Trouble Printing Coupons?
I have heard that many of you have had trouble printing Bricks coupons: that you keep getting a “please wait” or “please install printer” message. If this seems to be your problem I have found some information that may be helpful to you.
The problem is that most of these coupons have a link that is meant to be printed in a certain browser (i.e. Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari). When you try to print a coupon in a different browser than was intended, you will get one of those annoying messages
The trick below is made by just changing two characters in the link.
The following is a Firefox link:
hxxp://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=ri3peuo59687503&bt=wg&o=53740&ci=1&c=GM&p=TyQrvJAY
Note the “wg” in the URL (I have put it in bold for you). This is telling you it is a Firefox link.
To make that link an Internet Explorer link, you will simply change the “wg” to “wi” or “vi”. It will take a little trial and error to determine which combination will be the fix. The easiest way to make this fix is to paste the original link into a Word document, make the change needed and then paste the corrected link into the address bar and press “enter” on the keyboard.
If the link had a “wi” or “vi” it would be an Internet Explorer link. To make it print in Firefox, just change the “wi” or “vi” to “wg”.
You can also use this trick to print coupons in Safari. Just replace the “wg”, “wi”, or “vi” to “xs”. And to get a Safari link to print in a different browser, change the “xs” to“wi” or “vi” for Internet Explorer or to “wg” for Firefox.
- 64 Comments »
- Posted in Coupons, Resources on January 7th, 2009
Thank you so much! We’ve wanted to sell some of our computers (my husband is a geek and computers somehow multiply like bunnies here) but I couldn’t sell my laptop because it would leave me with only one Windows machine to print from in the house. I need at least two computers I can print Bricks from to feed my habit! Now I’ll be able to get Bricks to work through Safari!
Thanx!
January 7th, 2009 at 1:40 pmThanks so much for this tip! It worked beautifully!!
January 7th, 2009 at 1:55 pmThank-you for this info-this problem has frustrated me over and over and I am so glad to know why!!!!
January 7th, 2009 at 2:11 pmThis is great thanks so much!!
January 7th, 2009 at 11:14 pmYou are my hero! Soo many times I get the “please wait” message when using Safai.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:12 pmAfter making the changes, make sure you hit return, then you can click the print coupon button.
If it happens to open in FireFox, copy and paste the address into Safari, change “Unsupported” to “Start” and change the vi, wg etc. to xs. I’ve trie it several times and works WONDERFULLY!!
January 9th, 2009 at 10:27 amThank you so much for this information. I have been frustrated at times too. I still can’t print coupons that are powered by smart source. I thought I could change the ‘wg’ but there is not one there for these coupons. Any ideas? Is it there and I am missing it?
http://coupons.smartsource.com/Web/index.aspx?act=printCoupons&firsttime=true&SessionID=f5beedcb-8da5-416d-b3f1-88156483d4a3
January 9th, 2009 at 1:29 pmi’m anxious to try this….would be such a help!!!
Thanks!!!
January 9th, 2009 at 4:36 pmHi Marissa,
I guess the fix above is just for Bricks coupons. Here is something I found in a forum that might help you, but I don’t think everyone is having the same problems printing Smart Source coupons so the fix may be a little more difficult.
“I was able to print coupon.com coupons just fine with any browser, but in order to print Smartsource coupons I had to use Mozilla Foxfire Browser and change my printer settings to “Print Directly to Printer”.
You do this by going into Control Panel, left click on Printers, highlight Your Printer Icon then right click to drop down the menu, left click on Properties, choose the Advanced tab, down in the middle you will see where you can choose “Print Directly to Printer” choose that, then hit apply if it is highlighted and then OK.
My computer keeps this setting unless I manually change it back. Its easy to change back if you need to. Works good and coupons print nice.
Nothing seems to work with Internet Explorer browser for Smartsource coupons, but someone on one of the other threads recommended downloading the Safari Browser to print coupons they said that works too. They said there is about a 20 second delay before the coupons print, so expect the delay.
I pulled my hair out for a month trying to print SS coupons, hope this helps.”
I was going to look on the Smart Source site to see if there was a # where you could contact them but I can’t even get the site to load right now.
January 9th, 2009 at 5:00 pmI have bookmarked you and will be referring people to this post. Thanks!!
January 14th, 2009 at 10:52 amThanks so much Kelly!
January 14th, 2009 at 11:01 amThank you so much. I can’t wait to get home and try this. I’m especially excited to see if the smart source coupons will now print. I haven’t been able to print them and I’ve been trying for 6 months! I even emailed Smart source and they were no help, just referred me back to there FAQ page that I’ve read a million times.
January 14th, 2009 at 11:41 amI’m not really great with computers. When you download the the foxfire browser does it affect your opening web page and email? I really want to be able to print smart source coupons but I don’t want to jump into something I don’t know anything about. Thanks.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:43 pmThanks! I was finally able to print 2 of the $1.50 off kids Yoplait yogurts. Great tip!!!!
January 14th, 2009 at 1:46 pmThanks! I have had so much frusteration over this and even talked to the IT guys about it and they just said to try another browser. But, that is so annoying to use different browsers for different coupons.
