how do stores redeem the Q's

[hburnette3]

I've been wondering... Does anyone actually know how stores get there money back from coupons?
are the Q's kept up with by receipt?
are there people who spend all day with gobs and gobs of coupons sorting them to send to the right manufacture?
How does the manufacture know you bought the right product and that some store just doesn't push any Q through?
How do they know it was redeemed by the expiration date?
how do they know it was redeemed at all? the stores might just be clipping Q's to turn in the get the $.

I read somewhere that the Q's are paid by weight. but that doesn't make sense. that wouldn't work b/c the Q's are worth a different amount and are a difference size.



TIA

[queenofthehivemomof5]

I guess it could vary depending on what store and all but the larger chain stores send them all to head quarters who has someone to divvy them up to be sent off to the redemption houses. Most coupons are processed at a clearing house and not sent to the individual manufacture. And then from there it is done mostly electronically. While the stores do not always check to make sure product was sold to match the coupons, the possibility is always there if an audit is done. As far as expiration dates the store usually has 6 months past expiration date to redeem the coupons to the manufacture so if the coupons are sent in and they are not past 6 months from the date then they are OK.

As far as stores clipping q's and redeeming them, it actually happens more than you know. In fact a lot of the major fraud cases that are prosecuted happen at the store level and the redemption house level.

That all being said just because a store has 6 months to send the coupons in does not mean that we should try slipping by expired coupons and just because the manufactures do not always know that the store sold and item for the coupon does not make it right to try and pass off coupons that you did not buy the correct product for. Accountability happens with all of us. Manufactures do do audits from time to time. In the past they have even issued a coupon for a product that was not even a real product and they were able to catch fraud at stores who were redeeming coupons for items that they did not even sell (because it was a fake product)

[hburnette3]

I guess it could vary depending on what store and all but the larger chain stores send them all to head quarters who has someone to divvy them up to be sent off to the redemption houses. Most coupons are processed at a clearing house and not sent to the individual manufacture. And then from there it is done mostly electronically. While the stores do not always check to make sure product was sold to match the coupons, the possibility is always there if an audit is done. As far as expiration dates the store usually has 6 months past expiration date to redeem the coupons to the manufacture so if the coupons are sent in and they are not past 6 months from the date then they are OK.

As far as stores clipping q's and redeeming them, it actually happens more than you know. In fact a lot of the major fraud cases that are prosecuted happen at the store level and the redemption house level.

That all being said just because a store has 6 months to send the coupons in does not mean that we should try slipping by expired coupons and just because the manufactures do not always know that the store sold and item for the coupon does not make it right to try and pass off coupons that you did not buy the correct product for. Accountability happens with all of us. Manufactures do do audits from time to time. In the past they have even issued a coupon for a product that was not even a real product and they were able to catch fraud at stores who were redeeming coupons for items that they did not even sell (because it was a fake product)

thanks for reply. I guess I to much time on my hands to be sitting around thinking of the.

[434Teresa]

I know that Freds here send them all to the main Freds office one time a month to be sent in from there to receive there money back for them.

If the manufacturer thinks that a store has not been selling the amount of the items that they send in in q's they can ask for a sales invoice from that store or that the tiem frame they need the info on, if the store dose not sent it to them then them manufacturer dotn have to send the store the money back until it dose..

I have even saw a few coupons lately that the small print said that the store must send a invoice with the coupon to recevie payment...

[snafu4me]

The Coupon Process

If you use coupons, you know that when you reach the check out counter, you hand the cashier your coupon(s). The cashier scans them and puts them into the cash drawer. What happens next depends on the store, but here's a typical process. At the end of the day the coupons in each cash drawer are added up as if they were cash, and that amount is added to the cash sum to be sure the overall total for the drawer is accurate. Then all of the manufacturers' coupons (and any coupons issued by the grocer) are sent in plastic bags or pouches to the store's corporate headquarters, typically once a week.

In the big store chains, the value of the coupons can easily total several million dollars per week. There is a person in headquarters in charge of processing the coupons. That person boxes all of the bags of coupons (still separated by the individual stores from which they came) and ships them to a third-party clearinghouse.

