CVS pissiness: ok, it's possibly whiney, but it bugged me.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I just sent this email to CVS via their website because, it irritated me. The cashier seemed genuinely distressed over the manager's policy, in the 'please don't make a fuss, I could get fired over this' sort of way (if you've ever worked retail with a bossy boss, you know the look):

This evening I was in store #8319, in Davis Square, in Somerville, MA. When I presented my Green Bag Tag, the cashier said that she would not accept it; her manager ordered her not accept them if it was attached to a CVS-branded recyclable bag. She told me she had seen other cashiers scolded for it.

I pointed out that the tag itself says, "Present your Green Bag tag and ExtraCare card with ANY reusable bag." She said, "I know, but he says it's not supposed to mean that."

I just checked your website, and it reads: "You can use any re-usable shopping bag, re-use a plastic bag from a previous purchase, or simply carry out your items. Anytime you decline a one-time use plastic bag, you will receive a Green Bag Tag credit."

The irony of this is that I was using some recently earned Green Bag Tag Extra Bucks to purchase...a TravelSmart by Conair expandable tote. I enjoy using the tag, and would appreciate you contacting this manager and correcting his interpretation of your policies.

What really ticked me off was how upset the woman seemed to be when enforcing this policy. I think I might have just shrugged it off if she hadn't seemed slightly scared of what might happen if she did accept my tag. But it really bothered me.

Anyway, if you try and use your tag at the store, and some poor cashier tells you you can't, thank them and then consider dropping a note to CVS corporate about it.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I've used the tag with no bag at all. The cashiers don't always seem to understand that if I'm using the tag, they should not be offering me plastic bags for what I just bought.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

I've had the same experience - never had a problem getting them to scan the tag, but they still offer me a plastic bag.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Yeah...no. I don't own a CVS reusable bag. I generally either don't use a bag and carry things back to my office (a block from CVS) or I bring some kind of bag on my own. Once, I even grabbed a plastic CVS bag from the trash on my way in because I'd forgotten my bag.

My biggest problem with using the green bag tag is keeping the cashiers from giving me a bag anyway, especially in Pharmacy!

That manager is delusional. You're meant to get the 25¢ whenever you don't take another bag.

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

Wait, they're charging customers for not giving them something?

I'm all for not using the environmental-travesty plastic bags. But WTF should people have to pay to get a discount for not taking them? That's ridiculous. Some too-clever-by-half executive at CVS needs a good shake.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was my thought as well. I guess it could be that if one shops at CVS a lot, the discounts will eventually exceed the 99 cents paid for the tag. And for some people it will actually encourage that behavior so that they actually increase their shopping at CVS--"well, I have this tag that gives me even more discounts, so I may as well take advantage of it."

Also, sales of tags may give them something to point at as an indicator of how many customers are interested in bag re-use (though giving a simple discount each time someone shops without a bag, as some stores do, would give them that data as well.)

[ron_newman]

The tag gives you $1 of ExtraBucks after use on 4 different days. This gives me the perverse incentive to make multiple visits during a week to buy single items, instead of buying everything at once. Of course, I wouldn't do that if I didn't live 2 blocks from CVS.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Oh sure--I've used that strategy myself for things on occasion. From their perspective--sure there'll be some people who do that sort of thing, and who still only buy whatever they would have purchased anyway. But then there will be the people who say "Aha, I'm just going to make multiple visits to buy single items" but end up buying extra stuff on impulse on some of those visits. Having those sorts of folks come into the store more often is a plus.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

You don''t get a discount to not take a bag. You get a $1 ExtraBuck coupon whenever you use it 4 times. It's a bonus program, not a discount one. I've earned $5 in ExtraBucks for it. A sixth the next time I use it, and I got it at the start of January. Most places give you 5 cents a bag, so really, I was ok with paying for the tag. I actually think the sales of the tag are for 'green' reasons; if you just gave the things away lots of people would just grab them from the basket and never use 'em.

[sissychrissy1.livejournal.com]

No, silly, they're not charging customers for not giving them something. They're providing the opportunity to save money for just a $1 fee up front! :)

Really, I love the program. I picked up a tag the night they were put on display at the Middlesex/Fellsway CVS and I've gotten at least 5 or 6 dollars credit for not using a bag. I'm way more likely to remember my bag when I know I'm getting a quarter for it than when a nickel is being knocked off my tab (if the cashier remembers or knows how to do that *cough*target*cough*).

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Gah. Having worked in CVS employee services at their corporate office, I feel safe in saying that the majority of managers of CVS stores are neither intelligent nor helpful. They frequently made me want to bang my head against a wall.

[miss-lisa-ma.livejournal.com]

Oh, so it's not just me? I've had an incident or two with some who just Don't Get It (TM). You know it's bad when the cashiers themselves tell you.

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

Oh no, not just you. I've had nasty experience after nasty experience with the Porter CVS, until my last run-in with a manager there drove me to swear I will not go in there again. I've had better experiences at the Davis CVS, fortunately, but this still sounds pretty unpleasant. I'm always better treated at other brands of pharmacy, I only go to CVS because they're usually closer when I happen to want a pharmacy.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I feel bad for her; how uncomfortable it must be to have to enforce a manager's horrible misinterpretation of what is a completely obvious policy.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I know! I mean, it's not like there's some lack of clarity with that. The tag *does* say 'Program may change or end at any time' on the tag, so I thought, 'well, maybe it changed...' and looked it up online, but online it's even clearer what the policy is.

