Update: I just checked on Amazon and there is very little of this product available and the prices are only a few dollars less than list. In other words, if Wags had actually dumped that much product into the marketplace, it would be reflected on Amazon both in number of Sellers and the price it was commanding.
Rachel just shot me a link on a Wags news story. Actually had the brass to suggest I might have had something to do with it! I only wish. If you do the math, not only does Wags get reimbursed for all those RRs it prints, it also gets a scanning fee! In this case, my rusty math skills say about $3.50 per $10 RR. YIKES! If they’re making cash like this from coupons, then why isn’t the red carpet rolled out for us at every store, huh? This story appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
By Tanya Mannes
Friday, January 13, 2012
A San Diego nutritional-supplement company is accusing Walgreens of coupon fraud, saying the nation’s largest drugstore chain sought to get reimbursed for coupons that had never been used by customers and appeared “freshly minted.”Imagenetix is claiming in a federal lawsuit that the drugstore chain never got the coupons into customers’ hands, as promised, and printed them only to make money for its bottom line — claims the company denies.
“Although we don’t generally comment on the details of pending litigation, we take any allegations of misconduct seriously and investigate them thoroughly,” said Walgreens spokeswoman Vivika Panagiotakakos in an email from the company’s headquarters in Deerfield, Ill. “At this time, we have no reason to believe these allegations are true.”
The one-week promotion was aimed at getting customers to try Celadrin Inflame Away softgels, a healthy-joint supplement, essentially for free. A normally $20.99 bottle of capsules was on sale for $10 at the chain’s 8,000 stores. Customers who purchased it received a coupon, printed at the register, for $10 off a future Walgreens purchase.
The drugstore chain then billed Imagenetix for $533,000 “for coupons purportedly redeemed” plus $188,000 for scanning fees, states the lawsuit filed Nov. 18 in U.S. District Court.
The evidence in the case includes stacks of white, paper coupons without creases or marks that Walgreens said customers had redeemed in stores.
“We have a lot of confidence in this case,” said Daniel Kotchen, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney hired by Imagenetix. “We believe in it, and we think it’s an important case for the industry at large.”
Panagiotakakos declined to provide an explanation for why the coupons would be in pristine condition, saying there would be no further comment.
An estimated 1,500 products are featured in the Walgreens’ in-house couponing program each year, Kotchen said. The lawsuit is seeking class-action status and states that damages could exceed $5 million from Walgreens, an industry leader with $72 billion in total annual revenue, according to its investor website.
Imagenetix has seven employees and annual revenue of $7 million.
No one else has filed a similar suit against Walgreens. Unlike some vendors, Imagenetix didn’t use a clearinghouse to process the coupons, and its office manager was the first to raise questions about their validity.
“We thought that this was a good program that would get Celadrin into the hands of maybe 50,000 people,” said William Spencer, CEO of Imagenetix. But the lawsuit alleges that customers never got to try the patented product.
The case raises issues of credibility at a time when coupon use is at an all-time high. Nearly 80 percent of consumers report using coupons regularly. Shows such as “Extreme Couponing” on TLC depict shoppers filling carts with cereal, deodorant and hand soap for pennies on the dollar.
In 2010, marketers distributed a record 332 billion coupons valued at $3.7 billion for consumer packaged goods, 7 percent growth over the previous year, according to NCH Marketing Services Inc., a coupon clearing house.
The business of couponing has an honest reputation, said attorney Edward Kabak, chief legal officer for the Promotion Marketing Association, a nonprofit trade group in New York. “It’s unusual that a major corporation like Walgreens would be accused of doing this kind of activity,” he said after reading through the complaint. Typically, such corporations have policies and procedures for their employees, and shared values of integrity and honesty, to ensure that promotions are handled properly, said Bonnie Carlson, the association’s president.
With the interest in coupon use, it’s not surprising that some scandals have made headlines. Several fraud cases reported in the past year include a New York college student charged with creating counterfeit coupons on the Internet and four Texas supermarket cashiers charged with felony theft, allegedly for using a “coupon override function” to set high coupon values and pocket the money.
One of the largest coupon-fraud cases is in progress in Wisconsin, where 11 executives from a coupon processor were indicted in 2007. The executives are accused of stealing more than $15 million from manufacturers by seeking reimbursement for fraudulent coupons. (Kotchen’s firm is handling a civil case against the coupon processor.)
