My wife-to-be and I had registered at Target for our wedding, knowing that consumers have had a bad experiences returning items off their registry without a receipt. Well, we got ourselves married (yay!) and lo and behold, we had present duplicates, including a set of blenders that lacked a gift receipt.

We went in and exchanged the duplicates that we could, and complained (loudly) about the blender that we couldn't. What we didn't expect was for the rep we were working with to pull us aside and tell us to come back in a few days and we should be able to return it off of the registry.

I went in this morning, and it did! They have re-added the Gift Purchase Log, and you are able to return items off of that without a receipt if you let them scan your ID. The rep I was working with this morning was unaware of the change, but the manager set her straight right away!

Victory for the consumer!

We are pleased to hear that this silly policy has been fixed.

(Photo: crawfishpie )

From LiveJournal:

Robert Dotson, President
T-Mobile
12920 SE 38th Street
Bellevue, WA 98006-1350

Dear Mr. Dotson:

I am writing to inform you of the appalling service I have received from your company as well as your employees.

I received a Sidekick Slide for a Christmas present on December 25, 2007 from [X person]. Upon some thought, however, I decided I didn't want the phone and asked X to return it. [X person] having bought the phone as present, assumed with the Christmas season that there would be no problem returning the phone, only to find out that since he had bought the phone in advance, the 14 day period had expired and he was now stuck with a $350 dollar phone.

I, for one, thought he must be mistaken, and asked him to send the phone to me in [redacted] from where he lived in [redacted]. Upon receiving the phone along with the receipt of purchase, I called T-Mobile customer service and explained my problem to two people. Both representatives basically said, we're sorry, but since you're not a T-Mobile customer, we can't help you, but you're welcome to write to our customer service department and we suggest you sell the phone on eBay.

I have to say that this is the first time that a company has ever conveyed the message that since I'm not a subscriber I am not valued as a consumer. It was also the first time I'd ever been told, "too bad, sell it on eBay."

I'm sure you can appreciate I was a bit dumbstruck by this suggestion and thought by writing a letter to your Customer Service Department I might receive a bit more satisfaction, but of course this was not to be. I received a letter back with my name misspelled (is it really that hard to check the letter I sent for the correct spelling?) and was told the same story, "you're not a customer; you are not valued even as a potential customer. You deal with it."

Since I clearly wasn't going to be helped by T-Mobile in any way, I put the phone up for sale on eBay. It was bought by a nice man in [redacted], who three days after he received the phone, e-mailed me to say he'd taken the phone to the T-Mobile near his home to have it activated only to be told that a brand new phone, which was still in the box and had all the accessories in plastic, was broken and couldn't be repaired. You can imagine our collective shock.

I apologized and asked him to send me the phone so I could refund him his money. When the phone arrived I took it my local T-Mobile store, where one of your representatives X actually attempted to help me with my problem for a change.

It seemed that there was something blocking the Sim card outlet and thusly the phone couldn't be used, but X recommended an outside vendor to repair the phone and gave me his business card.

As helpful as X was I still waited to speak to the manager, because surely there had to be something that could be done. At the very least the phone could have been exchanged for a model that worked; it didn’t have to be new it just needed to work.

After waiting 30 minutes for the manager to come back from lunch, however, the manager then told me the same thing your customer service reps told me over the phone — that since I didn't have your phone service, I wasn't under warrantee and thusly he wasn't obligated to help me, or even attempt to do so and I was out of luck.

At this point I decided that my best course of action was to run the offending phone over with my car, take photos of it with my camera phone and post the entire business to YouTube as a reason to stay away from T-Mobile. First, however, I decided to visit this outside vendor to see what he thought about the entire matter. He confirmed what I already knew that the phone was brand new and nothing was wrong with it, the catch however, was that since all the prongs in the Sim slot didn't retract when you slid the Sim card in, the phone was worthless. In short, the Sim slot was simply too small to be fixed, and I was the proud owner of a $350 worthless phone.

And to date, this is what your company has provided me with – nothing. I would say thank you, but I don't tend to thank people for trash.

The continued antipathy of your company towards potential customers is astounding. If I was a customer, I assure you I would have switched to another carrier by this point, and any and all consideration I've had for ever switching to T-Mobile in the future is dead. In fact, I now plan to go out of my way to urge people not to use your company, because I know how your company has treated me and I'd hate for that to happen to someone else.

No love,
[insert me giving the the finger here]

ETA: I'm sure you are all wondering where the video for the phone is now, well, I did what any good capitalist would do with a worthless piece of junk — I sold it for parts.

What a clusterf*ck. If there's one thing this job has taught me, it's this: Give people cash gifts.

