Thursday, May 17, 2012

Consumerism at its Best

Last month, I was so annoyed when yet another diaper tore before we could even use it (the strip where the velcro is attached falls off, it's not attached securely to the back panel). It was the nth torn diaper from that box and I decided to write Pampers to let them know my dissatisfaction.

A Pampers representative responded to my email within a few days and told me that they'll be sending me a couple of coupons to make up for the torn diapers. I was happy to receive an acknowledgement of my complaint but I wasn't really happy about the coupons because we buy our diapers via subscribe & save at Amazon and they don't accept coupons anyway.

Some time later, I received 2 $10 coupons in the mail. Each $10 coupon could be applied to a single pack of diapers worth $15 or more. This is where it gets tricky. Diapers for our size come in $13, $29 (84pcs) and $49 (132pcs) from the grocery stores. Pampers was very sneaky & creative with their coupon restrictions because even if you discounted the $10 off of the $29 & the $49 boxes, there's no way the prices will even come close (per diaper) to Amazon's.

Kainis, right ? It's like they gave you a pampalubag-loob, but it's useless anyway. I just stuck these in my wallet after I figured out how useless these were. Oh, and the coupons expire in 2 months, it's not like they give you plenty of time to wait for a good sale.

I wasn't happy, UNTIL today.

At the supermarket, I see that the box of 84s (size 5) were down from $29 to $23 AND if you purchase 2 boxes, you get a $6 coupon applicable to your next shopping order. This sale combined with the coupons brought our price down to 18c per diaper (compared to Amazon's 22c per diaper) AND if I count the $6 coupon we received for buying 2 boxes, the price goes down to 14c per diaper.

NOW, I'm satisfied.

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