95 comments

The infamous Cineplex coupon and what transpired

Posted by & filed under Other / Canada.

There was a lot of drama recently regard­ing this Cine­plex coupon blog post: Cine­plex The­atres Coupons Canada: Buy 1 Movie Ticket Get 1 Free so I thought I’d explain what hap­pened because a lot of peo­ple don’t know the full story.

First of all, yes of course the deals need to be legit to be posted on SmartCanucks.ca! I do not sup­port or endorse fake coupons or deals of any kind and I do not tol­er­ate scam­mish behav­iour. Peo­ple who go around try­ing to scam busi­nesses are not wel­come on here and need to go get a life.

So what hap­pened with the cine­plex promo? Why was it posted again if the Ener­gizer promo had already been posted a while back?

First of all peo­ple assume that I am aware of every sin­gle deal that is posted on the blog but this isn’t true. I have a very small group of blog­gers that I trust and I don’t always read their blog posts. The fact that this ener­gizer deal was posted a few months ago does not mean I was aware of it. You can ask Sally who con­stantly mes­sages me say­ing that I posted a deal that has already been posted on the blog. So I had no idea that this coupon orig­i­nated from an ener­gizer promo or that an ener­gizer promo existed at all.

I found out about this Cine­plex coupon via the “Sug­gest a deal form” on the blog which peo­ple can use to sug­gest good deals and coupons that they’ve come across. For some rea­son I didn’t think it was a one time use coupon and I had no idea it was related to ener­gizer in any way pos­si­ble. I posted it on the blog think­ing it was legit although I have to also admit that I didn’t take any extra steps to ensure its legit­i­macy. I was very dis­tracted that day with a CBC Radio inter­view  and was not hav­ing the great­est of days try­ing to deal with a really annoy­ing imma­ture CBC jour­nal­ist. I then get a mes­sage from Sally and a few other mem­bers say­ing there’s panic on the blog because of a fake coupon so I logon and remove the link to the coupon PDF while doing all the other CBC stuff. I thought every­thing had been fixed and move on for­get­ting that there is also an image..  blah. Any­ways later on I’d find out that peo­ple made a huge fuss out of this coupon and some peo­ple used it KNOWING it was intended for one time use only! How cheap and scammish!

What’s really stress­ful is that I’m expected to be per­fect and not make any mis­takes which I find ter­ri­bly frus­trat­ing. I pro­vide the blog as a free ser­vice and thou­sands of good legit deals are posted on here. I do a gazil­lion other things at the same time includ­ing writ­ing my grad­u­ate the­sis and try­ing to have a nor­mal life.

What annoys me more is that occa­sion­ally some­one will mes­sage me using “Sug­gest a Deal” with fake coupons and they KNOW it’s fake. This makes my life even worse and wastes my time. For exam­ple about a week ago I got this coupon through sug­gest a deal but with­out “FAKE” writ­ten on it. I wrote that so that no one tries using it. Click on it to view the full size:
fake-pizza-pizza

This Pizza Pizza coupon looked fishy and the $5 deal looked too good to be true so I did some research and found that on Pizza Pizza’s web­site it said:

Note: Please be advised, if you are inquir­ing about the “Wel­come to the Neigh­bor­hood” let­ter & coupon you received via email please note that this is not an authen­ti­cated offer­ing from Pizza Pizza Limited.

It is not valid and can not be redeemed. We apol­o­gize for any incon­ve­nience this may have caused.

So I emailed the per­son who sent me this coupon back to let her know it’s fake so that she doesn’t use it or email it out to anyone:

Hello,

Unfor­tu­nately this coupon is not valid accord­ing to Pizza Pizza:

http://www.pizzapizza.ca/PPLWeb/CommandServlet?command=screenscmd&screenID=ft_contactus

Thanks for let­ting me know though!

Cheers,
A

She replies back saying:

thought so. ha ha.

Thanks! :)

Wow! :(   she actu­ally “thought so” and still emailed it to me with­out let­ting me know. If I had gone ahead and posted it imag­ine all the trou­ble it  would have caused! I don’t under­stand why some peo­ple are like that.

