Why doesn’t CVS clearly define its ExtraCare rewards for customers?
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20141118-column.html
From the article
If companies want to reward customer loyalty, offer a real reward. Don’t make a nifty-sounding promise and then renege when the customer tries to cash in.
And now CVS Health is playing fast and loose with its ExtraCare rewards program. The company says discounts don’t apply to products that are on sale. But it sneakily excludes some full-priced items as well.
The company’s questionable rewards plan highlights the need for greater oversight of such programs, and for all exclusions and conditions to be spelled out clearly to consumers.
Tellem was pleased when CVS recently sent her a 30%-off coupon. She’d been wanting to buy some Crest Whitestrips to brighten her teeth, and they can be pricey — $55.99 for a box of 20 treatments. The coupon would save her almost $17.
But when Tellem tried to redeem her coupon at the CVS store in Malibu, she discovered that the Whitestrips didn’t qualify for the 30% discount. Neither did a $4.59 bath brush.
The only items she purchased that CVS would apply the discount to were three $1 picture frames and a $2.49 assortment of bandannas.
That gave Tellem a savings of $1.65 — closer to 2% of her total purchase rather than the 30% she had been expecting.
She complained to the manager, who pulled a fine-print rabbit out of her hat. The manager explained that the 30%-off coupon didn’t apply to sale items. Both the Whitestrips and bath brush were part of special deals — buy one and get a second one for half price.
Filed under: General Problems
When a company signs the agreement with a third party provider, there is a provision that the copay will not be discounted or voided. There are also exclusions regarding items that are subsidized or taxed: dairy, liquor, stamps, pseudo ephedrine etc. This is all noted on the coupon. I get email daily discounts from merchants daily and almost all of them have exclusions. This is not unique to CVS
CVS fussed about using the rewards at the registrar and complained when we use the card for prescription credit. Customer service in my local store stinks.
Except, they kinda do explain their policy???? Like, it’s on every single coupon, especially the % off coupons. Like, if you used your eyes, you know, the things that give you the vision to read said article, you’d be able to read the coupon and see that every percent off says it excludes sale and promotional merchandise. It’s not CVS’s fault that people don’t take the time to read.
Hell, when I get coupons for any store, the first thing I do is read the entire thing to make sure I know what I can and can’t spend it on, because EVERY COUPON has that stuff written on it. It’s a courtesy that stores offer coupons and that they mail them out to their customers, the least we could do as consumers is read the damn things and not give the stores and the employees grief about it. Next time you want to complain because your bath brush wasn’t 25% off, maybe you’ll think about the time you had to work retail, and dealt with someone who refused to listen to reason/store policy.
I do agree with the commentor that it sucks that employees lose out if the sale isn’t as good as their discount, but then again there are other places to buy things and they aren’t forced to only shop at CVS.
Thank you!
They also screw their employees out of their normal discount if an item is on sale. If the sale is a higher price than the employee discount you lose out.