They were good while they lasted. Dollar General shoppers are scrambling to use their remaining “survey coupons” now that the retailer is said to be discontinuing the offers as part of an effort to “eliminate coupon fraud”.
Like many retailers, Dollar General has been printing notices at the bottom of its receipts, inviting shoppers to go online and take a survey about their shopping experience, using a unique code. Most retailers offer a chance to win a gift card or other prize as an incentive. Dollar General offered a printable coupon for $3 off a purchase of $15 or more.
And many shoppers collected, shared and used those coupons – again and again.
By breaking their shopping trips into small transactions, savvy shoppers could easily reach the $15 threshold. Then they’d combine manufacturer’s coupons with a $3 Dollar General receipt coupon to pay little or nothing out of pocket.
And then their receipt would print out with another invitation for another survey to receive another $3 coupon, and the process would begin all over again.
Some customers ended up with more survey invitations than they even knew what to do with, so they shared them with others online. And then some shoppers found that the $3 coupons could be used more than once, as long as they were used in a different store, or even at a different cash register in the same store. So eventually, some of these shoppers figured there was really no need to bother taking the surveys at all – as long as they had a $3 coupon, they would never have to pay full price at Dollar General again.
Until now. Dollar General representatives did not respond to a request for comment, but copies of an internal Dollar General memo posted online indicate that the survey coupons are history, and will be replaced with a chance to win prizes, like most other retailers offer.
“New DG Customer 1st Sweepstakes!” the memo informs store staffers. “Remove $3 off $15 signage by 4/19, invitations stop printing on 4/20.” Among the listed benefits of the new program: “Eliminates coupon fraud!”
Dollar General probably didn’t anticipate that the surveys would be shared, or reused. Besides, the real goal of the surveys is for the corporate office to gather feedback on how individual stores are doing. But the results get skewed when “a code from California is being used in Florida an hour or two later,” one member of an online Dollar General couponing group wrote.
This marks Dollar General’s latest effort to combat coupon fraud, after some had long accused it of looking the other way at coupon misuse. Late last year, the retailer began informing stores that Dollar General will no longer accept any manufacturer’s coupon that does not match the item being purchased, even if the scanner accepts it.
Accepting coupons on the wrong products put Dollar General at odds with manufacturers, but accepting survey coupons that were improperly obtained or redeemed is money out of Dollar General’s own pocket. So it is perhaps no surprise that the retailer pulled the plug on the program – to the dismay of shoppers who had made a killing with $3 off coupons.
“So much abuse. We are our own worst enemies when it comes to crackdowns on couponers,” one forum commenter lamented.
Now Dollar General shoppers will have to be satisfied with the chance to win a sweepstakes And anyone who wants to misuse coupons, may need to do it somewhere else.
Image source: Dollar General
The real problem is you guys discriminating and not allowing African American hair/products at some of your stores in certain neighborhoods! I was completely stunned.. Not one product!
This is absolutely ridiculous. With each store that opens, a survey is done to see which demographic goes there the most. As most DG stores are in smaller towns, there’s not much of a variety of people. DG doesn’t sell that stuff a lot mainly because they’d only take up store space- which is limited as it is- and would only waste money with buying it when not many customers will get it.
Maybe you should try to understand why instead of crying discrimination smh.
Sorry you are having issues with this particular product line in your area. At all of the DGs in my area they carry the whole line which is a little confusing since this area is mainly Caucasian. We do have some African Americans in our area, but my guess is that we’re are below the average. Is a really rural area. You can buy them at their online store or Walmart.
DG is a joke; the put loads of coupons out there to be used Digital and receipts but the cashiers make excuses because they don’t know how they are used.
Bottom line is coupons equals cash; therefore take all coupons as face value of a dollar bill. Ignorance is something that DG makes sure to hire in fact it’s a job requirement. Jerks
You are exactly why I hate working at DG. Cashiers are told to ring stuff up, that’s it. We can’t troubleshoot the system or why your stupid coupons don’t work. We have very specific ways as to how our system reads coupons and how we keep them.
Maybe you should read the time print of your coupons or call corporate and tell them to fix their faulty system instead of blaming the cashier.
AMEN! These petty poor people who shop here are rude, ignorant, and shameful. Stop playing into there sub par way of doing business. Both customers and employees. We should unite and boycott such companies like this one. It’s so diluted the further you go up the chain. They’ll never understand, because they don’t even shop here.
