Walgreens: Issues with Coupon Stacking?!
I have received many emails from quite a few of you lately who have had issues “stacking” Walgreens Instant Value store coupons found in the monthly coupon booklets with manufacturer coupons. It seems that several of you are being told by your managers/cashiers that the coupons in the booklet are manufacturer’s coupons that cannot be stacked with other coupons! In an effort to try and get to the bottom of this, I contacted my local Walgreens store and asked the manager if this was a new policy and he clearly told me that you can in fact stack an Instant Value coupon with a manufacturer’s coupon for additional savings.
Also, I contacted Christie over at Wild for Wags to get further insight on this issue and she said there has not been any changes to the Walgreens coupon policy and that the issue is most likely due to uninformed or untrained cashiers/managers. She suggests digging through your 5/8 SS insert or 4/17 SS insert and looking for these Walgreens ads (pictured above) that clearly promote stacking an Instant Value Walgreens coupon with a manufacturer’s coupon! If you’re able to find one of these ads or any other ad that promotes stacking, I highly recommend sticking it in your coupon binder in case you run into any cashiers or managers who tell you they no longer “stack” coupons. Also, be sure to bring your Walgreens corporate coupon policy with you every time you shop, as it clearly states the following:
When purchasing a single item, Walgreens accepts one manufacturer coupon and applicable Walgreens coupon(s) for the purchase of a single item, unless prohibited by either coupon offer.
Honestly, I’m not quite sure why the Walgreens store coupons are giving so many of you problems at the register. All I can say is to come armed with a positive attitude 🙂 and your Walgreens corporate coupon policy …and if possible, an ad page promoting “stacking”. Good Luck!
(Thanks SO much for the details and photo, Wild for Wags!)
Thanks for the encouragement! After a bad experience a couple of weeks ago, I went with my coupon policy in hand last night. When the cashier said I could only use one coupon per item, I showed her the policy and we read it together. She got the manager who quickly accepted both coupons and apologized for the problem. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to stand there until the right thing was done without your advice! Thanks, Collin! (and now I have some yummy Dove chocolate and Father’s Day cards!)
When I go to Walgreens, I never have a problem with stacking, it’s terrible that Walgreens employees don’t even know their own policies.
What’s really sad is that the managers don’t know their own policies!!!!
my walgreens is great! they never give me a problem, actually they try to help me use my coupons. So glad to have a good walgreens nearby. I get more problems from Walmart now, then any other store. They all seem to take turns when it comes to couponing….
There are two cashiers at my local Walgreens who are AWESOME about coupons, and are willing to really spend the time to make sure everything is as it should be. There are a couple who either don’t understand the policies or don’t care. When you have a cashier who understands couponing, it’s a good thing.
I only do Walgreens now, because I just don’t have the focus to do more than one pharmacy. I switched to Walgreens from CVS because I had the manager tell me that customers like me cost them money. Customers like me go to the pharmacy to fill their expensive prescriptions, and use the coupons while they’re waiting. I assure you… the drug store is making a killing off of my prescriptions.
WOW that is extremely rude and they are not losing money – the are reimbursed for those manufacturer coupons and if their own sales and coupons cost them money they shouldn’t run the ads. I would have reported this to upper management if I were how sad. I agree though I couldn’t keep up with more than one store so I stick with Walgreens because I found them to have the best deals, have items in stock, the friendliness overall. I don’t even fill my prescriptions at Walgreens I just shop there and they don’t seem to mind at all. Sad to hear that about CVS.
As far as I was concerned, it wasn’t worth it to me to deal with a manager who I knew was always going to have an issue with me coming to the store, especially after I went over his head. If there weren’t a Walgreens just as closeby, I may have, but if I can just go up the street and transfer my prescriptions there and get better deals, all the better.
I have issues at Walmart too! Just one more reason why I despise setting foot in that store.
