Question about use of coupons online through Scholastic Book Clubs

[dshughes]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? KY

I have a very strange ordeal that I need legal advice on. I am a teacher and order books and send home book orders from Scholastic Book Clubs. I place my orders online and have always searched online for coupons for extra bonus points or free books or things. Teachers share these on websites such as proteacher.net and atozteachers.com.

I recently found a post by someone on one of these websites that included codes for coupons worth 4000, 2000, and so on bonus points. We earn bonus points through our purchases and what our students purchase. We can then redeem those for free books, teacher supplies, and even computers and tvs and such.

Any time I have ever used coupon codes on my orders, it will tell me if I haven't ordered enough to use the coupon - for example, order $20 and get $5 worth of books free. So I used these large bonus point coupons and they worked just fine. I was SUPER excited. The person who made that post said she found the codes in a Scholastic ad in an Early Childhood magazine.

I placed my orders, redeemed the coupons and waited a couple days to make sure they were going to work and show up in my bonus point bank. THey did. So I placed another order and redeemed my bonus points for a digital camera, some book shelves and things for my classroom.

Now Scholastic has my account locked out and is figuring out how to deal with this situation. THere were MANY MANY MANY teachers who used these codes because they were shared on the discussion board. Some teachers even earned enough bonus points with these codes to get a computer.

One teacher I work with just received an email telling her that her bonus points were being taken away because of this. She had not redeemed hers yet. What about the rest of us who already redeemed ours?My question is how can we be punished for something that was apparently the company's fault in programming of these coupon codes, if we were to spend a certain amount to get the points? In the past, coupons have never worked unless you met the requirements. How can we teachers be punished by being locked out of our accounts? What can Scholastic do legally? I am very worried about this and would have never used the coupons if I didn't think they were legitimate. I waited and felt like Scholastic would have told me if those wouldn't have worked because my order wasn't large enough. Please advise. THank you!

 

[The Other Side]

So here is the deal....

I, at one time, worked for scholastic as a customer service rep in one of the call centers. I worked there for seven years until I had to retire for health reasons, and I still have friends that work there. Reciently, they were discussing this issue around me and I decided to research it online, that's when I came across your post. Im not a lawyer, and I can't predict the future, but I can give you a pretty fair idea of what is going to go down here.

Cupon trading is very much like file sharing music online without the permission of the artist or record company. Just because it is possible, does not make it legal. Nor does it make it morally or ethically correct. The cupon that you used was given to teachers as a bonus for ordering the early childhood magazine. You did not order said magazine, you did not pay for said magazine, therefore, you did not earn this cupon, and should not have used it. And the excuse that "they let me do it" won't hold up in court. think about it this way; if a thief stole your wallet and used your credit cards to buy a three thousand dollar plasma t.v. and then when they got caught told the poliece "well, she left her purse wide open in the cart in the middle of the store and then turned her back, and didn't turn around until I was gone, so she let me steal it and I shouldn't be getting in trouble for that."
The good news is, I don't think Scholastic will go so far as to take legal action against those who unlawfully used the "shared" cupon codes. There are far too many, and in this economy even a company as big as scholastic can't afford to spend money chasing down ghosts. More than likely they will go after the people who posted the cupon codes in the first place, But from what Im hearing, the hammer will be heavy for them.
For you and others like you, they might do something as tame as making you return the item, putting your account on a pre pay mail order only non coupon hold for the next couple of years, or they might go so far as to make you pay for the item, mark your name as a fradulent customer, and then turn you over to a fully reporting collections agency should you chose not to pay.
The real crime here? Word from the inside is that Scholastic is considering dissolving bonus points. You redeemed one cupon and got a digital camera, others redeemed ten or twenty bought computers and then turned around and sold them on ebay.
I had an uncle and a sister, and still have one other sister who were and are teachers, they taught in low income schools, where teachers worked hard to get their parents to order, and then pooled the points they had to buy badly needed supplies the state couldn't afford to buy them. Because of what you and people like you have done schools all over the country may never have that opportunity.

My Advice? Stop behaving like Scholastic gave you a blank check and then got mad when you used it. Try contacting the people who contacted you (don't call customer service on the 1-800 number, they can't help you, you are dealing with the legal department now) and ask what you can do to set this right.

 

[Zigner]

This thread is a few weeks old...but in any case, refer to https://forum.freeadvice.com/online-purchases-sales-87/billed-free-items-receipt-442855.html for the same issue.

 

[dshughes]

Scholastic is no help right now...

The Other Side: Thanks for your comments on this situation. I could really do without the patronizing tone, however. I know nothing about coupon trading, never heard much about it until recently - because of this ordeal. I've noticed that Ebay won't let you SELL coupons to others. But this is sharing. No where on my Scholastic coupons has it ever said "Cannot be traded or shared with others" or anything to that nature.

I think this is the main problem everyone is having with Scholastic. Their wording on coupons and bonus points is misleading and confusing. I search for coupon codes all the time when I place orders online, mainly looking for free shipping offers. What's the difference between that and passing on a catalog that has a coupon code plastered on the front cover? Every other website I've EVER used coupons on has preset limitations for the coupon's use - limit on how many times a household can use it, limit on the total number of times it can be used at all, cannot be combined with other offers, etc. Why should I think that Scholastic, a mega-company, is any different, or less technologically advanced, as other websites that use this technology to limit their coupons? I've used other coupons on the Scholastic book clubs website and it lets me know that I've already used that one in the past.

You presume that I teach in a higher socio-economic school and did not purchase other much-needed books and supplies for my classroom. You were wrong. I spend hundreds of dollars on my classroom each year. I probably spend at least $200 of my own money, not school money, each year from Scholastic to purchase books for my classroom so my students will have a variety of books to read. I teach at a Title I school, over 60% free/reduced lunch. So please don't blame me for being the one who is going to keep your uncle and sisters from earning their bonus points each year. There were literally THOUSANDS of teachers, naive like me, who used the coupon codes that were shared online.

I have contacted Scholastic MANY times through their email system and they have yet to get back with me. Like you said, their customer service number is completely useless. I have no other contact information. They have not contacted me at all. I am just locked out of my account. What others have been told is completely inconsistent though when they have contacted Scholastic. I AM trying to deal with this. Scholastic, on the other hand, seems to not know what it is doing! I just want some closure to this. I am more than willing to talk to them. This is going on two months now since I was locked out and told to contact them. I finally gave up on sending emails because they do not reply. We'll see what happens after all is back to normal after the Holidays.

Since I originally posted this case, I have contacted an attorney who said to not send anything back or send any money. How can Scholastic determine the "price" of the items we send back, especially when they have told some teachers to just send in any books, not necessarily the ones they purchased with bonus points??

So, in conclusion, thanks for your useless advice. I can absolutely believe that you worked for Scholastic's customer service!