FORT SILL, Okla. (March 13, 2014) -- The Defense Commissary Agency has issued new guidelines to curtail possible misuse of commissary benefits. One of the primary issues is the misuse of coupons for large special orders or unreasonable quantities.
"There has been a reasonable concern that some people were using the commissary to facilitate a personal business or augment their personal income whether through unauthorized resale of commissary merchandise or 'extreme couponing'," said Nancy O'Nell, public affairs specialist for the Defense Commissary Agency.
"The commissary benefit is designed to support our service members and their families -- not to be a bank or to generate personal income for a few individuals," O'Nell said.
The new policy states that commissaries will no longer accept special orders for unreasonable quantities or frequent multiple special orders of a product. Quantities could be considered unreasonable when they exceed three cases or 36 units of an item.
The new policy also stops shoppers from returning unreasonable quantities.
Billy Benner, Fort Sill Commissary store director, said he hasn't seen patterns indicating customers are abusing their commissary benefits here.
"People at Fort Sill recognize an abuse issue if it arises and they generally do their own housekeeping. It's my primary responsibility to safeguard the benefits for everyone who has them," Benner said.
Commissaries worldwide will display signs with the following guidelines:
-- Commissaries will no longer accept special orders for unreasonable quantities; or frequent multiple special orders.
-- Commissaries will no longer allow returns of unreasonable quantities for refunds, with or without a receipt.
-- Commissaries will no longer allow multiple or split transactions for orders with coupon "overages" which exceed the selling price of the item.
-- Commissaries are required to report suspected privilege abuse, which include purchases or returns of unreasonable quantities.
-- In general, quantities could be considered unreasonable when they exceed three cases or 36 units. This could include frequent or multiple orders/transactions in an attempt to stay below these thresholds.
Each store director is responsible to report any suspected abuse of commissary privileges to the appropriate installation authorities for investigative follow-up actions. Installation commanders have been delegated authority by the Department of Defense to revoke or suspend commissary privileges because of abuse or institute disciplinary action in appropriate cases.
"I'm retired military myself, so I wouldn't allow these kinds of things to go on because it would hurt the commissary and the people who use it -- our Soldiers, their dependents, our Veterans and retirees," Benner said. "We take that responsibility very seriously here."
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