I have the BEST Walgreen’s near me! Everyone who works there is so nice and helpful! Usually cashiers seem bothered by me when I shop with coupons but the Wags employees are great and will even tell me about coupons in the sales ad that I may have missed!
I despise Walmart, too. I refuse to shop there anymore. My Walgreens is great, but they run out of stock a lot 🙁
We have two Walgreen’s stores in my town and I happen to shop at the newer one that’s in a less populated area. The employees are way nicer there and since fewer people shop there I’m usually able to get everything I need. I’ve visited the other store a couple of times and always end up leaving disappointed because the shelves have been cleared.
I wonder what is going on? At my Walgreens, the employees were actually walking around with the Walgreens coupon booklets EXPLAINING to customers that you could use one of their coupons with a manufacturer’s coupon~trying to educate their customers on how to take advantage of the added savings (kudos to that manager!). You would think that would be the educational approach store-wide…..hope it straightens out for those being denied.
I think the issue is when they scan the IVC coupons the register display says “Manf Coup” so albeit incorrectly they believe they are man. coupons.
I suspect that the problem is that the coupons are getting a beep, and the cashier isn’t sure why, so assumes that is the problem. In reality, the problem is likely something in the item-coupon ratio, and the cashier doesn’t know about that.
That ratio gets me every week on at least one transaction. Count carefully!
The register beeps when a coupon is scanned, no matter what – even if it hasn’t actually read the coupon. The beep has nothing to do with the coupon being “good” or not. I’ve discovered that the register actually beeps twice when the coupon has been accepted. At least, that has been my experience with the new system at my own local store.
walgreens here i have heard the cashier tells others the same thing…i, of course, have a relationship with a couple i always use, who know i know their policy….walgreens needs to make sure that all their cashiers know that policy…they confuse others because their coupons say “manufacturer coupon” on them…..
thank you for this valuable information collin
This happend to me with the cottonelle deal. They let me use the manufacturer and store coupon, but wouldn’t let me pay for a portion of with RR’s because it states it’s a manufacturer coupon. I have NEVER had this problem and was very discouraged, so I took the cottonelle $0.50 manf coupon out of the pile and put my RR in. Not right IMO
This just happened with me yesterday. She wouldn’t let me use my RR since she told me I was already using my “manf coupon”. I walked out empty handed. I am so annoyed. I always have issues there and I think I may be done shopping there.
Lori, I had the exact same problem yesterday – I wanted to buy the Bounty paper towels and I was going to use a .25 manufacturer’s coupon and the $3 Register Rewards from my previous transaction. The guy told me that it wouldn’t let me use them both. I didn’t feel like dealing with the issue, so I just took back my .25 coupon.
I keep returning to Walgreens because I really do get some great deals, but for every great deal I do get, I seem to miss out on another couple of deals due to them being out-of-stock or not having the correct item shelved with the matching advertised sale sticker. I actually enter the store each time with my mind-set ready to positively handle the fact that I won’t walk out with all the deals I think I’m going to get.
They were actually right! When using a RR and a manufacture coupon, you need a “filler” item since a RR is a manufacturer coupon. What we’re talking about is store coupons (the ivc coupons), and you CAN stack those on one item! but you CANNOT stack RR and manufacturer coupons on the same item. Does that make sense? I didn’t want you to think this was right, and go back and be even more confused.
I thought you couldn’t use a store coupon, manu and a RR because RRs are manu fact coupons thus you would be using two manu on one product.
I guess you’re right, Laura. It seems like I have made transactions before which included RR’s combined with a manufacturer’s coupon and with a Walgreens coupon, without having a problem, but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe in the past, I have always just happened to use my RR’s without using a manufacturer’s coupon. I do know that I’ve never had an issue with RR’s before, so yesterday caught me off-guard. The cashier acted like he didn’t know why it wasn’t accepting them both either.
Are CVS Extra Care Bucks treated like Manufacturer’s coupons, too? Maybe it’s CVS where I have had no problems using their ECBs with manufacturers coupons and store coupons….?