Any­ways the objec­tive of this post was to apol­o­gize for any incon­ve­nience the Cine­plex coupon had caused you and to assure you that I did not post this with any bad inten­tions in mind.

95 Responses to “The infamous Cineplex coupon and what transpired”

  1. Amy

    I think this site is amaz­ing and I am per­son­aly very thank­ful for all the work Boo has put into this site.. as a result me and my hus­band are in the mid­dle of buy­ing a house and I am not sure we could have been able too before I learned how to use coupons and the true value of using them when items are on sale. Thank you too all the peo­ple who spend hours work­ing on this site, and to all the mem­bers that pro­vide great ideas about where and what coupons to use when. :)

  2. Momand2kidz

    Thanks for all you do BOO! Oh and to all the neg­a­tive posters… If you don’t have any­thing nice to say.….. move on…please.

  3. Brenda

    Pfft. No one’s per­fect! There was drama about this? I’m not sur­prised, peo­ple want to start drama over everything.

  4. ca5macdo

    I haven’t stopped by here for a lit­tle bit and was unaware of this entire inci­dent.
    Boo, you do an excep­tional job run­ning this site, from being unknown, to hav­ing major spon­sors, and you have asked for user input the entire way.
    I’m cur­rently in school for my bach­e­lors degree and am amazed that you are able to run this site while in school, I know I would not be able to so kudos to you!
    All in all, keep it up, no one’s per­fect and those who expect per­fec­tion are sim­ply unre­al­is­tic. Great job and best of luck on your on your grad­u­ate the­sis!
    Cheers,
    Curtis

  5. Janine

    Boo, at a time in my life when I basi­cally lost my job after com­ing back from mater­nity leave this site was tremen­dously help­ful in mak­ing ends meet for me. I am so grate­ful that you with all the things that you have going on in life would take the time to help peo­ple in this way. Some peo­ple get these coupons because “why not save some money” and some of us NEED to use this site. Things have improved in my life and Im happy to say I dont NEED this site but I cer­tainly WANT it! Thanks for help­ing me thru a dif­fi­cult time :)

  6. polacco65

    Ever since I came across this site, I have rec­om­mended it tom many. I have gained a lot of knowl­edge and valu­able infor­ma­tion. Thank you. I find that thanks to “Photo Shop”, a lot of peo­ple are abus­ing the sys­tem. I don’t use coupons that I receive from con­tacts via email. I only use coupons that I receive in the mail. What some peo­ple don’t realise is that because of their greed, oth­ers suf­fer. I took the trou­ble of phon­ing Pizza Pizza and they informed me that the coupon being cir­cu­lated was fake and requested me to send an email to my fam­ily, friends and con­tacts inform­ing them the same. I did this thus sav­ing a lot of embar­rass­ment. I think peo­ple need to be more cau­tious and respectful.

    Thanks to all the won­der­ful peo­ple who try to keep this site safe for all of us to use. :)

  7. Paula

    I’m sorry that you feel badly about this, I think you are doing a great job!

  8. ilovecoupons23

    Hi, I would just like to take this oppor­tu­nity to thank you for run­ning such a won­der­ful site!! I joined a cou­ple months ago and since then I log on every­day to see the updated blog and the lat­est deals :) I really appre­ci­ate all the hard work that goes into this site :)

    On another note: I agree that some peo­ple need to stop being greedy. There is a dif­fer­ence between try­ing to save a lit­tle money here and there vs. scam­ming busi­nesses so you get things free. It’s wrong and immoral.

    but most impor­tantly : THANK YOU for all your hard work– my fam­ily and I are really grate­ful for a site like this :)

  9. Annie

    I read those com­ments and they were just rude. Thank you so much for all your hard work, and the other team mem­bers too

  10. janbride

    Boo, you do great work! I don’t under­stand any­one who doesn’t see this. This site couldn’t exist with­out a lot of good peo­ple who love deals. Every­one needs to take some respon­si­bil­ity if you are going to use, ben­e­fit and enjoy this site. Thanks Boo, and please keep up the good work.

