Yesterday, I went to two Walgreens stores to buy some pistachios. I had four manufacturer's coupons to use on the brand I was buying. I bought four of the items at the first store (in Saint Pete Beach) and gave the clerk the four coupons. Only two of them were accepted by the scanner and no explanation was provided as to why the other two were rejected -- nor was there any offer to manually enter the coupons -- it was the proverbial "the machine says" excuse. Rather than argue, I took the two rejected coupons to another Walgreens (the one on Central), purchased two more of the item and presented the remaining two coupons. One was accepted and one rejected. This time the clerk offered an explanation: Walgreens will no longer honor more than one identical coupon for a product in one transaction.
So get this: I can purchase each item in a separate transaction and use the two coupons, but not if I purchase two together on one sales slip. I asked the clerk what the reason for this sudden change of policy was and was given nothing but a shoulder shrug. I pointed out to him that Walgreens was getting its money from the manufacturer so there was no apparent reason I could think of for this policy. But all I got was another shoulder shrug.
So I purchased the items in two separate transactions and used both coupons.
But Walgreens also has a sales policy that if something, for example, is on sale twp for $5, I cannot but one for $2.50. The price for one would be higher than $2.50. So if I have two coupons in that situation, the only way I could use them both at Walgreens would be to purchase would be to pay the higher single purchase price if I bought them in two separate transactions. What a customer friendly chain! And I reiterate that there is no discernible reason I can fathom for this policy, since Walgreens gets the cash for the coupons from the manufacturer whether or not the items are purchased in one sales transaction or in two. They are just aggravating their customers (and penalizing them if the item is on sale only if more than one item is purchased) for no reason apparent to me -- or offered by the clerk at the stores I visited yesterday.
Compounding the customer unfriendly nature of Walgreens is their recent change in their Balance Rewards plan. In general 1,000 points could be redeemed for $1. But before November 4, if one accumulated a certain number of points, they could be redeemed at a premium. For example. 18,000 points could be redeemed for $20 (rather than $18), 30,000 points could be redeemed for $35 (rather than $30) and 40,000 points could be redeemed for $54 (rather than $40).
Walgreens changed that plan effective November 4 so that no premiums would be paid on the higher level accumulations, and the maximum that could be redeemed in one transaction is 5,000 ($5). The change was retroactively effective, even to points already earned that would be eligible for the premium level point redemptions. So those customers who in good faith did accumulate those higher levels of points with the expectation of redeeming them at a premium, will not only be denied the premium but be denied the ability to even redeem those higher levels of points at their face value. They will only be able to redeem them in $5 increments.
So now if a customer wants to use more than $5 in Balance rewards points, he or she must break a single transaction into parts -- for every $5 transaction, $5 in points can be redeemed. So for example, If I am purchasing four $5 items, if I purchase them in one $20 transaction, I can only use $5 in Balance rewards points. But if I break it down into four $5 transactions, I can use $20 in points ($5 for each transaction).
The cumulative effect of the Balance Rewards changes and the manufacturer's coupons policy change is that now a customer must not only break the transaction into $5 or less increments (to make maximum us of points) but into separate item increments (to make maximum use of coupons). What utter nonsense.
There are going to be a lot of long lines at Walgreens as customers adjust to these mindless (and unfair) changes in policy and break up their purchases into several separate transactions. As the clerk at the Central Avenue store said to me, "Just wait until Christmas."
Perhaps it is time for customers to send Walgreens a message and boycott their stores. I for one will be using the remainder of my points $8 worth) and finding a more customer friendly store to shop at. I won't be waiting for Christmas. read more