Why you shouldn’t be using this coupon at Dollar Tree

I wanted to take this time to give my two cents about ethical couponing.  In any aspect of life, I am really disappointed when the actions of a few, ruin it for the rest of us who follow the rules and try to do what’s right. 

Dollar Tree has just begun it’s journey into the world of coupons, and I fear the issue with this coupon may cause it to be a quick trip.

Here’s the situation.  This particular coupon is for Disney/Marvel products from Nature Smart, LLC.  Nature Smart is in the Vitamin business.  They only make vitamins and as such this should be viewed as a vitamin coupon. 

The problem is the wording on the coupon, which all good couponers know to follow instead of the picture, leaves out the word vitamin.  It says on “ANY Disney or Marvel item”.   This coupon is being promoted to be used at Dollar Tree to get several Disney themed items for free.

I don’t think that Nature Smart anticipated that they would be having their coupons used for plastic sandwich bags, pencils, or comic books.  If you go by the wording on the coupon, you need to go by ALL THE WORDS.   Further down it has the details:

CONSUMER: This coupon good only on the purchase of products indicated. Any other use constitutes fraud. Limit one coupon per purchase per customer. Consumer pays any sales tax. Void if copied, transferred, prohibited, taxed or restricted. Good only in USA, including U.S. Military Bases. If not available at a store near you, call: 1-888-VITAHELP (848-2435)
RETAILER: For payment of face value, plus 8¢ handling, send to Nature Smart LLC C/O CMS, Dept. 30768, 1 Fawcett Drive, Del Rio, TX 78840. Coupon will be paid only if presented by an authorized retailer of our merchandise. Cash redemption value of 1/100 of one cent.

If you look at what I highlighted you can see that they intended to only reimburse retailers of Nature Smart products. Remember, Nature Smart makes Vitamins.

Even if you are still convinced that legally you have the right to use the coupon because of the wording “ANY”, think about the consequences.   When coupons are used in a way that is not intended, retailers and manufacturers lose money.  The after effects of situations like this are that Manufacturers start lowering coupon values, decreasing expiration dates, and limit or stop putting out coupons altogether.  Retailers start limiting the number of coupons you can use, refuse to take print-at-home coupons, and possibly changing their coupon policy altogether. 

So think about it before you try to use this or any other coupon in a way that, deep down you know isn’t the intended use.  You may stock up on some free stuff now, but I it costs us so much more in the end.

Thank you to Freetail Therapy for pointing out that Coupons.com has the correctly worded coupon on their site!

$1.00 off On ANY Vitamin item in Disney or Marvel GET COUPON