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CVS Deals Discussion - MARCH 09


freesia39

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ALL discussion about CVS deals, coupons, and promotions for the month will take place in this thread. Please do not start a new thread, as they will promptly be CLOSED and you will be directed to post in the new thread.

 

Welcome to the joys of CVS Shopping! Here are some quick details to help you out:

 

What is the CVS Extra Care Program?

The CVS Extra Care program is CVS’s shopping card. You can sign up for a card in store or online at https://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/cvs/gateway/registerextracare?LOGINMSG=XTRACAREMSG

With this card, you will have access to their weekly and monthly sale prices. If you do not present your card, you will not be given these sale prices or qualify for the Extra Care Bucks rewards.

 

The greatest benefit of this program is the Extra Care Bucks portion.

 

What is an Extra Care Bucks?

Every month, along with every week, CVS runs sales on particular items where if you buy that item, you will receive a coupon at the end of your receipt with Extra Care Bucks (aka ECBs) that you can use on your next purchase.

 

For example, let’s say Garnier Fructis shampoo is on sale for 2.99 with $2.00 in ECBs. This means you will have to pay the 2.99 upfront for the shampoo, but at the end of your receipt, you will receive a $2.00 ECB that you can use on a future purchase at CVS. It’s like you only paid $0.99 for a bottle of shampoo!

 

At the end of each quarter, CVS will also add up all your spending, and give you a rebate in ECBs based on your spending, which is 2% of the total amount. That’s EXTRA money just for buying items at CVS!

 

Can I use manufacturer’s coupons?

Certainly! Using the example above with the Garnier Fructis shampoo – there are regularly coupons for 1.00 off your purchase of one (1) bottle of their shampoo. The item will ring up at 2.99, then you can use your coupon for 1.00 off, so you wind up paying 1.99 for the item. You STILL get the $2.00 ECB reward – so it’s like getting it for free!

 

Wow! Can I do this over and over?

Unfortunately, there are limits to all the sales. Check the weekly ad and the monthly sales books for the limits. When we post the sales here, we will also list the limits.

 

Can I have more than one CVS card?

The answer in general is no. However, if you have access to another address/name/phone number, you may be able to get a second card.

 

What about prescriptions?

Whenever you fill a prescription, make sure the pharmacy scans your card! Each prescription is 0.50 in ECBs that will be paid out at the end of the quarter.

 

Can I use the ECBs I earn to pay for prescriptions?

Unfortunately, no. They can only be used on store purchases.

 

CVS and Coupons

CVS also has a great coupon program. When you sign up for your card, make sure to check that you want CVS to email you coupons and offers. This will put you on their mailing list for future coupons!

 

Most of the CVS coupons are for a certain amount of dollars off a minimum dollar purchase. For example, to start, CVS will email you a coupon to save $4.00 on a $20.00 purchase.

 

When entering your store, look for the CVS card scanning/price checking machine. Scan your card upon entry every time for additional coupons and incentives! Sometimes it's 3.00/10.00 of CVS products, or something FREE!

 

Stacking coupons

Please note, your store may have a different policy regarding the stacking of coupons. IN ADDITION CVS has not been issuing as many e-mail coupons as in the past. Most stacking has been done via CRT coupons, which are the coupons that are generated at the end of your CVS receipt, or from the card scanning machine (if your store has one.)

 

Always make sure you give the cashier your CVS card to scan before you get to the total and start handing over coupons to make sure you get any sale prices.

 

CVS will sometimes have coupons for $3 off a $15.00 purchase, or $2 off a $10.00. The theory regarding CVS purchases are:

Your PRETAX amount is 30.00. You have a coupon for $4 off $20.00, $3 off $15.00, or $2 off $10.00. Hand to the cashier the coupons in this order:

1. The $4 off $20.00 coupon

2. The $3 off $15.00

3. The $2 off 10.00

As long as your total is more than the amount on the coupon, you can keep using coupons.

 

NEXT, give them your manufacturer coupons.

 

FINALLY, give them your ECBs.

 

Hopefully by this point, your out of pocket (OOP) amount is a small number. It may not be at the start, but with constant shopping and deal searching, you’ll build up a good amount of ECBs to use on future purchases.

 

We have come across some stores that will not allow you to stack their money off coupons unless your total equals the amounts of the coupons. For example, if you want to use a $4 off $20 coupon along with a $3 off $15 coupon, some cashiers may say that your total must be $35.00 before you can use the coupon. This rule varies from store to store and from cashier to cashier. We cannot say that CVS will always stack, because the policies are always changing.

 

What do they do about B1G1 (buy one, get one free) coupons? I have 2 coupons for the B1G1 covergirl lip product. If I got 2 lip products and used the two coupons would I get both for free or do the B1G1 coupons ring stuff up for 1/2 price?

