Kmart Double Coupon Shopping DISASTER (A Rant By Yours Truly)

I'm sure you've all missed my rants of couponing disasters.  Fear not!  Kmart has pulled through.  As I mentioned earlier this week, Kmart is having a double coupon event this week.  My friends over at The Coupon Commandos and I were excited to go take advantage since no other stores double around here.  We spent a lot of time preparing.  Of course, it takes one crabby, stubborn person to ruin all that hard work.  That person's name? Robin Turley, HR Associate at the Round Lake Beach, IL store.

Here's what I started with in my cart (intending to buy):

...and here's what I ended up buying:

You see, my friends and I were going to buy Fuze and use a $.75 manufacturer coupon.  Apparently because it had a CVS logo on it, Kmart would not take it OR EVEN TRY TO SCAN IT! I called corporate, as did Robin the HR Associate, while my friend looked up Kmart's coupon policy.  The gentleman I spoke to at corporate told us he would call the store and resolve it with Robin.  Meanwhile, she was on the phone with someone else from corporate, who took her side.  My friend filed a complaint and is expecting a call from the store manager.  After all, he did read from their own coupon policy the following...

We accept any manufacturer’s coupons that have a scannable bar code and that are not copied from an original coupon. Upon using the coupon, it must be surrendered to the cashier. We accept $5 off coupons, BOGO offer coupons, and free product coupons, but they are not doubled during our double coupon events.

At this point, I decided I was only going to buy the very best deals.  Kmart did not deserve my patronage.  I dropped all the items I did not buy at customer service for Robin to put away (though at this point she wouldn't come out of her office.)  Not only did the store lose out on the sales of the items they would not honor coupons for, they missed out on a majority of what I was going to purchase.

My "favorite" part was that Robin (the HR lady) was shaking her head towards the cashier with that "can you believe these people?" look.  I asked her why she was shaking her head about us.  She said she wasn't, but when I asked what she was shaking it for, she had no response.

Oh, but I'm not done, the icing on the cake is that one of their own STORE coupons didn't come off my total!  I was supposed to get Bar-S hot dogs for $.88 with super coupon, but ended up being charged the regular price.  (This was of no fault to our cashier, who was wonderful and just doing her job.  She scanned the coupon and the computer did say it had gone through.)

Needless to say, I was not impressed with this trip to Kmart.  We'll see if corporate cares to do anything about the rude behavior, lack of honoring valid manufacturer coupons, overcharging due to a store coupon not scanning properly, and the fact that I'm sharing this with my 1700 facebook fans, 600+ Coupon Commando members, 65 followers, and other people who read my blog.  Unfortunately I won't be blogging as many deals as I would have, due to this experience.

I'm sure this seems like a lot to go through for a 75 cent coupon, but it's not about the money.  It's the principle.  What ever happened to "the customer is always right?"  Why is the person who works in the HR office and has nowhere near the knowledge of coupons that I have trying to tell me how coupons work?  Why do stores refuse to follow their own coupon policy that you show them in black and white?  Why are couponers made to feel like they're doing something wrong when they're not?  So frustrating...

Getting off my soapbox, for now.

To be continued (if corporate responds)...