I can see why you would be mad. Your store probably got bad reviews given your rude over the top attitude.
Amen. Was thinking the same thing.
I’ve done that more times than it’s worth. Corporate knows the system is set up to maximize DGs application of coupons. What DG is going to contend with later are brand manufacturers declining there business because DG claims coupons at full value while only giving customers a part or nothing for their coupons. I personally contacted Kraft, Unilever, and P&G via email telling each how DG is ripping its customers off by keeping coupons after adjusting prices to eat up a coupon’s value. I refuse to shop at DG after being charged full price for dog food that was on sale at BOGO free because I used coupons. If you hate working at DG you should look for another job because they could give two shits about you. Why do you think you don’t know how to over ride problems. Your expendable.
Lanie902
April 21, 2018 at 10:40 pm
I worked they and I tried my best to have a great attitude at work. It’s not the customers but Dollar General pay sucks and they want you to preform and job that should take two people to do.
Stop correcting people, when you have mistakes…Thank you!
Someone used my ID and claimed to be me. They clearly used the capital O to make it look like a zero ( 0 )… I’ve never worked there and never would work there. Also, I would never type like that. That person looks like they didn’t complete middle school.
????????????
I was in a DG today and spent over $40. I was going to use my $5/25 and my $3/15. I had spent enough to cover both. The cashier explained to me it would not work. She checked the total, then she scanned the second coupin. Register showed accepted coupon, which meant I could no longer use it in that store, but took nothing off the total. Def cheating the customer.
I would’ve took my coupon back and used it at another store
Jamás use cupón de $3.00 así como jamás me salieron las cosas a Cómo se decía q era el precio siempre q pasaba algún cupón de alguna manera oh otra se las ingenia Ban para según eyos explicar por q estaban cobrando otra cantidad y creo q no fui la única ya que me tocó mirar Muchas veces somo las personas no quedan satisfechas por su compra ala ora de pagar ya q jamás respetan lo q dice en sus libros de la tienda,aparte de que en todos los lugares q fui son las personas más groseras que hay en esas tiendas te atienden como si te regalaran de su bolsillo lo q llevas ,no entiendo por q sólo en esas tiendas son así ,tienen un personal tan malo como si nadie le interesará trabajar ahí y por eso dejan q traten mal al cliente
Me pasaba igual que a usted no me salian la compras y no seguian ni ellos el limite del cupon y te decian no lo pasa la maquina y ellos le dan total antes de escanear los cupones asi no se pasan los cupones x kno los aceptara… me toco ensenarle de cupoes a 2 o 3 cajeras y ni ellos mismos saben sus especiales Groceros y si siempre una escusa para no aceptar el cupon…
I used the 3/15 the right way now it will be cheaper for me to shop at the new dollar store our town got I’m going to miss using my coupons at dg but not gonna take a dang survey that I will never win they could even go back to the 2/10 dg brands
Thank you! At least I’m not the only one who experiences this. They get paid for the coupons plus.08 per coupon. Walmart is doing the same thing and turns in blank coupons using the max value even though you, the customer, only get the cost of the item.
I worked for Dollar General for a few months,every comment is correct employee’s are not properly trained.My first day I was thrown on as a cashier with no training on regisiter.I was made a lead person with 2 day training on how to close the store ,it was hell count out the tills make the deposit log everything in the computer close out all regisiters and be expected be out in 30.min. All in all I enjoyed the customers ,my manager was rude to people. Lots of my customers would complain about him.
I stopped shopping at DG years ago, then I needed something and the DG was the only store there. I got a survey coupon and decided it was worth shopping at DG again. NO Survey Coupon NO Money from me. Employees are ruder than any other stores I frequent and the stores are one big cluster****.
Soooo sooo true workers are awful
I worked they and I tried my best to have a great attitude at work. It’s not the customers but Dollar General pay sucks and they want you to preform and job that should take two people to do. At closing you have 15 minutes to complete your job which means cleaning bathroom, taking out trash and mopping floors.
They are going to see their sales plummet. Especially during the weekdays. Maybe if their products didn’t cost 3x what Walmart and Dollar Tree sell them for then people wouldn’t feel the need to always use a coupon there. The managers are rude and the stores are overfull because they can’t sell items as fast as corporate ships them out, but they think their problem is couponers? Nobody wants to shop there when the buggy doesn’t fit down the isle because of boxes of product or rolling cages. Nor when the managers act like you are stealing if you spend more than a few minutes in the store. They don’t even have public restrooms.
aisle, not isle. Aisle and isle mean two separate things. An isle is a small island. An aisle is a pathway.
