Except, unfortunately, North Face is excluded; it's listed under "The North Face." This coupon is a depression machine.

This coupon doesn't list North Face as a disallowed brand, which means that they $300 jacket I was looking at, which wasn't on sale while all the other North Face stuff was, would have saved me a nice $60, bringing it in line with their next cheapest (in features and price) offering. So, not useless to me, although I can't find the jacket I want on their very poorly functioning website.

There's probably only one physical item in any given store that's not exempt from this.

Can I buy gum?

What happened to the Sports Authority Manager's confession that was on here earlier?

lol that's so funny, i work for this company and for your future knowledge, the online store is a separate company the leases out the names of Dick's Sports, Sports Authority, Big 5, etc. Online orders are always strict by the book. The list that has been posted of brands not permitted to have the coupon applied are the brands who their company (such as Nike) will not allow coupons applied to their product.

Go into a store and watch any manager give you 20% off of at like 90% of those items because they'd rather take care of you than screw you over.

Anyway, I sent a testy email to the customer service line. They responded, actually, you know, in context - not some automated thingy. In the end they applied the 20% off on the order I already placed.

I'm pretty quick to send companies emails when their online service disappoints (I had similar problems with Site59 last year using a birthday discount). Usually I get what I want or better.

Every now and then, I'll read the Sunday SA ad just to read the fine print and see what else has been excluded!

I swear by www.couponcabin.com and www.momsview.com

@acasto: I am happy you have had great experiences shopping there. I have had great experiences at Macys but I know people who won't set foot in the place. I have been in JCP in four different cities and it has been consistent bad. Of course I am not going to go into every one in every city as I just don't have the time. Besides there are sales at Nordstroms and Saks to hit. I think it makes a difference that I have worked in both places and having worked retail (you know, done thier job) I know what to expect in customer service. JCP is nonexistent. They have cashiers which to me doesn't mean customer service. Macys is marginal. I have one person in one store that I do love going to. BTW, what city do you shop in. Maybe if I am in the area I will check out the JCP that you shop at. (and I am not being sarcastic...that would be a waste of my time.)

i'm in school but work part-time at dicks.... if you just ask (nicely) you'll get $10 off a $50 purchase anytime.

It seemed like a good idea at the time I came across it.

Oh well.

@grrrrrrr-- RetailMeNot is a really good site for online shopping! Consumers can also leave feedback as to whether the promotion is still active, before you go and enter all your credit card information and get stuck because you can't enter the coupon code. Everyone should look into RetailMeNot.com! =)

Typical Macy's coupon

I would be interested to see if anyone has tried to use this coupon on one of those brands. This sort of disclaimer is probably in place because the 20% is in serious violation of SA's reseller agreement dealing with minimum advertised prices. In other words, they have to tell you it doesn't work, but it actually would.

Needless to say I was pretty disappointed in JCP for so wasting my time.

Yeah, and that's like... um, FRAUD, now isn't it?

The offer "20% off any single item" is directly contradicted by the many exceptions to to the point of becoming a "bait and switch" offer. The phrase "ANY single item" should be not used when the bulk of the items offered for sale are excluded by the microscopic fine print.

And Sports Authority is going to get nasty letters about trademark infringement from the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Chicago Transit Authority, The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, and South Park's Cartman ("respect ma authoritah!")

I also notice that since Bed Bath & Beyond has been doing the 20% perpetual coupons everything there is about 20% more than elsewhere.

I have been burned by so many coupons where you think you have interpreted the fine print appropriately then at the register you find out otherwise and have to decide if your going to buy the items without the discount or walk. Most people go ahead and buy the item anyway because they have already committed themselves that far they go ahead or they feel socially engineered into buying it cause they are at the register holding up the line.

I think the true intent of these coupons are to get people to the store knowing that they will most likely impulse buy something not on sale or try to use the coupon, fail and buy the item anyway.

i've seen some crummy coupons, but so far this one takes the cake....................

@MissPeacock:

LOL! THAT is the exact store chain I was referring to! LOL!

I know of a craft store that does something similar to this. They routinely offer 20% off coupons & in the fine print it is for only items that are regularly priced. Problem is... you cant easily tell which ones are regularly priced.

It's like those coupons Macy's used to send out. They would arrive in the morning mail and by the time you read everything that you could not use the coupon for it was evening and the stores were closing.

Check out [www.retailmenot.com] for all sorts of online coupon codes that might actually be good for something (or not!).

select table games,

Whose selection is that? How will I know which ones are included? I know the pimple-faced guy behind the counter won't care.

pretty harsh terms & conditions sporta authority

disaffiliate - to sever affiliation with; disassociate: He disaffiliated himself from the political group he had once led.

So, they won't have anything to do with you? The coupon? What?

I actually got lucky and bought a weighted dip belt a few months with one of these coupons. I believe Altus was the brand.

Of course, neither they nor Dick's had then in the store, so I had to order it online so the shipping wiped out the coupon.

Did this post just get me kicked out of my church?

What a PATHETIC company. They would save more paper if they just showed what it *was* good for. Very unconsumerish.

I dunno - do they sell those little chemical-pack hand-warmy things?