  11. newtotheburg

    I don’t think it’s com­pletely gen­uine to pre­tend that you run this blog as a pub­lic ser­vice either though, Boo. You are mak­ing money here and that makes it a busi­ness. Bad posts are bad busi­ness, no mat­ter where the leads came from. Just sack up and apol­o­gize — no one is com­ing with pitch­forks. The buck stops with you.

  12. abbasgirl

    Boo, you have a big heart and I really appre­ci­ate what you do with this site.
    When I first started using coupons, I really didn’t know how they work. I thought that if some­one said a coupon had been accepted at a store it must mean that coupon is legit. I’ve learned a lot since then and I do my own inves­ti­gat­ing with all inter­net coupons. It can be com­pli­cated though and every­one can make mis­takes some­times.
    You run a great site, but we’re all adults and we should all take respon­si­bil­ity for our­selves instead of blam­ing you.

  13. TaraF

    I can’t beleive some­one would be so mali­cious as to send you some­thing to “post as a deal” if they thought it was fake. While you didn’t men­tion whether this per­son was a nor­mal forum mem­ber I sus­pect they weren’t and to that I do have a sug­ges­tion: Per­haps make any con­tact in regards to this site (whether it be to sug­gest a deal or com­ment­ing on the blog here) only for those that are reg­is­tered at the site. While at the end of the day we are all strangers here and don’t really know each other, there seems to be this whole anony­mous fac­tor that peo­ple hide behind in order to do such things or to post nasty things here within the blog. When you posted my Pizza Hut inci­dent on the blog a bit back I was on the receiv­ing end of a lot of hate­ful com­ments and all from peo­ple who I did not rec­og­nize from the forums. Again, it comes back to, “I can be hate­ful and anony­mous and no one will ever know.”. It’s sad really, but at least if there is a name and reg­is­tered email address to link back to them, less of this crap would hap­pen. Just a thought.

    On another note, you do a great job with this site Boo, it’s greatly appre­ci­ated by many. And if you were per­fect, I’d be afraid:)

  14. ssss

    While I like this site, I am very offended i was blocked… i still am wait­ing for an email back.

  16. Miss_April

    Relax, Boo!

    Every­one makes mis­takes, you have cre­ated an amaz­ing web­site here that I use DAILY and enjoy so much. This is one mis­take in the many great things you’ve done on SC.

    Keep up the good work :)

  17. Justine

    I think since Boo is the owner of this site, the forum and the blog and every­thing attached to it, he should be man­ag­ing it, like a busi­ness. He should read every­thing that is posted on HIS site and he should ensure that ALL infor­ma­tion is dis­played correctly.

    Yes peo­ple make mis­takes, and when peo­ple pointed out that the coupon (in this case energizer/movie pass offer) was incor­rect, fake, fraud­u­lent what­ever it should of been swiftly taken down com­pletely, I know he doesn’t want to delete blog posts, so take the image down at least and put a detailed expla­na­tion so that every­one is clear on what hap­pened and doesn’t use the coupon, not sim­ply “read the com­ments below”.

  18. garuda

    here’s one from the lurkers.

    we may not post a lot, or hang around the forums a lot. but as a per­son who sim­ply checks this site once a day, looks for deals and heads out to get them, i can say that i’m very grate­ful for this site being around.

    you’re doing a fine job.

  19. Shadyman

    @JoeyJoeJoe: Sure, because every per­son that runs some kind of web­site makes THOUSANDS of dol­lars. Mmhmm. Go troll some­where else, please.

    @faye and @jackie sound sus­pi­ciously like the same person.

    /Just sayin’.

    I don’t think the post was whiny, I thought it was even more than necessary.

    Cheers!

  20. Mary Walsh

    I really enjoy your site. Any­one can always dou­ble check them­selves if some­thing doen’t seem right. The con­test pages are great and I have used lots of your coupon/save sug­ges­tions. Keep up the good work.

  21. Ann

    I agree with TaraF that it should be the only peo­ple that can post here are ones that are reg­is­tered. That way maybe some of the neg­a­tive feed­back will be min­i­mized. I for one am very happy to have found this site sev­eral years ago, and wish that it had hap­pened ear­lier in my life. It has saved me lots of money, and I have made sev­eral ‘inter­net friends’ all over Canada, that I never would have met, if it hadn’t been for you Boo and this won­der­ful web­site. I also sug­gest that if you don’t like it here, and think that Boo is whiny, then move on, because you’re not wel­come here.