“There has to be legitimacy when it comes to dollars that flow through the couponing program because there are a lot of dollars at stake,” Kotchen said. “Vendors like Imagenetix are relying on the good-faith efforts of retailers like Walgreens to ensure the legitimacy of the couponing program.”
The Walgreens promotion took place during one week in March 2011. Shortly afterward, the boxes of bundled coupons showed up at the company’s office, along with Walgreens’ bill.
Debbie Spencer, office manager for Imagenetix, was in charge of logging coupons. She noticed that most were not creased. Then she found duplicates and triplicates, even though each coupon was supposed to be unique. And some of the bundles were in numerical order the way they were printed, even though they were supposed to be collected in the order of redemption.
“It took a while for people to listen to me,” said Spencer, who is married to William. “These coupons were like they had been freshly minted. They had never been out in the public, in someone’s pocket or purse or bag.”
Walgreens also claimed an “implausibly high redemption rate,” the lawsuit said, saying that more than 95 percent of the coupons issued were used. Coupon redemption rates vary widely but are typically much lower than that, said the PMA’s Carlson. “Ninety-five percent is exceedingly high,” she said.
An audit of the coupons revealed that more than 1,000 stores claimed to have issued more coupons than the number of bottles they had in stock, the lawsuit said. Stores typically had eight to 10 bottles in stock, but seven stores had issued more than 100 coupons each. One store issued a whopping 1,306 coupons.
Spencer said he paid part of the bill and contacted Walgreens, but no one from the company acknowledged there was a problem. When the bill wasn’t fully paid, Walgreens deducted money from an account it held in reserve for Imagenetix, he said.
Walgreens still sells Celadrin, but Imagenetix doesn’t deal with the drugstore chain directly.
January 12, 2012
The Problem Solver did not lift a finger to help Norman Hernandez in his battle with PNC Bank, but he provided an assist.
Hernandez’s fight with the Pittsburgh-based bank began in August 2010, when he deposited rent checks from his six-unit Chicago apartment building.
The checks were posted to Hernandez’s account, and the Oswego resident thought all was well.
A few weeks later he received a letter from PNC saying there was a problem. One check, for $725, had apparently become lost in the bank’s system.
PNC’s solution was deducting $725 from his account, Hernandez said.
So began a protracted and frustrating battle. Hernandez said he spoke to several PNC employees and was repeatedly promised he would receive calls back. In most cases no one returned his calls, Hernandez said.
On numerous occasions, he was told the situation would be straightened out within weeks, he said.
That didn’t happen.
In November, Hernandez gave PNC a two-week deadline to fix the mistake, he said.
Two months later, with the $725 was still missing from his account, Hernandez decided on a different approach.
He sat at his computer and typed an email detailing his 17-month-long slog through PNC’s customer service department.
“I am a stickler for good service and will complain and/or pose very difficult questions when my threshold of satisfaction is not met,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, I find myself in a quagmire and have been extremely patient in trying to resolve an issue with PNC Bank.”
Hernandez addressed the email to two individuals he had dealt with at PNC — and copied the Problem Solver.
He hit the send button at 11:33 a.m. Tuesday.
Less than five hours later, a PNC representative called Hernandez and promised to post the $725 to his account immediately. Hernandez said he checked his account Wednesday morning via the Internet, and the money was there.
The Problem Solver has said it before and he’ll say it again: Often, the mere threat of bad publicity is enough to get action.
“PNC resolved the matter immediately after receiving the ‘cc’ on my email to you,” Hernandez said.
Why it took a 11/2 years and the possibility of bad publicity to resolve the issue is beyond Hernandez.
The final straw, he said, was when PNC employees made promises they did not keep.
“What really ticked me off was when they started blaming each other and not taking responsibility,” he said.
Fred Solomon, a spokesman for PNC, said Wednesday that the bank could not comment on Hernandez’s situation.
“We thank you for bringing it to our attention, but our policy is not to comment on our customers to unaffiliated third parties, including members of the news media,” Solomon said in an email. “Typically in a situation like this, we will have already contacted the customer and come to a resolution.”
