are 265 comments blasting the grocer for the failed promotion. Part of the controversy is that the store urged fans to "share," and then shut down the promotion when evidently a few too many people did.

Its not that it breaks the bank....its the fact that there is no stipulation on the card that only xyz people can use it, it doe snot say that they can end this promotion @ anytime.... nothing!! Yes I am one person who shared it with friends and family.... EVERYONE where I work got one...we all go to marsh regularly though because of its proximity to our office... but trust me that I will not be going back anytime soon....this is poor customer service! Besides that how can they post the previous update, and then 24 hours later renege? Yes it mistakes on their part, but own up and honor those coupons that people have, heck even KFC did that!!

Of course, by "share," the store apparently meant "share this deal with your friends and family and tell them to become fans of us on Facebook," not "print out a copy for everyone you know." Oops.

Supermarket Slammed For Reneging On Facebook Coupon [TheIndyChannel.com] (Thanks, Stacey!)
Marsh Supermarkets [Facebook]

Snopes adds:

In fact, this same fraudulent coupon has been circulated via e-mail in previous years; someone has merely updated the expiration date and logo and once again sent it winging through inboxes everywhere.

Wendy's Coupon [Snopes]

From WiseBread:

Minutes later in the gift shop, I saw a stack of "15 minutes Free Wi-Fi" coupons from Boingo. Boingo provides Wi-Fi at over 500 airports, 17,000 hotels (Marriotts & Hiltons, etc) and 9,000 McDonald's.

Hmm. The clerk gave me a Boingo card and I sat down to log on for free minutes.

The promotional code did not work, but I called the tech support number and the Boingo customer rep offered me a complimentary code that would get me online while I was waiting for my flight.

That did the trick. My flight was called and I had no need for the free pass.

How to Get Free Wi-Fi at Airports that Charge for Internet Connections [WiseBread]
(Photo: mastermaq)

Last chance for digital TV converter box coupons [The Los Angeles Times]
(Photo: playerx)

Nazli writes,

I wish I wasn't writing this because I really wanted to be a happy customer of L.A. Fitness. Here is how it happened.

I live in Floral Park, LI and I am (or rather used to be) a swimmer. I hate doing cardio so the one and only element I look for in a gym is a swimming pool. After a quick search, I realize that the only club capable of offering a pool around my house is L.A. Fitness. So yesterday I printed out my "3 day free pass" and headed out there. I've already done my research, I know how much it costs and have accepted it. Needless to say, I am a sales person's dream.

They make me meet with this young attractive guy and he shows me around. You know, it's L.A. Fitness. It's big and has the cutting edge work out equipment and classes and the swimming pool. Not much needs to be said there. He shows me the pool, I like it, it's fine I want to swim already.

We go back to his desk and he tells me the fees, if I pay slightly more I can have 2 guests all the time, unlimited yada yada. So I'm like, "Listen, I'm sold but I still want to try it for 3 days first. I have to sleep on it before I make a purchase because if I cancel my deposit is gone so I want to make sure this is what I want. Give me the free pass and I'll be back."

So he says, "Ok let me go see my manager Neil." The young guy comes back and tells me his manager is busy but that [his manager] wanted him to tell me if I sign up TODAY they will lower the monthly fee by $10.00, and then he moves on to try to calculate that to show me how much I would save in a year and trails off without being able to add it up. When I decline that, he offers me another deal that is only happening TODAY (it's gotta be my lucky day, right?) and if I sign up today, my registration fee will be $75 instead of the regular $149.99.

A few minutes later an older guy, Neil, comes and tells me, "So I hear you want the 3 days pass."

"Yes, and then I will come back and will become a member."

Neil starts reading the fine print on the coupon and circles 3 places.

"Well, according to this for certain areas we have to charge $20 dollars. Now you can work out for free but if you want swimming classes, squash, work out classes, they are all 20 bucks."

"I don't want swimming classes. I know how to swim."

"Well I meant the swimming pool. Because you know—and you'll appreciate this when you're a member—members say, 'Why is she in here? We pay more than her, she shouldn't be here with us.' We also don't overcrowd our pool with nonmembers..."

He continues like this for a couple of minutes, totally insulting and offending me. I am starting to wonder if I smell bad or something and I am so disgusted that even though his logic is awfully flawed I don't want to argue with him.