Maybe in the past, I just happened to be purchasing more products in the same transaction and the RR’s were applied to the products which didn’t have manufacturer coupons. I just never really thought about the background workings of the coupons at the time, and was assuming that RR’s could be used with/without anything else. Now, I’ll be more aware next time. Thanks everyone.
ECBs are counted as store coupons, so you don’t have to have a “filler” item for it.
I am new to Walgreens. I had that happen a couple of weeks ago, but since then they have stacked them for me. I guess the cashier didn’t know and I wasn’t sure enough of myself to tell her. I had a problem last night when I went. I bought a few items and one was the toothpaste that was 2/$6 with $2RR. After checking out, the RR didn’t print and I was told by the cashier (and manager) that since I used a coupon, it “cancelled” out the RR. Is that true? I’ve never heard of that before.
Using a man q on the toothpaste wouldn’t cancel the RR, but if you used a RR from the same parent brand (Proctor & Gamble, for instance), THAT may have cancelled the RR. Or, sometimes the RR just wasn’t entered into the system right at the beginning of the week. I have had several items in the past few weeks not print RRs, even when the manager just scanned the items without coupons. It always cracks me up with the one snooty manager says, “It’s because you used a coupon”, then she scans them to get my RRs “just this one time”, and it STILL doesn’t print the RR. Obviously the coupon was not the problem!
On top of coupon stacking, check with your employer’s HR department abount local discounts offered.
My employer has an agreement with 1 of the local Walgreens stores (there are probably 5 or 6 different Walgreens in my town) where on Wednesdays, we can present our employee ID card and receive a 15% discount.
Luckily, my hubby works for Walgreens, so I normally shop at the store where he works (he doesn’t ring up my order) and don’t have any issues with coupon stacking. Thanks for the tip about printing out their policy to show any cashier who doesn’t understand the policy.
oh thank you for posting this – now I just need to find one of those inserts. I have had this problem repeatedly! Calls to corporate do no good – they just call the store manager – who denied the coupon in the first place!! It was especially bad when they had those cosmetic books in Dec and just a little while ago. I am wondering why the people at the 800 don’t know about this stacking and do not tell their stores to allow it!!
Not true- I called corporate about not being able to use a BOGO coupon on a BOGO sale and I got an immediate call from the store manager apologizing and because the items on sale were sold out he called and found me some the next day!
the wag coupon books seem to have two types of coupons, ivc and wag mfg coupons. I think the register is beeping on me when the Wags mfg coupon plus the regular mfg cpn count is more than my item count. I have no problem when it’s a wag ivc but need filler items for wag mfg cpns because of the item count.
I had filler items, and the register and manager still wouldn’t take my register reward paired with a Wag coupon.
I haven’t come across this problem in my Miami Walgreens. I did the Tylenol Precise deal twice last night with ease. These issues seem to be with certain stores/managers/cashiers. Try a couple stores and find the one that doesn’t give you any problems. Even if it’s a little further away, it’s worth the peace of mind you will have at the register.
What walgreens is doing is the catalina coupon is coming out as a manufactor coupon.
I have had the same problem at my walgreens store. The only way the machine would take my coupons is if we scanned the manufacturer coupon first and then the walgreens coupon.
I know that you have to use the manuf. coupons FIRST and then, the Walgreens coupons. The other day, the cashier did the Walgreens first and then the manuf. coupons would not work. He called the manager and she straighten it out right away. It was an educational trip for the cashier and for myself. I will be more careful next time in how I hand them over.
I have had a problem, but it usually is with the cashiers, who dont want to complete the transaction. For example, the Body wash was buy one get one free and I had a coupon for buy one get one half off. I also had the Walgreens coupon, but the cashier only wanted to honor one. After I asked, the manager, who was standing nearby-told her to go ahead, but I the problem might be that Walgreen’s does not educate their cashiers.