Lanie902
April 21, 2018 at 10:40 pm
I worked they and I tried my best to have a great attitude at work. It’s not the customers but Dollar General pay sucks and they want you to preform and job that should take two people to do.
Stop correcting people, when you have mistakes…Thank you!
I hate Dollar General…
They are rude
They act like you stealling from them
They just need to get people who has customer service
I had to call the police at a store manager at a Brockton Massachusetts store
Omg
Hate them
It’s not the fact they are being reused some groups not me now… I was just informed are changing the numbers n getting more surveys from one receipt… They didn’t mention anything about that… I wonder why… Yes I have seen lots of fraud of using paper coupons on the wrong items I even told employee they was misusing coupons and the ones doing it said corp said if it scans you have to take it… There’s so much misunderstanding of how it works… I been couponing for 4 years…. There’s groups on Fb what we call the too groups.. They teach so much coupon fraud it’s not funny… They are the reason Walmart stopped price matching.
The Too Groups are Totally Against misusing the Q’s . It’s the copy catters that allow glittering Dollar General Corp is Guilty of Coupon Fraud !!!!
Everybody knows the Too Groups are full of snotty wanna bees that think they’re above everyone else and that their poop doesn’t stink just like everyone elses
“Glittering” and “balanced couponing” are nothing but coupon fraud (and such stupid phrases/words). I have been couponing for 9 years. I started when people who misused coupons were looked down on and hated. Now people openly talk about their fraud, brag about it and claim they are just taking advantage of a “glitch”. It’s not a glitch when a coupon is miscoded. It says on the coupon what the coupon is for and 99% say if used other ways “constitutes as fraud”. They’ve ruined coupons for all of us.
Interesting because Dollar General, themselves, is guilty of cheating coupon users of the value of a coupon being used. Just to give a person experience of my own, I purchased 2 bags of Beneful dog food on sale as a BOGO offer at DG. The price at the time was $4.88 per bag. I used 2 $2.00 coupons. A strategy DG used was to ring them up as $2.88 Now I’m no genius, gifted, but no genius and I’ve taught Advanced Mathematics for 18 years so when I see math steps being manipulated I tend to question it. It was clear that I was being charged $4.88 per bag and $2.00 was deducted from each one, yet it was a BOGO free sale. For me the total should have been $4.88 minus the $4.00 in coupons with a total of $.94. Even though my receipt showed the deduction of both coupons my total was $5.17. When I questioned the manager, she tried to explain to me that my total was correct and demonstrated the worst example of basic math skills I’ve ever seen. After walking her through the simple math, she still acted as if it was impossible. Finally just returned both bags and, GET THIS, I was only getting back $.94 because according to the manager that’s all I was charged even though my receipt showed a cash purchase using a $10.00 bill and return cash of $4.83 and they were keeping my coupons. I literally had to explain every step and fact to the manager before she finally returned my $10.00 bill. This wasn’t an isolated incident either. After the last incident with a $22.76 over charge for soda on sale for $3.00 a 12 pk if you buy 3 and 20 minutes of arguing with the poorly educated people they hire, I decided no sale is worth the energy it requires to shop there.
Amen sister!
I never knew DG would take coupons for free items? I thought only CVS did that? Thanks for the info!
Sounds Sounds like Sounds like a few DG stores I’ve come across myself!! 🙁
Instead of shopping 7 days a week at your stores, I’ll be giving Family Dollar and Kroger more of my business !! Your company is Guilty of Coupon Fraud Also, your cashier lowers the value of a coupon from $3.00 to $2.50 it that is the price of the item. Your company is Frauding the manufacture of $.50 If that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black Practice what you’re preaching . !!!!!
Exactly. Or the fact that they flat out commit fraud by double dipping if you return something that you used a coupon on you don’t get the coupon or the coupon value back meaning they still get to turn in the coupon and get the money but they didn’t sell the item technically. Flat out fraud.
You are so right!! They turn those coupons in and get paid for them and you get nothing back. No coupon, no money!! Now where is the fraud in that?
Honestly they probably won’t miss you. You sound like the kind of problematic customer that is more trouble than you’re worth. Plus, I bet you won’t even stop shopping at DG.. You will find another way to exploit their system.