This is good, I ALWAYS put my receipts in a special folder just in case but it's nice to know if I lose one I'll be OK. I do think this is going to be exploited though.

As an avid video game fan, I've encountered this issue with Target far too many times. In the past, receiving a video game from Target was a common occurrence. We had a SuperTarget near our house, and family (and myself) would purchase most of the new release games from there. However, as in the case with Resident Evil/ Resident Evil 0, I received the same title twice (in 03'ish). They wouldn't let me return or exchange it without the receipt because the price was $50. I wasn't 18 at the time, so eBay was out of the question. I just sat with the copy for years before I was able to sell it. This new change works for me.

I've never had issues with returns to Target before. Of course I always make sure I keep receipts, not only are they good for returns they also work well for warranty claims or tax purposes and making a future budget.

I've returned a broken blender and various other items without issues before. I also like that most of the time there is no long return line like there is at Walmart.

I've found the easiest way to never have to deal with returns is alienating everybody you ever come into contact with, so nobody ever buys you gifts.

Seriously way better. I didn't know Walmart's policy was that good though! I know they are 'super evil' and whatnot but if there was one closer I'd probably shop there for select items just because of the return policy.

i have a terrible memory for stuff like this so it's good that i rarely buy things at target that i need to return [mostly i go there for stuff like cat food and shampoo]

can imagine trying to keep track of my purchases on a rolling twelve month period and at some point saying 'oh, i should buy that shirt in two weeks just in case i need to return it because i'm really close to my return limit right now'

Does this "no receipt" policy include the times that you look up your items with your credit card? I use credit cards for just about every purchase I make, and at Target, this means I really didn't need to keep track of the receipts, because they just "looked up" the item using my credit card. I've returned dozens of things this way (including items over $100), and I've never had an issue. I hope that doesn't change...

It's basically the same policy as before (outside the beneficial Holiday and Registry upgrades) - they've just capped the total instead of the individual returns. Which I guess is better if you return lots of small stuff, but generally for me it's video games so I'd get about...oh, one.

That's worked well with all five of my wives.

It ticks me off that return policies have to be so strict and/or confusing all because some asshats like to steal.

I used to work at a major department store with a very liberal return policy and some customers took advantage of that. As in, they robbed us blind. I'd love to say how, but I don't feel right sharing their methods. You can google it.

The vast majority of our customers were very nice, honest people who were pleased they could return things without a hassle. Those are the people who end up paying the price when others steal.

Employees at Target always laugh at me if I return spoiled food items.

What's so funny? Am I the only one who brings back spoiled food?

(i.e. since this is Consumerist, let me clarify that I am talking about food that was apparently spoiled when I bought it. No, I am not bringing back three month old gallons of milk!)

@TheOrtega:

I don't have a special folder, but I have receipts from like 2007. Any receipt I find is just going in the trash confetti style. Of course I haven't bought anything that requires me to keep a receipt for specific reasons.

@schwnj: I think this is something that stopped when the first return policy change took place. I could be wrong as I never got a chance to test it, but I recall other commenters complaining about it.

I think in some places target would not take any non-receipt returns if they were over $20, so this is probably a very good policy change. At least you could return that one $70 item if you had to.

I rarely return items to Target, so I have no worries about this policy.

If I have to return something somewhere, it will probably be clothing, usually most other things, I don't have to return.

@SOhp101:

Yeah, seriously don't. The reason they can have such a wonderful return policy is because they pay their employees crap, among many other things. They have more room to take the loss from people abusing the policy. Goods and services are not meant to be that cheap - if you think of no one but the consumer and how to attract them, you eventually have to stiff everyone along the production line. That's the reason they're considered 'evil' - in order for you to 'see' the savings, you have to be blinded to everyone else who is screwed over.

Once upon a time retailers accommodated customers. Things like courtesy and service were commonplace. Now we are faced with limits, rules and policies. We deal with 'customer service representatives' who don't understand the concept of service and stores who have forgotten the value of treating people as valued customers. My expectations have become so low at places like Target I'm rarely surprised when I read about their business practices. I try to make as many purchases as possible at locally owned shops. The service is better; the money I spend stays in my community and when the rare occasion arises I have to make a return I'm not subject to a litany of policies and excuses of why I cannot return the item.

That's cool, although I've never understood the sentiment that requiring a receipt would make someone feel like a thief (or even the much argued about receipt checking). I'm not a thief, I know I'm not, and I don't take the company having simple requirements for returns as some sort of accusation. Part of how they're able to be a cheaper store is by having a limited returns policy that cuts down on abuse. But honestly, you can't have your cake and eat it too - you either need to be willing to pay more money for the items at a store with a more liberal returns policy, or take the savings with the attached hitch of having trouble returning things.

Or you can do Wal-mart, which is cheap and has a good returns policy, but like I said above they're only able to operate this way by basically being giant corporate bullies who stiff their employees in any variety of ways and strong-arm merchandise producers into cutting down on quality and forcing them to produce items for lower prices (which also has a ripple effect on those companies thus paying employees less in order to produce within the strict and cheaper guidelines, etc etc).

