Can any Borders employees (or any other store owner or manager) explain the following to me?

As I posted in the Bargains forum, would Borders still be showing a profit if it sold a DVD with 40% off? If yes, why would Borders NOT want to honor the coupons? But by labeling the coupon "fake" or by making the customer feel as if they were 'stealing' does not entice people to return. Each lost sale in this manner could and would add up to lost future sales.

Now, I did attempt to use the coupon. I was polite and firm. The manager was also polite but firm and would not honor the coupon. I left the store without any purchase (a DVD and a book). I do not understand it, if the the 40% would have still been above the store cost why would you not take it. I might have even been buying something that had been sitting on the the shelf for months or years. (Inventory sitting idle does not make you money. Turning over that inventory does.)

If the 40% would bring it below cost, then "never mind".

"Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?"

40% can sometimes take titles below cost.

Here's a general idea of what DVDs cost to retailers, this isn't specific and is based on past wholesale experience:

MSRP: 24.99-29.99 COST: ~17.00-19.00
MSRP: 19.99 COST: ~12.50
MSRP: 14.99 COST: ~8.50
MSRP: 9.99 COST: ~5.50

Of course these prices vary by studio and the amount purchased. Bigger stores like Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and Circuit City get better wholesale prices than your mom and pop stores since they buy in mass quantities.

Thanks, NitroJMS. That explains it. I suppose they would indeed be losing money with each coupon. But how much is good will worth? I guess there is no such thing as brand or store loyalty anymore. But with so much competition it's easy to avoid stores that do you disservice once too often.

Can you say loss leader? Deliberately pricing below cost is a marketing tool.

However that does not seem to be the case here. The coupon was a Borders error since they later corrected it. Consumers cannot assume however what store management meant and retailers by law must honor the conditions they set forth.

(And no I did not use the coupon. I try not to take unfair advantage of retailers since I hope they will provide legitimately good deals in the future.)

Doesn't Amazon own Borders?

No, Borders (which also owns Waldenbooks) ceased running its own online operations and Amazon has taken over running the site for them. This is similar to the arrangement Amazon has with Toys R Us and CDNow.

They also operate similar sites for Target, Circuit City, Office Depot and a few other stores, but most of those companies retain their own individual site also.

That coupon was for 40% off a few Cisco products and not what you were buying. You and others tried to take advantage of their mistake. So they had every right to turn the coupon down.

Going by your logic I should be able to go into Borders and buy something for a penny that is normally $20 as long as they still show a profit from the sale.

Absolutely! Profit is profit. I would suggest you pay more attention at school in Economics and Business Admin. The objective for any business is to take in more money than it spends.

So if a stores that advertise one price and "forgets" to reprogram the prices in their computers are not trying to take advantage of your inattentiveness at checkout. Not only must the buyer beware but seller must beware too.

I did not steal anything. I did not try to steal anything. I didn't slap a sale sticker on anything. I did not change a price. I only tried to use the coupon Cisco sent me. Cisco sent me (yes me, I'm a Cisco customer) a coupon. The coupon itself had no exclusions on which items it applied to. They might have intended to restrict it to the three books but they did not.

My point was if they were going to make money, even with the discount, is it not better for customer relationships to honor it rather than possibly alienate a current customer? Piss off enough current customers enough times and you won't be in business for long. With the competion form B&M and online in this space it's easy enough to lose customers without alienating them.

So the next time an item scans at a lower price than what is on the item I trust that you will without hesitation bring it to the attention of the cashier and insist on paying the higher price.

And by the way, I always give back the difference if a cashier gives me too much change.

A misprice in the computer is totally different than what you tried to do.

How about we do this...I bet you could probably live on $50 less each week from your paycheck. So therefore you would still show a profit if you considered your life like a business. You dont want to do that do you? But it would make your company like you more and they may even keep you on longer in times of economic hardship. You dont want to do this because you want to maximize your profit just like everyother business in the world wants to. The bottom line is you nor any other customer has the right to try and limit a store's profit no matter if you judge it to be too high. Its called capitalism, dont like their price go shop somewhere else.

You seem like an intelligent person but I love how you are playing dumb when it comes to this coupon. Oh it didnt print the list of books right here in this very spot so I dont know if its for these 3 things or everything....I cant figure it out.

And if you did so well in Business Admin why dont you go out and work hard to make more money so you dont have to try and scam stores?

I would wager that Borders has plenty of legitimate customers so that they really don't worry about pissing people off who have tried to take advantage of them. In fact, this probably goes for every store in the world.

You might be right about Borders but most businesses might not look at it that way. It is apparent that some Borders managers in some areas disagree with your statement. Why then were they honoring the coupon? Is it that they don't care?

If a store is making a profit on the sale why not honor the coupon. Again (and for the last time on this subject) profit in your till is better than a lost sale walking out your door. Yes, you might not be making as much as you could have but it's better than nothing. If they are taking a loss, absolutely, no sale. But if not why take the chance of losing future business. You may and probably will make it up on the next sale. If they don't come back there is no next sale. Good will is worth just as much as a good sale. Especially when you don't compete with pricing!

And lastly, I am a legitimate customer. I was not trying to steal from them. I offered a price for an item. They did not accept my offer. The coupon I present was valid. It was not altered in any way. They chose not to accept it. I chose not to pay list price for that item. I was not being a pig. I did not try to clean out the store. I was buying one item (actually two I had a book in my hand too). The sale they lost will go on the books of another business.

Borders may have intended the coupon to be exclusive but that is not how it was presented. They have now fixed the wording.

Here's how intent works: If you intend to sell (short) 100 shares of Sun Mircosystems (ticker SUNW) but you entered the market order for SUN. Guess what, bud. You just shorted yourself 100 shares of Sun Oil Company Sunoco. The buyer doesn't care that you intended to sell SUNW.

In my case the seller had the option of terminating the transaction. Which they did. I did not complain, scream or carry on. It was a business transaction that did not complete. Both sides were not happy with the terms of the deal.

For those who think that using this coupon is wrong (I'm not singling you out SunMonkey. I don't know what your opinion is.) buying something that you know is mispriced is worse. You are taking advantage of the other party's ignorance. At a yard sale where you see that white-ringed Salo:CC for $15 you had better tell the seller its real value.