As we’ve mentioned before, Target doesn’t accept returns or exchanges of gifts bought through their wedding registry unless you have a receipt. Got two of the same thing? You’re out of luck unless you’re willing to call your wedding guests and ask them if they kept the receipt.

Reader Terry has two ice tea makers and two griddles that she’d like to exchange, but is having no luck with Target. Terry has launched an EECB and cc’d us so we could listen in:

My fiancée and I registered at Target as well as Elder-Beerman for our wedding on May 24, 2008; it went wonderfully, by the way. At least until after we opened the gifts. We received two iced tea makers and two griddles from our registry, and they were marked “Fulfilled” on the registry. We also didn’t receive any receipts on the items, but I’m sure our family assumed like I did that you wouldn’t need a receipt with an item purchased from a gift registry.

I hauled my packages back to my local Target, with registry printout in hand as some extra insurance. The person behind the counter informs me that I will need a receipt or gift receipt even for an exchange of the items. I asked him why that was so, that you could clearly see from the registry that Target knew the items were paid for. He said that they used to be able to look up purchase information from the registry but they cannot anymore. He again told me that I should contact my relatives and get a receipt. I asked him if he thought that was tacky, and he agreed. I informed him that I would be escalating this issue, and offered to allow him to escalate it himself, which he was completely uninterested in.

When I went out into the parking lot and loaded the packages back into the car, I called the only phone number I could find which was on my registry printout. After verifying my information with the person on the other end of the phone, she proceeded to tell me that everything the person told me in the store was correct and there was nothing she could do to help me. I went over the same argument points with her that I went over with the person in the store: that it was tacky to call someone for a receipt and that Target knew when and where those items were purchased. She did tell me one thing that the person inside did not mention, that our registry was created before this policy change took place. She told me that gift receipts print out automatically and that it was the gift giver’s responsibility to make sure a receipt was given with the gift. I told her that I found this policy hard to believe, since in the time I have been shopping in Target since this policy change not one of the cashiers have told me that gifts I give from a registry can no longer be looked up and the person MUST get a receipt or gift receipt.

I informed the person on the phone that I would be informing all of my friends of the customer-unfriendly practices at Target, but I also wanted to contact a person of authority at Target to give them a chance to rethink this anti-consumer policy. Low and behold though, while searching for the e-mail address of someone I could contact at Target HQ I found this story, which is another formerly loyal customer with the same issue.

Target: You’re logging registry purchases. We know it. You know it. Your employees know it. I understand that fighting internal and external shrink is important but intentionally removing the ability of team members to verify purchase information is ludicrous. I am not asking for a refund, just the ability to make an exchange for a gift that I can actually use. This is not an unreasonable request.

Also, FWIW: Elder-Beerman had no trouble looking up a duplicate gift I received there. They even issued me a gift card so I could order a china set that they didn’t have in the store. I guess you really do get what you pay for.

Terry

PREVIOUSLY: Target Bungles Wedding Registry, Won’t Exchange Duplicate Gifts Without Receipts
(Photo: pdxmac )

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