CVS

The first CVS I visited used to be one of my favorite ones, but after today and the last shop (I can't find where I posted anything about the last shop; I ended up not buying anything, so I must have just not said anything about it)...it has dropped so far to the bottom of my Stores to Shop List, it's pretty much laying in the floor.

I scanned my card and got a slew of good CRTs. I used them all except the $2.00 off Zantac 24ct or more.
There was a FREE Simply Divine Candy Bar, $2.00 off any Huggies Wipes Tub or Refill, $1.00 off CVS Paper Product and $1.00 off CVS Skin Care. I also got a $1.00 ECB, I guess for my Quarterly Spending Reward thing, I'm not sure.

I wanted to buy the CVS Reinventing Beauty magazine with the Paper Products CRT, but they didn't have any. I ended up getting the 2/$1.00 single roll toilet papers.
The CVS Baby Oil I got was marked $0.99, I know it was, I read and checked and re-checked to make sure...now I see it rang up $1.49, I didn't notice at the store.
The Huggies Travel wipes were 2/$3.99, and rang up $2.00 exactly.

Otherwise I got Dove Conditioner, Dial Nutriskin BW, Hydro 5 razor, (5) Thermacare Heat Wraps, and tried to buy 18 pack Bud Light.

The Thermacare rang up $2.79, instead of $2.49, like I thought the price was marked. Anyway I had a raincheck so she price modified them to $2.49. She stuck the RC in her drawer and I said, very meekly, trying to be very, very nice, that I was sorry but I wasn't sure if she noticed, but the RC was actually for Free After Extra Care Bucks.
She asked, If you buy so many? I said no, each one. She said No, there is only a limit of 1 on their items. I said well, not always.
She got the RC back out and looked at it and pointed at the bottom where they write in the ECB price and code and said that it was only for 1 item. I pointed to the Quanity line where it was written Limit 5. She said that just meant I could buy 5 of them, but I'd still only get 1 ECB. I said, nooo....
So she called her Manager and asked him and sure enough I was right. She didn't tell me I was right, or apologize FOR CALLING ME A LIAR, but she was still cheerful and polite, so I just smiled friendly-like.

Next it was that she could only take one of my Thermacare coupons because it said "One Per Purchase". I said, do you know what a purchase is? She said Yes, it was the total. I said no, that's a transaction. She said No.... I asked, then what is a transaction? Same thing as a purchase.
So by now I'm losing what little civility I managed to scrape together this morning anyway, and I asked her, How long have you been coupon shopping? She said let's see, she was 38 now, so...24 years. I said, that long, and you don't know the difference between a 'purchase' and a 'transcation'? So then she just started scanning them, saying she wasn't going to argue with me (too late for that lady!).

Then she came to my ECBs. I had a stack of those babies. Some of them were manually issued ECBs, like when I used rainchecks, and for some reason those don't have my card number on them. They beeped Not For Card, apparently, so she gave them back, saying they didn't belong to that card. I said they most certainly do, and read them and figured out they were manually issued ones. So she took them, muttering about she was going to wrote up "for all this".

Then the register beeped something like "Coupons Exceed Limit", and wouldn't take my last 3 ECBs.
There was over $16.00 subtotal left at this point, so it wasn't because I went in the negative. I was - still am - pretty sure it was something to do with the amount of items/coupon ratio, but she insisted it was because I was trying to buy beer, and I couldn't use coupons on Alcohol.
I said okay, just take it off then.

At that point I could have just paid, and left, and that would've been that. But SHE had to keep agging it on, telling me I wasn't "allowed" to buy beer with Extra Bucks. I said, quietly, non-confrontationally, because I knew I was in the wrong, "well I have before" and she YELLS, "No, Ma'am, You Have NOT, NOT at CVS!"
I lost my temper and yelled back at her, and she says "Well, you got your Extra Bucks anyway." (what?) I said, Not my Thermacare ones.

So she went to printing out my Thermacare ECBs, and oh man was she pissed when she was typing in $2.49, and it was spitting out $3.00 ECBs. She told me I was "making out", in an accusing tone, indicating that I had done something wrong, was getting away with something. (and BTW, the ECBs she manually printed out still didn't match the last 4 digits of my card number, even though she scanned my card to print them.)

After sitting in the car crying a bit, and thinking about just going back home, I bucked up and pushed on.
At the next CVS, I used the (3) ECBs I wasn't able to use at the other one to buy the Cokes. They are 4/$13.00 and get back $3.00 ECB, so 4/$10, or $2.50 each.  The (3) ECBs I had happened to equal exactly $13.00, and it didn't charge me any tax, so that was $0.00 oop order. I like those!

Same CVS, different card, the Red Machine gave me $5.00/2 Revlon, and a $0.50 ECB.
It also gave me the Paper and Skin Care; they also didn't have the RIB magazine, so I got toilet paper, and $0.99 cotton balls for the skin care.

Then I got a razor, Dove Shampoo, loafa bread, 20oz Coke, and....um, nothing.

Trans #1
$4.49 Dove Conditioner - 1.50 MQ 3/28RP (I saw there was still  few $1.50 peelies)
$5.49 Dial Body Wash - 1.00 IP Q [coupons.com]
$8.97 Hydro Razor
$2.49 Thermacare (raincheck) - 1.00 IP Q x 5
$0.50 CVS toilet paper x 2 - 1.00 CRT
$1.49 CVS Baby Oil - 1.00 CRT
$1.99 Simply Divine CandyBar - 1.99 CRT
$2.00 Huggies Travel wipes - 2.00 CRT
= $37.88 BC/$24.39 AC


-$24.00 ECB
=$0.39 + 1.42 tax = $1.81 oop


Rec'd ECBs: $4.50 Dial, $6.00 Schick Hydro, $4.49 Dove, $15.00 Thermacare
Final Total $4.18 Profit

Trans #2
$13.00 Cokes x 4
-13.00 ECB
= 0.00 + 0.00 tax = $0.00 oop

Rec'd $3.00 ECB
Final Total $10.00

Trans #3
$8.97 Razor
$4.49 Dove shampoo - $1.50 MQ 3/28 RP
$0.50 CVS toilet paper x 2 - 1.00 CRT
$0.99 CVS Cotton balls - $1.00 CRT
$1.99 Loafa Bread
$1.59 20oz Coke
$13.99 Nothing
= $33.02BC/$29.52AC

-27.99 ECBs
= $1.53 + $2.05 tax = $3.58

Rec'd ECBs $6.00 razor, $4.49 Dove
Final Total $21.08

Still had some more ECBs to spend but just wasn't up to another round, so even though there were 3 other CVS in the vicinity, I didn't go to any of them.