Hernandez said he spoke at length with the PNC representative Tuesday afternoon.
“I let her know in no uncertain terms that I was not happy with the length of time it took to resolve,” he said. “I said, ‘This call should have come a year ago.'”
Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune
Seriously? You deposit good checks into your Pittsburgh National Corporation bank account and are credited with the funds. At some future point said bank loses those checks and instead of actually investigating where those checks wound up, they withdraw the money from someone who was in no way a part of their mistake and who is unable to resolve it. pah, like I’d ever use this place…
If you want to get sucked into an interesting black hole (well, except for the dumb sports pictures), check out this link: Capturing history as it was made: 130 years of the LA Times. I like the 1924 picture of the tunnel with the building sign of EAT CARNATION MUSH. AT ALL GROCERS.
Something funny, that’s all…why do some people always believe what they’re told? especially by idiots…
Dear E. Jean: My boyfriend and I have been together two years. In the beginning, he asked me to give up my job, come work part-time for his company, move in with him, take care of him, and run the house. Well! We recently had a fight, and he said he was going to “make my life a waking nightmare.” He stated he was going to “sue me and garnishee my future wages for all the money he wasted supporting me,” which he estimates to be $25,000.
He promised me that he’d get back every dime he spent on me and all his exes!
Frankly, it scared me. I did not sign a contract with him of any kind, but he did pay some of my bills. He’s a very smart man who will be a successful attorney someday (he’s going to night school). I don’t have any money saved. My family is not wealthy, and I certainly don’t have the money to pay him back immediately or hire a lawyer to defend me in court. Now I’m out of a job! What do I do?—Am I Just Screwed?
Miss Screwed, Sweetheart: Nothing but an extreme love of nonviolence hinders me from taking this guy outside and lashing him with stinging barbs. However, I read your letter to the illustrious Dallas, Texas, contracts attorney Sherlyn Wiggs, and she assured me that you may rest easy. Here’s Miss Wiggs’ advice:
“Your boyfriend will find out in his first-year contracts class that his threat is legally unenforceable. Furthermore, he cannot garnishee your wages without a court order. Nor can he recover any money that he gratuitously spent on you or other girlfriends. In short, his bark is much worse than his legal bite.
Note: In the future, if you ever waver at a boyfriend’s job offer, remember these numbers: The $25,000 Mr. Night School claims to have spent on you (i.e., did not actually pay you) to work in his office, clean his toilets, vacuum his carpets, run his errands, cook his meals, wash his dishes, and entertain his business associates breaks down to $12,500 a year, and (based on a 10-hour day and five-day week) bottoms out at $4.81 an hour. So if the scoundrel ever again dares mention garnishee anything, smile, hand him an invoice listing each category of task you performed for him accompanied by dates and times, and tell him: “But darling! What a marvelous coincidence! I’m turning you in to the U.S. Department of Labor for paying less than the minimum wage!”
and if this guy is going to law school, he’s either flunking Contracts or acing Bullshit Bluffing.
By Dennis Sullivan
Special to Tribune Today at 5:42 p.m.
The body of a 60-year-old Plainfield man missing since September was found Monday in his truck at the Lake Renwick Forest Preserve, a Will County Forest Preserve spokesman said.William F. Litchfield Jr., whose last known address was on the 15100 block of James Street, apparently had been inside the truck for several months, said Forest Preserve District spokesman Bruce Hodgdon.
A father and adult son noticed the truck, which was embedded in tall grass, while hiking on a nearby trail, Hodgdon said.
Hodgdon said it appears Litchfield, characterized by Plainfield Police as “a serious diabetic,” died of natural causes. The Will County Coroner’s Office hadn’t released its findings as of 5:30 p.m.
Litchfield was last seen driving a blue Ford Ranger pickup truck Sept. 27 in the Plainfield-Joliet area. He was reported missing Oct. 7.
Just what kind of forest preserve is this where you can not spot a truck sitting in one spot since September?! Whatever happened to the forest preserve police? Maybe they should start looking for some notoriously-missing wives…
This story appeals to me on so many levels…
Motorist who passed out in drive-through `just wanted another McDonald’s sandwich’
By Rosemary Sobol
Tribune reporter
5:55 PM CST, January 2, 2012
A man was arrested after he and another man passed out in their SUV while waiting in the drive-through lanes of the Rock ‘N Roll McDonald’s in the River North neighborhood early Sunday, officials said.