This is where the real work starts. The clearinghouse has to sort through millions of coupons, largely by hand. The first goal is to separate the coupons by manufacturer. Another goal is to separate coupons with scannable UPC codes from damaged (torn, smudged, etc.) coupons. This is so much hand work that some clearinghouses pay other clearinghouses -- in Mexico, for example -- to do part of the work. One system places scannable coupons face up on a conveyor belt, where they are moved along under a scanner that reads the UPC codes and tallies the amounts, then adds up the total value of each manufacturers' coupons. Damaged coupons that can't be scanned have to be sorted by hand and added up separately. The other system is to do the whole thing by hand. The clearinghouse then sends all the sorted coupons with an invoice to the manufacturer.

Several things can happen here. The manufacturer might reimburse the clearinghouse for the amount of the invoice, and the clearinghouse will send a check to the store for the amount of the coupons. Or the manufacturer will send a check directly to the store and the store then pays the clearinghouse. The clearinghouse is paid a certain amount per coupon by the store, plus shipping and handling. The whole cycle takes about a month. In many cases, the manufacturer will recount the coupons to avoid fraud -- a process that may send the coupons through another clearinghouse!

This is another great example of how a simple idea -- "let's give people a little scrap of paper that they can redeem for 25 cents off a can of beans" -- turns into a whole lot of work for somebody!

[blossomed]

I have wondered the same thing. Interesting.

[Katane]

The Coupon Process

If you use coupons, you know that when you reach the check out counter, you hand the cashier your coupon(s). The cashier scans them and puts them into the cash drawer. What happens next depends on the store, but here's a typical process. At the end of the day the coupons in each cash drawer are added up as if they were cash, and that amount is added to the cash sum to be sure the overall total for the drawer is accurate. Then all of the manufacturers' coupons (and any coupons issued by the grocer) are sent in plastic bags or pouches to the store's corporate headquarters, typically once a week.

In the big store chains, the value of the coupons can easily total several million dollars per week. There is a person in headquarters in charge of processing the coupons. That person boxes all of the bags of coupons (still separated by the individual stores from which they came) and ships them to a third-party clearinghouse.

This is where the real work starts. The clearinghouse has to sort through millions of coupons, largely by hand. The first goal is to separate the coupons by manufacturer. Another goal is to separate coupons with scannable UPC codes from damaged (torn, smudged, etc.) coupons. This is so much hand work that some clearinghouses pay other clearinghouses -- in Mexico, for example -- to do part of the work. One system places scannable coupons face up on a conveyor belt, where they are moved along under a scanner that reads the UPC codes and tallies the amounts, then adds up the total value of each manufacturers' coupons. Damaged coupons that can't be scanned have to be sorted by hand and added up separately. The other system is to do the whole thing by hand. The clearinghouse then sends all the sorted coupons with an invoice to the manufacturer.

Several things can happen here. The manufacturer might reimburse the clearinghouse for the amount of the invoice, and the clearinghouse will send a check to the store for the amount of the coupons. Or the manufacturer will send a check directly to the store and the store then pays the clearinghouse. The clearinghouse is paid a certain amount per coupon by the store, plus shipping and handling. The whole cycle takes about a month. In many cases, the manufacturer will recount the coupons to avoid fraud -- a process that may send the coupons through another clearinghouse!

This is another great example of how a simple idea -- "let's give people a little scrap of paper that they can redeem for 25 cents off a can of beans" -- turns into a whole lot of work for somebody!

That's very interesting I didn't think about the amount of work that went into it after I hand it over.

[bluechicken]

Guess it makes the extra $.08 they get not really seem like a lot.

[pokey]

Guess it makes the extra $.08 they get not really seem like a lot.

I agree!

The store has to pay for the merchandise that I bought today with a $2 off coupon and then wait for MONTHS on their $2 and the 8 cents.
I wonder how many of us would like to wait that long for $2.08

NOT ME!

[Katane]

I dunno, when you multiply that 2.08 by a million customers it doesn't seem quiet so piddly an amount