My Walgreens is awesome! They make sure that you get the most for your money. The check out girl that is always there when I go says that sometimes it doesn’t work if you they ring it in a weird order. That might be the issue. I’m not sure what is the right order but she scans other coupons before adding in the stacked ones.
My local Walgreens is equally GREAT .. I had forgotten about the in store coupon and my cashier reminded me! It was my first trip out couponing, so I was very thankful for the help! Now, if I could only get to the stores before all of the product is gone, I’d be happy. lol
ugh, i know. i’m so tired of everything being out of stock.
Thanks for the heads up! I’ve all but given up on shopping at Walgreens because i’ve had so many bad experiences with the cashiers when trying to use coupons.
I had the beeping issue with the Cottonnelle deal the other day. The cashier had scanned the IVC, and the $0.50 manuf coupons would not scan. He then REMOVED the IVC, scanned the 2 manuf coupons with no issues, and then the IVC went through, with no issues. So, it seems to be an issue as to what order the coupons are scanned in.
I have several Walgreens here that I shop at and I have never had any issues at any of them
I recently ran in to a problem at the Cape Carteret, NC Wags. The manager did not understand the store Q vs. the Manufacture Q. When I went back to my regular Jacksonville, NC Wags the manager there told me that due to the new “extreme couponing” craze Wags is going to start relooking their Q policy at select stores. Such as RR will now say Store coupon. I really hope that is not the case. If anyone knows more about this please let me know. Thanks!!
I’ve had so many problems at Walgreen’s that I no longer shop there. I figure Walgreens doesn’t have anything to offer me that I cannot get just as good of a deal on at CVS or Rite Aid. It’s not worth the headache.
I agree 100%! Never once have I gone into Walgreens and not had a problem! There has always been some sort of issue, but only at Walgreens. I do great at Rite Aid, CVS, walmart AND the commissary!
I’ve learned A TON TON TON from Colin, and a few other sights, so I consider myself to be pretty knowledgable when it comes to couponing. I wouldn’t say I know it all, but I’m no newbie….but everytime I go to Walgreens I feel like I don’t know what I am doing! No more Walgreens for me!
Same here, I’ve been to Walgreens in Dallas Tx, Grand Prairie, Arlington, Ft Worth and Burleson always have some issue and been couponing for 4 years now.. I haven’t shopped at Wags in over a year..
Those are my sentiments exactly. I would just as soon shop
at CVS and Rite Aid and spare myself the problems I always
encounter at Walgreens.
Thank you for posting this!!! I was trying to do the Pampers deal on Monday and was told the coupon from the Infant Care book was a manufacturer’s coupon and I could not use both. I was trying to tell them that I was not able to use that same coupon at Meijer as the barcode was only good at Walgreen’s. I was planning on going to another store today and hoping that I could get the deal. Thank you for all you do!!!
I have never had any issues stacking coupons at my Walgreen’s. I always hand over my manufactures coupons first and give them my walgreens coupons after the others have been scanned. I have heard that the wags coupons won’t make the register beep if there happens to be an overage. Everyone who works at the Walgreen’s near my house is extremely nice and if a coupon ever does try to give me trouble they just punch it in for me. It’s my new favorite store when it comes to using coupons.
According to my Walgreen’s manager, it seems to be a cash register glitch. You MUST give all your manufacturer coupons BEFORE the Walgreens ones. Ever since he told me this, I’ve had no problems. Hope this helps!
I had this issue with a store manager a few months back. I contacted Customer Relations. Long story short….After several calls between CR, the manager and myself, the district manager got involved and “educated” the manager of the policy and I received an apology phone call from the manager. This however just came up again with a cashier at a different Walgreen’s in my area. VERY frustrating to say the least.
I ran into this problem when I first started couponing because the register would beep. I was a newbie and had no clue what I was doing and thought maybe the instant value coupons are being counted (by the register) against my coupon to item ratio, unlike the “in-ad” coupons. So I grabbed a filler and sure enough it worked.
