Paul (I Heart The Mart) had a meeting yesterday with the loss prevention Houston area Walmart manager and was able to get some great information on their internal coupon policy and to the register systems. I will tell you about what the changes are and why. I will also tell you about what to expect and what you can do to avoid problems. You will not see any changes to the Public Walmart Coupon Policy, the changes are more procedural and clarifying, then they are a change in policy.
Walmart Coupon Policy Changes:
1. All Walmart Register systems were updated to accept the GS1 Date bar Codes that most coupons have switched to and all eventually will go to.
2. All coupons must be scanned on the flatbed scanners, the handheld scanners are not supposed to be used any longer.
3. The coupon must scan (not a new change) . Cashiers/CSM’s or Managers are not allowed to override or manually enter coupons.
4. If a coupon does not scan they are instructed to return the coupon to you. This applies toPrintable Coupons and newspaper insert coupons. They are just handing it back, not arguing or explaining, just handing it back.
Here are a few major reasons for these changes:
1. Coupon Fraud – My local Walmart took a hit of over $6,000.00 in August of fraudulent/counterfeit coupon. The highest month they had exceeded over $20,000 and are consistently over $10,000. The average dollar amount of coupon fraud per Walmart location has been as high as $10,00 per month. This number doesn’t seem like a huge number for a store that does millions of dollars in sales, but this number comes right off of the profit margin. There are nearly 4,000 Walmart Stores in the US, if you take the number of stores by the average amount of fraud the numbers get as high as $40,000,000 per month.
2. Employee Coupon Fraud- There have been several stories about massive scale coupon fraud being perpetrated on Walmart stores by there own employees.
3. Coupon Bar Decoding – Yes, another form of coupon fraud. The old bar codes had a lot of info that could be deciphered and used on products that they were not intended for. The new GS1 bar codes will eliminate that.
How Does This Affect You?
1. This can be a negative and a positive- The decisions have been taken out of cashiers hands, the computer knows all and determines all. If the coupons scan they take it, if not they don’t.
2. All Printable Coupons should be printed at the highest quality, it doesn’t have to be color but it should be the best quality available.
3. This will hopefully, severely reduce the amount of fraud and eventually lead to the return of higher value coupons.
I think there are going to be some growing pains in the fusion between the GS1 Databar and the systems that accept them. One would hope that all of the kinks would have been worked out prior to their launch, but I also realize that the absurd amount of coupon fraud led to some knee jerk reactions.
Personally, I will be asking them to rescan if the coupon doesn’t the first time. Just nicely asking “can you please try one more time?” Just in case there was a wrinkle or something. Giving it a few weeks we will be making a running list on I Heart The Mart of the known coupons that don’t scan. It should not be random that they don’t, if one doesn’t, the rest of the same won’t either. But we need to give it a few weeks to catch up. The good thing, is that manufacturers will quickly fix coupons if they don’t scan at Walmart. That is a huge blow to the marketing plans they have not to be able to be used at Walmart!
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Thank you for posting this. I rarely shop at Walmart, but this is good information for every store and how to handle coupons that don’t scan properly.
I went to my local Wal Mart last week and not even one of my 15 coupons.com coupons scanned. So I guess I will no longer be able to use printable coupons at Walmart. 🙁 So sad a few had to ruin it for the rest of us. I used coupons to help afford my high grocery bill. Now it will be even harder.
You WILL be able to use printable coupons! They say only 5% won’t scan. That is a register problem you had!
I have never had success with a coupon printed from home at my local Walmart. I stopped bothering with them months ago. I consistently find you are also lucky enough to find products and sizes my store does not stock. I often envy your savings.
I went yesterday and used all kinds of internet coupons- some from coupons.com and some from vendor sites (the Cabbot cheese one) and they all went through. Maybe my store hasn’t switched over yet though. I have noticed on most internet coupons the bar code matches the one from the Sunday inserts if there is an identical one, so I think Tiffany is right about it being a register problem.
Agreed. mine wouldnt work when Tiffany’s did.
Wow! Good information to know. Thanks Paul and Tiffany for this information. I still can’t believe people would do this. Glad they are taking steps to protect themselves and the rest of us.
Thank you Paul & Tiffany I apperciate the info. and your hard work:) Still learning one coupon at a time.
Do you know anything about overage? For example, the register always asks: Is this a valid amount? and the cashier has to key Y or N. Will we still be able to use these? TIA for any info.
Yes!! Good question, you will be able to use them!
Went to walmart to get rose art items, coupons were out of paper insert and not one of them would scan, so they handed them back to me and returned items. Just weeks before I used several at Target, with no problem.
Terrie,
I’m curious to know if they were Rose Art products you were trying to get. My Walmart and most of the ones around me are only carrying Krazy Art products. I was only able to find Rose Art at Target. The packaging is the same but just a different name and Walmart wasn’t taking them. (I thought they were affiliated.) I have a funny belief that Walmart has companies make products identical to other products but specific to Walmart only so they don’t have to price match that much. Walmart used to have sales and price match for you. Not anymore. I hate Walmart. I rarely go there.