 

CVS rings up the first item at full price and the second item rings up free. So if you have a BOGO free coupon, you would get both items free.

 

PLEASE NOTE: YMMV (your mileage may vary.) Some stores may not process it, some cashiers may be confused, but in general, the above should happen.

 

 

How to use your ECBs

Please note that you cannot use your ECBs:

- on pharmacy co-pays

- on the purchase of gift cards

Also, ECBs are tied to YOUR card. You will not be able to use the ECBs that are earned by other people. You must also present your card in order to use your ECBs.

 

Please note that your ECBs do have an expiration date and to be mindful of it. If they do expire, you may be able to have customer service reactivate them. Please contact CVS customer service at 800-SHOP-CVS.

 

ECBs can only be used on the PRETAX amount of your purchase. If your pre-tax purchase is 3.99 and you only have a $4.00 ECB, you will not be able to use that ECB – you must use smaller denominations.

 

I bought something that comes with ECBs but it didn’t print out. What gives?!

Check to see if you had previously hit the limit on the offer. It will print on your receipt. Also make sure you bought the correct item or version of the product. If you had not hit the limit, please contact customer service at 800-SHOP-CVS and they will add it to your card to print the next time you are in store.

THE GROUND RULES:

1. Post your experiences shopping at CVS, the deal combos you have found, and the unmarked clearance/ECB deals you have found at your store. Also post your general location if you are comfortable.

2. Do not post links to non CVS authorized coupons. They will be edited out. Authentic CVS coupons come from cvs.com or are located at akamaitech.com.

3. Keep non CVS chatter to a minimum. This is first and foremost a deals discussion. Anything going too far off topic will be deleted.

 

If you have links to printable coupons for items on sale this week at CVS, also post those for others to share.

 

Play nice!

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  • 1 year later...
Does anyone know the rule for redeeming rainchecks? On the back it states that the rainchecks are valid at ANY CVS, but today when I tried to redeem a raincheck for an item that was part of the ECB deal for February, the clerk said that if the raincheck is tied to an ECB item, I have to redeem the raincheck at the store that issued it. Is that true?
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If anyone uses Gillette Fusion Razors in their house, CVS has them for $7.99 this week. There was a MFC a few weeks ago for $4 making them $3.99. At the register, $4 in ECB prints out making them -$0.01! :) It's limit one per card. I got one that came with shaving gel, shampoo, a battery, the razor, and $10 off an EA Sports video game ... more than worth it! :)
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Does anyone know the rule for redeeming rainchecks? On the back it states that the rainchecks are valid at ANY CVS, but today when I tried to redeem a raincheck for an item that was part of the ECB deal for February, the clerk said that if the raincheck is tied to an ECB item, I have to redeem the raincheck at the store that issued it. Is that true?

That is not the case here, in general I have been able to use them at all my different stores. I actually redeemed 2 today without any issues.

One time though, when I was supposed to get a high value ECB back ($16) the store I went to threw a big fit about it "coming out of their store bottom line" and sent me to the store that wrote the coupon. Long story short, the store that sent me away got chewed out by district management for not honoring a chain wide raincheck.

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Here is the march book:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?tab=publish&docid=ajdnq2gxrqwx_70gqx8rtgw&hl=en

 

The essence of beauty robes are also on clearance for $1.49!!! I found some at a store today. I only got 2. They were not marked and had to get the cashier to scan them. It was an older lady and she looked at me funny when the price came up and I didn't think she wanted to tell me. I said they are $1.49 aren't they? She said yes and ran to get the other ones left!!!

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That is not the case here, in general I have been able to use them at all my different stores. I actually redeemed 2 today without any issues.

One time though, when I was supposed to get a high value ECB back ($16) the store I went to threw a big fit about it "coming out of their store bottom line" and sent me to the store that wrote the coupon. Long story short, the store that sent me away got chewed out by district management for not honoring a chain wide raincheck.

I decided to call CS after reading this and was told in no uncertain terms that rainchecks are to be honored at ANY CVS regardless of what promotion is attached to the product. The CS rep told me that she would personally call the store and inform them that they were wrong and to accept the raincheck. I went in this morning, picked up the packages of heat pads (they were in the Feb ECB book) and all the coupons that were attached to the front of the packages were gone!! I was just in the store yesterday (when they said "no" to redeeming the raincheck) and the $1 off coupons were on every package. So "someone" pulled off all the coupons . . . hmmmm. Anyway, I confronted the manager, and she said she didn't know anything about the coupons, but didn't say one word when I gave her the raincheck. She rang up the pads as "free" (they were 3.99 minus the 3 ECBs that would have printed and minus the $1 off coupon that was suppose to be attached to the product.) So I was happy, but definitely got the cold shoulder at checkout. It was almost silly.

