If you haven't heard, Border's is preparing to enter Chapter 11 pretty soon. This news was of no surprise to me after a recent visit to Borders in early January. I frequently check for great online deals at http://slickdeals.net and came across a "50% off" coupon for Border's. This coupon was available to anyone directly from the Border's website. It required a Border's Rewards membership, but membership is free and you can sign up anytime.
The only thing I've been rewarded as a Borders Rewards member
is daily email spamming.
is daily email spamming.
Because my in-laws were coming into town, I printed out 4 coupons so we could each treat ourselves to a fairly priced book. (I say "fairly priced" since Border's books at 50% off is about equal to what you'd pay on Amazon.com. Also, generally speaking, you should steer clear of the DVD section of Border's -- their DVDs are priced 2-3 times what you would pay on Amazon.)
After church, my in-laws, wife, and I ventured to the Border's in Chapel Hill. My father-in-law was the first to find a book to his liking. With book and coupon in hand, he approached the cashier who promptly informed him that in order to use the coupon, he already needed to be a Rewards member. "Besides," she said, "that coupon was emailed out to particular Rewards members."
After hearing this news, I kindly but firmly approached the cashier and informed her that the coupon was in fact printed directly off the Border's website. My father-in-law wasn't a Border's Rewards member, but I asked her what stopped him from signing up and then using the coupon. Her response and exact words were, "We discourage that." "You discourage people from using your coupons?" I replied. After some more back and forth, she hesitantly responded, "well, I guess we can make an exception here ... but just this once."
My wife, father-in-law, and I ended up buying books (i.e., handing cash to Border's), but my mother-in-law was turned off and decided not to buy anything. She's clearly not the minority: since Border's is filing for bankruptcy, many others like her have decided not to hand their cash over to Border's.
The overall ridiculousness was Border's alleged policy of discouraging customers from using their own coupons. I'm not sure what's worse, providing a coupon which encourages customers to come in, and then not honor it, or providing a coupon with so much fine print you literally can't buy anything. Case in point would be a common Sports Authority coupon: 25% off sounds like a great deal. But when you read the exclusions in the fine print, there is literally nothing for you to buy!
Coupons should follow a general rule of thumb:
The fine print should not take up more space on a coupon than the coupon itself!
The fine print should not take up more space on a coupon than the coupon itself!
You can't make this stuff up!
.
D.O.B,
ReplyDeleteNot sure I follow your gripe about Border's. If the terms of the coupon promotion included membership (free to anyone), what unreasonable about that? After all, in exchange for the coupons, Border's gets to spam you with ads (while it's still in business). Seems to me they have a legitimate interest in not allowing a member to print out dozens (or more) coupons to give away to just anybody. Besides, given the crisis in the publishing/bookselling industry, spending a couple of extra bucks on a book (which may be already discounted) seems like money well-spent.
I understand your point, and for clarification, I have no problem at all with Borders requiring us to be a Rewards member in order to use the coupon. My gripe is that they literally discouraged us from becoming Borders Rewards members in order to use the coupon.
ReplyDeleteJason,
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of the blog. Tom and I had mellowed a lot before we met you but we used to have a "black list" of stores and restaurants that we refused to support due to poor customer service. People used to make so much fun of us. I think the Border's thing is crazy especially if they are having trouble getting business. I think more companies should think about their level of customer service.
Have you ever been to a Chick-fil-A with bad service? I only have once and when I reported it I was contacted by the store owner, the local representative and called personally by someone in Atlanta from the headquarters. Other places just look at you like you are crazy when you complain. I once was told to "shut up" by an employee at a Circuit City. This was in 1998. I haven't set foot in one of their stores again (well now they went out of business too hmmmmm seems like we have a trend?). Tom is famous for trying to deal with the company and then if they don't help contacting the Better Business Bureau. We always get direct results when we go there.
Yep, we still sound crazy! Glad you've joined us.
Heather
I usually have positive experiences at Borders. I have even 'forgot' to bring my coupon to the store and just tell them that I had a 30% off coupon and they usually just give it to me.
ReplyDeleteThe rewards program is a joke though.
Heather - it sounds like you and Tom will have to be a guest contributor!
ReplyDelete