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June 21st, 2008 
QuadsZilla Don’t you love it when you go to an e-store to buy some shit, go to check out and read something like this:
“This box is for coupon codes only. For Gift Certificates and VIP codes, proceed to the next page.”
?
And you’re like “But . . . I . . . don’t . . . have a coupon code.”
Had they not asked for one, you wouldn’t know or even give a shit that there are coupon codes. Who the fuck cares about the price anyway? But now that they’re asking for it, it’s like you know you’re getting fucked cuz you don’t have one!
It’s not the $5 you might be able to save, it’s that you know that by pressing that button you are surrendering. Giving up! You are saying “charge me more than the next guy – I’m a fucking tool.”
So instead of buying that thing you wanted, you stop and think about it – “Gee, I guess maybe this is a little over priced. Maybe i should Google for a coupon code. Yea – that’s the ticket!”
So you Google “[brand] Coupon code” and find 2 expired codes that no longer work.
OGAWDAMNIT WTF?!?
Now you’ve waisted 15 mins trying to save $5 on a $50 order so now you know you’re just totally waisting your fucking time. You could give a rats ass about the actual price. If the shit was $100 you probably would have just bought it if they didn’t ask for that motherfucking coupon code that you don’t have!
You’re uber-competitive and paying more than the next guy is paramount to losing. You don’t want to admit defeat. You don’t want to be GETTINGFUCKED. So you figure “You know what, lemme just leave that shit in the shopping cart and check my email, then maybe I’ll come back to this problem later.”
And you never end up buying the junk.
You know what I’m talkin about – right?
. . . or is that just me and I’m totally fucking crazy?
Posted in 
Shit this just happened yesterday when I was paying for some traffic thru Looksmart — I thought paying 3 days advance AND the lack of coupon code was the dealbreaker.
Only a moron won’t feel fucked in cases like that.
Let’s fuck them too!
check out:
retailmenot . com
This really pays off, e.g. I got Avis car for a week and had a 70% off the price (employee coupon).
Same thing happened to me just 2 days ago, trying to buy a Pingdom account.
When I first read the title, I thought you were giving away coupons for some exotic massage parlor, haha.
You certainly have a point.
Doesn’t mean you’re not totally fucking crazy beside the fact.
[...] There’s a little riff on SEO Black Hat about abandoning a shopping cart when they display a coupon code box and you don’t have one. I have to say, while I wouldn’t use the language he does, that. Yes. I totally do a search for the coupon code when I see that box. Then I always find an expired code. And. Abandon my shopping cart because I think I could be getting a better deal. You’re not alone. [...]
this is nearly as bad as having to confirm every fcking item added to the shopping cart when you plan on building 3 pc’s out of 10+ components
This happened to me twice recently, but I actually got lucky both times and quickly found 10% off coupons via Google. One coupon was expired, but the cart still accepted it (saved me ~$150 on a conference).
I often wonder why more companies don’t conditionally display these fields. In my case, both companies lost profit$ b/c I simply saw the promocode field and went Googling for a code. What if the company conditionally displayed (and pre-filled) the box for anyone coming in via a coupon site aff link or special promo email?…then they could save profit$ on all of their organic traffic (they also should get a boost in conversion rate by limiting pissed off customers like quads). I guess if you do tons of offline mktg, the conditional could cause some issues, but you could always post a different url on your offline collateral (ie. site.com/promo).
Just my $.02.
Those are the times I go looking to see if they have an affiliate program. Then buy the stuff through my own links. That way I know I’m at least not paying full retail.
Bradford Knowlton
http://x86v.com