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Saturday, March 13, 2010

Rite Aid Drama: Parts II & III


If you missed the first part of my Rite Aid drama story, be sure to read it over HERE. If you'll humor me and allow me to be a bit long-winded, I'll fill you in what happened next.

After the whole shopping fiasco, I sent the following email to Rite Aid via their website.

I am concerned about the lack of knowledge that your cashiers and shift supervisors have about your coupon policies. I have a printed copy of your policy that I carry with me. I had to reference it today as I was checking out, because the shift supervisor and cashier were giving me inaccurate information.

I had a buy 1, get 1 free coupon for CoverGirl makeup, and I was pairing it with your current buy 1, get 1 free sale. The coupon policy clearly states that this causes both items to be free.

I was also using a $5 off any $25 purchase Rite Aid store coupon. My merchandise total before coupons was over $25. However the cashier did not want to allow me to use the $5 off coupon. Again I referenced the coupon policy.

I should not have to carry a copy of this policy with me. However, this is not the first store where I've found this problem.

Is there any way to get accurate coupon information out to the cashiers and supervisors? Shoppers like me would sincerely appreciate it. I love to shop at your store, but incidents like this cause me to think twice before planning a trip there.
Part II: The Phone Call

Imagine my surprise yesterday when Dave, the district manager for our area, called me at home. He apologized for the problems and assured me that he used my message as a training tool. He removed all names and sent it out to his stores so that the employees could be reminded about the corporate coupon policies. He was very kind and assured me that Rite Aid uses those $5 off coupons to get people into the stores. Their hope is that we'll continue shopping at Rite Aid once we've been there. I assured him that I love, love, love to shop at Rite Aid. Overall, it was a pleasant conversation.

Part III: A Fun Conversation

Fast forward to this evening. I had to run to Rite Aid, because I was out of cold medicine and the cold's not quite gone yet. I decided to use my $3 off a $15 purchase coupon and another CoverGirl Buy 1 - Get 1 Free coupon to pay next-to-nothing out-of-pocket.

I grabbed what I needed and headed to the checkout. The cashier was very friendly, and we began a conversation about the great deal on the CoverGirl makeup. Let me recap it for you (to the best of my recollection):

Sweet Cashier: This is a great deal on makeup! You can't beat getting it free.

Me: No kidding. At least you're not giving me problems with using the coupon. I had a little trouble with that at another store earlier this week.

Sweet Cashier: Really? I was just in the back reading something about that.

Me: Did it happen to come from someone named Dave who's a manager?

Sweet Cashier: (with a somewhat puzzled look) Yeah.

Me: That would be the email that I sent him. He called me at home and told me that he sent it out to his stores for training. I guess he really did.

The sweet cashier proceeded to tell me how much makeup she buys from Rite Aid and how she loves that you can return any of it that you don't like. I didn't know they had that policy, so it was definitely a worthwhile trip.

It's also good to know that the people at the top are interested in what their customers have to say. I would encourage any of you who have had issues like this to contact Rite Aid and let them know. They sincerely want to help, but they can't do anything without the information from us.

By the way, I ended up with 2 CoverGirl blushes, DayQuil, a 20 oz. Diet Mt. Dew (to take the medicine with), and 4 packs of Trident Layers gum for $2.06 including tax. There's a $2 Single Check Rebate available for the DayQuil, so I just about broke even. Yay!

3 comments:

Erin said...

How encouraging to know that management took your constructive complaints seriously! I actually had a very pleasant trip to our Rite Aid last night. (Though I was nervous after reading your posts!) The cashier and manager were very patient with my coupons and allowed me to make 3 transaction so that I could use my good video value coupons!

FYI everyone...great time to try the new Cover Girl blush. That's what I got with the B1G1 deal and a $5.00 CG simply ageless coupon. With $5.00 of a $20 Rite Aid purchase as well, it's a great way to try out new makeup!

Kristin K. said...

It sounds like your email is really going help our future transactions at Rite Aid! It's nice to know they take customer's opinions seriously!

Unknown said...

I'm glad they took such a big step in changing things. Like I've said before luckily I don't have these problems at my Rite Aid. I used 4 bogo covergirl coupons for 42.00 of product and all the cashier said to me was "You really know how to shop" and told me to have a good day! I was so thankful that I didn't have your experience!