"Alright well, I didn't bring any money since it says 'free' on the pass... so I guess I will have to come back tomorrow and print another pass for tomorrow and try it then."

"So you'd rather pay 20 bucks extra to try it rather than become a member and put that 20 into becoming a member," and he starts to draw a comparison chart of some sort.

So I say, "I can do math, the money isn't the issue here. I just want to try it first before I make a decision. So since I don't have money on me today, I have to come back tomorrow anyway right? Whether I become a member or just try it out?"

"Well yeah... "

"So I'll see you tomorrow and I will have made up my mind by then."

He interjects and asks me if I have an ID. (I do but I lie because I can already tell what's coming so I tell him it's in the car) "Well tell you what, if you go get it from the car in the next 10 minutes, I'll register you as my personal guest and you can use the pool for free today and then we can talk." And then he starts to totally smile and suck up to me.

Really? Two minutes ago, you were telling the members wouldn't want me in there because I'm just trying it out, now you're offering to sign me up as your personal guest, after offending me?

So needless to say, I didn't get to swim.

You know, I did my homework and knew that they were going to try to screw me, but honestly, I didn't think it would be this bad. If he had just let me be, I was going to sign up for a platinum membership anyway. Bastards.

What we like about this story: the salesmen kept telling Nazli no without actually using the word "no," so she did the same thing right back to them.

I went to my local Kroger store (in Bexley, OH) and tried to use 2 coupons I
printed from their website. (If you go to kroger.com and look toward the
bottom of the page, you'll see plain as day that they have printable coupons
on their website: "Save More Than $100! Don't wait for the newspaper! Print
your coupons at home.")

Both of my coupons were for Kroger brand yogurt and worth around 90 cents
altogether. The cashier refused to take them, saying he was told not to
take any internet coupons. I told him they were from the Kroger website,
but he wouldn't budge. It was late, so I decided to get the yogurt anyway
and then send a complaint to Kroger corporate.

John has not updated us on what, if anything, Kroger had to say about the situation.

(Photo: mundane_joy)

Steepest discount? 50% off Silver Palate Oatmeal with code OATME333
Awesomest? 25% (40%) off Kashi with code KASHNTRL
Most random? 15% (30%) off GOJILANIA Goji Juice with code GOJIJUIC

Amazon coupon codes for June 2009 [Probargainhunter] (Photo: ragesoss)

James sent us his correspondence with Quaker.

He first wrote:

My 7 year old pulled a 2 inch sliver of WOOD out of her bowl yesterday morning, which I am very glad did not end up in her mouth. This would be the very first time we have tried this product, from this months Costco coupon, and now I have 4 pounds of Granola that no one wants to go near. How can I get a replacement or a refund? How would have this gotten in to the bag? Are there wood mixing paddles in the process anywhere? This is all too bad because they really liked the taste until she found the wood.

James:

We're very sorry about the experience your daughter had with our Natural Granola Oats, Honey & Raisins cereal and understand your concern. Your family's well-being is very important to us and we're relieved to learn that your daughter wasn't injured by the object she found in her bowl.

To begin, we're sending full value coupons to replace your purchase; they should arrive in about a week. Also, we're sharing your report with our quality assurance team. However, we need to request additional information from the package; please e-mail the additional code information following the Best Before Date found on the bottom of bag (in fold).

Next, be assured that many safeguards are in place in our plants to prevent foreign materials from coming into contact with the product. Screening equipment and inspection procedures should prevent an occurrence such as you reported.

Finally, James, we hope you'll accept our apologies, again—as well as our thanks for the chance to respond to the situation. Hopefully we've done so in a way that satisfies your concerns and questions, and allows us to keep you as a valued consumer. We know you have a choice of brands and always appreciate your choosing ours.

Geri
Quaker Consumer Relations

He responded:

Hello-

The (see attached) Best before date:
Aug 30 09 A(or R)B BB

I don't think Costco accepts coupons so I am not sure what good that would do me there.

Thanks-James

James:

Thank you for contacting us. We are sorry to hear that you were not satisfied with the response to your previous contact regarding Quaker Natural Granola Oats, Honey & Raisins.

We always try to understand each consumer's concern, and then provide high quality service. It appears that in your case, your concerns and expectations were not completely understood. We appreciate that you let us know, so that we can further improve our service in the future.

