FAQ: THE BASICS

I see several abbreviations and terms that I am not familiar with. Can you explain?

When do you fill the orders that we place right now?

I spent a lot of time selecting coupons and putting them in my cart. Then I left, and when I came back later in the day, my cart was empty. Why?

What do you do and how can you help me?

How long will my order take to get to me once shipped?

Do You Provide MAIL TRACKING for our envelopes that come first class?

What do I need to do first?

How do I order?

How do I remove coupons from my cart?

Why don't you fill coupon orders on Thursdays?

What does the Q mean on the site? I found it under ORDER STATUS.

When do you change the order status?

What if I open my order and I've found a mistake that you made?

What if YOU there at TCC make a mistake and I miss a sale on something really super? Will you compensate me for what I 'could have' saved?

What if I've made a mistake and ordered 66 of something, but I only wanted 6?

What is the 'Admin fee" all about? I see it located at the bottom of my orders?

I want to order only 1 of each coupon. However, the coupon quantity jumps to 5 in my shopping cart. Why?

I just want 20 total coupons, totaling only $1.00, but the cart won't let me check out. Why not?

I see the words LIMIT 10 on some of the coupons. Is that per person, or what?

Why do you impose limits?

I placed a $9 order. Does that mean I can order 3x the quantity of limited items?

Some of the HOT coupons don't seem to be very popular. Why are they on the HOT coupons page?

How long will the HOT coupons stay on the HOT coupons page?

How often do you update the list?

When do you put the new Sunday Supplement coupons on the list?

What does the "NEW" icon and the "SPECIAL" icon mean?

Where do you get all your coupons?

What good are expired coupons?

Speaking of emails, I want to be removed from your email list. What do I do?

How do you get paid?

If I send you money in the mail, how long does it take you to post it?

I get lots of extra coupons each week that I do not use. Do you want them?

Why don't you describe the restaurant coupons more, even if we ask you to?

I tried to post something, but the forum doesn't recognize me. I'm logged in to the coupon site. Why am I not recognized here?

Do I have to put in a valid Email addy here, too?

I like the forum. I can see where it would be a good place to meet up with other traders. Can I trade my own coupons there?

Am I allowed to place my referral links on there, so that when someone goes to another site, that I can get credit for it?

Are your gluten-free items actually gluten-free?

I see several abbreviations and terms that I am not familiar with. Can you explain?

B1G1F:: Buy one, get one free
B2G1F: Buy two, get one free
DND or DNT: Do not double or do not triple
DND-5: This means Do Not Double, but it will double at most stores in the north that have machines doing the doubling.
DND-9: This means Do Not Double, but it will NOT double at most stores in the north that have machines doing the doubling.
SD: Store Display
RB: Red Blinky
CRT: Cash Register Tape
CODE: This means that a form only needs a cash register tape (CRT) in order to be able to take advantage of the offer. Lots of people save ONLY their CRTs, so these forms are more in demand than those which require both the UPC and the CRT.
NED: No Expiration Date
FORM: A rebate certificate which, when filled out appropriately and mailed in, will warrant you the said-mentioned rebate as listed.
CO: Coupon
NonSS: Non-Sunday Supplement. These coupons did NOT come out in our Sunday supplement sections.
POP: Proof of Purchase, which is usually the UPC bar code.
UPC: Universal Product Code.. The bar codes on each item which stores usually scan to get the price.
H/F: Handling Fee
C: Completed. Your order is finished and has been shipped Q=Queued. Your order is in line (Queue) and is waiting to be completed and shipped. No need to worry about this order.
I: Incomplete. Oops. Something went crazy when placing your order and the order was NOT finished. We did NOT get it and you need to panic! Contact us about what to do about getting your order.
F: Failed. Something definitely went wrong with the payment and we definitely did not get your payment OR your order. Just try again and it'll probably work fine.

When do you fill the orders that we place right now?

Here is a basic schedule guideline of when you place your order and when we fill it: If you place your order:

-----Friday from 11:01 a.m. until Saturday night at 11:59 p.m ., we ship on Monday by 5 p.m.

