Responsible Couponing ~

By now you all know how I feel about honest and ethical coupon practices. I try to educate my readers as much as I can about fraudulent coupon use and what it entails. I also work overtime to make sure nothing of question is posted at Simple Saving Savvy, but ALAS! I am human.

And this human erred big time this week. Because I did not take the time to research it myself, I posted coupons in PDF format that were most likely scanned copies and not directly linked to a legitimate website. The coupons I am referring to are those from the Cookie Magazine.

Many thanks to Mercedes at Common Sense With Money for catching what I did not.

I am quoting from Mercedes' post:

"Most manufacturers are moving away from releasing coupons in pdf form. You can be sure that most large companies are now trusting technology such as Bricks, or coupon providing services like Coupons.com or Red Plum, to release their coupons. There are some manufacturers that have made it clear they don’t release printable coupons in pdf format. One such manufacturer is Procter & Gamble. This is the reason when I saw these printable coupons available on the Cookie Magazine website earlier this week I knew they were unauthorized and most likely the result of someone scanning the magazine. One of the coupons was for Tide detergent, which is one of Procter and Gamble Products.

Practice common sense and read the details. Continuing with the example of the Cookie Magazine coupons, if you read some of the coupons you can discern that this is a scan of a coupon not the actual coupon. For example, the Bagel Bites coupon states on the face of the coupon to look at the reverse side for details. But you have no reverse side to look at, do you?"

I have to admit that I did not read the fine print on the coupons and I did not do my homework. Effective immediately, I have removed these coupons from Simple Saving Savvy and if you printed them, I strongly encourage you to dispose of them as well.

To be on the safe side, don't trust printable coupons in pdf or jpeg form that are not hosted or cannot be found on the manufacturer's website. And even if a reputable website or blog distributes these, always question it. I, for one, would definitely appreciate the back up and accountability.