An adjustment for any product that does not meet our high standards of quality is usually made in the form of a coupon of equivalent or greater value for another product. Thus, coupon value to replace the product was previously included with additional value to compensate for your inconvenience. Since this form of compensation was not to your satisfaction, we are enclosing a refund for your purchase in the interest of good consumer relations. Additionally, we are sending a special gift for your 7 year old.

Mr. _____, we hope you'll accept our apologies, again—as well as our thanks for the chance to respond to the situation. Hopefully we've done so in a way that satisfies your concerns, and allows us to keep you as a valued consumer. We know you have a choice of brands and always appreciate your choosing ours.

Peggy
Supervisor
Quaker Consumer Relations

First, here's Max's story:

About a month ago I purchased some tools from sears. At check out, I was told that if I gave my email address I would be sent a $10 gift certificate via email. A friend of mine who was making a purchase at the same time was told the same thing. We both gave our email addresses in order to receive the gift certificates, but neither of us ever did. I thought maybe my address had been typed in wrong, but thought it unlikely that both of our addresses were incorrect. I checked my spam folder frequently, and did not see anything.

Today I received an email advertisement from Sears with all of the new summer deals. So, apparently Sears got my correct address after all, but instead of sending me the $10 gift certificate I was promised, I've been sent junk mail.

Was this an error on the part of the cashier for telling us we'd get a gift certificate, or does this promotion actually exist? Was there a computer glitch that prevented the gift certificate from being sent? Or is it Sears policy to lie to customers in order to get their email address?

We actually suspected it was the work of a rogue (or just confused) cashier who told you the wrong thing, so we contacted Sears to find out. It turns out, we're partly right: yes, Sears does offer a $10 incentive, but it's not a gift certificate. A Sears rep told us,

I believe they may be speaking of a standard offer we have on the site when you give us a valid email [and receive] a $5 coupon for online and $5 coupon for the stores with a min $50 purchase each.

So you see, Max, it is $10 you can apply to Sears purchases, but with a few more limitations that you were led to believe.

On the plus side, anyone else who wants those $10 in coupons can also sign up via the link above, but of course remember you're agreeing to receive email from Sears in exchange for the coupons.

(Photo: justj0000lie)

A closer look at his receipt shows that most of its impressive size comes from coupons. One offers a gift card for transferred prescriptions, and the other $5 off a purchase of $15 or more. Both useful. In fact, many people are annoyed when they don't receive the ExtraCare coupons, and still others have turned the combination of manufacturer's and ExtraCare Coupons into a personal care item stockpiling game.

Still, I bought two items at a Rite-Aid store last week and walked away with a similarly long receipt, but mine didn't offer any useful coupons. It did, however, have promotional messages and an invitation to take a phone survey. I recycled it before I had a chance to photograph it next to a yardstick. Pity.

Protip if you don't want long receipts at CVS: Don't use your loyalty card. Even that will only make the situation a little bit better.

PREVIOUSLY:
What Goes Into A Foot-Long Toys R Us Receipt?
Customer Wants To Know What Happened To CVS Extra Care Coupons

Here's Adamatic550's recent experience with an Arby's promo:

Thought you might be interested to hear that KFC isn't the only chain with franchisees not honoring free food promotions. Today my brother told me about a deal where I could text 'roastburger' to ARBYS (27297). Despite my questions about what makes the Roastburgers 'burgers' rather than just roast beef sandwiches with lettuce and tomato on them, I decided to give it a shot because, hey, free sandwich. I text the number and get a text back that I'm supposed to show to my local Arby's for my free burger-like sandwich. Anyway, I head over to Arby's to be told that the manager has informed the employees that they can't accept the phone coupons.

You realize you're doing long-term damage to any trust consumers may have with you, right? Every time I hear about a "free" offer from a fast food chain now I dismiss it immediately, because I figure the offer will be more trouble than it's worth as I try to track down a participating location. Instead of getting excited about the offer, I squint my eyes and think the fast food chain is trying to secure some unearned publicity by extending an offer it has no intention of honoring—either among customers or its own franchisees.

It sounds like the rainchecks will have staggered redemption dates, so that crazy things don't result such as "every US Internet user rushing KFC restaurants in a span of 48 hours." Just a guess.

Here's the president's message:

We are so sorry, but due to the overwhelming response to our FREE Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal coupon, we can no longer redeem the free coupon at this time. But we will honor our commitment to giving you a free Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal.

