Saturday, February 18, 2012

Bernetta Stewart's Walmart PhotoCanvas Experience

I got a fun story submission from Bernetta Stewart. Remember that $10 Walmart coupon for a photo canvas that was featured in Dec? Here's Bernetta's story about that great coupon...... 
 "I have had so much FUN at Wal-Mart with their $10.00 Faux Canvas coupon!  My wonderful nine year old son, Victory, was so proud to pose with some of my canvas prints which we have purchased using this coupon..

Years ago I ordered a canvas print from canvaspeople.com from an advertisement on Michele's Updates on RefundCents.com.   It was a 12 x 12 size which was free and I only
paid shipping cost.  It is very nice quality but I felt it was too small in size.  (This was my
first experience with canvas prints and with this online company so I did not want to
spend very much money.)  I would recommend the quality of canvaspeople.com, but their items are costly.  My order also took several months to receive.



 
When I first saw the advertisement for the Wal-Mart canvas coupon, I immediately
dismissed the coupon because it was from the Wal-Mart company.  I do not like the
Wal-Mart stores and I very rarely shop there.  I have a history of negative experiences
using coupons at Wal-Mart stores in general.  I have gone into a Wal-Mart store and made a
purchase maybe once in the last year. 


After a couple days thought, I read and re-read about the Wal-Mart coupon and decided to
try using it.  I simply love to take pictures of my family and I have hundreds of pictures hanging on the walls of our home. 
I easily opened an account at Wal-Mart.com, uploaded a picture, and ordered an 11 x
14 faux canvas print to pick up in a local store.  I printed the $10.00 coupon and went into
the Wal-Mart store with a carefree attitude.  I had in my mind if the checkout cashier was at all negative that I would simply smile, turn around, and leave the store.  I did not expect to be able to use the Wal-Mart $10.00 coupon at all, but I was not going to
purchase the faux canvas print without the coupon.  The 12 x 12 and the 11 x 14 faux
prints were $19.95 at full price.
 

At the Wal-Mart photo department the cashier easily found my order and rang it up.  I did
not look at the canvas, because I did not want to like it and then not purchase it.  I smiled and handed the cashier my printed $10.00 coupon and imagine my shock when she smiled
back and immediately punched in the discount.  It took me longer to scramble searching for money in my purse to pay than it took the cashier to take off the coupon.  I asked if she had seen many of the great $10.00 coupons and she replied yes, and a lot of people
were using multiples of them.  I was again surprised!  I  spoke with her more and the photo clerk said the head of the photo department said anyone could use all the $10.00 coupons they wanted.   Of course only one coupon per purchase, but she said I could go home and order another faux canvas print but simply one per order.
 
I walked out of the Wal-Mart store smiling and still in surprising shock.  For the next few days, I ordered several more of the faux canvas prints.  My oldest son is 18 years old and
has a birthday coming up in March.   He selected his favorite picture of himself and asked me to make him a canvas print for his birthday gift.   I hinted to my husband’s parents about their favorite picture and made them a canvas print to save for a Christmas
gift.  My youngest son just finished a football season with the Snoop Football League
by winning their National Championship game in California.  The team had a professional
photographer take pictures of the team and the individual players.  A lot of the parents
celebrated by purchasing professional prints of their sons in their football uniforms.  The
prints were very costly, and our family did not order one.  I selected a picture I had taken of our son in his football uniform and ordered an 11 x 14 faux canvas of it.  My son was overjoyed at the canvas of himself!  The faux canvas cost me $19.95 minus the $10.00
coupon plus tax.   I know one of the other football parents spent over $150.00 for a
canvas print of their son.
I really looked over the Wal-Mart faux canvas.  It is very thin in quality.  The "frame" easily
bends and creaks.  When you hang the canvas you need to be careful to make sure the
sides are straight and not bending.  The colors are nice but not standout bright or bold. 
Then I compared the Wal-Mart faux canvas with my older canvaspeople.com canvas.  In my
opinion, there is no comparison of the quality of the material and colors of the two prints.  The canvaspeople.com canvas is much nicer in appearance and in touch.  I
would not display canvases from the two different companies next to each other so
the comparisons could easily be seen.  But taking all these opinions and the price in mind, I
would recommend the Wal-Mart faux canvases. 
The Wal-Mart canvas is not of the professional quality but they also do not cost a professional price. The Wal-Mart canvas is nice and my children really like them.  They
look really nice hanging on the wall next to regular wood framed pictures.  The
canvas pictures are a nice fun change from the regular wood framed pictures hanging
on the wall in our home.

 
I am thankful to Michele and the great fellow contributors of RefundCents.  RefundCents has made a positive influence on me & my family’s life.  I have
learned so much about coupons, refunding, and saving money.  My family has so
many really nice material things that we would not have without RefundCents...
one example is these canvas prints.  We are also able to donate a lot more to Goodwill
because of the extra coupons I use." Thank you!!!" Bernetta Stewart

TIP:
Canvas People
***Don't forget there are some great free/cheap deals from Canvas People:
Get a free 8x10 or $35 off any other size through this banner at left. I agree with Bernetta that the bigger canvases are the nicest, unless you plan to display it on a table or bookcase with a picture easel. In that case, the 8x10 is the perfect size.

  
Canvas-on-demand-3_grid_6There's a different offer on Groupon for one 16"x20" Gallery-Wrapped Canvas including free shipping for $45
 
($126.95 value). This one is from "CanvasOnDemand.com"
I found it on
Groupon under "North Carolina" and then on "Ashville" and scrolled in the right column.
Groupon

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