Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Valued Customer?

I need to vent. Now, like most folks out there, I love Christmas and the Season of Giving, etc. and it's just inevitable that with all the gift-exchanging going on, we're going to run into a few duplicates. This year was actually pretty good-we just had a few books, movies, cd's and such that we got more than 1 of. Of course, all the things we got duplicates of are all the items that did not come with gift receipts. Go figure...and I just HATE asking someone for the reciept after-the-fact.

So, we got 2 of the same floor puzzles for the twins and I knew that one of them was purchased at Toys 'R' Us and also 2 Sleeping Beauty DVD's. Off I go to the store to make an exchange or get a gift card. With the girls birthday coming up in just a few weeks, it's not like I'll have any trouble spending it! Whoa...nice try! Game over. Toys 'R' Us apparently will not take back ANYTHING without a receipt. Period. And if you do have a receipt, it will be credited back to that person unless they paid cash.

They then proceed to tell me that they can look up the purchase if I have the phone number of the person who purchased it and around what date. Luckily, I had my sister with me, who was able to supply mister-grumpy-pants-customer-service-yeah-right-rep with my sister-in-laws # and the day it was purchased on. Nope. Nothing. He says it never happened. Sister tells him it was right here, in this store on Nov. 27th. Sorry. Take your stuff and leave. You're getting squat. Be happy you have 2 of something instead of nothing! AAARRRRGGGG!

Target and Meijer are the same way now, or so I've been told. Wal-mart appears to be a little better-if it has their sticker on it, they will give you a gift card without a reciept. Now, I understand where the stores are coming from to a certain extent and I realize that theft may play a role in this as well, but I am returning something that is NEW, unopened and not seasonal. They will sell it again and I am going to be spending that same return money in their store and most likely more! It seems like a no-brainer to me...now I just have a bad taste in my mouth and will reconsider shopping there in the future. Does anyone else run into this problem? Is there some other way around it? Sell it on eBay, you say? Good idea. At least I can get something for it rather than a snotty CSR telling me to take my business elseware. Fine. I will!

P.S. Thanks...now I feel much better!

1 comment:

Wendy said...

One time I had a gift from SAMS club that I didn't have a receipt from or was a member to SAMS club... I told the nice lady I would give SAMS club the item for free and they could resell it if they would like. They didn't have to give me any money for it. Well that turned the situation around. They returned the item. Thank goodness!