Please visit a participating KFC restaurant for a rain check form. Complete the form, attach your original coupon , and give it to the KFC restaurant manager or postmark per the form's instructions, by May 19, 2009, and we'll send you a rain check for your free Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal at a later date, plus a free Pepsi with our compliments. Your participating KFC restaurant will provide you with the form you need.

Please note that the redemption periods of the rain checks will vary. All other terms and conditions of the original free Kentucky Grilled Chicken coupon will apply.

Thank you for your understanding,
Roger Eaton

Ah, well, there's always El Pollo Loco. If there's one near you. Which there probably isn't.

Rain Check Information [KFC.com] (Thanks, Daniel!)

PREVIOUSLY:

The coupon can only be downloaded until 10:59 PM Eastern time tomorrow, so hurry. It can be used any day from now until May 15—except May 10, Mother's Day. Because what kind of cheap bastard uses a free meal coupon to take their mother out to dinner on Mother's Day?

The Oprah Winfrey Show/Kentucky Grilled Chicken Two-Piece Meal Coupon [Oprah.com]

(photo: afagen)

[8coupons.com]

She writes:

I've been using my CVS Extra Care card for the past year or so, and since I started using it, almost every time I shopped there I got a long string of coupons attached to my receipt, including one for $5 off your next purchase of $25. The last four times I've been to CVS (2 different branches), I haven't gotten one of these coupons, and I've noticed that the clerk has been tearing something off from the bottom of each receipt and throwing it away. This made me sad, so I thought I'd e-mail Consumerist.

Are all branches discontinuing the $5 off coupons? Just mine?

Update: Hey Maya, a CVS employee and a CVS assistant manager have both chimed in with theories. Employee itrenorg suggests that the cashiers may be tearing off the portion of the receipt that asks you to complete a phone survey, and they're trashing the coupon portion along with it. Jayphat, on the other hand, says they're stealing from you and you'd better report it at the district manager level to ensure that the right people find out:

I am an assistant manager for CVS and I can tell you that these people are stealing from you. Turn them in. Don't bother calling the store managers as it seems if they are doing it at 2 different stores, some type of collusion is going on. I would call the 1-800 -SHOPCVS and tell them you want this reported to the District Manager. I can tell you that yes those pesky $5 of $25 or more are still printing. If the store is newer or has recently been through a remodel, look for a price checker before you start shopping. This will print most of your coupons out.

As to how they could use coupons that are tied to your Extra Care card, he says, "They can always hand key it as a store coupon and say it wasn't working for some reason. When it gets turned in, who's gonna know the difference?"

Total before coupons: $152.86
Coupon savings: $144.70
Total after coupons: $9.43

Most of her large coupons come not from Sunday newspapers, but from rebate offers. (If you have Rite Aid stores in your area, I can't recommend their Single Check Rebates system enough—especially if you use coupons on top of the rebates.) It's an amazing thing to behold.

Coupon clipper saves 97% [CNN] (Thanks, kstrike155!)

(Photo: rachaelhubbard)

(Thanks to Michelle!)

"Coupon Nazis Strike Again at Checkout Counter" [Reality Bites Back]
(Photo: markomni)

The problem started on Saturday, March 21st, when Matt went to use a coupon code for a discount on a Sharp Aquos 52" LCD TV. The code brought the price down to $1049.30. Then Matt abandoned the shopping cart to do more online research on the TV in question, and when he returned later that day the coupon code no longer worked.

A few days later, Matt decided to contact Dell via web chat to ask someone if they could honor the coupon. The CSR checked with her supervisor and told Matt yes they would, so the two of them completed the transaction right then over the web chat. She quoted a final price of $1049.30 plus tax, and Matt approved it and gave her his credit card info.

A few days later, he saw a charge on his account for $1448.49.

Here's where the real problems began. Matt contacted Dell customer service online via their web chat again, and "Adrian" told him they had no record of his earlier chat where he approved the purchase.

17:26:51 Customer Matt
i just received an invoice in the mail today from Dell. I checked my order status the other day and it said $1049.30 so I assumed all was well

17:27:21 Agent E&A_Adrian
can you give me the link to the order status you see online?

17:27:41 Customer Matt
I just put in the order number and my zip code. When I do it now I can't find anywhere that shows the price.