  22. moe

    Com-on its Sum­mer in Canada,
    enjoy it Eh…
    So if u r run­ning a lit­tle hot under the snow suit,
    remem­ber its Sum­mer in Canada!!!
    Relax and . . take off that Snow Suit, Eh…

    Thanks Boo! this is a happy place for me.

  23. Cedric

    I love this web­site! I visit it every­day. No wor­ries! Keep up the great work.

  24. Moi

    I think you do a great job with the site.
    Shame you had to write an expla­na­tion to those who “booooooo’d” you out.
    You Rock, the site Rocks, your batting-history is excel­lent.
    Poop to the ones that make it a bad-day for you!
    And WHOOP to the many many read­ers and posters that make it a GOOD day!
    Yabba
    Dabba
    Doo
    :) :) :)

  25. mnyyoungs

    I’m here and like any­thing else in life…the due dili­gence is on me to ensure I am using some­thing off the inter­net cor­rectly and/or legally.

    I sure am grate­ful for the com­mu­nity even though some folks try to spread STDs (silly tact­less drib­ble) know­ingly. You guys at the site do an amaz­ing job!

  26. BB

    Boo, you do a fan­tas­tic job with this site, ignore the nay say­ers. Because of this site I have been able to save the fam­ily so much money in tight times — we all thank you, keep up the great work!

    P.S. Good luck with the Thesis

  27. PickyCanadian

    Thanks for all your work! don’t let any morons get to you, the vast major­ity of peo­ple know bet­ter and are grateful!

  28. travelgeek

    While you (Boo) might find it frus­trat­ing that peo­ple (espe­cially busi­nesses) expect you to be per­fect, it is only rea­son­able because they are the ones who bear the losses of any fraud­u­lent coupons. It is there­fore impor­tant that due dili­gence be taken to ensure the legit­i­macy of every deal that is posted here. While this time con­sum­ing process may mean that less deals get posted.… I think read­ers pre­fer qual­ity over quantity.

  29. Megan T

    Wow…

    I only use the blog por­tion of this site (and love it), so per­haps don’t know all the pol­i­tics, but still — How do peo­ple get so upset over an eas­ily made mis­take? Whiney-post or not, that is not for me to judge. Boo had some­thing to say, and has the right to let his read­ers know his opin­ions (I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to think Boo was a girl, tho it does make more sense now, since Boo Radley was a man).

    Run­ning a site like this isn’t as clear cut as run­ning a ‘nor­mal’ busi­ness. Part of the blog­ging com­mu­nity is post­ing your feel­ings & opin­ions. All of us seem to have no trou­ble doing so, so why shouldn’t Boo?

  30. hc

    Wow. Did peo­ple really get up in arms over a fake coupon?
    Its just a coupon. Mis­takes hap­pen all the time.
    Stores con­stantly post on their web­sites apolo­gies for mis­printed prices and deals in their fly­ers (Wal­mart is one exam­ple).
    Seems in gen­eral peo­ple really really appre­ci­ate this site.
    I have to say, I started check­ing it out a few months back, and its awe­some.
    Pool­ing together resources to find deals and free stuff really helps out, espe­cially when you are tight on money.
    Thanks!!

  31. ilovecoupons

    w/e, this site has saved me more money than i could have ever imag­ined, and it takes hard work to run a site and have a life. these peo­ple with their stu­pid com­ments obvs. have no respect. thanks for the site, and con­tinue the awe­some work and ser­vice you pro­vide to us.it’s a free site, it’s not like your charg­ing mem­ber­ship, so im very grate­ful, and trolls should leave and get lives. just my opinion.

  32. MrWillabie

    Boo
    Just my 2cents. I echo all the pos­i­tive posts and very much appre­ci­ate all your efforts. Don’t let things drag you down.

  33. Sandy

    Boo, don’t let these things get to you!!! What you are doing-with this web­site– is real! And many, MANY of us truly appre­ci­ate every­thing you have done for the devel­op­ment of this online com­mu­nity <3!!!

