Have you ever bought something at a store only to find out a week or two later that the store had reduced the price? Some retailers will be nice enough to give you a refund for that price difference if you show them the receipt. But if you want to take advantage of this policy at Target, you may need to return your original purchase and buy a completely new item.

Consumerist reader Jay was doing some Target shopping and noticed that something he’d purchased a few weeks earlier for $39.99 had now been marked down to $26.99. Not one to scoff at $13, Jay asked a store associate about Target’s policy for price adjustment refunds.

“She said to just bring the receipt in and show it to customer service, and that they would take care of it right away,” he tells Consumerist.

So he goes home to get the receipt, and on his way out the door, Jay’s wife suggests that he call the store to confirm:

I’m glad I did because this time the person on the phone told me that they could not provide a price adjustment if it’s been more than 15 days. That sounded like a strange policy so I asked her if that meant I had to bring the product, return it and repurchase it at the sale price? She paused for a second and slowly said, “Um yeah, I guess you can do that, but you can’t buy back the one you return.” It still didn’t make any sense to me, but went ahead and packed the product and brought it along.

As soon as I got there I went to customer service and handed in my receipt, asking if an adjustment can be made based on the sale. The lady checked the receipt to confirm I’m within the 90 days and began the process. She then said, “Oh it looks like you only have 15 days to do this and that time has past. What would you like to do?” Needless to say, I ended up returning the product for a full credit and repurchasing a brand new one at the sale price. Good thing I brought the product along with me.

Now this was a small product and bringing it back wasn’t a huge hassle, but I would be pretty annoyed if I had to haul back something rather large (or something that required assembly) just to get a price adjustment made. Not to mention, now they’re stuck with a returned, opened box item and I now have a brand spankin’ new product for less.

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