Friday, November 14, 2008

$10 Free from Coinstar

Coinstar isn't going to be left out of all the Holiday fun! They want to make sure customers don't forget about the great service they offer, especially as the end of the year rolls around.

If you are like my family, you probably have a piggy bank FULL of change. And, now is the perfect time to cash it in, because you will get $10 free just for doing it.

How does the promotion work?

  • Take $40 of CHANGE to a participating Coinstar location ( click here to find yours ) and convert your $40 into Gift Cards or eCertificate
  • No fee if you follow the directions here.
  • Claim form will be on the end of your receipt
  • Complete and mail for your transaction between 11/7 and 12/7
  • Claim forms MUST be postmarked by 1/7/09
  • $10 Gift Card will arrive my mail within 6 to 8 weeks
  • Limit of 1 per name, address or household

Click here for all the details

Not sure you have $40 in change in your house? Just go to the bank and withdraw the amount you need and ask for it in coins.

They have many gift cards to choose from, and remember, you can get gift cards for not only gifts, BUT if you know you are getting ready to go shop a sale somewhere yourself, you can use the gift card to pay yourself.

And, don't forget to click here to read on how to get discounted Shipping for the Holidays and how I got free postage, too. This is another great Holidays savings. And, I also have my Holidays Savings button in the left side menu bar. I will add the Coinstar deal there, for your future reference.

Enjoy your free money!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

None of the machines near me offer gift cards--what's up with that?

Anonymous said...

Check coinstar's website. once you put in your location it will tell you the ones that offer different services (like gift cards).

Debbie said...

LET ME GIVE EVERYONE A WORD OF WARNING!

I just got home from our local CoinStar. My little boy had been saving up all his pennies, etc.

With this new promotion, we had him pick out (on-line) which gift card he would like to receive from CoinStar when we went to the grocery store.

He picked Amazon...so off we went about 3 p.m. today. We got to the machine, chose Amazon, and poured all our coins in there.

We were there about 15 minutes because a lot of his money was rolled already, and we had to unroll it.

The machine is very noisy, so everyone in the store knew we were there.

When we got finished putting the change in, the machine (we are first-time users of CoinStar) asked us if we were sure we wanted the Amazon gift card or we could switch to another one.

I said I was sure and went to cash out.

When my receipt printed, it was a CASH RECEIPT MINUS A FEE! I was so confused. Luckily for me, the Store Manager and some other employees were standing there with us, and they asked us what was wrong.

So, I told them and then showed them receipt. A cashier came up and said, "Yes, she wanted a gift card, and it says right there, 'Free!'"

So, the store manager opened the machine and called C.S. Do you know what they said? Get this--"Our machines do not make mistakes."

WHAT? Of course it did! I was right there when it happened!

After a while, the SM said there was nothing he could do since it wasn't his machine. He said, "You can probably get further with them. Here is the number."

So, I called them, and do you know what the bottom line was of my conversation? Yep, you guessed it. "Our machines do not make mistakes."

WHAT?

What kind of customer service is THAT? In this day and age? You call that Customer Service?

So, now--my little boy is out basically $15! (A $5 fee and the $10 bonus.) ...and, oh yeah--I'm a liar to top of it all.

I just rattled off an e-mail, and as Clark Howard always says, "Don't take the first answer. Go above the Cust. Svc. rep to a Supervisor and then go above that to a Manager."

Folks--it's $16!! What is $16 to CoinStar? Nothing, I tell you.

But, to an little kid, it's a lot of money. Especially, when he has saved up for it. You know?

So...despite all this rambling in my post...bottom line, "BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN DEALING WITH A COINSTAR MACHINE BECAUSE THEY DO MAKE MISTAKES!"

Thanks for letting me vent!

Debbie said...

Hi,

I just wanted to follow up on my last post (or should I say, "VENT").

First of all-thank you for letting me vent and warning about CoinStar.

Well--it is now 12:30 a.m. my time, and can you guess what I just received?

I just received an e-mail from a SUPERVISOR at CoinStar.

It was a very nice e-mail, and in the note, it said that they would send me the $10 voucher and a check for the $5.34 fee I was charged!

How great is that? Thank goodness my e-mail went to a Supervisor because I am pretty sure that if another Customer Service rep would have gotten it, I would have gotten the same story (i.e., "Our machines do not make mistakes.)...

So--heed my warning about putting your money into the CoinStar machines, but also remember that if you do encounter a problem like we did, go above the Customer Service representative on the phone to a Supervisor to see what else can be done for you.

Thank you for this great website and all the amazing deals you are helping my family learn about!

We really appreciate all the time and effort you put into it!

Linda said...

I tried it four times. I always chose the card and never got a fee. But I always got a voucher for the money. I was told a coinstar person had fixed it each time and that the cards were in there, but I never got one nor the ability to get the $10 voucher. Now I know they will only count money. It's easier to take it to a bank and let their machine count it.

Carrie @ Moneysavingmethods.com said...

I didn't get a gift card either, it was actually a paper receipt for Lowe's with a gift card number on it. Looked like a normal receipt.

I take that to Lowe's when I shop and they manually type the card number in and I get credit. I have actually used it all already.

If you did get a paper receipt, check to make sure your gift card number is not on there.

Although, this could be the difference between the e-certificate I chose and a gift card choice you may have made. Not sure which retailer you chose.

My rebate was printed on the bottom of the receipt, and I just had to tear it off and send it in.

 
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