I have been having issues lately, too. Though, my cashier told me the Wags coupon counted toward the total number of coupons. I find Wags sooooo stressful to shop at, but they had such a good diaper deal this week. hehe
Just looked at my ad from May 8 – the Zantac ad is different that the one you printed here – and doesn’t show stacking a IVC with a man. coupon. Just shows the sale price minus the ‘in store coupon’. There is a little box that mentions a coupon in Sunday’s paper but I know the store manager here will see it as not being able to be used with the IVC – since they don’t specifically show that in the ad.
I would really love it if Walgreens would make a statement saying that any Walgreens coupon whether it says ‘manufacturers’ coupon or not CAN be used with non Walgreens manufacturers coupons.
BTW you should not need a ‘filler’ if you are using a wags IVC with a man coupon on one item, right?
The scenarios pictured above were not printed in the Walgreens ads for those weeks. They were printed in the Smart Source coupon inserts.
My problem is having the walgreens coupons also say on them manifacture coupons, so when I go and try to use the manf. coupons and a walgreens one, they would say that the walgreens coupons were manf. coupons including the RR I get back, which is realy dumb because it is obvisoulsy from them not the manifacture. It has made it really hard to go to Walgreens lately. i wish the Walgreens coupons wouldn’t say manf. coupons on them to confuse people.
This was the exact issue I had. After calling Customer Relations, I was told that I was correct, and the manager was wrong. The monthly Wags coupon books are considered Wags coupons, not manufacture coupons.
The RRs ARE manufacturer’s coupons – they generally say “courtesy of Proctor & Gamble” or whatever company on them.
I have two WAGS around my place, but I have trouble with this issue so many times. It does not matter which coupons I give them first. They insist “You have to have more products than number of coupons you are using.” Another reason I avoid my WAGS. Good place if they don’t give you any trouble. Last time I went there, they did not want to accept RR. They said “you cannot use this here.” huh? Where else do I use RR then? lol
I tried to tell them that too and the manager at the walgreens but they said that is double couponing. I have 2 Walgreens in town and I would go to the other one since I never had any problems there, at least the one cashier knows the policy, the sad part is the other walgreens that I have the problem with also logs onto your site for deals too and she should know this policy since she also works there and reads your web site. That is really sad how she will make sure she gets the deals while customers are denied. She should be treated the same way then that she treats the customers sorry can’t use it.
wow.. I’d report that to corporate and give them her name.
I gave up on shopping at walgreens last year. It just wasn’t worth the fight and made my couponing experience awful. I coupon at rite aid and the manager there loves ringing me and and seeing my savings. Last week she asked me to show her how to do the revlon deal. It would take a lot for me to go back to walgreens.
I’ve been really lucky as I haven’t had any problems at my Walgreen’s at all. I’ve made sure to take their coupon policy with me. In fact, I went to Walgreen’s this morning. My total would’ve been $28.62 & with my coupons, I only had to pay a little over $12.00! Your website ROCKS!! 🙂
For some reasons, I feel that WG cashiers are kind of jealous seeing me saving money. They acted suprise to see the total came down to less that $3 or so for the whole transaction. And they kind of hesitate(take it or not take it?) all the coupons I handed. They making me feeling guilty saving money legally. I really love CVS. They are much more friendly and of course coupon friendly. And not to mention, I still trouble with WG adjusting coupon down at most places.
This JUST happened to me about 10 minutes ago when I tried to do the Pampers deal! The cashier wad rude and told me I couldn’t stack the coupons and said there was no manager on duty to approve her to do it. I found that hard to believe, but after some arguing she did do it. I’m so sick of Walgreens I almost feel like the deals aren’t worth the aggravation anymore!
Just make sure they scan the manufacturer coupon first and coupon book W coupon second, otherwise it will beep and thus causing an issue.
I’ve been having issues as well! The managers have been making me fee like such a criminal. I even had the coupon policy with me. This past Sunday when I (nicely) told the manager I believe he should ring the MQ before the Wag Q he got very arrogant & rude with me. Needless to say, It wasn’t worth it to me. I just politely told him it “wasn’t a big deal, I didn’t need the items”. It’s so embarrassing!