(Thanks, CH!)
(Photo: Flyguy92586 )

Returns caused by problems like "I can't figure out how this works" and "buyer's remorse" make up all but 5% of returns says the Wall Street Journal, and retailers are using engraving to fight back:

The company in 2006 added an option allowing consumers to engrave their name or other message on a Vaio computer. It expanded the program to its digital cameras last year. Sony says the program was started to let customers personalize products, but a side benefit for Sony is that engraved products can be returned only because of defects or other reasons that are the company's fault.

Return rates on engraved Sony Vaios are negligible, compared with about 5% for non-engraved PCs, the company says, saving more than $1 million so far. "I have a feeling that people are understanding the condition that you can't return it," Mr. Abary says. "But also once they have engraved it, they feel like it's a part of them."

Electronics retailers spend a mind-boggling $13.8 billion a year reboxing and reselling the crap that you return, says the Wall Street Journal. Most returns are "because a product was too confusing to use."

The War On Returns [WSJ](Thanks, Robert!)
(Photo: gothick matt )

Consumer Reports says:

According to the posted policy, you’re simply out of luck if you don’t have a receipt and Target can’t verify the purchase through its electronic ��receipt look-up” system, as might be the case if you paid cash or received the item as a gift.

But for items costing up to $20, there’s another “hidden” option that you won’t see on the store’s posted return policy. Customers can get store credit, provided they show a driver’s license or other government-issued identification and haven’t already used this option twice during the year. This option actually has been around awhile, although it initially allowed no-receipt returns for items valued up to $100, an amount subsequently reduced to $40, and reduced again last year to $20.

“It is something we look at as an accommodation above and beyond the policy," says Target spokesman David Fransen. "It’s not publicized or advertised.”

Target’s 'hidden' return policy [Consumer Reports]

Colleen is going to wash her clothes before she wears them from now on. Why? Well, she bought a pair of pants from Old Navy that were, well, soiled. You know. In the crotch region. By a female. The words "snail trail" were used.

Yeah.

Ew.

As if that wasn't bad enough, when Colleen took the pants back and tried to discreetly tell Old Navy what was wrong with them, they were total jerks to her.

Realizing that this was a sensitive issue, I asked for a manager at the checkout counter and attempted to be reasonably discreet when I spoke to her. It wasn't pretty. The manager was SO defensive and although she did say "I'm sorry" once, her attitude was horrible! She made me feel like I was in the wrong for being disgusted about the pants. She wasn't empathetic at all and it went badly, with excuse after excuse about WHY it could have happened, instead of saying, "I'm so sorry, how horrible, let me take care of this for you." She actually said, "Well, it's not as if we did this on PURPOSE!" Sheesh lady, I never said you did, I just want you to know so you can prevent this in the future!

Realizing I was getting nowhere fast, I quietly told her I would call corporate to express my dismay, and her response was "Go ahead!". Nice! So I did, literally dialing their number on the way out of the store. The rep there WAS empathetic and understanding, and promised that she'd have the district manager call me. I told her I had planned to return two items and shop in ON tonight, but after dealing with the manager, I was so turned off I left. I felt mortified when she was talking to me, and I was so embarrassed that she reacted like I was somehow in the wrong for expecting to buy clean clothes! I don't even want to go back to the store.

To make the rest of a long story short, I never heard from a district manager. I did hear back from the Old Navy rep at corporate who apologized again, and sent me a $50 gift card for my troubles, and told me I didn't need to return the pants. (Um, yeah, cause I'm going to wash them and wear them after this?) The pants were close to $20, so the end result here is that Old Navy puts my value as a customer at $30

old navy snail trail pants [Simple Kind of Life] (Thanks to the person who doesn't want to be credited for submitting this!)
(Photo:cmorran123)

Here's a fun tip for fellow Consumerists who would like to return gifts to Best Buy, but would prefer cash over a gift card (the only refund possible with only a gift receipt)

* Before you do anything else, ensure that the person that bought you the gift paid with cash, debit card, or a check. The amount has to be under something like 150 dollars, otherwise Best Buy corporate will issue a refund check. If they paid with a credit card, you're out of luck, the money will go back on the card.

* Look on your gift receipt and find the "four-part key" - it's just under the "Val #" and just above the text "GIFT RECEIPT", and follows this format: "#### ### #### ##/##/##" The first section is the store number, the second is the register number, the third is the transaction number, and the fourth is the date. Write this number on a piece of scrap paper.

* Bring your item and the scrap paper into Best Buy. Head up to the service counter, and tell the Rep that a friend/relative/whoever bought you the item and gave you the receipt, but you left it at home. Here, you can either actually place a call home or just tell the rep that you know that they would need the "four-part key" and have it written down. Either way, this takes just a tad of social engineering, but you somehow need to convince them that you knew they'd need the "four-part key".

