Her purchase price was $2.86 and still, if she was using a $3.00 mfg  coupon instead of an RR (which is treated as an mfg coupon at WAGS), that still violated the WAGS policy rule that the total amount of coupons cannot exceed the total cost of the items in the transaction.  Price adjustment does not apply in this situation.  Price adjustment applies among multiple items in a transaction…as long as the total amount of coupons does not exceed the total cost of all items in the transaction.  From WAGS cp:  The number of manufacturer coupons, including Register
RewardsTM manufacturer coupons, may not exceed the number of items in the
transaction. The total value of the coupons may not exceed the value of the transaction. Sales
tax must be paid, if required by state law.

Doesn’t there seem to be a conflict between the rule that the total value of coupons must not exceed the total value and the rule about price adjustment?  I believe the total value of coupons rule supersedes the price adjustment rule.  If you had a price adjustment done for you in a similar situation by a manager and/or a cashier means they had the power to override the system and by-pass the rule and not quibble over a few cents in the name of good customer service; it does not mean that you are interpreting the policy correctly.  I throw in a caramel or some other small filler item that makes the value of my coupon less than or equal to my transaction amount  and the register rings up everything no problem.  That seems a lot easier to do than to waste valuable time arguing with the cashier and/or manager about a few cents if the computer/register is indeed incorrect.

 OK, mea culpa…I was wrong!  But you have to admit that the way the coupon
policy is laid out can be open to different interpretations which can
lead to some confusion and which can cause the frustration of dealing
with coupons at WAGS that I’m sure we’ve all encountered.  However, I
now have some important information for us to use in this situation.  I
just finished a conversation with a Walgreens corporate relations
representative to get some answers about the situation we’ve been
discussing: a single item transaction with a purchase price of $2.86
with a coupon of $3.00 to be applied.  I described our scenario to the
rep and here is what I found out:  1.  The rules/guidelines in the
coupon policy can be considered in any order.  My assumption that the
General guidelines must be processed first was incorrect on my part. 
2.  In this situation, we know that the register will reject the
transaction because the total value of the coupon is greater than the
total value of the item.  However, you are correct; the
corporate rep told me that the cashier can validly adjust the $3.00
coupon down to $2.86 per Sale Items policy and thus make the transaction
valid to go forward.  If a cashier or manager argues with you and is
not going to allow the price adjustment, the corporate rep told me  to
tell the cashier or manager that I had spoken with corporate and that
the price adjustment should be allowed.  Here is the case number that
the corporate representative gave to me in documenting the specifics of our discussion:  case number 3879859

 Let me give you a cogent argument as to why I think your reasoning is flawed in interpreting the policy in the situation we have been discussing.  I believe you could consider that the complete WAGS coupon policy to be a legal document.  As such, how it is constructed and the order of items placed in the policy is important.  The entire policy begins with the header Guidelines.  Under it are several sections.  The first section is titled General.  I believe this outlines the primary rules that must be valid such that a couponing transaction is valid.  If any General rule is violated, the transaction is invalid and no further rules would be evaluated for validity.  Only if all the General rules are met, the sections following General would be evaluated for secondary rules and in the order presented in the document.  You can’t take the Sales Items section and evaluate it by itself; it must be considered in the whole of the policy.  Thus all the General rules must be met before we even consider what the Sales Items rules are.  In the situation we have been discussing, the coupon total cost to transaction total cost rule is in the General section.  Price adjustment is not mentioned in the General rules at all.  In the example we have been discussing, the total coupon cost to total item cost rule in the General section is violated and the register correctly does not allow the transaction to proceed; the price adjustment rule is not in the General section and thus is not even a consideration in our situation.  If anyone is getting a price adjustment from a manager or cashier in this situation, that customer is getting a price adjustment that they really aren’t entitled to, but the WAGS staff is doing so in the name of good customer service.

There
shouldn’t be a need to argue with management when you have the policy
printed out right there.  And it is a policy, not a legal contract so I respectfully disagree that it should be treated as such.  As I read the policy I see it as addressing any potential questions/situations/problems customers and employees may encounter when using coupons and it sets standardized guidelines so stores convey uniformity. I
think it is great that you have your interpretation of the policy, but I
do not think the way you expressed your thoughts and opinions
originally is all that great.  Your initial comment came off with an air
of condescension and was not necessary.  You were wrong- she was not
using RR, and you responded to her in a way that was not supportive or
friendly and criticized her for something you misunderstood.  The
adjustment practice in the coupon policy is in place to make sure that
customers still have to pay tax, they will not allow a coupon to cover
the tax.  So if her coupon was for $3 and the item + tax totaled under
$3 there would be a problem.  I don’t care that you disagree with the
interpretation of the policy that Pamela, couponqueencarly and I follow,
it works for me and my WAGS employees so if it isn’t broken don’t fix
it.  I do care that you were rude (even unintentionally)  in your
initial post and follow up posts- these blogs are a community of people
who come to support each other and fellowship over couponing.  Hope you have a fantastic week and happy couponing!!!!

I will post my reply to the comment directed to me here because, either way, it’s the same discussion.  the WAGS policy states, as you have previously menitioned:  “The total value of the coupons may not exceed the value of the transaction. Sales tax must be paid, if required by state law.”  It also states:  “In the event that any item’s selling price is less than the value of the coupon, Walgreens will only accept the coupon in exchange for the selling price of the item. Coupon redemption can never exceed the selling price of an item and no cash back is ever provided in exchange for any coupons.”  This all means that the coupon cannot cover the tax, therefore, the coupon will have to be adjusted down to the price of the product so that the tax is paid in full.  I don’t think any of the parts in which the coupon policy is divided, is violated in any means. Each of the parts is covered if coupon value is adjusted down to product’s price because tax will not be covered by coupon value, therefore value of transaction is not exceeded.  Managers and/or cashiers are not doing anything in the name of good customer service.  They are following the coupon policy.  In sabrinaxceleste’s case, when her bf used his coupon it didn’t beep because any overage from the coupon was covered by another product, but the overage was not supposed to be allowed.  In her case, it beeped because if coupon was not adjusted, it would have exceeded amount of transaction with the overage, meaning part of her tax total would have been covered by it, which is not allowed by the general part of the policy and that’s why they have the other paragraph under sale items…

Thanks you, Dale, for taking the time to call corporate so that all of us are in the same boat!!!!  Hopefully the people at the stores want to join our coupon love boat :-p  I’ll write down the number in case needed

I called the manager over as well, and she also denied it! 

when you print coupons from target.com there is a link below the categories for the coupons policy.  you can print it from there- it is SUPER easy