In the 7/7 P&G Insert, Clairol released a $5 off (2) product coupon. Several readers contacted us that Herbal Essences products are actually manufactured by Clairol and therefore the $5/2 Clairol MQ could be used on them. We have deliberately omitted this coupon from our Herbal Essence coupon matchups and we want to take a moment and explain why.
When a high dollar coupon is released and there is a potential for some good deals, sometimes we have to look back at the manufacturer to see what products are included for redemption on that coupon. We found that while the Herbal Essence is, in fact, a Clairol company, the Clairol website only shows hair color products. Plus, there is a separate coupon in that same P&G coupon insert for the Herbal Essence product line. So we found that the $5/2 Clairol coupon should only be used on Hair Color, not the Herbal Essence product line.
Clairol’s Facebook page put out an official response to the use of the Clairol $5/2 coupon here:
“It was our intent that the coupon be used for $5 off of any 2 Clairol hair color products only. We understand that the wording of the coupon does not clarify hair color and want to reassure you that we fully take responsibility and will honor the redemptions. However, we hope that our original intent of offering $5 off of any 2 Clairol hair color products is recognized, so that we can continue to provide valuable offers in the future. Thank you for reaching out for clarity.”
In light of our research, we have excluded this coupon from any Herbal Essence matchups, and hope that while Clairol says they will honor redemptions, that you would choose not to use it on products for which it was not intended. I hope you can understand our conservative approach to couponing.
Shampoo is regularly at the Stock Up Price of Less than $1 per bottle, so the potential harm of a reduction in coupon values released by the Manufacturer just doesn’t seem worth it for the gain in free products.
One other thought: Have you noticed the new wording on the P&G coupons? It states: “no cash or credit in excess of shelf price may be returned to consumer or applied to transaction”. That means NO overage! In January of 2012 P&G added the limit of 4 like coupons per shopping trip. Then they limited them by 4 like coupons per household per day. So to see this new limitation means that obviously the stipulations for using the coupons are increasingly becoming more stringent.
When coupons are not used ethically, then manufacturers will continue to put more restraints on legitimate coupon use! I think we can basically sum it up with this: It’s just like we tell our kids, just because you can do something doesn’t always mean that you should!