---- Sunday, 12:01 a.m.  to Monday at 8 p.m., we ship by Tuesday at 5 p.m.

----Monday from 8:01 p.m. until Wednesday at 11 a.m., we ship on Wednesday by 5 p.m.

----Wednesday from 11:01 a.m. until Friday at 11:00 a.m., we ship on Friday by 5 p.m.

For the fastest turnaround time, order on Tuesday night or Thursday night. The orders will go out the next day...or else on Wed. morning at 10 a.m.

ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN TIME.

MAIL HOLIDAYS automatically bump to the next MAIL SHIPPING day.

We reserve the right to extend our deadlines, but we won't shorten them without letting you know on the front page.

I spent a lot of time selecting coupons and putting them in my cart. Then I left, and when I came back later in the day, my cart was empty. Why?

We have given you 90 minutes to get your order started and finished. We do not have a 'save cart' feature and cannot implement one due to the timely nature of getting these out to you.
If you think you'll have to be away for a while, just go ahead and complete the order. If you pay for priority or express shipping, we can combine the shipping and credit you the postage for your next orders with TCC.

What do you do and how can you help me?

We are a full-service coupon clipping service, providing manufacturer's coupons and rebate forms for a small handling fee.
You can easily save 20-30% of your grocery bill each week, and if you can double your coupons, you can wipe out 40-60% of that bill with carefully planned shopping trips.
We here at The Coupon Clippers are known for our speed, our honesty, our customer service and our response time. We work hard to provide the very best coupon clipping service that we can! If you order soon enough, we can have this week's coupons in your mail box before week's end, so you can use them at sales this week, without having to do any of the clipping yourself!

How long will my order take to get to me once shipped?

The time that it takes for an order to arrive is up to the United States Postal Service and YOU. However, these are the basic guidelines:

If you selected regular USPS shipping, the item should arrive via USPS within 3 - 10 days after from the date of shipping.
If you selected Priority shipping, we will ship using Priority Mail and your packet of money saving coupons should arrive in 2 to 3 business days (Don't count Sundays) from date of shipping. However, priority is NOT a guaranteed service by the USPS and they are only "guesstimates" given by the USPS.
If you selected EXPRESS shipping, then, delivery will be 1 to 3 days after date of shipping, depending on how close you live to a major airport and whether you're ordering for delivery over the weekend or not. (The post office does NOT deliver on Sundays, so if you request an Express shipping on Friday and it's a 2 day Express, then they won't deliver it until Monday.
I'd suggest just going with priority mail at that point, as that's also going to get there on Monday, most likely.)

These shipping times are estimates and delivery times may vary.

We at TCC cannot guarantee the post office's delivery times. These are guesstimates based on what we've experienced over 500,000 orders.

International Standard shipments are expected to arrive in 10 to 24 days (they may take 6 to 8 weeks because of delays in customs). When shipping to islands like Guam or Hawaii or territories as Puerto Rico, usually regular mail delivery times apply, but allow for extra time, just because of the sheer distance that your envelope must travel.

Do You Provide MAIL TRACKING for our envelopes that come first class?

We do not. However, the USPS will allow you to add delivery confirmation to a priority mail shipment, which merely confirms that an envelope is delivered, for an additional $.70 beyond the cost of Priority mail. EXPRESS shipping, which is $17.50 does provide tracking automatically with the tracking number that we send to you.

If you want to track your order, please choose EXPRESS SHIPPING in the drop down menu at the SHIPPING window.

What do I need to do first?

First you must register and pick a USERNAME and password. Click on the Logon link found on the TOP RIGHT of every page. On the LOGIN page you will see a link to REGISTER HERE under the New Customers heading, click on that link and it will take you to our Registration page. You may not use your email address as your USERNAME. Please pick a user name you can easily remember. Then store both your user name and your password in a safe place. A good suggestion, for those who use Microsoft Outlook, is to create a sticky pad NOTE in Outlook, and put it on that. Otherwise, I would suggest when you get the email notice from us in a couple of minutes after registering that you store that in a file called IMPORTANT REGISTRATION INFORMATION.