 

Here is the march book:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?tab=publish&docid=ajdnq2gxrqwx_70gqx8rtgw&hl=en

 

The essence of beauty robes are also on clearance for $1.49!!! I found some at a store today. I only got 2. They were not marked and had to get the cashier to scan them. It was an older lady and she looked at me funny when the price came up and I didn't think she wanted to tell me. I said they are $1.49 aren't they? She said yes and ran to get the other ones left!!!

Thank you for this post!! What a great deal!:yup:

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I decided to call CS after reading this and was told in no uncertain terms that rainchecks are to be honored at ANY CVS regardless of what promotion is attached to the product. The CS rep told me that she would personally call the store and inform them that they were wrong and to accept the raincheck. I went in this morning, picked up the packages of heat pads (they were in the Feb ECB book) and all the coupons that were attached to the front of the packages were gone!! I was just in the store yesterday (when they said "no" to redeeming the raincheck) and the $1 off coupons were on every package. So "someone" pulled off all the coupons . . . hmmmm. Anyway, I confronted the manager, and she said she didn't know anything about the coupons, but didn't say one word when I gave her the raincheck. She rang up the pads as "free" (they were 3.99 minus the 3 ECBs that would have printed and minus the $1 off coupon that was suppose to be attached to the product.) So I was happy, but definitely got the cold shoulder at checkout. It was almost silly.

 

Thank you for contacting CS about this.
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I really think it's funny how some of these managers take it so personally when you score a good deal on a product. They almost act as if you're stealing something from them! It's a corporate store for gosh sakes!!

That's what always amazes me too. It's like you are taking food off their table.

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Here is the march book:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?tab=publish&docid=ajdnq2gxrqwx_70gqx8rtgw&hl=en

 

The essence of beauty robes are also on clearance for $1.49!!! I found some at a store today. I only got 2. They were not marked and had to get the cashier to scan them. It was an older lady and she looked at me funny when the price came up and I didn't think she wanted to tell me. I said they are $1.49 aren't they? She said yes and ran to get the other ones left!!!

What do these robes look like? and where are they located in the store?

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Essence of Beuaty are a brand of bathroom stuff, like shower gel, body spray, lotions and stuff (it is a cvs brand). These gifts sets are 90% off!! I scored a few today. The brand is essence of beauty and they are gift set type things. Make sure you price check any you find. Got 8 different essence of beauty things today. Priced from $.49-$1.29. The robes are in a plastic package thing. I only found them at one store and they were on the very bottom shelf and were in the aisles were the other lotions and body washes and all that stuff is. The essence of beauty gift sets were near these also. Some of the cologne gift sets are ringing at 90% off too so price check those also!

 

BTW: the ladies at the cvs stores I go to really love me! They love the great deals I get and they also grabbed up some of the essence of beauty products today when I told them about it. They had no clue and these gift sets and things ARE NOT MARKED!!

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No, the cologne sets are not essence of beauty. They have all the name brand kinds, like J lo, Mariah Carey, tommy girl, stuff like that. YMMV with the cologne sets. All I found was JLO, I guess they sold out of the other ones earlier.
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I bought cologne sets and perfume sets at 50% off last week. I went back and put 2 more sets in my cart and they rang up full price. I asked and she said oh they were on sale last week but not this week, I guess it must be a store to store thing. I am going to try another store today.
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YMMV on all of this! There are certain EOB things ringing at 90% as well as cologne sets, these are name brand cologne sets. None of these were even marked at my store. I had to price check everything I was interested in. Here are some pictures (these pictures come from mommy2parker at HCW)

[ATTACH]2899[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH]2900[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH]2901[/ATTACH]

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Man shoot! Why didn't I read this before I went to CVS. I think I saw most of those EOB items. I found the .49 cent fingernail polish and the red croc wallet for $1.29. The wallet is nice. Heading to ome with a scanner this time - its not good to go during lunch when you have to ask for price checks. I wish they would just let me use a handheld price checker thingy.
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I hit the motherload on perfum/cologne sets!

I got a curve set, usher, a liz claiborne variety set, white diamonds, a j-lo set, polo, and a ton more, they were priced from like .99-2.99.

 

Thank you so much for bringing all of that to my attention, after my ECB's I paid under $3 out of pocket.

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My coworker is still finding the EOB lotions, body mists and bubble bath in the vanilla and the sugar plum scents for .59

 

Also the wristlets are plentiful. They are usually on an endcap either by the greeting cards or the prepaid gift cards.

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scanned full price for me to like 6 different things clearly left over christmas I even double checked my previous purchases when I got home because I remembered getting 2 of them at 75% off earlier this year they were exactly the same
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