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

So wait ... you couldn't use the tag UNLESS it was a CVS reusbale bag, or BECAUSE it was a CVS reusable bag?

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I could not use the tag because I was not using a CVS reusable bag. According to the manager of the place.

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

OK, got it. Sorry, I was slightly confused.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

That's because the original post says the opposite. I was like "wtf, are they accusing you of shoplifting the CVS reuseable bag?"

[thespian.livejournal.com]

oh crap. 'manager ordered her not accept them if it was NOT attached to a CVS-branded recyclable bag'

I only just noticed that's what it should have read. Though I'm not sure how that gets interpreted to accusing me of shoplifting the reusable bag.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

yeah, it didn't make sense, but the only reason I could come up with for the store to have a policy that says "if you are scanning a tag that is still attached to one of our reusable bags we won't do it" would be if you were bringing the tag to the register to be scanned without actually owning the bag. Which would be pretty wacky as a widespread problem.


Makes more sense the other way, but it is totally not what their policy says on the website. Grr.

I also once almost had trouble at that CVS using a receipt printed coupon that said "fill a new prescription, get a $25 gift card", from someone who told me "but you can't use that coupon on prescriptions, the manager won't let us." But the coupon was specifically *for* new prescriptions and nothing else, so if you couldn't use it on a prescription, what *could* you use it on? (I pushed back gently, they muttered something about thinking it was a different coupon, and did what the coupon said they were supposed to do.)

[ron_newman]

You can edit your post, and I'd recommend doing so, because I was thoroughly confused and also thought the same way that closetalker11 did above. (I also suggest sending a clarifying note to whomever you send the original note to.)

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

I hope you'll let us know if you hear anything back from CVS corporate.

If anyone else writes to CVS to complain about this, I hope you'll remember to use the word "fraud" to them. Because it seems that's what they're doing.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I sent a link to this lj post to CVS_Extra on twitter, as well since by the nature of the job, they're more active on twitter, and they replied:

@thespian thx for letting us know. You’re right – You can attach a GBT to any reusable bag. We’ll pass this along & appreciate the feedback.

[apricot3.livejournal.com]

they should send you a damn coupon for your efforts, though.
i hate that i get emailed coupons (usually ending in like two days), but then when you go to the printing kiosks in the store, different coupons pop up.
i asked a clerk recently if it might be possible for me to show him the email on my phone if he could take the associated number and all he could tell me was to call the CVS line....

Slavery...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

That's the kind of fear slaves feel, I suppose.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

This is the first I've heard of the green bag tag program. And it bugs me for several reasons.

- It costs money
- You need to carry around and scan *two* cards at CVS (the green tag and your Extra Care card). One is bad enough.
- You need to save the $1 coupons and remember to bring them back next time
- The aforementioned arguments with the staff when they don't understand the rules, or try to give you bags

Hassle, hassle, hassle. Even though I haven't gotten plastic bags at any store for several years, I think I'll pass on this annoying scheme.

I can't stand rewards programs in general. I prefer to shop in stores that don't have them, and just have cheaper prices in the first place. I'll have to remember to buy health stuff whenever I'm at Market Basket so I can reduce my dependence on CVS.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

unlike Shaw's, which is grossly overpriced (their SALE! prices are often the same or still higher than Market Basket's regular ones), I've never found CVS's prices to be markedly higher than Rite Aid or Walgreens.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

I've found that CVS is on average about 30% more than the what-ever-Brook's-is-now place on the other side of the square. Sometimes more like two to three times more for some items, for other items it's equivalent.

Either way I steadfastly refuse to participate in any awards program. If the clerk won't give me the discount, I won't buy the item, or anything else and walk out the door with the items on the counter.

[ron_newman]

I like the rewards program because it occasionally e-mails me (and even more occasionally, snail-mails me) useful coupons.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

There's an old Dilbert cartoon that I was trying to find, thus far unsuccessfully, that more or less explains how I feel about it.

Here's the transcript:

Cashier: Are you a member of our frequent grocery club?

Dilbert: What is it?

Cashier: You get a membership card that entitles you to discounts.

Dilbert: Let's see if I have this straight... I'll be inconvenienced by having to fill out a form and carry your stupid card around... And in return, you'll put me on a junk mail list, and charge me the same as the grocery store across the street? AND YOU'LL EXPECT ME TO BE HAPPY ABOUT IT?!!

Guy standing behind Dilbert in ever growing line: But it's free!

Cashier (yelling across the store): Cleanup on register two...it's engineer spittle.

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hate that sort of crap too. Whenever I visit CVS I'm always carrying my huge purse, so I never get a plastic bag, but I haven't bothered signing up for this program. I don't have a CVS card, either (although I've noticed that some cashiers will scan an unused CVS card when I tell them I don't have one, so I still get the discounts without CVS tracking my spending habits -- bonus!).

[borgin.livejournal.com]

I have the same issues - it costs money (you have to go to CVS four times to get a penny's return on the investment, and eight times to start really earning money) and I don't need to carry multiple CVS cards.

[dahdahdahdancer.livejournal.com]

As long as we're griping about CVS not honoring the green tag, I've had Porter Sq CVS cashiers hand back my tag WITHOUT scanning it. I've used my own bag, with tag attached, multiple times but my receipt never reflects that. Phooey.