Gift Receipt Ripoff

[kerrylj]

I have not had this happen that I know of but I would never know unless I had the original receipt. But really crappy CS and something I will be watching for.

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2011/...ers-attention/

[jessep13]

hopefully this is limited to those stores only. But its always good to be vigilent when returning things anyways.

[Natalka]

Hm... but I can see that happening, since stores will often refund the last sale price on something.

[Sunshyne1]

especially if there's no original receipt to go by, they go by whatever is on the system.
From what I am reading, that's what happened. They returned an item with a gift receipt (which doesn't show the price of the item at time of purchase)
The item in their system was now at a different price and since there was no dollar value on the gift receipt they got back what came up.
They kind of made it sound like the cashier's were doing it intentionally and ripping people off.
but to me it's a system problem. Either way, Wal-Mart should be a bit more diligent.

[saveysaver2012]

I can see where everyone is coming from but Walmart does return with the last sale price not the original price. It could go both ways.There is no way for the computer to track when that one specific item was bought( 10 min or 10 months) because it all goes by a specific bar code that is unique to that product( ex.one type t-shirt will have the same bar code as the rest of the t-shirts like it but different from other t-shirts).So if the computer gave back the original amount all the time..I could go in and buy a shirt on sale for 5$ that was originally 15$ and return it ( without the tags) and say I bought it a month ago. I would be ripping the company off.They need to come up with a system that is fair to both!

[Briwantstosave]

They should implement a system that is similar to what I believe it is Sears and Old Navy do- beside the item, the price paid for the item is listed backwards. (ie 11.99 will show as 9911) That should be a relatively easy thing to implement- being as huge of a company as Walmart is.

[Eva-M]

The gift receipt shows the date when the item was purchased. If the person knows that the returned amount of money is not what was originally paid they can easily ask the CS rep. to check when the price went down and return the amount accordingly based on the date.

[xXtiggerXx]

I really don't believe a company as large as Walmart would have a "flawed" gift return system like this; they don't make billions in profit for being stupid. They know that the busiest time for returns will be boxing week, so they have lower prices on the items most likely bought for presents. When people come to return gifts, they will get the lower price back since that's the one in the system. The keep the difference in price, and still make a profit on what you buy with your return $ (if you decide to spend it there).

[Safyre]

This has happened to me at WalMart too a few years back but I didn't fight it as I didn't have the regular receipt, and I didn't really think about it in terms of WM profiting by failing to give back the proper amount (I realize this now, but didn't give it much thought back then)

There is a barcode on the gift receipt though so I do believe that barcode should be imprinted with the information regarding price paid.

[jayne_a]

that was an associate error. Not a computer error. ( i work customer service at walmart so i know) you have to push one button before you scan the item, and then the price that was paid will show up, if you forget to push that button, then it's the latest sale price that comes up. Gift receipts are great, and they work just fine, but if there's a new person working and they forget that one step, then this is what happens.

[Safyre]

that was an associate error. Not a computer error. ( i work customer service at walmart so i know) you have to push one button before you scan the item, and then the price that was paid will show up, if you forget to push that button, then it's the latest sale price that comes up. Gift receipts are great, and they work just fine, but if there's a new person working and they forget that one step, then this is what happens.

I hope that's correct, and that the cashiers listed in the article are new. But happening at stores in Ontario(me) as well as California and PA.... seems like there is a training gap at the very least.

[Giddymonkey]

This doesn't make sense to me. Every reciept has a unique barcode and/or number on it that goes into the main computer system. This number tracks the purchase so they can very well tell the price actually paid for the item, along with the day, time, method of payment, store and probably even the cashier who rang the purchase through. The only time they should ever only give the lowest sale price is if there is no receipt, but the whole point of the gift reciept is so you can return/exchange if you want, in which case you are entitled to full value paid by the purchaser. IMO failing to give the full price paid is fraud.

[neelkamalll1979]

They should implement a system that is similar to what I believe it is Sears and Old Navy do- beside the item, the price paid for the item is listed backwards. (ie 11.99 will show as 9911) That should be a relatively easy thing to implement- being as huge of a company as Walmart is.

RCSS has some thing like this too but they use letters. Each number is assigned a letter.

[Brooke_]

Pay in cash and keep the original receipt...and only buy gifts they're going to LOVE :p
This way they can just return it and get cash back, theirs to spend where ever they please!
Thank you for the post! Very interesting.

[DianneS]

Retailers are not obligated to accept returns/give refunds. Almost all of them do because it makes good business sense, but technically there is nothing to say that a consumer is entitled to return something they purchased and receive their money back. I am surprised that Walmart doesn't have a gift receipt that includes the original purchase price...the Bay has had it for 20 years. In this day and age, it should be easy.