
WHAT IS GOING ON OUT THERE IN THE RETAIL WORLD?!?
I mean seriously it shouldn't be THIS difficult to return a sweater that doesn't fit. God forbid you do not have a receipt or gift-receipt, you're definitely in for a ride.
My first return experience was at Kohls. Now, I had most of the receipts I needed but one item was receipt-less. The woman told me she could give me the "lowest sale value" as an in-store credit. I assumed all was fine and dandy until she told me lowest sale price was $2.35. Seriously? She explained to me then that you have to consider that someone MAY have used a coupon, discount code or KOHLS CASH and that devalues the merchandise without a receipt. Clearly I wasn't going to return a $30 sweater to get $2. She then further explained that I could do an even-exchange on any piece of merchandise in the store that had an "original price tag" cost of $29.99, which was the original price tag cost on the sweater.
Wow. Okay, I'd hate to have her job.
Are you still following?
Ultimately, I spent an hour digging through stuff at Kohls that had an ORIGINAL PRICE TAG cost of $29.99. Do you know how difficult that was? Nearly everything known to man is on sale at Kohls all the time anyhow, so you literally have to look at each and every price tag to see what's comparable.
Needless to say, I ended up with something I will likely never use but felt so victorious for finding one thing that had the same value on it's ORIGINAL PRICE TAG I snatched it up and ran for the door.
Now, for those of you with kids, you already know what a nightmare it is to shop at Babies-r-us in the first place. Well, making a return is nearly impossible without a receipt -- period.
I was returning a gift for baby #2 who should arrive in the coming weeks that didn't have a receipt but had a babies-r-us tag attached to it. When I didn't have a receipt the cashier asked me how it was purchased. My response was it was a gift. She then started interrogating me asking if it was cash, credit, check, gift card, etc... I kindly reminded her again that it was a gift and I had no clue. Then, she asked for my rewards card number. I gave it to her but reminded her that it wouldn't be associated because I have no registry (second baby) and it was a gift!! I was told they have 12 different methods in returns there. TWELVE!! And guess what, not a single one was applicable to my circumstance. They can even process a return by searching (or viewing) your checking account number -- this scared me.
Ultimately she told me she'd make a "one time exception" for me to be able to return for a store-credit, which of course, was again at "lowest sale value." UGH.