I posted this last week but wanted to make sure all of you are aware that starting June 1st, RedPlum coupon inserts will no longer be in Tampa Bay area Sunday papers. My pal Chris Chmura at Fox 13 Tampa Bay reported on this last week. The reasoning is because of fraud. This is frustrating on so many levels. They are upset about coupon inserts being sold and bartered and yet now I suspect that even more people will support the people selling inserts.
If you want to see if RedPlum inserts will be available in your area, go HERE to RedPlum’s website and type in your address. You will then be able to see whether your RedPlum insert will arrive via newspaper or mail. I typed in my address and it says that I will receive the insert via mail. I know some regions of the country already receive inserts in their mail. I have never received one. So I’ll be curious to see if I actually begin to get an insert in the mail starting in June.
I know you all are probably as frustrated as I am. But remember, we can still print coupons out online on Smartsource.com, Redplum.com and Coupons.com.
Also – please please please use coupons the way they are intended. Read the fine print. Honor the sizes listed on the coupon, honor the products listed on the coupon, and honor the expiration dates. It’s been a while since I’ve gone on a “coupon ethics” rant, but I suppose now is a good a time as any! Yes, it’s true you can make honest mistakes (as I have done even in the past 6 months), but we should all be trying our best to play by the rules.
Share your thoughts. Did you check your address? Will you continue to receive inserts in your paper or via mail or neither?
Below is the Fox 13 news report with Chris Chmura.
FOX 13 News
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I entered my address and got this response:
Good news! The RedPlum Coupon Book is available in your area.
Newspapers – Look in the following newspaper(s) for your RedPlum Coupon Book:
TAMPA BAY REDPLUM SHARED MAIL
But is “Tampa Bay Redplum Shared Mail” a newspaper??
The ‘Tampa Bay Redplum Shared Mail’ is the bundle of junk mail that we receive once a week in the mail full of advertisements and coupons for pizza places, local business’, etc.
Same thing for me, what is shared mail? This is ridiculous, you hardly ever see people from the south on extreme couponing, the ones who abuse the system a re from up north, so why should we suffer?
Shared mail is the adverts you get in the mail once a week. Just because you dont see anyone from the south on extreme couponing does not mean that only northern ppl abuse the system. I lived in the north up until 15 months ago and never abused the system, and taught my couponers in the class I taught twice a week not to abuse the system either. However, while in Walmart the other night, I did observe the lady in front of me extreme couponing with many coupons that were obviously “bought” from a site and she ended up with over 970.00 worth of free things and they had to give her 292.00 cash back as she had so much overage. One item she had 100 items and 100 coupons. clearly no one buys that many newspapers, and she lives in the south.
I suspect eventually that this will happen to all regions. Fraud isn’t just in Florida. It’s everywhere.
It’s not about the fraud. This is a negotiation tactic. If the issue was selling coupons, pulling coupons out from a region would only increase the black market!
redplum is trying to negotiate a higher pay. The fraud discussion is just a distraction to keep redplum from looking greedy.
I buy 80 news papers
Technically when you “buy” coupons from eBay or an online site you’re just paying for their time to clip and organize them. I believe it is illegal to purchase coupons so this is how they get around it. And when you buy a newspaper the coupons just come with it so this is legit.
If it were illegal, eBay wouldn’t allow it. Not all coupons say that you cannot sell them. I think they are a bit misinformed to call the sale of coupons a black market.
Their reason to stop putting them in the paper makes no sense at all.
I work with a girl that goes from CENTRO box to box (CENTROS Are a Spanish newspaper (free) that gives the same coupons that we have to buy in the Tampa Tribune) anyway she can end up with 200 coupon inserts a week. So I am guessing this is where they get all the coupons to sale.. This is where they should stop inserting free coupons not the paper we pay for.
I am going to stop buying and supporting the companies that only issue coupons through RedPlum. That will give them a message if more people boycott those brands, if they are able to!
This fraud thing is absurd..Of course they have contract disagreements over money..First of all there is no LAW or REGULATION regarding trading coupons..It just says on the coupon..it’s a fraud to sell or trade..IT”S NOT…If Redplum treats MOMS as frauds, they may get some big reaction..
I don’t understand the logic behind this….they are upset that people are selling them, this only works if people buy them. No buyers, means no sellers. So how does taking the coupons away help. Wouldn’t this just increase the number of people willing to buy them on the “black market”.
And besides…they are not selling the coupons, they are selling their time. The time it took to organize and cut the coupons. So people out smarted the disclaimer that happens with everything. (I personally think paying for someones time, defeats the cost in savings so I would never buy them like that. BUT if I can’t get them anymore I might have a friend buy the paper and send them to me.)
So, is there any way to obtain another RedPlum insert if you only get one in the mail? I’ve always paid for two Sunday papers so I can have two copies of all the inserts, but now only get one RedPlum in the mail. Is it possible to have a second one delivered?
Looks like total BS as we’re not even going to get them in mail now.
Unfortunately, the RedPlum Coupon Book is not currently available in your area. Look to redplum.com for valuable grocery coupons, offers and savings tips.
None for me and I am in Tampa 🙁
Maybe if we all go to red plums and the papers available in your areas and complain we can start to see some movement in this area. Someone needs to light a fire under someone’s butt so we can start getting our qs again! I think something like this happened with the cw44& bright house. It took awhile to get them to agree but there were adverts on the radio and tv trying to get ppl to contact the service provider to speed up the process. If we all threaten to stop buying them, they will take action.(let’s hope)
I live in Tampa and have never received the RedPlums in my mail. The website says I should. I complained to the post office and they apologized and said it would be fixed, but two weeks later…still no red plum coupons. It seems like the fraud has not been resolved by using the mail service.