How do I order?

Click on the links on the top left hand side that say A-C, D-F, etc. You'll find boxes available where you can enter numbers beside specific coupons that are described. The handling fees are listed at the far right of the screen. If you cannot see the handling fees, you need to set the screen size resolution smaller on your desktop, so that you can get the whole page to be visible at the same time on your screen. (To do that, click on the WINDOWS icon and the 'D' key at the same time. This will give you a blank desktop without closing anything. Then right click anywhere on the blank desktop and go to the bottom where it says PROPERTIES. Go to the SETTINGS display and change your screen resolution to MORE. This will put more on a page, and you'll find our web site looks tons nicer when the resolution is a tad bit smaller.)

Once you've inputted your desired quantities of coupons, go to the top or bottom and hit the "Add to cart" "GO" button. Your items will automatically be entered into your cart. You can now continue shopping and keep adding to your cart in the same manner. When you are ready to checkout, click on either the 'View Cart' or 'Checkout' links on the left of the page. If you click 'View Cart,' you'll then continue with the CHECKOUT button at the bottom of the page. Follow the directions on each page, and just keep clicking on 'CONTINUE.'

When you submit your order, you will automatically get a CONFIRMATION from my server that the order was received and you will have an order number with it. IF THAT DOES NOT COME TO YOU IN AN EMAIL, THEN YOUR ORDER WAS NOT PROCESSED.

Some internet companies cut people off in the middle of being on line, and others have problems like that. In order for you to be assured that I received the order, you must be sure to get a confirmation number. Otherwise, we did NOT get the order, because it was not processed through to the end.

If you need to ask me a question about an order, PLEASE INCLUDE THE ORDER NUMBER which will automatically come to the email address that you provide. Please be sure that this e-mail address is a good one and that it can receive e-mails..(Some people use a feature on AOL that rejects ALL e-mails except a certain few people, and they order, but forgot to add my e-mail address to their list of acceptees!) I can-not answer questions to an email address that bounces!

How do I remove coupons from my cart?

Hit the delete link next to each coupon from within the cart. Changing the quantity to zero will not work.

Why don't you fill coupon orders on Thursdays?

We have to have some time for our doctor's appointments, our banking and music lesson, among other things. If you mail something on Thursday, it most likely won't make it there until Monday anyway, so we take Thursdays off to do 'our' things.

What does the Q mean on the site? I found it under ORDER STATUS.

It means Queued. The word 'Queue' means that it's in line. That's a good one for those who like Scrabble. I learned the definition of the word as a kid, but never really used it much. A Q means that the order has not been mailed yet.

When do you change the order status?

After the orders have been mailed out for the day. So, generally speaking, don't check for any changes on this until after 5 p.m. each day. However, you will get an email stating that the order was mailed out. So, there's not really any need to check the status online anyway.

MISTAKES ON ORDERS

What if I open my order and I've found a mistake that you made?

We try very hard to be 100% accurate in every way. If you find, however, that we have made a mistake, with accidentally substituting an incorrect coupon or by leaving the coupons out, please contact us in one of two ways.

1) Either fill out the contact us form and give us the order number and the same name that you used when placing your order. Please state CLEARLY and concisely whether you wish an in-store credit to be used on your next order or whether you would like to have the correct coupons. We understand that some coupons are ordered for a special sale and some are for maintenance in a house. We have no way of knowing which category your order was. So, we need you to tell us CONCISELY.

2) Or, you can just find your copy of your order confirmation in your IN BOX and let us know what we did incorrectly. All of the pertinent user information would then be on the order, if you chose to do it that way.

Either way, we'll acknowledge that we got it and let you know what we can do. (Sometimes the coupons are too short-dated or too popular to still have in stock, especially if you wait a few days after getting the coupons to open the envelope.)

What if YOU there at TCC make a mistake and I miss a sale on something really super? Will you compensate me for what I 'could have' saved?