I never knew Target had a bad return policy. I don't return much stuff, I guess. I had a pair of shoes that I was wearing, and the soles were flapping. I wore them to Target (I was on my way home from work, and they were my work shoes), asked if I could get an exchange. She looked up my purchase with my credit card, and told me to go get a new pair from the shoe dept. I did a switcheroo in the store, and that was that.

"If you decide to exchange the returned item for something that costs less, Target will give you a gift card for the difference. But you'll have to use it in the same department."

How would they police that? It's not like each dept has their own check out and unless they've employed some new technology (or new lackeys to follow you around the store) how can they control how their store gift cards are spent? Would they have dept specific gift cards? (I doubt it.) What's to stop a shopper from taking the gift card, leave, and come back another day to spend it on something from a different dept? Silly policy imho.

I never return stuff, before I bring an item to the register I determine whether I need it or not. Clothing is easy, use the fitting room, or know your size. Gifts I agree with, Grandma usually has no idea what size you are, so exchanges are understandable. Once I do make a purchase, I save every receipt, and when I worked at Target I never understood how people don't save them. I still have receipts from stores that closed down over a decade ago. Crazy Eddie anyone?

Is it really that difficult to keep your receipt? I don't think I've ever tried to return something without having the receipt.

@janileigh: That is one reason why Amazon and Newegg are doing so well, they have customer service that you can count on, and they have low prices. This is something that retailers cannot provide these days. They also provide customer service beyond the 30 or 90 day margin that most retailers use for a cut off on returns, so if my item breaks in 31 or 91 days, then I am not allowed to return it. You don't need to worry about keeping receipts since everything is ordered online and in your account. I just read an article that said that Amazon is doing very well while other retail stores aren't doing so well, gee I wonder why?

@tgrwillki:
Ah yes, such is my strategy!

@skitzogreg: Now people are going to go to the bestbuy B2G1 sale and trade titles that were not out during the sale for newer titles afterward.

I'm always amazed at the request for a government issued id by people with no training in false document detection.

One day i will dummy up a Hawaii license and use it for a year of returns and building entry and even airline flights.

Boy will I chuckle each time I am waved through and get my returns processed.

@twophrasebark: I would return obviously spoiled food that they should have removed from shelves but didn't.

Mr. Aroo bought an icecream cake from Kroger to the tune of 20 dollars. This was a little while after hurricane Ike, where our area lost power for a good 2 weeks. Anyway.. when he brought the cake home and opened it, it had obviously thawed out completely and then got re-frozen. He tasted it and it tasted like feet. (Or some other horrible stale flavor you could imagine.)

The Kroger people didn't clean out the iceream cakes after the hurricane!

I told him he should return it, but he wouldn't : /

The report partly quoted here also states that if someone is returning a gift without a receipt they have to have the person giving it with them. This makes no sense even for Tarbutt, did the reporter get this right or make a mistake? I did report it on my blog but qualified it as needing to be checked out as it seems absurd
[www.targetfiling.blogspot.com]

Part of the problem is that Target OFTEN donates their open box merchandise to community stores like salvation army; they don't want people poaching from those stores, coming back saying something's wrong with the merch, and making money on open box returns.

There's also the theft issue.

@Ronin-Democrat: Since they actually SCAN Ids when you fly, I'd say you are full of absolute stinking crap.

@TheOrtega:

Then I hope the enjoy the next-gen games going up to $70+ . Business aren't going to want to sell low-margin games if people keep doing that crap. I still think that each store should receive a different UPC. Store-exclusive titles are a great way to cut down people doing that.

@schwnj:
I just returned something yesterday that they couldn't scan the receipt for, so they looked by credit card.
I think that as long as the item can be traced through the credit card, it acts as a de facto receipt -- they pulled up the entire transaction since they knew I had used a coupon when I purchased without analyzing the actual receipt.

I'm confused -- I went to return an item that was purchased as a gift without a receipt and was told I could not because it exceeded the $25 maximum for that particular store's limit on returns sans receipt. I thought that sounded weird, but the manager I spoke with stated the same thing... now I wonder if the store had a conspiracy or something -- apparently the limit was $35?

Whatever -- for what it's worth, it was a hot commodity item and I sold it on Craigslist and made $5

I've never had an issue returning things to Target if I bought them because they just look up your receipt from your credit/debit card. I've done this as recently as this month, so I'm fairly confident they still do it.

However, the one time I returned a gift without a receipt I was required to exchange it for a single item at the exact same price from the same department. I tried to get something cheaper and just tell them to keep the difference, but they wouldn't even take that. It was a weird price, so I ended up with something just as lame as the gift I was returning.

There are so many scammers out there that stores have to do something to protect the bottom line. Keeping your receipt is no big deal. This is a non-issue!