But instead of getting another burger, police served Walter R. Dixon with DUI charges and doled out a side order of driving on a revoked license, police said.
In addition, Dixon, 30, was also cited with illegal transportation of alcohol and obstructing identification, after initially giving police a bogus name, police said. Police News Affairs Officer Darryl Baety said Dixon lives in Memphis, Tenn.
About 6 a.m. New Year’s Day police were called to the restaurant at 600 N. Clark St. after Dixon and another man fell asleep in a black Volvo SUV in the drive-through lane of the restaurant, according to a police report.
When Near North District officers arrived, they found the men fast asleep with the vehicle’s key in the ignition, its engine running and the SUV in drive. Dixon’s foot was resting heavily on the brake pedal.
Officers awakened the somnulant Dixon and ordered him to put the vehicle in park and hand over the keys.
When they asked Dixon if he needed any medical attention or an ambulance, he said no, he “just wanted another McDonald’s sandwich,’’ the report said.
The 29-year-old front seat passenger remained asleep.
Dixon could not provide any identification and officers noticed his speech was slurred. His breath had a very strong odor of alcohol, police said.
The officer asked Dixon if he’d been drinking and Dixon admitted he’d had several glasses of wine, the report said. But on the floor of the SUV officers found an open bottle of tequila with liquor still in it.
While outside the SUV, Dixon staggered and the other man finally woke up and was also ordered to get out and then declined medical attention. Dixon intially gave police a false name and home address that turned out to be that of a registered sex offender from Memphis, Tenn.
Dixon was arrested after he took a Breathalyzer test and police found his blood-alcohol content was measured at .207, the report said. The legal limit is .08.
The vehicle was impounded and his passenger caught a taxi back to his Blue Island home where he lives with his parents, the report said.
Copyright © 2011, Chicago Tribune
By Associated Press
1:57 PM CST, December 31, 2011
LEXINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Do you have change for a million-dollar bill?
Police say a North Carolina man insisted his million-dollar note was real when he was buying $476 worth of items at a Walmart.
Investigators told the Winston-Salem Journal that 53-year-old Michael Fuller tried to buy a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven and other items. Store employees called police after his insistence that the bill was legit, and Fuller was arrested.
The largest bill in circulation is $100. The government stopped making bills of up to $10,000 in 1969.
Fuller was charged with attempting to obtain property by false pretense and uttering a forged instrument. He is in jail on a $17,500 bond, and it isn’t clear if he has an attorney. He is scheduled to be in court Tuesday.
Goddess Note: Forgery is signing someone else’s name to a document, uttering is the actual presenting of that document to someone else. If you sign a stolen check, give it to me, and I cash it, you are guilty of forgery, and I am guilty of uttering. Putting counterfeit money into circulation would also be considered uttering.
and i feel great when I can just score overage at the Mart…
A couple a gifts that up the creep factor to me… well, the first two, anyway. Last one I can get into ’cause I don’t have perfect kids.
“Little girls need to learn to breastfeed. Berjuan Toys, the company that has always supported the development of small children by producing interesting, engaging dolls, continues its tradition with the release of this innovative baby doll, The Breast Milk Baby.” Order your doll now – only $90.
Maggie Goes on A Diet is selling for $10.26 on Amazon.
Or how about Go the F**k to Sleep for $8.97 for hardcover ($3.99 Kindle). Says it’s a children’s book for grown-ups.
By now you’ve probably all heard the news about Sears Holdings Corp. closing 100-120 Sears and Kmart stores because of poor sales during the holiday season. Poor sales during the holiday season my ass! Seriously, when does anyone go out of their way to shop Kmart? When they offer no-limit double coupons, that’s when. Here’s a link to the Chicago Tribune article. I only quote this one analyst: “There’s no reason to go to Sears,” said New York-based independent retail analyst Brian Sozzi, “It offers a depressing shopping experience and uncompetitive prices.”
And finally, don’t you think that Lou D’Ambrosio knew this when he accepted those tax breaks from Pat Quinn two friggin’ weeks ago? The only way they make money is by subleasing the store locations – dump and run management.
