SM Advantage Misleading ACE Hardware Coupon (Ire)

Buying a SM Advantage card for Php 100 entitles the consumer to a booklet of coupons that has numerous discounts with other establishments, one of them ACE Hardware, and as stated in the coupon, a 10% discount on all ACE branded items, meaning that not all the items being sold in the store will be eligible for the discount.

This is stated quite clearly on the coupon, so when I purchased ACE Hardware items on 23 February 2006, I asked the cashier which items can be discounted.

The cashier, together with the help of other personnel, were able to identify almost immediately which were the ACE branded items, but what took a much longer time to ascertain was whether the 10% discount would be applied on the said items.

The first hindrance was the fact that the cashier was not familiar with the coupon, so about 15 minutes was spent finding out whether the coupon was going to be honored or not.

Once it was discovered that it can be accepted, the next problem presented was the piece of information that I can only avail of the discount if I paid in cash.

Immediately, I requested for the manager because there was no such indication on the coupon that the discount would be applied only to cash purchases, and that all credit purchases would be ineligible.

At first, the supervisor and then later, the manager repeated the store policy, but I was also adamant about the lack of such information on the coupon.

It took an additional 30 minutes of waiting, but, the manager, Ms. Ma. Melsa Tatualla, took the time and trouble to find out how the situation can be resolved.

Thankfully, the resolution was to the consumer’s advantage.

Since it was not stated in the coupon about the store policy of such discounts being only applicable to cash purchases, the store will honor the discount even if it’s a credit card purchase (it will be the printing company that will shoulder the discount since they neglected to print “For cash purchases only”).

So if you’re a SM Advantage cardholder, insist on your ACE Hardware discount even if you’re informed that it’s only applicable to cash purchases.

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