COMMISSARY Issues with Overage

[roxygirlie1021]

The past few times I have been to the commissary I have had the absolute worst time checking out! Not only are my coupons inspected as if I were doing something illegal, I have had the store manager try and tell me on several occasions that I am not allowed to use a coupon that is more than the price of the item. Every time I tell her that is states in the DECA coupon policy online that I AM allowed to use coupons and get overage. And then she proceeds to tell me that, "Oh, well yes, I guess you can but we are trying to discourage it."

I'm like, discourage all you want! If the policy changes, I will follow it, but right now it states that I am allowed to use a coupon and get overage with it. (Unless I am wrong - has it changed? I didn't hear anything about it...) She says that they are losing money on the items that get paid for with the overage. I tried to explain to her that the commissary gets reimbursed for the full value of the coupon, but she kept going on about how that wasn't right. It's been very stressful shopping there the past few weeks!

So I guess this is somewhat of a vent, and somewhat of a question - do you guys have issues with this? And does it seem to be happening more frequently?

[PMFan]

months ago, i used to encounter an uneducated cashier nearly every trip. but as they became aware, i encounter this problem much less frequently. of course, i carry the policy in my coupon box just in case.

[roxygirlie1021]

I need to do that - that way I can just whip it out next time and be like, it says so right here!

[saving-n-va]

I had a cashier this week tell me that I couldn't have the overage and she actually keyed in the price of the item instead of the coupon amount! I told her its DECA policy to give the overage. She said "well people are taking advantage and spending like 50 cents for a cart of groceries so they are talking about changing it". I told her that DECA policy is to give overage and I would call them when I got home (should have whipped out my cell phone right there) to see if they are changing it and that they get their money back. She decided to key in the right amounts on the coupons when I threatened to call DECA.

Customer service at the commissary stinks anymore. I had 2 employees on break run over to the meat counter, push me and my cart out of the way so they could get the last rack of ribs that was there. Then this rude cashier arguing with me over every coupon and telling me since they are "thinking about" changing the policy she wasn't going to follow the rules???? And I didn't have but $4 in overage total as I was stocking up on meat. So it wasn't like I had a ton of coupons and everything was an overage.

The only ones that are nice to you are the baggers........and well, their tip depends on their attitude. Every time I go lately, I feel like I've just shopped at the worst place every. What happen to the good service we used to get?

[watawata]

Fortunately I have not encountered a rude cashier over overage issue yet at commissary. Sometimes at the self-checkout, if the coupon gives overage, it needs the some kind of supervisor's card (not just the self-checkout cashier's), then the supervisor cashier is a little frustrated b/c she has to scan her card for each coupon. When I know I have a lot of coupons that will give overage, I try to go to the regular line. But again, other than that, I guess I should consider myself fortunate that no cashier so far refused to take coupons with overage.

[shamrockgreen7]

Years ago I had a coupon issue with our Oceana commissary. The store manager (who is fabulous) was not there on that day. I was so frustrated I came home and found the email for DECA in Alexandria VA and sent a letter to the head of DECA.

Needless to say, the next morning I had a phone call from the Oceana store manager who had not even received my letter which was being forwarded to her because she had had 2 of her bosses want to know what was going on. The store manager was beyond helpful.

I love to shop at Oceana and rarely if ever have coupon issues. My problems that day were that the acting asst. mgr was Phillipino and barely spoke English. Trying to convey to him my needs, on a busy weekend was frustrating. Cashiers are not trained well enough or made aware of the coupon policy. A few simple employee meetings once a month to make cashier's aware of the policy would clear up a lot of issues.

I never use IP printables at the commissary. I just avoid the hassel. If you are able, a good suggestion is to make smaller shopping trips with less coupons. When I do a huge grocery shop and use 100+ coupons I am always wondering if they all got scanned. I have started counting my coupons while I am in line and then checking them against how many were scanned and credited to my ticket.

There should never be a problem with overage, though they do not give $ back anymore. The stores get the value back on the coupon plus a handling fee for taking the coupon.

Make yourself known to the managers, learn their names, say hello. Tell them you are heavy coupon user, ask them which cashier is the most experienced with large coupon orders. Be proactive. They want your business. If you still encounter hostile employees or store managers with your coupons. Write a letter to their bosses. Explain the facts, how you coupon, point out their policy without pointing fingers and ask what you can do to make your shopping trips better.....here in VA the sales tax on food is the same as the DECA surcharge. I can always shop HT, Kroger & Farm Fresh if DECA doesn't want my $. Let them know you prefer to shop at DECA but you do have alternatives.

Don't let pissy cashiers ruin your day or ignorant store managers. Write a letter and tell DECA that their store manager discourages your coupon shopping. They will correct it. As a shopper overall I strive to follow each store's coupon policy. I like couponing and want to be able to continue to have the coupon option available to me.

Good luck

P.S. when you do have a great shopping trip, send a letter and give some kudos to the people in the store. They rarely get positive feedback from customers and a little pat on the back goes a long way.

[saving-n-va]

I don't abuse the coupons, I have probably a total of $4 in overage and still spent $50 OOP so it wasn't like I was taking advantage. (or whatever they think it is we are doing?) And the ironic part, most of the overage items I bought will go to my ds and his unit when he is deployed later this year. The most of any items I had were 4 things. I really hope this was an isolated incident and will give them another chance. Now the employees that pushed me and my cart out of the way at the meat counter because they were on lunch break and wanted the last item of something....that was just totally uncalled for..but I will let that go ---this time.

I'm hoping it was just a bad day all around at the commissary and that the next trip will be better. If not, I will contact DECA. Its not like I don't have other options that offer better customer service.

My dh said there was an article in maybe Army Times?? I forget where for sure, that was talking about how alot of Army families have stopped shopping at the commissaries because their service has gone so downhill over the years. We have only had nearby access for the last 3 years, so I don't know about the service before. I know when we did go rarely in Orlando, YEARS (ok, 15+ years) ago it was wonderful.

Anyone heard of any policy changes??? Or was the cashier making up her own story?

[Emerald77]

wow your commissary sounds like mine - I have had issues with them since I started couponing back in December.....Mine does the same exact thing with the adjusting down to prevent overage - sometimes I get lucky and the cashier just forces it thru but I only had one coupon with overage the other day (a whopping .21) and she adjusted the coupon down and wrote on the coupon the amount. I used to shop primarily at the commissary and now I do the bulk of my shopping at off base stores, because using coupons there has been such a hassle...I even once had a cashier look at my stack of coupons and send me to another checkout line LOL....I think I may write a letter to see if I hear anything back about the policy or any changes

[sailorbunny]

I've never had a coupon with overage, but I know that one coupon I want to use ($3/2 and the price of the items are 1.16 each) would give overage. Is it better to go through a regular line and not self checkout? Do coupons with overage beep at the register and have to be forced through?

[rrpate]

I've never had a coupon with overage, but I know that one coupon I want to use ($3/2 and the price of the items are 1.16 each) would give overage. Is it better to go through a regular line and not self checkout? Do coupons with overage beep at the register and have to be forced through?

the coupons just scan as usual now sometimes they have to verify that this is the right item or price...but at the self scanner as one poster already said you need a supervisors ok for the overage for each coupon..so i would pick the most friendly checker and get in that line...i used a bunch of those on the mini soy yesterday..no problems at all