January 14th, 2009 at 5:03 pmHi Shana,
January 14th, 2009 at 6:45 pmI have downloaded Firefox and haven’t had any trouble. It is a little annoying though since all my favorites are saved in Internet Explorer.
Wendi
Thank you!!! I have been so frustrated with this, so often.
January 14th, 2009 at 10:12 pmI’m glad I’m not the only one having trouble with smart source coupons. I’ve started contacting the companies when I have trouble and asking for the coupons by mail. They don’t always have the coupons but then they know there is a problem.
January 15th, 2009 at 1:58 amThank you so much! It is maddening to hear about a great deal and not be able to print the coupon.
I found your site through a comment on Money Saving Mom. Thanks again!
January 15th, 2009 at 9:20 pmAs a Mac (Safari) user who almost always gets the “please wait”…I can’t tell you thanks enough for this tip! We need to get the word out on this!!
January 16th, 2009 at 9:57 amThank you! I just printed Johnson’s & Johnson’s coupons that have frustrated me for months with the “please wait” message.
January 16th, 2009 at 10:09 amI clearly am doing something very wrong. I want this ‘fix’ to work, but it doesn’t. Some Bricks coupons print just fine – some will not print no matter what. I get into that ‘Install Printer’ loop and it just clicks and clicks and clicks – drives me crazy.
SO, this is the URL I see in Internet Explorer – this is trying to print the new St. Ives coupon today:
http://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=qanfbfj4017543&bt=vg&o=54813&c=SI&p=Uxn9eFbs
I DO NOT see the the letters to change as mentioned in this thread. I do see ‘vg’ in the URL above. If I change to ‘wi’ or ‘vi’ here it does nothing. What am I missing? I know I’m not technical, but I never thought I was inept (smile). I cannot load Firefox or another progrma – not an option.
January 16th, 2009 at 5:40 pmCan someone help me??
Thanks!
I tried to rint a coupon and kept getting please wait and then I read the trouble section, but now when I try to print a specific coupon, even though I never got it to print, it says I have already printed it the number of times allowed.
January 17th, 2009 at 1:35 pmSo glad you shared this! I’ve been having trouble with this for so long, didn’t even know it was fixable. I’m bookmarking this page!
January 17th, 2009 at 2:37 pmFor some reasons, I could not set the setting of my printer to direct print to printer, it is set to spool.
I used to be able to print coupons from smart source but now whenever I try to print it from Firefox, it say firefox crash.
Do you think I should reinstall firefox.
Thank you in advance.
jamy
January 17th, 2009 at 8:56 pmHi Jamy,
I made sure my printer was set to ’spool’ and I did a test print of a SmartSource coupon for you. Make sure you allow the Coupon Manager Add-on to install from SmartSource and it should work. If you continue having trouble you can contact SmartSouce, but from what I have heard they are not very helpful.
Wendi
January 17th, 2009 at 10:02 pmHi DJ,
I am guessing that even though the coupon did not print, the signal still went through saying that you were printing the coupon and now it thinks you have reached your limit. If you tell me what coupon you were trying to print I can look around and see if there is a link to request the coupon by mail. That is really all you can do.
Wendi
January 17th, 2009 at 10:06 pmWorked! Thanks so much for the tip!
January 26th, 2009 at 2:36 pmOh my this is just the information I needed! I was trying to print in Safari and kept getting the “please wait…”. I changed the “wi” to “xs” and the coupons printed immediately. thanks so much for this!
January 27th, 2009 at 11:34 pmHi Betsy,
Your comment about having trouble printing coupons ended up in my spam folder and I just found it today. In your comment you said that you replaced the “vg” with with “wi” or “vi” and it did nothing. Did you hit enter afterwards? If not, try it and it should work after that.
Wendi
January 28th, 2009 at 9:35 amWow, I have been having problems at home only on my MAC printing some coupons. I can’t wait to try it.
Thanks!
January 29th, 2009 at 2:09 pmKat
I was having trouble printing a great coupon, and then I remembered that I had bookmarked this post! Thank you *so* much!
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:00 pmThank you. A simple explanation that fixed the problem.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:11 amOkay so I have tried everything here! I have internet explore and firefox. I have windows vista. Everytime I try to print my browser freezes, or says i need to install coupon installer (which I have), or it will continue to load forever, or it will say printer settings need to be changed. Which they have been. I have tried this numerous times on 3 different computers. Please HELP!!!
February 23rd, 2009 at 8:14 pmI use Windows XP myself but I will try to find a solution for you.
Any Vista users out there having similar problems or have a solution?
February 23rd, 2009 at 8:31 pmI’ve even tried it on my husbands computer which is xp and it didn’t work.
February 24th, 2009 at 8:13 amIs it a specific coupon that won’t print or is it all coupons?
The fact that it didn’t work on another coupon really has me confused.
February 24th, 2009 at 8:30 amIt’s all the coupons. I’ve tried printing from safari, firefox, ie.
February 24th, 2009 at 8:56 amI am able to print smartsource coupons from IE. But anthing else is a no go.
