Last night, Reader Teresa asked me this question on Facebook:
To be honest, I hadn’t heard of this. (Or maybe I’d seen the little banners on Coupons.com and tuned them out. That’s totally possible!)
Sure enough on closer inspection I found this at Coupons.com:
The Savings Club is Coupons.com’s new way of making money coupon club. The idea is that for a fee, you’ll get hard-to-find, high value coupons and get earlier access to coupons as well. How much exactly does it cost? $30 for the year, or $3 monthly. Right now, you can try it 30 days for free. The bummer part is you’ll have to enter your credit card information for your “free trial.” Of course, you’ll be charged at the end of your free trial if you don’t cancel.
For this reason, I didn’t feel comfortable signing up, but I read over at Faithful Provisions a sample of the “exclusive” coupons available. Some of coupons available to her under this program included:
- $1/1 Applegate Farms Product
- $1/2 Tropicana Pure Premium 59 oz bottles
- 50¢/1 Bob Evans Refrigerated Side Dish
- $1.50/1 4-pack of Seattle’s Best Iced Coffees
I can’t say I was impressed by this. Nor was she.
In the August press release concerning Savings Club, Coupons.com CEO Steven Boal had this to say: “The launch of the Savings Club allows us to offer greater savings to our savviest shoppers, while still fully maintaining our core free coupon service.” It would seem to me the savviest shoppers would have better ideas to obtain coupons than authorizing their credit card for a monthly fee, Mr. Boal.
Concerns I have about Savings Club
While it’s yet to be seen if this program will provide value or not, I have two specific concerns about their program.
Concern #1: This is more a grab bag than an exclusive offering.
I’m bothered that there is no way to know ahead of time which coupons I’ll be getting or not. According to the Terms of Service:
You understand that the coupons available through the service may expire or be depleted at any point in time, and Coupons may or may not replenish such coupon inventory.
It seems only fair to me that if I’m paying to be a part of something exclusive, there should be reasonable assurance of what it is I will be receiving in return. I am not fond of paying access to unknown coupons in unknown quantities.
Concern #2: This could undermine the notion that coupons are not to be sold.
I’ve got a pretty firm belief that manufacturer coupons are not to be sold. It’s stated on the fine print and officials are trying to shut down the practice by 2012. So there’s something about it that just feels – questionable to me. Going back to the Terms of Service, the end user must agree to not:
reproduce, copy, duplicate, sell, resell, rent or trade the Service (or any part thereof, including coupons made available through the Service);
It seems that they are calling this a “Service” to circumvent the sale of coupons issue; however, I don’t really see much of a “Service” being offered here other than coupons and access to coupons. Am I missing something? Regardless, it seems to muddy the waters when it comes to the issue of coupon selling.
Um…why?
Teresa, to answer the second part of your question, “why do you suppose they are starting this?” I have two theories.
Either Coupons.com is trying to recoup a loss of income (perhaps due to coupon fraud?) or Coupons.com is trying to capitalize on the popularity of coupons right now. I think the latter is more likely, but my guess is as good as yours. Based on the way it’s structured, I am guessing they are trying to take advantage of the surge in interest in couponing.
I suppose there could be a third, less likely theory, that offering this will somehow thwart an alien attack on national grocery chain stores. I mean, isn’t that always a possible third theory?
Final Thoughts
From what I can tell, I’m not a fan and won’t be signing up.
When Coupons.com made their announcement on Facebook late August, it went over like a root canal. Several others voiced their concern about the legality involved with Coupons.com selling coupons, but Coupons.com did not address these.
If you wish to check it out, please pay attention to the date your card will be charged! By agreeing to the Terms of Service and signing up, be assured – you will be charged at the end of the month and ongoing until you cancel. There are no refunds, so take care.
If you’ve signed up for the trial, what are your thoughts? What do you think of the idea of Coupons.com charging for premium coupons? How premium would they have to be to get you to fork over $3/month?
