Okay I have to admit I never seen anything wrong with buying coupons from Ebay or Coupon clipping services until I started to think about how the people on Ebay and coupon clipping services get their coupons. I can't say all of the folks on Ebay are stealing inserts out of newspapers to cut up and sell coupons on Ebay. But I don't know where they buy their inserts from or how they get the massive amounts of valuable coupons. I'm not accusing anyone of doing that but I know alot of people probably do wonder just where they get their coupon inserts.
I know there are some places on the web like Wholecouponinserts.comn and other places that sell whole coupon inserts. I just wonder what sorta deal they have with the local paper guy/gal to be able to get the insets? Or do they dumpster dive for the inserts at the local recycling place?
While I was talking to the Iams representative, I'd mentioned that I'd seen the high dollar coupons for Iams up for sale on Ebay. She said she wished there was a way for them to track the coupons because some unscrupulous people will call in and get coupons and just turn right around and sell them for BIG Profit on Ebay.
I seen where six coupon for a FREE Bag of IAMS dog food up the the 40lb size bidding was already at $52 for those coupon. Even after the EBAY and Paypal fees, I'm sure that comes out to a tidy little profit for that person since I seen they had SEVERAL of the same auctions listed. Not bad for some coupons that the seller probably picked up from his/her local veterinarian for nothing. But that leaves the rest of the veternarian's clients unable to take advantage of the great IAMS coupon unless they buy them from Ebay or contact IAMS for their coupon.
She also pointed out that even if the person says that the bidder is paying for the time and "effort" to collect and organize the coupons that the fine print in the coupon states that the coupons AREN'T to be bought, sold, or traded or the coupon is void.
Sorta hard to crack down on Ebay or coupon clipping services from a company stand point, in my opinion, since it would be hard to prove where the coupon clipping service or the individual got the coupon inserts from in the first place.
I do agree that if companies see more and more of their high dollar coupons up for sale on places like Ebay or coupon clipping services that we may see more of a backlash against HONEST coupons in the form of tighter coupon restrictions (more of the 4 per transaction) or lower value coupons instead of the bountiful high value coupons we are able to get right now.
I'm not gonna say I won't ever not use Ebay or trades on coupon websites or the coupon clipping services but I might think twice about it. Maybe see if I can get the coupons another way like dumpster diving for the inserts myself or posting on Craigslist that I'm in search of coupons that people aren't going to use. :-)
What do you think of buying coupons from Ebay or coupon clipping services? :-)
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Companies I contacted today
Okay so I'm trying to upgrade my three dog's food from the normal store brand sorta dog food (with ground corn as 1st ingredient) up to a more premium sorta dog food.
With that in mind, I did a Swag bucks search for FREE Dog Food samples and coupons.
I've already contacted Iams dog food and found out that Chicken or Beef was the first ingredient in their dog foods and that the animal by products are ONLY Organ meat (no crazy fillers like beaks, hooves, chicken feet, or feathers)
The customer service representative I talked with was VERY knowledgable about their products and after asking some basic questions about my dogs Pixie (1 and 1/2 yr old Chiweenie aka Dachshund/Chiwawa mix) Niaha (senior dog about 9 yrs old Heinz 57 mix) and Angel (senior 9 yr old Dachshund) She recommended the Iams® Premium Protection™ Senior Dog for the two older dogs because it had glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate for their joints and to make them less stiff in the morning. She recommended the Iams® Premium Protection™ Adult Dog for Pixie.
The representative let me know that Iams stands behind their product 100% for example if your dog turns its nose up at their product and won't eat it at all or if there is any sorta problem with the food, they will send out a replacement voucher or Refund your money. I thought that was just a really cool thing for Iams to do and it set my mind to ease about trying their products on my dogs.
She also let me know that you can request coupons from Iams once every 3 months, so I'm going to be marking the August 30 on my calendar to be calling Iams back up for some more coupons.
I also called Purina today and explained I was looking for better food than what I was feeding my dogs now. I asked for coupons and any samples they could send me. No on the samples but was promised coupons to arrive shortly to my address. :-)
I also inquired on how often you could request coupons and the representative told me I could call once a month to get more coupons. That's good since I'll probably be getting the largest bag of the dog food to last the month and will need more coupons towards the end of the month. :-)
The last company I called about coupons was Poise. I have a relative who has a moderate bladder control problem and I was looking for coupons to help her out. BTW the Whoopi Goldberg commercials are hilarious in my opinion. :-)
I was able to score some REALLY cheap 3 Poise 20 pack pads at CVS for ONLY $1.47 each the other day. I spent around $4 for 3 of the Poise pads, 1 of the 60 count CVS size 3 diapers, and 8 of the Air Wick single oil warmer refills after using all my Airwick Qs and the $5/$25 CVS purchase coupon AND I made $10 ECBs since I had a Raincheck for the Airwick merchandise.
I love my CVS manager The Raincheck was for the Airwick 2 pack oil warmer refills but the only ones they carried were the lavender ones (YUCK have had enough of that scent)So she let me get the singles that were on sale $2/5 and said I could get the ECBs as long as I bought $20 in Airwick merchandise. So YAY me I got the $10 ECBs and only spent around $4 for it. :-)
Anyways back to the Poise conversation I had with the representative, she promised to send me coupons for my relative. So a pretty productive coupon day.
