A former Sports Authority manager came forward to explain why their coupons are so damn useless. According to our tipster, “the coupons are always a sham,” but apparently, gift cards worth less than $10 can be redeemed for cash. Read his other nuggets of knowledge along with zesty executive customer service contact information, after the jump.

I saw your post on Sports Authority and I was intrigued… I am a former Sports Authority manager, and I wanted to share some secrets with you.

9) The store has a comment line run by some third party company (an 800 number.) But if you want to get to someone in the company, call (303) 200-5050 and ask the switchboard for INTERNAL customer service. They may want to transfer you to the 800 number, but tell them you want to talk to the corporate customer service. Usually when a problem gets reported to the corporate office instead of the comment line, it will get resolved quickly – usually within an hour. The corporate office figures everything out, and will talk to the store and issue a resolution.

8) So you’re having trouble with your store manager and want to escalate your problem to the district manager. They may not want to give you the DM’s number, but all district managers have their offices in a store in their district. Ask the manager which store the DM has his/her office in, and call that store.

7) They ask for phone numbers at POS. The under-trained cashiers say it’s to figure out where to build stores or how to allocate inventory. WRONG. It’s to add you to our mailing list/robo-call list.

6) Still have money on that gift card you got? As long as it’s under $10, you can “Tender Exchange” it.

5) The brands mentioned as exclusions on the coupon almost always have a 50-100% markup. In fact, Under Armour is essentially over-priced brand name clothing. A $24.99 pair of shorts costs $12.00.

4) There is no reason to exclude the brands that are excluded, except for maybe manufacturer agreements. I know that Under Armour wouldn’t let Sports Authority advertise a discount on their product because they wanted their product to have the same price across the board.

3) The coupons are always a sham. There is always a series of exclusions (the brands people want, such as Under Armour, high-end Nike product, high-end ski and snowboard equipment, etc).Complain to a manager, and they’ll usually take the discount.

2) The Sports Authority website is not run by Sports Authority. It is instead run my GSI Commerce. The same company also runs the website for Dick’s Sporting Goods. Because of this, returns are not accepted at Sports Authority locations, and the inventory on the Sports Authority website will always differ.

1) The fine text (Any illegal posting of this promotional code will result in immediate disaffiliation. This promotional offer may be modified or terminated at any time without notice.) was posted because what happened in the past was that the employee discount code was posted on Fat Wallet, so they did this so they can cancel coupon codes if they get used too much. How much is too much, is what I’m not certain about.

Now for EECB info:

UPDATE: Sports Authority corporate Customer Service Manager Mike Ash has offered his contact info as a first step for any customer experiencing problems:

800-666-8143
720-270-6267

Phone: (303) 200-5050 – Main Switchboard

CEO: John Doug Morton – dmorton@thesportsauthority.com
CFO: Greg Waters – gwaters@thesportsauthority.com
Operations/Customer Service VP: Tom McVey tmcvey@thesportsauthority.com or Cleo Frye cfrye@sportsauthority.com
Customer Service Supervisor: Noela Jordon njordan@thesportsauthority.com

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(Photo: Getty)

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