    And don’t get too stressed with school/thesis/whatnot!!! Stay positive =)

  34. Emma

    Boo, it’s not your fault! Who can watch over every sin­gle details in the whole site?

    I think we should police our­selves, maybe report sus­pi­cious “deal” or PDF “coupon”.

  35. Cath

    I NEVER write — but I just have too: Boo, i LOVE your site — you are doing a TREMENDOUS job!!! I appre­ci­ate the work you do and have saved A LOT thanks to this site (much appre­ci­ated when my boyfriend’s employer went bank­rupt) — so thank you!! I truly hope a few whin­ers won’t make you want to quit — because for every whiner there are AT LEAST 10 silent peo­ple that REALLY appre­ci­ate your site and what you are doing: so THANK YOU!! and… good luck w the thesis!!

  36. Tay

    love the site, don’t sweat it!
    will still visit almost daily!

  37. aJj

    Accept only com­pli­ments and dis-regard any­thing less.
    Your work here is great :)
    Keep post­ing — Cheers.

  38. Tiggy

    Hello,
    I’m new to Smart Canucks,
    but I LOVE your site and click on it most morn­ings whilst check­ing my e-mail & face­book etc etc,
    I just want to say I think you are doing an AMAZING job and do let some idiot get under your skin,
    Big Hugs Tiggy ( A mother of two girls ages 14 & 11 liv­ing on a sin­gle fam­ily income)

  39. Tiggy

    opps that should have read “DON’T” not “DO”…Still drink­ing my morn­ing cup of tea

  40. Sandie

    Don’t let em get to you! Some peo­ple are com­plain­ers by nature and for­get that they’re get­ting a ton of other pos­si­ble free­bies, coupons and deals every­day! Do the same peo­ple ever email you to say thanks?!? .…good rant though! :)

  41. sherry

    Well said! You do an AMAZING job of post­ing fan­tas­tic and cur­rent deals. Thanks for all your hard work :)

  42. Craftythumbs

    I LOVE this web­site and I DO care! Keep up the good work!! I really do appre­ci­ate all the hard work that goes into a web­site like this. It’s an excel­lent ressource and it has saved me many dol­lars. It brings me JOY to save a few bucks every­time I go to the store.

    Pos­i­tive vibes to you! :)

  43. Alexa19jm~

    Hi Boo — I just wanted to say that I love the Smart­Canucks web­site and you are doing a won­der­ful job!! Smart­Canucks is a valu­able resource and I’ve saved quite a bit of money with the coupons, free­bies, and deals that have been posted by the Smart­Canucks com­mu­nity. I’ve shared this infor­ma­tion with friends and fam­ily and they now use it too!

    I can’t believe how neg­a­tive some of the above posts are! I guess it goes to show that you can’t please everyone.

    Like the 99.9% of the peo­ple that use Smart­Canucks, I would like to say keep up the good work and thank you for all that you and your mod­er­a­tors do for site!

  44. Faeore

    I guar­an­tee you most of the peo­ple giv­ing the posts to the tune of “You’re imma­ture by post­ing this” rea­sons are being imma­ture them­selves, hence being hyp­ocrites and of no loss to anyone.

    even the big com­pa­nies out there some times make errors. They explain the sit­u­a­tions, offer apolo­gies, and move on. If peo­ple are *really* “leav­ing this site for­ever” and “no longer rec­om­mend­ing this place” over a sin­gle mishap, they’re the child­ish ones, Boo.

    There’s no need for them to tell the world their opin­ion. Can they? Yes, unfor­tu­nately, but do they *need* to? No. Just leave and be civil about it, don’t go kick­ing up mud and scream­ing because some­thing “bad” hap­pened. The inter­net has enough trolls on it that they’re not needed here too.

    I don’t post much, I’m a pretty lurky per­son, but this topic just pisses me off how peo­ple behave behind the cloak of the internet. =(

  45. Boo Radley

    Thanks every­one for your kind words and for under­stand­ing :-)

    And for those who don’t like Smart­Canucks, you don’t need to stay here. There are loads of awe­some web­sites out there :-)