Reason number 1,234,568 NOT to buy coupons online
I know that if you are following Consumerqueen.com you most likely do NOT commit coupon fraud; however, sometimes people are taken advantage of by unscrupulous people when they attempt to obtain cpns utilizing coupon-clipping services, e-bay or other online venues. The Coupon Information Center (lovingly referred to by me ~Princess Karen~ as “the Coupon Police) has recently announced the arrest of THREE people for selling counterfeit coupons via the internet. This is just another example evidencing the fact that it is NOT a good idea to buy cpns off the internet since you can never tell if the cpns will be real or counterfeit.
If you purchase cpns on the internet and they are counterfeit YOU could be liable if the store decides to press charges. Using counterfeit cpns in a grocery store is considered theft by deception and depending on the amount of products you obtain utilizing counterfeit cpns you could be charged with a felony or a misdemeanor. Personally I do not think ANYTHING I can get free from a store would be worth jail time and being away from my children.
If your are in doubt about any cpns you may have in your possession right now be sure to check the Counterfeit coupon list at the Coupon Information Center website.
I work in a supermarket, and most coupons that you have to pay for online are fake or fraudulent. So buyer beware!
When I clicked on the link it said the site was “under construction”.
I purchase coupons online from and they have never been fraudulant. Now purchasing coupons from Ebay…(well its ebay). Never done it and won’t because Ebay just isn’t a place to get coupons.
Don’t let the honest clipping services be hurt by (yet again) dishonest people trying to swindle others out of their hard earned money.
Heather,
I disagree with your phrase “Honest Clipping services”. I in my (Princess Karen’s) opinion do not think there is such a thing. It is a COUPON clipping service so then why do they state I am paying for their time and not the coupons? Why does their time cost more for a hot coupon? Where on earth do people HONESTLY obtain that many coupon inserts? Coupon inserts are a FREE gift for purchasing the paper. Couponers purchase the paper to get the inserts, but the inserts are a gift with purchase. Do you mean to tell me that someone offering 1,000 of a certain coupon purchased 1,000 newspapers? Coupons state directly on them that they are void if sold therefore technically (I know there is not an actual law YET) the coupons are not able to be sold.
Also, manufacturer’s do NOT want the coupons to be sold. They pay for certain coupons to hit certain geographical areas and coupon clipping services could be doing a great disservice to the manufacturers and the consumers by redirecting the coupons out of those areas.
Again this is MY (Princess Karen’s) opinion.
~Princess Karen
What the clipping services are doing is dishonest. Manufacturer’s do not want their coupons bought or sold…it says so right on the coupons themselves. Stating they are only selling their time etc. and not the coupons will not stand up in court. The CIC (coupon information corp.) states very clearly that what clipping services are doing is wrong. Think about this: the manufacturer’s are the ones that give us the coupons to begin with…..shouldn’t we in turn be nice enough to follow their rules?
Check out what the CIC says about selling coupons and the excuses clipping sites use:
Buying coupons. When a person buys coupons, they may be inadvertently purchasing stolen property or counterfeit coupons. Even if there is not a direct criminal penalty involved, both coupon buyers and sellers open the door to potential litigation when they buy or sell coupons because they are in violation of the “nontransferability” clause printed on all coupons distributed within the United States. The transfer makes a coupon void. Coupon sellers often include legal disclaimers stating that they are selling their time, a service, or even envelopes that just happen to contain coupons instead of the coupons themselves. Such statements are invalid and do not offer any legal protection. Rather, such statements suggest that the sellers know that their coupon sales are inappropriate and wrong.