So if it appears I've been turning into the Coupon Police lately, so be it. Someone has to, and it might as well be me.
A reader tipped me off today about a La Victoria promotion that's circulating on the web right now. I was actually unfamiliar with this promotion so I did a little poking around. Apparently, La Victoria is offering a "rewards" program where you earn points when you purchase products. These points can then be redeemed for high value coupons and enter you into their sweepstakes.
The problem? Purchase codes are circulating around the web and people are scoring LOTS of high value coupons without having purchased a single item. The value of this coupon is high enough to potentially yield free salsa at a number of stores. The reader who emailed me today contacted La Victoria for their response (thank you!). Here's what they had to say:
Thank you for contacting the La Victoria Rewards and Sweepstakes Promotion help center. It is fraud, so we would greatly appreciate it if you do report it. The reason why 'no purchase' is on the website is because we issue AMOE codes to those who request it (for sweepstakes only) via mail and they need a means to convey what their code is associated with. It is completely dishonest and we thank you for reporting this.
So it turns out that the company will offer you a free code when you request it by mail for their sweepstakes. But you should NOT be entering in codes to obtain the coupons or other prizes.
I would respectfully ask my readers to abstain from doing this deal. Please be aware that coupon fraud of this sort can be reported and is a serious matter. Lets continue to play by the rules so we can continue to enjoy the many wonderful legitimate deals and coupons manufacturers and stores offer. Please see my ethics policy for more information on what you can expect from my blog on this topic.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks Angela, I’m sure that people like myself did not realize they were committing fraud when when printing the coupons as it did state “No purchase necessary” in the rules. I will write an update post. Honest coupon practices are important to me as well.
Kim, I’m glad you bring this up. In case this wasn’t clear – I fully and whole-heartedly believe that the vast majority of folks posting/sharing this did so unintentionally!
Again, I think the confusion stems from the fact that they have a sweepstakes and a rewards program. The “no purchase necessary” was in regards to the sweepstakes and not the rewards portion. The Terms & Conditions further illustrates this.
I hope La Victoria takes note and will do a better job in the future when running such a promotion. I can certainly see how it would be confusing to have the sweepstakes alongside the rewards portion like that.
Thank you for posting this!
I didn’t really think much of it either since it said no purchase neccessary. I ended up getting some free salsa and now I feel bad. I guess I will know next time. Thanks for the post
Katie, don’t feel bad. My goal was not to make people feel bad – in my opinion, La Victoria should’ve made it clearer that the “no purchase” was for sweepstakes ONLY. My goal with this post was to bring awareness and hopefully stop it from continuing. Sometimes these things are so subtle – and I want to do my part to shed some light. I’m sure if I hadn’t heard of this previously I could’ve easily been confused as well. No worries.