Ignore Those E-Coupons and Miss Out on Savings

Have you ever seen those little boxes on a Web site checkout page that ask for coupon codes? They’re sort of like the building you drive by every day but never notice.

I usually ignore them, but then I spotted a newspaper ad with a coupon for an e-tailer.

Eager to spend some gift money on a Palm IIIxe, I used one of the coupons to shave $50 off the price of one from Officemax.com. Using the coupon wasn’t too troublesome, and it was fun to watch one screen show me the full price, then the next screen--after I punched in my coupon code--show me a price that was $50 cheaper. The Palm, which usually sells for $250, also carried a $50 rebate from the company, giving me a total savings of $100.

Because I’d saved so much, I now had some extra cash to spend on Palm accessories. Could I find some online coupons for more good deals?

With a bit of Web trolling, I found plenty more sites posting coupons for all kinds of e-tailers, from Marthastewart.com to Walmart.com. There are so many sites offering coupons that I’ve decided if they’re going to ask for a coupon or a coupon code, I’m definitely going to try to supply it.

Internet coupons have their catches--just like ordinary coupons, which have to be cut out, carried to a store and used before an expiration date. With online coupons, the codes might not be accepted on items you want to purchase, such as clearance items. Jcrew.com, for instance, does not give discounts on sale items.

It’s also tough to know when some online coupons expire; you might find out only when entering the code on an e-tailer’s checkout page. Most of the coupon sites function as bulletin boards listing codes and numbers for sheaves of coupons. Some of the better-organized sites list expiration dates.

Online coupon hunting takes more time too, but the savings can be worth it.

I started my coupon search on Google.com. I typed in the most obvious thing I could think of: “J. Crew coupons.” That was the one site I knew always asked for coupons.

Google brought up a list of sites. A promising one, Linkstoall (https://www.linkstoall.com/coupons.html), turned out to be a clearinghouse for Web sites offering deals, discounts and coupons. From there, I clicked on A2ZDeals.com, but before I could get to the home page, up popped a window offering some kind of bill-paying service. (These sites get by on advertising.) I skipped A2ZDeals’ request to register and went straight to “hot hot deals,” which listed Web sales.

Under “today’s hot deals,” I spotted $30 off a $100 purchase at Staples.com, which also sells Palm personal digital assistants. A click took me to yet another screen of discount listings, including one that seemed the best: $25 off a $75 purchase, plus free shipping. A click from there took me to Staples.com. The free shipping was no secret; the home page trumpeted it--free for orders of more than $50. I’d forgotten to jot down the code, but like some of the other sites, A2ZDeals maintained a slim banner above the Staples page with a dancing arrow that pointed to the special code.

I picked a portable keyboard for my Palm and some pens. When I tried to check out, it took a few minutes longer because four items I wanted to order were out of stock. But finally I was on the checkout page with a purchase of $77.68.

Clicking on the Coupon button took me to a page asking for my code. It spelled out Staples.com’s coupon restrictions, including “coupons are nontransferable.” It also said that “Staples.com reserves the right to reject orders that use a coupon code that was obtained from a bulletin board or other Internet site.”

I went back a page, typed in the coupon code from A2ZDeals, “90817,” and in seconds my order was down to $52.68.

Coupons for Staples.com turned out to be all over the Internet. On the home page of Dealcatcher.com was the $30 off a $100 purchase, plus a free shipping coupon and the one I’d used, $25 off $75, plus free shipping. What’s more, Dealcatcher offered me a chance to e-mail the Staples.com discount to a friend.

PriceZilla.com had seven Staples.com offers under its office category, including the same “90817” coupon code I got from A2ZDeals.

And DailyeDeals.com listed another Staples.com deal on its home page, $30 off a $150 purchase. Under its online coupons category, I hit the jackpot: 25 Staples.com discounts. Some of the savings were the same, such as $25 off a $75 purchase and $25 off a $100 purchase, but each discount code was different.

Well, looking around took time, but I signed off secure that I’d found a good deal and that if I needed to do more shopping, there were plenty of discounts to be had. After all, in saving that $100, I suddenly had $100 to spend.

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Jennifer Lowe is deputy food editor of The Times.

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Tips for Coupon-Hunting

Surf coupon and discount sites before you click “buy.” Plenty of Web sites offer discount codes that save you money, such as:

* https://www.dailyedeals.com

* https://www.dealdude.com

* https://www.couponsurfer.com

* https://www.dealcatcher.com.

Be sure also to take a look at https://www.freeshipping.com, which lists online retailers offering free shipping on purchases.