Thank you for clearing that up. I had a problem yesterday where the manager was the cashier and before even trying she looked through my coupons and instantly told me I can’t stack them. I asked her why not and she tried telling me that they consider their coupons as manufacturer coupons. I asked her “oh then I can take these coupons to walmart and use them there”? she got an attitude and said “no” and then I said “well, why not, if they are manufacturer coupons” LOL then I showed her an example of their advertisements that clearly show an example of stacking coupons and she got mad again and said that I am going to get her into trouble and she scanned the coupons. I offered to talk to the “people in charge” and she refused. and just took the coupons. and I thanked her and told her to have a better day.
I just don’t understand why people aren’t being properly trained. You would think with the big “coupon craze” right now that EVERYONE would be very well informed 🙂
Thank you again
Fortunately, I haven’t had any issues with stacking anywhere. Oddly enough, the people at Walmart have been the nicest. 🙂 I hope this doesn’t change.
I have a hard time at walgreen too!! I can NEVER do a buy one get one sale with a buy one get one coupon:( I dont like shopping there anymore
I haven’t had any problems with the walgreens/MQ working.. But I’ve had alot of issues with the RRs working for items. That’s what is frustrating. I’m sick of them as well. I’ve had to tell them forget it then.. because I can’t see why I can’t use the RRs to pay for another item I’m buying that just so happens to have a coupon.. I mean seriously! I’m not going there unless I really need something from there specifically.. otherwise I’ll stick with CVS who is sooo much easier to work with! I once asked for a raincheck at walgreens, the cashier acted like it was Nonsense and told me that I’d not get the sale price, nor the RRs or tget to use the coupon when the items were in stock. I was like well what’s the point then? Where at CVS they staple my Q to the raincheck even if it’s going to expire, they write on the Raincheck to accept it no matter what! Walgreens needs to take some pointers from CVS if they want to keep customers!
I’m not sure why the managers wouldn’t try to be as helpful as possible. If they keep treating people this way, they will eventually find somewhere else to shop. It will only hurt their store numbers in the end.
My Walgreens just got new scanners and this is what has been causing me problems. The scanner doesn’t like to scan the coupons at all!!! This in turn makes uninformed cashiers think that you can’t use two coupons. There are many issues with the new scanners and I’m under the impression that ALL Walgreens are being updated with these. When the coupon won’t scan they take a closer look and if they do not know the policy they won’t put it through. I’ve had to explain the policy many times in the last month and I’ve noticed a few new managers on duty at my local Walgreens. I’ve attempted to try to stick with familiar cashiers to avoid the problem. A few weeks ago when their scotch tape was on sale it wouldn’t go through as it was advertised in the ad and then the way they manually entered it the price wouldn’t allow me to use my manufacturer coupon and the manager refused to let me use it even though it applied. I was not very happy about that. I just didn’t buy it and attempt to shop when a manager I know is also on duty. Its a pain and a disappointment because I love my Walgreens!!
thank you for posting this! I will kindly try to explain this to my local Walgreens as EVERYtime I have tried to “stack” they say no it wont’ work, I’ve actually stopped trying to coupon there because of this issue, can you please tell us your best “how to explain nicely to a manager that you know their coupon policy better than they do?” just had this dicussion with a riteaid cashier who was really nice, she said they are not trained on the new coupon trends and are amazed when peoplecome in spending only tax on their items. My local cvs manager had never seen the upromise program andwhenmy couponsdid not ad on i showed her my list of ecoupons that were on my card, however she knew nothing about the program. who do i needto contact regarding my upromise coupons (upromise or cvs) thanks!! you save me so much money!!!
They still let me stack coupons, but something must have changed on the Walgreens booklet coupons, because now it seems I need to have a filler if I use both a manufacturer coupon and a Walgreens coupon from the booklet.