Retailers getting tougher on couponers

Tonight ABC news ran a segment on the backlash from Extreme Couponing. I’d love to post the link, but I can’t find it.

ETA: LINK! It was available Monday morning.

First, what made me cringe is that while they are interviewing one blogger about coupon fraud, they are showing clips of another couponer. One who does not commit coupon fraud. Which is unfortunate for her. I actually happen to know that person, and I have a feeling she’s going to be upset about it.

Keep in mind, that just like with anything, the actual amount of people who commit coupon fraud is very small. Most people are doing it honestly. And that’s just what we need to do, keep being honest about it. Even though it feels awkward at times to get tons of free stuff, if you’re not doing anything wrong, don’t worry about it. And fine, be a party pooper and if you know someone is doing something that is fraudulent, report them. If you see a site that is discussing fraudulent use, send that link to our friend Bud Miller at the CIC. If you have questions about the validity of a coupon, ask hotcouponworld. They’ll add it to their fake coupons list, if it is indeed a fake, so word gets out.

It’s easy to stay away from the sketchy sites, they make themselves known pretty quickly. There are many big sites and blogs, with thousands of followers, that post things against a particular store’s or coupon’s wording. And when they’re called out on it, they either delete the comment, ban the user, ignore it or whatever.

I really hate when stuff like this happens. Coupon fraud hurts all of us. Will be interesting to see what the backlash is as a result of all of this.