We reserve the right to limit our credits/refunds and/or replacement coupons to the original handling fee amount only. Because we are working with issues that are invariably 'your word against mine', we also ONLY issue IN-STORE credits or send replacement coupons. We do our best to be 100% accurate. If you let us know of a problem, we'll be glad to fix it, as best as we can. However, we cannot be responsible for missed sales or possible savings not received.  We are here to help you save money and we hope that with careful coupon selection, you'll see a tremendous savings at your local markets! We strive for 100% accuracy.

What if I've made a mistake and ordered 66 of something, but I only wanted 6?

We're pretty good at reading your minds, but our crystal ball accuracy rate isn't always perfect. If everything else on the order is 5 or 6 or 10 and you order 66 of something, you should mention it in a note to us the second you notice it. More than likely, we will probably have already changed it to 6 and the extra payment would then serve as a credit for your next order. If you catch it several HOURS later, you need to write a separate email and title it: EMERGENCY and then be sure to include the same name which you used to place the order and the order number, for quick reference and an easy fix.

Remember, the easier you make it for us to FIX the problem that exists, the more likely it is to get resolved quickly and easily. Sometimes people place orders in one name and then send me emails in a different one and I have a hard time ascertaining what's going on without doing some Perry Mason style research first. This type of problem invariably gets moved to the bottom of the stack and results in a disappointing experience for both of us.

ADMIN FEE

What is the 'Admin fee" all about? I see it located at the bottom of my orders.

This is a $.50 per order fee that we are using to cover the new additional expenses that our bankers and paypal are charging us to allow us to use these services. Most businesses merely bump up the price of their product $.50-$2 to over the additional overhead. However, we do not have ANY real spot into which to incorporate this, so we just have a universal $.50 fee per order to cover the cost. We are attempting to throw in at least one additional coupon that you order for you to use, to defray the cost of this fee. For you it's recovered with using just one $.50 coupon at face value. For us, it's 10 more 5 cent h/f coupons. We didn't want to raise the minimum order.

LIMITS and MINIMUM ORDERS

I want to order only 1 of each coupon. However, the coupon quantity jumps to 5 in my shopping cart. Why?

We have set it up that way. The minimum order is 5 of each coupon, unless you are ordering off the HOT coupons page or the Forms.

Why?

Because we tried letting people order smaller quantities and the business wasn't paying for itself. Most of our time is spent actually locating the desired packet of coupons on the desk.

We recommend that if you only want 1 of any coupon that you either 1) stick with HOT coupons or 2) purchase one large metropolitan area Sunday paper each week.

I just want 20 total coupons, totaling only $1.00, but the cart won't let me check out. Why not?

We require a minimum order of $3.

I see the words LIMIT 10 on some of the coupons. Is that per person, or what?

That limit is imposed per person and/or address per ordering time period. So, that means, it's a LIMIT 10 from Friday at 11:01 a.m. until Sunday morning at 7 a.m. However, if the coupons are still on Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m., feel free to order another 10. If you try to place two orders within the same filling time period, we'll simply cancel the one that's the duplicate and credit or refund the payment.

Why do you impose limits?

So that more different families can benefit by them.

I placed a $9 order. Does that mean I can order 3x the quantity of limited items?

No. You are limited to just one batch of LIMITED coupons, no matter how large your order is.

HOT COUPONS

Some of the HOT coupons don't seem to be very popular. Why are they on the HOT coupons page?

HOT coupons are one of two things: Either they are very popular and fly out of here very quickly, or else they are coupons that we don't think people would want 5 of, nor have any real use for that many, i.e., pregnancy tests or extremely expensive dental treatments. Most of the hot coupons are truly HOT and they fly out of here very quickly. They have a higher handling fee, because it's so hard to find them and often times I have to pay more to my suppliers to keep them in stock.

How long will the HOT coupons stay on the HOT coupons page?

Until we move them all out or something else comes along better in value and bumps them off that spot. Some HOT coupons stay on the site fewer than 4 or 5 hours. So, if you see what you need, please order it then. Do not expect us to have these coupons still in stock if they are not on the list.

