Coupons and Employee Education
A few months ago Pepsi had heavily promoted their PepsiMax product by giving away $1.00 off manufacturer's coupons on their 16oz bottles. I was able to get a bunch of these coupons and had been using them a few times a week since March. Today, June 30, 2010, was their official expiration date.
I stopped at the gas station/convenience store that I normally get these Pepsi products at and bought one this morning. The store manager was there and teased me (they all know me for these coupons) that I should buy a bunch of them and stock up since today was their final day of usage. I laughed and told him I'd be back in a couple of hours and buy one for tomorrow.
Well, a few hours later I swung back into this convenience store with another coupon and exact change. The guy behind the counter and I got along fairly well and he's notoriously in a good mood. I brought the PepsiMax to the counter and dropped my coupon. He said it was no longer valid. I disagreed, telling him that today was the expiration date and it was good through today. He said no, that certain coupons were no longer valid as of June 30 and brought out a stack of print-outs of said coupons. I asked him to show me which one said it was no longer valid.
He goes through the entire stack and I don't see a Pepsi manufacturer's coupon anywhere. He then tried to tell me it was in there. I disagreed and asked him to turn to the Pepsi coupon and show me where it says I cannot use the manufacturer's coupon whose expiration date is today, today. Instead he flips to a Sprite $1.00 off coupon. Ummm... what? When is Pepsi and Sprite the same product? I pointed out to him that Pepsi and Sprite were two different soft drinks, but he tried to tell me the same coupon rules applied.
I told him I'd used one of those coupons earlier in the day and was prepared to walk out over the whole deal (mainly because I had exact change on me) but he said he'd try it, "it doesn't come out of my paycheck." He scanned the coupon and it worked flawlessly.
Duh.
My point is what? Simple, since Pepsi and Sprite are two different soft drinks, two different bottling companies and distributed by two different distributor's how did this guy think a Sprite coupon and a Pepsi coupon were the same thing? How did he really think a valid argument was that one coupon was no longer valid so no soft-drink coupons were valid?
Is this just mis-information on his part, or does his management team not explain the difference to their employees? I've never worked in retail (well, not since I was 16) so I'm not sure how that works; but if Brand A pants and Brand C shirts are on sale until Saturday, and Brand B decides to cancel their sale pricing, does that automatically assume Brand A has stopped their special pricing as well? I wouldn't think so, however I'm a person who uses reason and logic, fact and proof, in my understanding of the world and while I do make "educated guesses" or hypothesis' on a regular basis, they're usually steeped in some sort of reasonable understanding.
Is it illogical or unreasonable for me to make the connection that employees, even lower tier ones, should be educated on basic products and services?
I stopped at the gas station/convenience store that I normally get these Pepsi products at and bought one this morning. The store manager was there and teased me (they all know me for these coupons) that I should buy a bunch of them and stock up since today was their final day of usage. I laughed and told him I'd be back in a couple of hours and buy one for tomorrow.
Well, a few hours later I swung back into this convenience store with another coupon and exact change. The guy behind the counter and I got along fairly well and he's notoriously in a good mood. I brought the PepsiMax to the counter and dropped my coupon. He said it was no longer valid. I disagreed, telling him that today was the expiration date and it was good through today. He said no, that certain coupons were no longer valid as of June 30 and brought out a stack of print-outs of said coupons. I asked him to show me which one said it was no longer valid.
He goes through the entire stack and I don't see a Pepsi manufacturer's coupon anywhere. He then tried to tell me it was in there. I disagreed and asked him to turn to the Pepsi coupon and show me where it says I cannot use the manufacturer's coupon whose expiration date is today, today. Instead he flips to a Sprite $1.00 off coupon. Ummm... what? When is Pepsi and Sprite the same product? I pointed out to him that Pepsi and Sprite were two different soft drinks, but he tried to tell me the same coupon rules applied.
I told him I'd used one of those coupons earlier in the day and was prepared to walk out over the whole deal (mainly because I had exact change on me) but he said he'd try it, "it doesn't come out of my paycheck." He scanned the coupon and it worked flawlessly.
Duh.
My point is what? Simple, since Pepsi and Sprite are two different soft drinks, two different bottling companies and distributed by two different distributor's how did this guy think a Sprite coupon and a Pepsi coupon were the same thing? How did he really think a valid argument was that one coupon was no longer valid so no soft-drink coupons were valid?
Is this just mis-information on his part, or does his management team not explain the difference to their employees? I've never worked in retail (well, not since I was 16) so I'm not sure how that works; but if Brand A pants and Brand C shirts are on sale until Saturday, and Brand B decides to cancel their sale pricing, does that automatically assume Brand A has stopped their special pricing as well? I wouldn't think so, however I'm a person who uses reason and logic, fact and proof, in my understanding of the world and while I do make "educated guesses" or hypothesis' on a regular basis, they're usually steeped in some sort of reasonable understanding.
Is it illogical or unreasonable for me to make the connection that employees, even lower tier ones, should be educated on basic products and services?
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