Justin really likes Amazon. He does. He’s a big fan and frequent customer. When his employer gave out Kindle Fires (Kindles Fire?) as a gift to employees, though, his boss told Justin that it would be okay to return his for store credit, since he already owned one. Cool. Armed with a gift receipt, Justin set out to do that. He was met with impenetrable corporate logic: he couldn’t use the gift receipt to return just one kindle. Since his boss had bought them all in one purchase, he had to return all of them. [More]
returns and exchanges
Newegg Loses All Traces Of My Hard Drive Order
By 7.24.12
Sean bought four identical hard drives from Newegg. These adorable quadruplets went into a new RAID enclosure, but the fourth one wouldn’t fit. It had some impact damage. He returned it to Newegg for a replacement, and learned that (according to them) he had never purchased any such hard drive from them, and he was clearly trying to scam a free hard drive. Which is weird, what with him just ordering this drive from them a few days before. [More]
Demanding A Refund From Toys ‘R’ Us Leads To Infighting, Tears
By 7.23.12
Cami ordered some car seats online for in-store pickup at a local Toys ‘R’ Us store. When the order came, the seats were the wrong model. No problem: she just refused the order, which would put the seats back in store inventory and trigger a refund to the card used for the purchase. Right? Er, no. Ordering from the online presence of your favorite local retailer and picking up in the store isn’t as seamless as it might appear. You’re really dealing with two separate stores, and two separate retail operations. In Cami’s case, this meant that two different departments of the same company were effectively arguing over who owed her a refund. [More]
Don’t Try To Sell Your Target Gift Card For Cash Inside The Store
By 7.3.12
When Heather tried to sell her son’s old crib, she learned that it had been recalled and contacted the retailer, Target, to find out how to get a refund. She was told that if she brought the crib to a Target store, she would receive a refund on the spot. What she wasn’t told is that the refund would be in the form of a Target gift card. With the nearest store an hour away, she doesn’t visit regularly and has no use for a gift card. She’s on a tight budget and has more use for cash. She tried to find a fellow customer to buy it from her until store management asked her to stop. From their point of view, she brought in a recalled item without understanding Target’s policies, and was soliciting customers inside the store, attempting to sell her gift card for cash. [More]
The Safeway Hot 100: No Refund Until You’re Proven Innocent
By 7.2.12
Michael’s fiancée sent him to the grocery store late one night. He came home with the wrong moisturizing cream, which happens all too often during shopping expeditions based on someone else’s instructions. No big deal. They just brought it back to Safeway the next time they visited the store. He paid cash, but it was still all sealed up and had a Safeway sticker on it. Only the cream’s price tag and popularity with shoplifters meant that the store’s Loss Prevention staff would need to review surveillance tapes to make sure that Michael hadn’t stolen the item. [More]