NEW COUPONS

How often do you update the list?

Sometimes 4-5 times per day. You can see the latest update time on the top left hand corner on the home page.

When do you put the new Sunday Supplement coupons on the list?

Usually around 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. I send out a notice to everyone as soon as it is done on Saturday morning. However, you don't need to wait for an email to order. Many, many people are getting up early, waiting for the new coupons to order and a "hot time" on The Coupon Clippers is from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

What does the "NEW" icon and the "SPECIAL" icon mean?

The "NEW" icon means that it is a new Sunday Supplement coupon that came out down here in my local newspaper. I will have a lot of those.

The "SPECIAL" icon means that it is a new coupon to me, but there is a limited supply. It is NOT in my local Sunday paper. I might get these at the stores, from other states, from other relatives or sometimes representatives themselves mail them to me to help get the word out about their products.

COUPONS

Where do you get all your coupons?

I buy a lot of local Sunday newspapers. And yes, I buy the entire paper. I am not allowed to just purchase the coupon sections themselves. I also get everyone around me to save all of their supplements when they are done and they give them to me. I also find coupons everywhere and have been known to take trips simply to look for coupons.

What good are expired coupons?

Some stores allow people to use them well beyond their expiration dates. At oversease commissaries, the military are generally allowed to use them for 3 months past the expiry given on the coupon. Some stores in Chicago accept expireds with no limits. Other than that they make good mulch or recyclable material for your newspaper bin.

EMAILS

Speaking of emails, I want to be removed from your email list. What do I do?

Simply click on the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of each email that comes out.

How will you get paid?

The simplest way to pay is to do it right when you are placing your order. All you have to do is fill out the credit card or paypal information when you are finished picking out your coupons. Be sure to continue the order through until you get the order CONFIRMATION number.

I also take cash, checks or money orders $25 minimum. You can mail those in advance to:

The Coupon Clippers
PO Box 1116
Dade City, FL 33526

Can I use a credit card with paypal?

Yes. It makes no difference if you pay with a credit card, debit card or account balance with paypal.

If I send you money in the mail, how long does it take you to post it?

Give me 4 days.

I get lots of extra coupons each week that I do not use. Do you want them?

I appreciate the gesture, but unless you have 20 or more identical coupons, they generally end up in File 13. You would be better off to leave them at your local grocery store.

Why don't you describe the restaurant coupons more, even if we ask you to?

Because they are only a penny h/f apiece. These are provided as a service to you with virtually no handling fee involved here. They are also HOT coupons, which means that for a penny, you can satisfy your own curiosity. Just place one in your cart and as soon as your order gets to you, you can read all the fine print and see if it's something you can use. That's a good deal.

I tried to post something, but the forum doesn't recognize me. I'm logged in to the coupon site. Why am I not recognized here?

The forum is a completely independent entity. You need to sign up there separately from the coupon site.

Do I have to put in a valid Email addy here, too?

Yes.

I like the forum. I can see where it would be a good place to meet up with other traders. Can I trade my own coupons there?

Absolutely not. If we see coupon trading going on there, we will delete the post immediately. This is an informative forum only. If you want to trade, there are other such venues, such as MyCoupons.com and/or Kachinaweb. These sites are set up specifically for coupon trading.

Am I allowed to place my referral links on there, so that when someone goes to another site, that I can get credit for it?

No.

Are your gluten-free items actually gluten-free?

We have tried to check to see if certain coupons can be applied to something gluten-free.  As in all things, the gluten-free customer is ultimately responsible and should double check ingredients.  To help us in our efforts we have consulted with The Celiac Site and frequently utilized Clan Thompson's Smart List (which we have licensed for this use). In addition, we have checked manufacturers websites and consulted online gluten-free resources.  The Coupon Clippers takes no responsibility for errors, but hopes this can be a service to those in the gluten-free community.  For more information, you can directly connect with   www.clanthompson.com or   www.TheCeliacSite.com .