A little goes a long way

Earlier this week, I took the boys shopping for clothes. The younger ones didn't need it so much as Tommy, who had next to nothing in his closet and most of what he did have needed to be discarded. Against my initial plans, I took all of them to Bob's Store. I had some coupons I had received from their valued customer program and Tommy liked their selection of clothing. I wound up spending over $240, with only $12 of that going towards Christopher's new backpack. The rest of the amount was for Tommy's new Etnies, some jeans, a sweatshirt, and some shirts.

At the check out counter, I was disappointed that out of my total purchases, the only coupon I was qualified to redeem was the free popcorn. I had four kids there and did they really think they would all share one little thing of popcorn without a battle ensuing? I told the cashier to keep the popcorn and how extremely grateful I was to be a part of a program that turned out to be so rewarding for me.

The next day, I came across a different Bob's coupon I had forgotten I had put into my wallet. There were two, actually; $10 off a purchase of $50 or more and $25 off a purchase of $100 or more. No exceptions, no specifications, and it didn't expire until later in September. A $35 credit towards a $240 purchase was well worth the drive back to the store, and so this morning Jeffrey and I took a ride.

I told the girl at the customer service desk how I had coupons with me the other day, but that none applied to my purchases, and I had forgotten I had these as well and would she give me a credit? I presented her with my receipt. She inspected the coupon and told me the coupon could only be applied at the time of purchase, so no, I couldn't get a credit.

"So you're telling me that I have to go and buy everything all over again and return it?" I asked her. Because that is exactly what I would do if I had to.

"Yes," she said. "And the numbers all have to be an exact match. And you can't use both of them, only one." I detected challenge in her voice, but it wasn't going to stop me.

"Okay. Come on, Jeffrey, we need to buy some things." And off I went. I bought the four most expensive things that were on the receipt so my total would exceed $100, ensuring the SKU numbers were an exact match. There was only one bar code on the coupon, which had to be presented in its entirety at check out, so there was no way around getting the $10. But $25 is $25 and today, it goes a long way, at least for me. It's 7 gallons of gasoline. It's a month's worth of school hot lunches for one of my kids.

We went to a check out counter, I presented my rewarding Bob's card upon request to gain points for coupons I most likely will have no use for to use at another time, paid for the items, and made a bee-line for the customer service counter. I placed the bag of items on the counter in front of the same girl who challenged me earlier. "Here you go," I said. And I handed her the receipt from my initial purchases earlier in the week. I didn't have to tell her what I needed her to do.

She said not a word as she processed the returns and credited my card. Aren't customer service personnel supposed to be courteous and friendly? She wasn't, so I didn't thank her when I left.