Dear HT, please stop dissecting my coupons. Love, me.

[unhinged]

When people started posting that their HT stores were manually overriding DND-5 coupons, I thought it would never happen to me. Like a natural disaster hitting some remote part of the world, it was a tragedy that inspired sympathy but not dread. So I was shocked when it hit me the other day. My closest large HT store is now auditing coupons so thoroughly they would make the IRS proud. I am so sad. Fortunately my nearby small HT, and a large HT that's a few miles farther away, are still coupon-friendly. Anyway, I was finally motivated to stop just griping to my family, friends, pets, and anyone else who would listen, and write a complaint letter instead. Maybe if enough customers contact them with complaints, it will have an impact.

Here is the email I sent:

I'm extremely disappointed with the recent tightening of restrictions on coupon acceptance at this location. The cashiers at the Hope Valley Commons store are now required to scrutinize each coupon before scanning for any "do not double" verbiage, and to manually override the register to prevent such coupons from doubling. As both a long-time Harris Teeter customer and a long-time coupon user, I find the suspicious atmosphere and the time-consuming process to be quite aggravating. And the loss in savings, from coupons not doubled, makes the store less worthwhile to me when compared to Lowes Foods or Kroger. The other Harris Teeter stores in my area simply utilize the register as designed, to scan and process coupons efficiently by the barcodes. I'm changing my preferred store from Hope Valley to University Place, because that location is much more welcoming and friendly to budget-conscious shoppers like me. I'll avoid shopping at the Hope Valley store from now on, unless and until they warm up their attitude towards couponers. Thank you for your time.

[wubbogirl]

they must have been audited recently. I think it all depends on who checks me out. I usually go to the young cashiers or one I know that doesn't look that carefully

[MysticWench]

Used to have one teeter that did that. last month, one of the mgrs took me aside and let me know that they are no longer going to do that - if the cash register doubles it, then so be it. They were losing too much business to the other nearby teeters because of it.

so hang in there, maybe they'll go back to letting them ring the way they do.

[unhinged]

they must have been audited recently. I think it all depends on who checks me out. I usually go to the young cashiers or one I know that doesn't look that carefully

I have a pretty good eye for cashier selection, if I do say so myself. But even my favorite young guy who used to scan everything is now looking over his shoulder, and double-checking all the fine print.

[cpnmaniac44]

I have a pretty good eye for cashier selection, if I do say so myself. But even my favorite young guy who used to scan everything is now looking over his shoulder, and double-checking all the fine print.

Can they explain why the coupon will scan and double, if they try?

The 5 determines whether it will double or not.

I was told years ago, that the WORDS "do not double" is put there for the convenience of the stores that do not double.

HT's policy is to double all coupons up to .99.......!!! (1.98 for SD's)
EVEN those with a "9" code.

[clippyclippy]

Can they explain why the coupon will scan and double, if they try?

The 5 determines whether it will double or not.

I was told years ago, that the WORDS "do not double" is put there for the convenience of the stores that do not double.

HT's policy is to double all coupons up to .99.......!!! (1.98 for SD's)
EVEN those with a "9" code.

No, actually the policy states they will not double coupons that state "Do not Double".
It's in writing.
So those stores that pull them are following policy, as frustrating and unreasonable as it seems to the customer.
It's a similar issue to the using one coupon on a BOGO that we finally saw come to an end. Those stores that enforced it were following policy. The ones who didn't were just choosing to overlook that point.

And the reasoning behind why those coupons say DND has more to do with marketing strategies and price points than for store convenience. It's rather complicated.
Unfortunately even though the manufacturers have the capability of backing up that wording by changing the barcode, they've left it up to the retailer to deal with the murky mess it creates.
The retailer, HT in this case, can choose to ignore it, but in HT's case, they have decided that it improves their bottom line to enforce it. Again, some stores ignore it.

If they believe it drives away business, I'm sure they'll change strategy. But if they don't , it most likely means the benefit to them outweighs the cost, which is what everything comes down to in the end.

Don't get me wrong - I totally sympathize with "Unhinged" over this. That would be terribly aggravating to have a cashier who slows things way down in an attempt to follow the rules. That's the kind of thing HT needs to pay attention to, and hopefully they'll see the loss of speed, efficiency and most of all, customer satisfaction is at great risk here.

[HCW Newbie]

Hi!

You can also try the Horton Rd HT. They are very coupon friendly! I was just in there today. It might be a 15 minute drive so I'm not sure if that would be too much.

[$Saving!]

Can they explain why the coupon will scan and double, if they try?

The 5 determines whether it will double or not.

I was told years ago, that the WORDS "do not double" is put there for the convenience of the stores that do not double.

HT's policy is to double all coupons up to .99.......!!! (1.98 for SD's)
EVEN those with a "9" code.

Actually, their policy states just the opposite:

Coupons that state “do not double” should not be doubled or tripled.

You can read their complete current policy here:

Harris Teeter - Coupon Policy

Now, having said that, after speaking with a couple of different HT managers, they have discretion at their level to either allow a coupon to be scanned with the DND or DNT notations and once scanned, anything with a "5" will double automatically.

There are two stores of the 5 that are within reasonable distance to me that do not double, manually pull those out and manually enter them as singles (because scanning would let those double).

Naturally I don't shop at those

[everprincess]

Mine NEVER doubles them. I just don't use them there because I know they won't double/triple. All those items are gone though I noticed tonight because newbies don't know they won't double/triple them.

[momoon]

The thing that really gets me is a manufacturer will not double a coupon even if it doesn't say DND because how are they supposed to know a store automatically doubled it? It says in the fine print that the store will be reimbursed the value of the coupon plus the handling fee. It never mentions additional reimbursement if it was doubled. I feel that if a store offers doubling, all coupons should double regardless of what the manufacturer of that coupon writes on there. I find it funny that they allow the manufacturers to pick and choose depending on the wording or coding because the manf doesn't give a hoot what they do. I hope I made sense, lol. :)

ETA: That all said, I love HT and their coupon events so I'll gladly stick to the rules even if I don't agree with them 100%.