CVS is tricky

By adamg on Thu, 04/09/2009 - 7:54am

Just because there's a "SALE" tag under a bottle of moisturizing lotion doesn't mean the item is actually on sale, Steve Garfield discovers.

Topics:

Annoying companies

Free tagging:

CVS

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Comments

CVS

By anon on Thu, 04/09/2009 - 9:52am.

Pretty much any time that I purchase something on sale at CVS there seems to be a problem. Most recently I needed to pick up my shower gel which was on sale. Of course it didn't ring up as the sale price. All I had to do was tell the cashier that it was on sale and she was able to magically ring up the sale price. Why can't that just happen the first time?

Poor consumers

By Eighthman on Thu, 04/09/2009 - 10:30am.

Well, everything in CVS is "on sale," otherwise we'd call it a museum.

It's a shame when people think they're getting ripped off when they actually aren't. All the information was on the tag. And yeah, I think a rebate counts as a sale. I like it when I can chain the cash-back deals at CVS with follow-up visits. I'll buy Tide and get a coupon for a couple of bucks, then I use that coupon to get dishwasher soap for another coupon (or my favorite: after-holiday discounted candy), and so on. I think my record was four times in a row.

They're on the watch list.

By gribley on Thu, 04/09/2009 - 3:03pm.

I dunno which CVS he goes to, but I've been thinking for years about writing some snarky letters to the BBB about the CVS on Centre at Boylston in JP. They consistently put SALE tags on the wrong items, in what is apparently a deliberate fashion. It's especially noticeable for the racks of candy at Easter, for example. I recall that last year they had a price sticker, for example, for 99 cents for a bag of jelly beans, but the *entire stock* of jelly beans was a different size bag, for something like $2.49. In other cases I've had to read the UPC codes to figure out that the product above the SALE sign is a different size or count and not on sale at all. It can't be an accident -- I really think they are misleading on purpose.

Perhaps I'll start shopping there with my camera, document a few obvious cases, and write some letters. I know there are bigger problems in the world, but this is super scuzzy behavior for my neighborhood store.

Cure CVS

By Deanne on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 11:11am.

I'm working with the Cure CVS campaign. More info at www.curecvsnow.org

I hear about CVS ripping customers off all the time. The Boston Globe has described CVS as "by far the most penalized of any retailer" in Massachusetts when it comes to fines for overcharging customers and other pricing violations.

Email me at [email protected] to tell me about your experience with CVS.

CVS-Your neighborhood store where sale items are not on sale....

By anon on Thu, 04/09/2009 - 4:41pm.

Had same problems with CVS -

CVS is notorious for having confusing sale promotions and I can't believe it is not unintentional. In regards to the article, I was in a CVS when a consumer was attempting to get her $5.00 bucks back on a product that was not on sale even though the tag, underneath the product, said "sale". I disagree with the poster who says a rebate is a sale. A rebate is a rebate and an item that has the word "sale" underneath said item should be the item on sale. Anything less is confusing and/or misleading for the consumer.

CVS also has very bad habit of not pricing their items MA consumer law. They are a horrible company and their stores suck, crowded and uncomfortable to shop in. I wish they would go away.

I like to think CVS helps keep Walgreens in check

By neilv on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 11:57am.

Right now, Walgreens has flipped out with RFID tags that look like hell and leave tacky residue and metallic remnants on your bottles of health&beauty products.

They're also being careless with how they apply them, such as covering up disclosures that are required to be on the products. My current bottle of body wash had two Walgreens RFID tags.

Atop this, they're just being dumb from a retail marketing perspective: I walked down the aisle of a popular Walgreens recently, and it was a parade of RFID tags dominating the fronts of retail packaging. It's like they were not selling $10 Neutrogena, but sloppy red-lettering warnings that someone is in trouble if you find this box anywhere but in a Walgreens.

If CVS goes away, Walgreens will be less likely to believe you if you write them to tell them you're shopping elsewhere.

I prefer Rite-Aid myself

By adamg on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 12:10pm.

Because they're the only ones that sell the lens wipes I prefer for my glasses, the ones the optician warned me would explode or shatter or something if I dared tried wiping them with, say, a t-shirt.