February 24th, 2009 at 9:10 amI came across a blog that explains how to I guess catch the coupon before it prints. I was having problems with attempting to print a bricks coupon and it wouldn’t go through and then it would say “Limit reached”. SO annoying!
It certainly helped me out a ton. I guess technically you could print as many as you want, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
http://www.allydeals.com
February 25th, 2009 at 7:31 pmThanks John!
February 25th, 2009 at 7:52 pmI HAVE DOWN LOADED FIREFOX FOR THE SMARTSOURCE COUPONS , IT STILL DOESN’T PRINT I HAVE VISTA ON MY NEW COMPUTER.SO FUSTRATING. DIANE
March 1st, 2009 at 6:57 pmI am also unable to print smart source coupons. I have vista and get the error that internet explorer cannot open page. So agravating.
March 7th, 2009 at 5:21 pmThat did work! Thank you so much!!!
March 28th, 2009 at 6:08 amThis tip worked for awhile, but now it doesn’t. Is there anyway to group-advocate to Bricks to get their IT guys to clear up this problem for Mac users?
April 24th, 2009 at 6:59 amThese tips are working GREAT for me!!!! Thank you so much. I’m linking this post to my blog in hopes of spreading your words to others who may be as frustrated as I once was.
May 7th, 2009 at 1:03 pmThanks!!
I had just about given up trying to print smartSource coupons! Thanks for the info- hope it works for me!
May 14th, 2009 at 12:51 pmI cannot print anything! I really don’t know what to do. I’ve changed the printer settings I’ve downloaded Firefox, The coupon barcodes are not printing. Can anybody help me??
May 15th, 2009 at 4:38 pmI thought that I had posted a question but now I can’t find it so I’m trying again. I am using a laptop with Windows XP and my printer is an HP with a wireless hookup. It works fine for most print jobs but when I try to print the Smart Source coupons, it always tells me to download Java. I go through that process (over and over) and it tells me that it is installed but it never recognizes my default printer. I tried the “print directly to the printer” step from above but that didn’t help. Any help????
May 18th, 2009 at 1:06 amANN my sister and my dad are having the same problem. Did you find the answer yet?
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:40 amI have not been able to find a fix for Smart Source coupons yet. I really wish they would offer help on their website!!!
June 2nd, 2009 at 1:11 pmI have never been able to print smartsource coupons…not from my old laptop with XP, nor with my new one with Vista. My Father in law was able to print them for awhile on his computer and now they won’t print on his either! I would LOVE a solution to this!!!!!!! Maybe the grass is greener on the other side but it always looks like smartsource has the best coupons (and the ones I would really use!)
June 8th, 2009 at 11:28 amThank you SO much for this information. What a lifesaver when my husband switched us from Internet Explorer to Firefox and suddenly nothing would print!! I have bookmarked the article and linked to it on my couponing site (http://momssavingmoney.blogspot.com/2009/06/trouble-with-printable-coupons.html). I know it will help tons of people out there who are as frustrated as I was! THANKS again!
June 9th, 2009 at 12:58 pmCassandra,
No, I have not found any solution
It drives me crazy knowing that there are wonderful coupons that I can’t get. Ann
June 15th, 2009 at 5:54 amI have a MAJOR problem printing coupons because I use my parent’s computer and they don’t have a printer, and at the public library were I do 98% of my internet work will not allow us to download those or so nessecary items!
(Frustrated sigh) “It drives me crazy knowing that there are wonderful coupons that I can’t get, too!”
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:50 pmThank you, thank you, thank you!! Oh my gosh – now I can get that $3.50 off Purina coupon I’ve been DYING to print!! Yay!! … If I can find the darn link again …
August 6th, 2009 at 2:43 pmI followed the steps above and used the Firefox browser and I am still unable to print Smart Source coupons. It will print the picture and the bar code, but will not print the description on the coupon. Help! I am using an HP Officejet printer.
September 9th, 2009 at 10:46 pmWOW! Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
September 16th, 2009 at 5:53 pmPERFECT!!! Thank you!
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:20 pmTried SmartSource on 3 different computers…one of which is a fresh install of XP…still doesn’t work.
September 28th, 2009 at 1:07 pmAlso…I did buy some printed coupons from Ebay for a test…6 Healthy Choice coupons for about $3…they worked at Meijer…got 6 for free since they were on sale for $1.99
September 28th, 2009 at 1:08 pmHi, I am having this problem also. I use IE with Vista. For a while, I had no problem printing any coupons, then I started getting the “install coupon printer” message over and over. Changing the “vi” helped for a week or so and now it’s back. And nothing is working. I am EXTREMELY frustrated. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
February 17th, 2010 at 8:51 amHi, I am having the same problem when trying to print coupons from coupons.com it keeps install the printer and I called and they couldn’t even figure it out.
February 25th, 2010 at 9:51 pmHi, I am having problems with printing coupons from coupon.com….have never had trouble have not changed any settings and just one day it quit printing with the message install coupon printer. I have spent so much time trying to fix this – - anyone have any tips?? Thanks!
March 18th, 2010 at 5:50 pm