Thursday, February 11, 2010

Rite Aid

Ok, if I never see another Covergirl BOGO coupon, it will be too soon!
So I was planning to wait until tomorrow or Saturday to finish up my Rite Aid shopping to see about the new Olay MIRs rumored to be starting tomorrow or Saturday, and then my husband starts talking about Snow. I thought he was talking about Up North again and didn't really pay attention at first. Eventually it dawned on me, they were talking about HERE.
Snow isn't a big deal here, usually lasts a couple hours or a day at best. The problem is after the snow melts, because it rarely stays below freezing here during the daytime, but then the melted snow freezes into ice when the temps drop down to freezing again in the night. So even if the snow only lasts one day, it's entirely possible there could be icing the next day. Which means, I don't drive.
Since I could possibly be trapped at home the next couple of days, and the sale/P&G Rebate ends Saturday, I had to run out tonight to finish up my plans for this week.

I had five orders, which I didn't want to do all at one store, so I went to a city where there are three RAs relatively close in location.

It was already 7:00pm by the time we got there, so I had two hours to work. And, turned out, I had left my plans paper on my desk at home.
As if things weren't already challenging enough, Rite Aid throws in a 25% off Cosmetics 4-day Sale wrench.
The sign said it was 25% off Regularly priced cosmetics, so I figured the prices with 25% off the regular priced item, and 50% off the second item. I had to get higher priced items because it lowered my cost taking off the 25%, and the point was to reach the $100.00 threshold for the P&G rebate.

Checked out and my total was $8.xx. Whaaaat? Turned out the 25% off is overriding the BOGO50% sale. Both items rang up 25% off.
The cashier at this store was very good, and she price modified the 2nd item to the 50% off the regular price. And she didn't give me any trouble about accepting the BOGO Covergirl coupon with the regular price of the makeup, even though Rite Aid gave me 25% off of it.

I really, really should have done both Covergirl shops at that store. But I wasn't sure how it would go, and I didn't want to push it.

Went to Rite Aid number 2...one I hate. In fact, as we pulled into the parking lot I told my husband "I really don't like this Rite Aid." But usually I shop there during the daytime, and I was really hoping the night crew wouldn't be as ignert.

I explained the cosmetics issue, and the cashier didn't have any trouble modifying the prices like they should be. But then she didn't want to take my BOGO coupon for the regular price of the makeup. She called the Shift Supervisor up, and I was trying to explain to her that the Rite Aid sale is irrelevant to manufacturer coupon redemption, and that the manufacturer would reimburse the regular price. She told me, No they won't. She said they will only reimburse what I got it for.
So I said ok, fine, put in it for the sale price...and then she tells the cashier to take the lowest priced one off. I said Oh no you don't! I asked where it was written in the Rite Aid Coupon Policy that they have to take off the lowest priced item? She said, that's just they way they always do it. I said well you just always do it wrong then!
So she says I can come back in the morning and talk to the Store Manager. I said Oh no, I'll be calling your Corporate. Then she tried to say well, they couldn't "give" me what I didn't pay. I said Oh, I bet you can. Wait and see.

I took my coupons back and left my stuff sitting there and left.
I mean, it's one thing for these people to not understand how coupons work. But to have that "I know it all" attitude, and to argue when they can't show or explain why they supposedly have this stupid rule, and say "That's just the way we always do it", just really flies all at me.

So then we went to the third Rite Aid, which I usually love and have no problem, but then again that's during the daytime and the day cashiers know me.

I did my two easier transactions first. The Carefree Ultra $1/2 Manufacturer coupon beeped again...usually this would have been one of the stores they would see that I had gotten the items and put it in anyway. This little gal decided it wouldn't work because I'd reached my limit of coupons by using the Rite Aid coupons on them. I just said okay and tok the coupon back. I didn't point out that the Bayer coupons didn't beep, even as they were giving overage.

Another coupon I had was the Get Free Olay Body Wash wyb Venus Razor, and I had wrote $8.99, the price of the Olay in the box. The register "beeped" and she looked at it and the coupon like she didn't know what to do. I told her it wanted her to put in the price of the body wash, which was $8.99...I had already wrote it in, to make it easier on us both.
And she went and pushed a button to cancel the coupon, and run up the register tape to check the price for herself.

I made a sort of jokingly comment about her not trusting me, and told her I usually shopped there during the day, but had to come tonight because I heard it was supposed to snow tomorrow. Anyway, I told her I was related to (the Store Manager) and I wasn't coming in there spending bad coupons in his store or trying to rip him off. She just looked at me like I was stupid. Okaay.

So then we were to the Covergirl deal. I explained to her about the 25% off sale overriding the 50% off sale, and that the 2nd item would need to be modified. She picked up the phone and called for her Manager to come up there.
I explained it to her and she told the cashier to do the modification. Because of my sadly lacking math skills, when the little screen showed how much it took off, I couldn't add up how much it actually charged. Later I found out she had taken 50% off the 25% off price, rather than the regular price.
Usually I'd say, too bad, her mistake, but since I really am somewhat related (by marriage) to the Store Manager, I need to take them back and see if he wants to fix it. Because she took off the sale price, I wasn't able to use my $2.50/2 coupon, because my total was too low. But they aren't getting reimbursed for the "sale" she gave me, and I'd rather have bought it with the coupon, which they can redeem.

Then she argued with me about taking off the regular price of the makeup with the BOGO coupon. She said they were told they have to take off the lowest sale amount. Which makes no sense. There's no reason for it.
She called the Manager back up there, who tried to tell me the same thing, and I said, you know how when Rite Aid has Buy-One-Get-Free sales, and we're still allowed to use a coupon on the free item, because even though we didn't pay anything, Rite Aid still gets reimbursed for the item...it's like that same thing, even though Rite Aid is selling it at these sale prices, the manufacturer will still reimburse the regular price of the item.
I guess she saw my point, or just didn't want to argue with me, and nodded for the cashier to accept it like I wanted.

I'm just glad it's over.

Value Before Coupons $159.47
Spent: $2.10 + 5.57 tax = $7.67 oop
SCRs: $2.00 GE Bulbs, $1.00 Gillette Shave Gel, $1.00 Nyquil

$35.00 P&G Visa Gift Card and $5.00 Nivea Rite Aid Gift Card

2 comments:

Cheap&Sweet: Life on the scales said...

This is why I don't mess with Rite Aid. lol My stomach just knotted up thinking about all you had to go threw.

Earthy Mama said...

well crap. I was going to do some bogos today. i wasn't predicting the 25% deal.