So remember those 1-800 customer service numbers are there for a reason, utilize them to get coupons. Its one of those if you don't ask for them, you never know if you will be given coupons or not till you ask for them.
Remember every call to a customer service line doesn't have to be a gripe or complaint about a product. I've gotten coupons from companies for singing their praises and letting the company know how much I enjoyed their product.
For example, I called the Simply Asia company about a month or so ago and was telling them how my mother and myself really enjoyed the General Tsao's Stir fry sauce since we aren't able to afford to go out to eat at Chinese restaurants like we used to and how their sauce was EVEN Better than any Chinese restaurant we had gone to in the past.
They sent me 2 coupons each for the Simply Asia and 2 for their Thai Pad products. Each set was one FREE product and one 50 cents off of the Simply Asia and the Thai Pad products.
With that in mind, I did a Swag bucks search for FREE Dog Food samples and coupons.
I've already contacted Iams dog food and found out that Chicken or Beef was the first ingredient in their dog foods and that the animal by products are ONLY Organ meat (no crazy fillers like beaks, hooves, chicken feet, or feathers)
The customer service representative I talked with was VERY knowledgable about their products and after asking some basic questions about my dogs Pixie (1 and 1/2 yr old Chiweenie aka Dachshund/Chiwawa mix) Niaha (senior dog about 9 yrs old Heinz 57 mix) and Angel (senior 9 yr old Dachshund) She recommended the Iams® Premium Protection™ Senior Dog for the two older dogs because it had glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate for their joints and to make them less stiff in the morning. She recommended the Iams® Premium Protection™ Adult Dog for Pixie.
The representative let me know that Iams stands behind their product 100% for example if your dog turns its nose up at their product and won't eat it at all or if there is any sorta problem with the food, they will send out a replacement voucher or Refund your money. I thought that was just a really cool thing for Iams to do and it set my mind to ease about trying their products on my dogs.
She also let me know that you can request coupons from Iams once every 3 months, so I'm going to be marking the August 30 on my calendar to be calling Iams back up for some more coupons.
I also called Purina today and explained I was looking for better food than what I was feeding my dogs now. I asked for coupons and any samples they could send me. No on the samples but was promised coupons to arrive shortly to my address. :-)
I also inquired on how often you could request coupons and the representative told me I could call once a month to get more coupons. That's good since I'll probably be getting the largest bag of the dog food to last the month and will need more coupons towards the end of the month. :-)
The last company I called about coupons was Poise. I have a relative who has a moderate bladder control problem and I was looking for coupons to help her out. BTW the Whoopi Goldberg commercials are hilarious in my opinion. :-)
I was able to score some REALLY cheap 3 Poise 20 pack pads at CVS for ONLY $1.47 each the other day. I spent around $4 for 3 of the Poise pads, 1 of the 60 count CVS size 3 diapers, and 8 of the Air Wick single oil warmer refills after using all my Airwick Qs and the $5/$25 CVS purchase coupon AND I made $10 ECBs since I had a Raincheck for the Airwick merchandise.
I love my CVS manager The Raincheck was for the Airwick 2 pack oil warmer refills but the only ones they carried were the lavender ones (YUCK have had enough of that scent)So she let me get the singles that were on sale $2/5 and said I could get the ECBs as long as I bought $20 in Airwick merchandise. So YAY me I got the $10 ECBs and only spent around $4 for it. :-)
Anyways back to the Poise conversation I had with the representative, she promised to send me coupons for my relative. So a pretty productive coupon day.
So remember those 1-800 customer service numbers are there for a reason, utilize them to get coupons. Its one of those if you don't ask for them, you never know if you will be given coupons or not till you ask for them.
Remember every call to a customer service line doesn't have to be a gripe or complaint about a product. I've gotten coupons from companies for singing their praises and letting the company know how much I enjoyed their product.
For example, I called the Simply Asia company about a month or so ago and was telling them how my mother and myself really enjoyed the General Tsao's Stir fry sauce since we aren't able to afford to go out to eat at Chinese restaurants like we used to and how their sauce was EVEN Better than any Chinese restaurant we had gone to in the past.
They sent me 2 coupons each for the Simply Asia and 2 for their Thai Pad products. Each set was one FREE product and one 50 cents off of the Simply Asia and the Thai Pad products.
Okay I've been slack but I'm back :-)
Hi to everybody :-)
I admit it I've been slack about posting to my blog I mean the last post was back in June of 2010
Yikes What can I say? Except life caught up with me and by the time I thought about blogging well I just didn't have the energy to do it.
I think I'm going to turn this blog into more of a personal Great Deals I've found on the Web journal more than a oooohhhh you gotta check this out sorta blog.
More of a relaxed come on in and check out what I've done thing rather than a OMG I've gotta find ALL the Deals on the Web or no one will read this type of blog lol
I admit it I've been slack about posting to my blog I mean the last post was back in June of 2010
Yikes What can I say? Except life caught up with me and by the time I thought about blogging well I just didn't have the energy to do it.
I think I'm going to turn this blog into more of a personal Great Deals I've found on the Web journal more than a oooohhhh you gotta check this out sorta blog.
More of a relaxed come on in and check out what I've done thing rather than a OMG I've gotta find ALL the Deals on the Web or no one will read this type of blog lol
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