As a Coupon(er) Do You Expect Too Much?

I mentioned previously that I went to Kroger this week.  I was one of the very lucky few that loaded the $25/$50 worth of groceries before that link was shut down.  I was super excited about it because I knew that I could work it out to basically pay nothing at the register, and load up on meat and produce which is not the easiest thing to do.

First of all, I went prepared and researched what was very cheap or free.  Without going into detail, I had $20 worth of coupons for $25 worth of product that I was going to combine with my digital $25/$50.  So that meant I would be paying roughly $5 plus tax out of pocket for everything.  Everything looked great, and I just needed to see what I was going buy with my "free" $25.

Then, I hit the mother load!!!  Carts and carts full of Covergirl and Loreal hair care marked down to $1.79!!!  Of course I had coupons, and with those coupons there were overages, so I was looking at about $15.00 worth of MM!!!!  And, since I have a very distinct personal policy that a store should not pay me (I don't mind paying just change though - hehe) I bought $15 more worth of meat.

So I get to the register....my digital coupon comes off just fine, all the freebie stuff comes off just fine, and when we got to the hair color, the lady at the register says, "I'm sorry we do not allow overages on coupons anymore, I'm going to adjust the price."  I said, that's fine (I'm thinking in my head, ok they are still free and that will make my total around $20 before tax...it's ok because I need to stock on meat anyway).  BUT..and here is where it gets super hairy and I still can't follow all the way along and I was actually there...she takes my $2/1 coupons and enters them as $1.79 and even my $5/2 coupons, and enters them as $1.79.  I say, but that was for 2.  She says, I can't have my register down below the cost.  I'm standing amazed (because Kroger will get paid $5.08 for my coupon) as she hands me back 4 of the $3/1 coupons which she refuses to enter, and proceeds to tell me that my total is $42.99.  At this point, I had 11 boxes of hair color, all of which I had coupons for, some of the coupons not entered and 4 given back to me (keep in mind that I still do not have expectations of the overage...free is fine with me).

Ummm..."Just void the entire order," was my response.

At that point, a manager was called over, he absolutely could not believe she handed me back coupons and somehow with whatever they did my total got down to $15.00 even.  That was less than I had anticipated after I was told they no longer do overages!  Keep in mind I had $20 in free product, $40 in Meat and Produce, and 11 boxes of hair color and they wanted me to pay $15 after tax. 

I did. I did and I was angry walking out of the store. First angry because now I was running late. Angry because another policy change at this store. And seriously angry because I was so confused!!! 

Then....I thought....I got a whole bunch of meat and produce.  And free hair dye.  And all those protein bars and such.  

Hmmmmm.....

So, I ask you....do we expect too much?