17:27:58 Agent E&A_Adrian
hmmm, ok

17:28:07 Customer Matt
Can you please email me a copy of the chat log?

17:29:01 Agent E&A_Adrian
unfortunately, the only one I have here is the chat you have made 45 minutes ago [referencing an earlier chat that Matt abandoned due to a language barrier with the chat agent -Ed.]

17:29:18 Customer Matt
There is no chat log from the date of the order?

17:29:29 Customer Matt
There has to be some record of an order since I placed it via chat.

17:30:07 Customer Matt
Otherwise there is no record of me accepting any charge to my credit card

17:31:16 Agent E&A_Adrian
there is a record of the order - its in the order confirmation email

17:31:44 Customer Matt
I never received one

17:32:08 Customer Matt
Had I received one that said $1448.49, I would have called Dell immediately

Adrian told Matt he could return the TV for a full refund of the charge, but there was nothing else he could do.

Matt then emailed michael@dell.com and explained the situation. A few days later, he heard back from someone via telephone:

I received a phone call from someone at Dell around 3:00 EST today [March 31st]. He said he was an assistant of Mr. Dell and my email (to Michael Dell directly) was received. I was told that it was going to take 2 or 3 days, but he would get back to me and he would try his hardest to make sure that I get the TV for the price that I was quoted.

Sounds good, right? Then today, Matt received another phone call:

I just wanted to send along another update as they come in. I received a phone call from the same man (seems like someone from their outsourced customer service team) on Thursday. I was told that they still cannot access the sales chat log from my date of sale. He told me that at this point it is unlikely that they can help me any further, but he needed a few more days to confirm. He said he would call back Monday.

You may not have the original chat log, Matt, and clearly Dell doesn't (or doesn't want to admit to it), but you do have a pretty clear admission by Adrian in the second chat that you were charged more than the amount you authorized:

18:29:54 Agent E&A_Adrian
the coupon was erroneously applied that's why the sales rep gave you that price. But since our system detected that the coupon should not applicable on the TV, the price adjusted automatically giving you the sale price minus the coupon

18:30:50 Customer Matt
That is understandable, but I did not authorize that price to my credit card. My credit card should not have been charged and I should have been contacted.

18:32:50 Customer Matt
I was authorized a price, and it was approved by a supervisor. That price should be honored.

18:38:00 Agent E&A_Adrian
I'm sorry but errors do occur every once in a while, and I also apologize in behalf of the sales rep that placed the order

18:38:50 Agent E&A_Adrian
that she did not contact you right away

Based on that alone, we think you have enough to go to your bank or card issuer and dispute the unauthorized $300 charge.

Somewhere in Matt's emails to us—we've tried to edit it down to the most important details here—he points out that he should have copied and saved that initial web chat just in case something like this happened. It's a good point, and this is a good example of why you should do it. Remember to always take steps to keep a record of any exchanges you have with a business in case you need to refer to it later.

(Photo: ethanlindsey)

The problem: It never was intended to be a real promotion.

The original coupon code was discovered by trial and error by one of Broida's readers. Eventually, individual franchises started canceling the Web orders, blaming the Web coupon's existence on hackers or a "computer glitch."

In all, 11,000 readers and other pizza (such as it is) lovers used the code before Domino's turned it off, and Broida learned the real origin of the promotion:

Spoke to a Domino's rep, who told me the free-pizza code was created internally for a promotion that was never actually green-lit. A customer happened to enter the code (Domino's has been heavily advertising their "bailout" promotion), told the world, and here we are. Apparently the company honored nearly 11,000 of the coupons before pulling the plug.

I haven't eaten their pizza since the '80s, but I have to hand it to Domino's for at least honoring the orders that went through before they caught the glitch, and for giving blog readers another promotional code (SWEET) good for an order of free Cinna Stix with online orders.

Get a free one-topping pizza from Domino's [CNET]
(Photo: absolutely_loverly)

IN OTHER NEWS: One giveaway that's sure not to leave a bad taste in your mouth is the Consumer Reports "Best Drugs For Less" report which shows you what medicine is the most effective for the best price. No coupon code required.

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Why The Quiznos Free Sandwich Promo Burnt Some Customers
Troubles With Redeeming Quiznos Free Sandwich Coupons
Free Quiznos Subs

(Photo: Ben Popken)