Coupon crooks hurt stores

Every once in a while I'll get questions from readers about controversial coupon practices, from "gang cutting" coupons to photocopying and more. One reader asked about the most controversial topics of all: the buying and selling of coupons. She asks if it's wrong.

To many, it seems illogical to pay for coupons. It's easy and tempting to buy coupons on the Internet, and there are several online coupon-clipping services where shoppers buy coupons.

With all of these coupons for sale, it must be OK to buy them, right? Even though many places sell coupons online, you should never buy them. I have never purchased coupons from a clipping service or an auction site. The more I learned about the legal terms and ramifications of buying and selling coupons, the more I understood that coupons should never be bought or sold. Here are some examples of the fine print on coupons in my wallet:

- Coupons may not be combined, sold, auctioned or otherwise transferred or reproduced.

- Void if transferred, sold, auctioned, reproduced or altered from original.

- Coupon cannot be bought, transferred or sold.

The websites of many clipping services often say you're not actually paying for coupons, but rather paying for their time to clip them. If that is true, why do they charge more for a $5 coupon than a 50-cent coupon? Does it really take longer to clip a higher value coupon?

Neither justification is legitimate. It's important to think of a coupon as a contract between you, the manufacturer and the store. While you might own the piece of paper you cut from the newspaper insert or printed from a website, you do not own the contract.

If any of the terms on a coupon's contract are violated, the coupon is considered void and the manufacturer does not have to reimburse the retailer for that coupon.

How does the manufacturer know if it's redeeming coupons someone purchased? Coupon redemption houses and clearinghouses have several ways of determining if a coupon has been sold at some point. One method is to look at the physical condition. The term "gang-cutting" refers to the practice of stacking multiple like insert pages, then cutting through the entire stack at the same time with scissors or a paper cutter.