* Give them the scrap paper and the product, and tell them you'd like to return or exchange it, and keep the difference *as cash*. If the person bought the item with the methods listed above, there should be no problem and they will gladly hand over the cash!

* Enjoy your cash, and not being locked in to spending your gift money in just one store!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Nick J

(Photo:meghannmarco)

1) Walk around in the parking lot with said toy gun out in the open, uncovered.

2) Return the gun at 4 am.

An unidentified man from El Paso, TX could have used this advice. He caused a panic at his local Walmart, according to the El Paso Times.

The incident began shortly before 4 a.m. at the Cielo Vista Wal-Mart store when someone spotted a man in the parking lot with a gun.

Responding police officers evacuated the store and began a search.

The purported gunman was found and questioned at the scene.

He was released a few minutes later when it was determined that the man was not intending to commit a crime.

Police: Wal-Mart gunman was returning toy gun [El Paso Times]
(Photo:greenmelinda)

According to the Union-Tribune in San Diego, a man tried to return shotgun ammunition to his local Walmart. After he was refused he became enraged and told the employees he would be back to kill them all.

Then the man fired off some shots in the Walmart parking lot. No one was hurt, but witnesses were able to write down the man's license plate number and police located him at his home.

The San Diego SWAT team surrounded the man's mobile home and eventually had to use tear gas to get him to surrender after an 8 hour standoff.

Sorry, scary gun guy. Walmart's return policy on guns and ammo is clear: All sales are final. It pays to read the signs.

Santee SWAT standoff ends with arrest [Union-Tribune] (Thanks, jpac!)
(Photo:crawfishpie)

Let me state clearly what they are having us do: I had to return the camera at the store, the cost of which will be refunded to my brother's card. Then I have to call my brother and explain to him why I am exchanging his gift and ask him to please go back online and purchase a different camera for me. Talk about a pain for my brother who was just trying to get me a nice wedding gift!

I tried asking Best Buy to just give me store credit for the $300 so that I could go online and purchase the new camera without having to get my brother involved, they said no.

Hello,

I love the Consumerist! I've long followed all the shenanigans that Best Buy tries to pull, but up until now I have always been personally happy with their service and prices.

Until I got a wedding gift from my brother. My brother sent me and my fiancee the Nikon Coolpix digital camera. It's a great camera, only problem is that you have to charge the battery. My fiancee and I are honeymooning in the Dominican Republic and plan to travel oversees at least once a year, so we want a camera that takes AA batteries so that we don't have to deal with finding an adapter to charge the battery for our camera when it runs out of juice.

I pulled up the Best Buy website and looked around until I found a great camera that actually had better features than the one my brother sent me for $100 cheaper! Great I thought, I'll exchange the camera and have $100 in Best Buy credit to get some blank cds, a memory card and other electronics type stuff.

The first thing that gave me pause was that the new camera I wanted was listed as only available online. I wanted to return the camera to a store and just pick up the new one lickety-split. I thought I'd hit a store and try my luck anyhow.

At the store I was told that I could not exchange the camera but that I could return it (without having to ship it back) and that the card on which the gift was purchased would be refunded. I explained to the person that the camera was a gift and that reimbursing the card would do no good as we wanted to exchange this camera for another camera. After much coaxing it seemed like they would be willing to help us, until they found out that the camera we wanted was only available online. I was told there was nothing that could be done.

Let me state clearly what they are having us do: I had to return the camera at the store, the cost of which will be refunded to my brother's card. Then I have to call my brother and explain to him why I am exchanging his gift and ask him to please go back online and purchase a different camera for me. Talk about a pain for my brother who was just trying to get me a nice wedding gift!

I tried asking Best Buy to just give me store credit for the $300 so that I could go online and purchase the new camera without having to get my brother involved, they said no. I explained to them that by giving me the $300 store credit that the money would then stay within Best Buy (I'm not going to have my brother buy me a $200 camera and then ask him to go ahead and spend the extra $100 on something else for me at Best Buy) this didn't phase them. I also told them that if they didn't give us store credit that I could assure them that I would no longer be a Best Buy customer and that I had in fact seen the same camera that I was interested in purchasing available at both Circuit City and Amazon .com for $10 cheaper, but this fell on deaf ears.

I returned the camera, sent an email to my brother explaining things and asked him to purchase the other camera. The silver lining here is that my brother is saving $110 by purchasing the other camera through Amazon.com. But talk about making your customers jump through hoops to give a gift! Shame on you Best Buy.

Chris

(Photo: garavondik)