"Keeping fraud down is important, but is there a way to do it without making every customer feel like a criminal?"

Man, it'd be nice if retail as a whole would stop doing this, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. I'm surprised Target allowed any leeway at all regarding its draconian return policy.

Probably easier just to post the whole article, note the last sentence:
=================================

October 23, 2009

| More Target's new return policy: Better, if you can figure it out

Mega-retailer Target has improved its return policy, but it's still far more complicated and less consumer-friendly than Wal-Mart's.

First, what doesn't change: Target customers with receipts can make an unlimited number of returns or exchanges within 90 days. Products can't be used, and must be in their original packaging.

What does change: Now, you can make as many non-receipt returns as you want, up to $70, in any 12-month period. Target's previous "hidden" return policy allowed customers to make just two non-receipt returns of up to $35 each, over 12 months.

Another new twist: Those who receive gifts through the store's gift registry now can use the registry listing as a de facto receipt. If you're a newlywed who got six identical toasters from Target but no receipts, you can return five of them by printing out a copy of your gift-purchase log. Before, you could to return only two items if each cost $35 or less, and you hadn't already reached your two no-receipt returns limit.

But wait, there's more!

One of the biggest changes affects holiday gifts. Target allows for even exchanges if you've exceeded your $70 return limit. So if Aunt Minnie gave you a shirt in "large" but you're a "medium," you can exchange it without a hassle, even if she tossed the receipt. In the past, if you had reached your non-receipt returns limit, you couldn't exchange the shirt, even with Target tags intact.

If you decide to exchange the returned item for something that costs less, Target will give you a gift card for the difference. But you'll have to use it in the same department.

In all these cases, you'll have to show a driver's license or some other identification so Target can record your non-receipt transgressions.

Too complicated? We think so.

Why doesn't Target simply have the same policy as Wal-Mart's? That store lets you return just about anything without a receipt up to three times within 45 days (records are kept for six months). If you exceed that, a manager has to approve the return. If the price of the item is $25 or less, Wal-Mart gives you cash or a gift card to use anywhere in the store.

Also, Wal-Mart is upfront about its return policy on its Web site. Target's Web site says only that "Target does allow a limited amount of no receipt refunds or exchanges for guests that don't have a receipt," without providing further details. The new gift registry policy is explained fully.

At a New York Target we visited this week, the posted refund policy continues to say only that customers must have a receipt for all returns. A Target spokeswoman said the retailer is updating its in-store signs but that they "aren't inaccurate."

Target customer service reps still have the ability to retrieve the receipt for purchases made using a check or credit, debit, or gift card within the last 90 days. But if you got the item as a gift, the person who bought it for you will need to be present.-Anthony Giorgianni

up to $70, in any 12-month period

no shopping at target for electronic items.

@watsuk:

Mn. Star Trib reported the change 5/5/09 to go in effect 5/15/09

[www.startribune.com]

www.targetfiling.blogspot.com

@PillowTalk:
What??? You're insane.

If people felt underpaid by Walmart, they wouldn't work there. It's a free country. Not shopping at a place because its employees don't make what you think they should make is just stupid.

@PillowTalk:
Like I said above, your views on Walmart are clearly based in ignorance. Do you think their employees are slaves? They choose to work there. Some of them (I know you won't believe this) actually enjoy working there. If they didn't, they could go work at Target or wherever else you approve of.

Furthermore, Target sells the same cheap crap Walmart does. They just charge more for it.

@tgrwillki: I lost contact with almost all of my college friends, and have thus spent my twenties saving a bundle on wedding gifts.

@schwnj: Returns done via a credit/debit card or check look-up don't count against you. (This can only be done if you have the card you used or a voided check with you, and it must be done within 90 days of purchase otherwise it will have been cleared from the system and they won't be able to do the look-up.) The $70, 12-month limit only applies for returns without a receipt using your ID. Also, by twelve months, they mean twelve months from the first receiptless return using ID, not a calendar year.

@nstonep: And when you make a return/exchange at Target using ID, it's scanned/swiped as well.

I feel like these big-box retailers like Target and Bed Bath have very lax return policies, which are customer-friendly. Once, I wanted to return makeup at Target, and didn't have my receipt. They looked up the purchase using my credit card to verify, and then returned my money!

@TheOrtega: Target is doing you a favor by even allowing you to return one time without a reciept . I wouldn' have the gual to return something without a receipt . If I charged it I would hope they have somekind of charge records so they could look it up for me . But do people actually want cash back for a receiptless return ?

@skitzogreg: If they are making an unauthorized return, I seriously doubt they are thinking of next-gen game prices or even care for that matter.

You are right though, store exclusive items are good for that. Unique UPC's would def. be a good idea.

@janileigh:

at one time, there were also a lot fewer people trying to rip off companies by returning merchandise they shoplifted or replaced with a brick, too.

And Newegg isn't that great for certain items - you can't return, say, CPU's, without paying a restocking fee - even if it's unopened.