Thank you, that is true, Walmart does not actually carry Rose Art.
talking about high quality print, i use to use the “economical” or “fast” print on my printer, turns out it was making a skip right in the middle of the bar codes, you might want to double check your settings. second, if you have a cashier who likes to wave coupons like a flag at the indy 500, ask her to do it slower. i have had that happen many times. good luck folks.
I have two computers/ printers and my black and white coupons off my canon never have problems, but the color ones off my HP have problems frequently (almost always). So, if you are having tons of problems, try switching up ink or paper.
Jena, that is interesting… we might have to do a survey and see what people find!
OK, thank you. And yes, do hope manufacturing clear up the coupons online although I dont know how much they can when its printed. Sometimes they just wont print. I will prob just stop printing. =(
I meant *scan.
Last week I also went to my local Wal-Mart store and used some coupons that I had printed from home. For some reason, the coupons were not going through, cashier asked me if I had printed them from home and if my printer was a laser printer, which its not. I didn’t think it made a difference in printers. Laser printer are costly 🙁 Don’t know if anyone has had this problem.
I also went to my local Wal-Mart store, I used coupons that I had printed from home. For some reason, the coupons were not going through, so the cashier asked me if I printed the coupons from home and if my printer was a laser printer. Well, my printer is not a laser and didn’t think it made a difference. Not sure if this has happened to anyone else. I can’t afford a laser printer 🙁
I have a really old laser printer HP4L. I print quite a few coupons and only need toner about once a year or less (thank goodness). I can purchase it through Staples on-line and they give me a rewards/rebate each time with no shipping charge. It does seem that some coupons go through happy at WalMart and some do not. Most from the same web site and printer. After reading this I went into my printer control and adjusted it so it would print a little bit darker. Hoping that solves any future problems. Some days even the newspaper ones won’t scan. One cashier said that the peelies NEVER scan which I find interesting. I am lucky that quite a few cashiers are coupon friendly and will try a few times before giving up if they can’t manually enter. The cashier that goes by the book says she will wave it by the scanner twice. Gee thanks…
I find that so interesting that you were told that the coupons you printed from home were not printed dark enough to scan. I was told that my coupons would not scan because that bar code was printed dark and when you put in new ink they will NEVER scan! I was also told that the more the coupon is handled or has skin oils on it, that this also prevents it from being scanned. GO FIGURE!
I don’t think they have any idea and make stuff up all day long 🙂
This is true! I used to work retail for 8 yrs. as a CSM and the things my girls would tell me they told people were CRAZY! Always ask for a manager or just go to customer service to try to get a more clean answer. Also, at my WM the store managers name, picture and phone # are on every register. I wish all stores did this!
My local Walmart is still using the gun and manually entering coupons if they don’t scan. Guess I’ll see how long that lasts.
I’m sorry if this is something you have answered before, but you said you ask them to scan again in case there is a wrinkle. Does this mean I shouldn’t fold my coupons? (I usually do this to fit them into my binder inserts) I used to fold them where the barcode was not affected, but lately I have just been folding them in half. If that is the case, I can always go back to the old way of folding.
no I still fold mine! But you know how they swipe them so fast and don’t take the time to flatten them out…
My HP HL-2270DW is a wireless monochrome laser printer and my coupons normally need the gun to scan. I usually forget to put it on toner save mode, so it’s printing at 300dpi. Going to 600dpi would probably cost a lot more in toner–wonder if it’s worth it.
What happens if you have a coupon from the circular (not printed) and it does not scan, yet you have proof that you bought exactly what the coupon states? A few months back I had a Q for cookies or something and I bought exactly what was required. For some reason it didn’t scan and she tried several times. I got the manager but they wouldn’t push it through. What happened to common sense?!
Apparently there is none anymore 🙁
I went to my WalMart about 2 weeks ago and they were already enforcing this new rule. A lot of mine were printed from coupons.com and wouldn’t scan. The cashier told me it was because of the type of barcode on the coupons.com coupons.
What about the coupons that you get something free and the cashier has to enter in the amount of the product to take off your total??
YOu are ok with that, there are instructions on the screen. So no problems!
I read this yesterday and was concerned when I took 2 coupons to check out today. They must not be training very quickly on this new policy because one of my coupons didn’t scan and the person at self checkout overrode it and said self checkout doesn’t like printable coupons sometimes. 🙂
It’s kinda sad that I had to inform the cashiers that I work with about the policy changes, and I’m a deli associate. So far, I haven’t seen any changes at the Cullman Walmart, but I also haven’t been doing any couponing there the past week or so. I’ll find out what’s happening with this tomorrow night after work.
But it isn’t a policy change. I didn’t mean for it to come across that way. It was an interstore email and training directive to the managers telling them and giving them clarification on the current coupon policy and to NOT take coupons that don’t scan like the current policy says.
This is a Walmart SYSTEM change, the registers were updated.