Gift receipts do not protect your value!

Here’s another instance of corporate America taking advantage of the consumer. The news media, prodded by the corporations, urge people to get gift receipts when buying something for a loved one. This “guarantees” that, if the gift doesn’t fit or the recipient does not like it, they can take it back and get its full value in the form of store credit or sometimes cash. Great idea, right? Wrong!

A while back, I received some clothing from JCPenney as a gift. The person who gave me the clothing gave me the gift receipt and inadvertently attached the original receipt with it. The items were pants and shorts. All the pants/shorts were too big. I decided to return these items and I used my gift receipt to return them. When I returned them, I got a gift card with a value of $125.95.

This did not seem right, but since I did not have the original receipt with me, I couldn’t argue my point. Sure enough, when I dug out the receipt, the original, paid value of the clothing was $146.95. I was cheated out of $21.

I have attached copies of the original receipt and the receipt issued when I got my gift card to prove my point. The items are exactly the same and I have labeled them as A, B, C, etc. In the time that the person bought me the items and I returned them, one item of clothing lost $20 in value (E=DKR FF MOBILE CAREER item).

Americans are always being cheated out of value when they return gift items without a receipt (esp. after Xmas). But gift receipts were supposed to fix this. It turns out that that assumption is wrong.

One point about this: it took me about 3 months to return these pants. I don’t shop at JCPenney that much because this store if far away from my house. Thus, it took me a while to get out to my nearest JCPenney. JCPenney may lower the prices in their inventory as time goes on. This shouldn’t matter, though, since gift receipts should hold their value for as long as the store is in business.

My advice to you is to return any unwanted gift receipted items as soon as possible. If you don’t, you may lose value. Unfortunately, you will probably never know if you lose it since most people don’t ever know what their items were worth when purchased. This is an awkward thing to bring up when you see the person who gave you the gift. But it could go like this:

Giver: What did you think about the Hawaiian shirt we gave you for your birthday?
Recipient: Umm…loved it. How much did it cost?
Giver: Huh? That’s rude.

The corporation is happy though. They’ve just increased their bottom line.

The Never-Come-Rebate i.e. avoid TomTom products.

Like I mentioned, I’ve been pretty successful with rebates. I think, in general, companies are starting to be responsible and are paying them. In the old days, companies would set a % of the number of rebates that they would not pay and that was that. The rebates they did not pay was all profit for them. They used excuses (mostly trivial) not to pay them: person used all caps, wrong color pen, did not buy the adapter with purchase, etc. However, some companies started being sued by federal and state governments. This caused a lot of companies to wise up. Now you see headlines like, “X corporation agrees to pay a fine in rebate investigation…” Later on the story usually read, “X company admitted no wrongdoing…”

Things are getting better. There are still some holdovers, though. This is the case with TomTom.

I bought a TomTom One GPS unit for my car that came with a $100 rebate. I bought it from Staples Office Supplies. I paid $499 for it. I filled out the form and mailed it on 1/12/07. Around mid February I received a postcard from Continental Promotion Group (TomTom’s rebate processing company) saying that the UPC I sent was not valid. I called their 800# and I faxed a copy of the UPC (I had mailed the original). The person I spoke to said that she would resubmit. On 4/7/07, I received another postcard from Continental Promotion now saying that the receipt I submitted was from a non qualifying store. I kept a copy of the form and it does not state that Staples is not a valid retailer for this offer (see below). It mentions other retailers, but not Staples.

I filed a BBB complaint on 4/30/07. This got the company’s attention. They came up with another excuse on 5/2/07: customer received an instant off discount, thus, no rebate. One problem: I received no instant off price (see copy of my receipt below). This ticks me off. Companies and their rebate processing contractors doing everything they can to deny a rebate.

On 5/17/07, I filed a consumer complaint with the Arizona Attorney General’s office outlining my case like I do here. Continental Promotion is based in Arizona (TomTom is an international company with headquarters in Europe; I believe France). I received a form letter from the Arizona Attorney General acknowledging the receipt of my complaint. No action was ever taken by the Arizona Attorney General on my complaint.

I filed a complaint on ripoffreport.com on 5/21/07 outlining my case like I do here. A Continental Promotion Group employee responded on 8/18/07 to my case at the ripoff.com website (anonymously) and said this:

Continental Promotion Group NEVER denies a rebate.We are contracted by our clients to fulfill rebates to THEIR customers. Consequently, we can only use the guidelines that our clients set up.Unfortunately, your denied rebate could have been caused by a number of factors:1. Store personnel, in an effort to 'help' their customers, often provide rebate forms for items that don't qualify for rebates.2. Many times the client doesn't provide CPG with all of the valid UPC codes. When this happens, a purchase that SHOULD qualify for a rebate is denied. Our CPG audit department works hard to identify these and to obtain all of the valid UPCs from our clients.3. Similar to #2, there are times when the client does not supply CPG with all of the valid stores. There are also times when the supplied list of valid stores doesn't match the rebate forms that consumers receive. Again, our audit department strives to identify and correct these discrepancies as quickly as possible.As a policy, CPG only does business with clients who WANT TO PAY REBATES. If you have truly met the qualifications for a rebate, please maintain contact with CPG's customer service department until you have been satisfied.Thank you,CPG Employee.

This is great, but I’m still out my $100. Want to know another detail: This same TomTom One unit can now be purchased for around $200. It may have been as low as $100 during a Christmas sale. What a greedy company.

An Introduction.

Like you, I am a consumer and consider myself well-educated in consumer affairs. One of my favorite publications has always been Consumer Reports. Their reporting and pro-consumer bent is unequaled in this country. Just recently, I learned that Procter and Gamble has been decreasing the volume and content of their products and charging you the same or more for them. Thanks, Consumer Reports.

Over the years, I have gotten good at complaining to companies when I feel I have been wronged. For the most part, these complaints have been resolved to my satisfaction. I, however, am occasionally stumped and frustrated when I encounter a company that will not live up to their promises, or even more, likes to “stick it to” the consumer.

I will use this blog to share my personal experiences and share some rules that I’ve developed when you feel the need to “escalate” your case, if you don’t get what you want.

First, I will list my rules that I ask that you follow when you come across a corporate situation that is not resolved to your liking. I would also recommend that you follow my suggested order in terms of making your complaint. Here they are, followed by an explanation:

1) Complain to the supervisor/manager (3 out of a possible 4 in terms of effectiveness)

a) DOCUMENT all your interactions with such supervisor (and from now on)
b) DOCUMENT all your interactions with all company representatives

2) File a BBB report (3 out of 4)

3) File an state attorney general complaint (and FTC complaint) (2 out of 4)

4) Publicize your case with the local media (1 out of 4)

5) Post your case in online consumer websites like Planet Feedback, the Ripoff report and others (1 out of 4)


1. Complain to supervisor/manager and DOCUMENT your interactions: This is really the first step you should take. You should always take the assumption that you will not get what you want. That way, if you want to “escalate” your case further, you can tell others what it is you were told, at what time, tone of voice of the representatives etc. If you want to fight this case later, you will come across as more professional if you recount dates and times of your interactions with their personnel. Get the customer service reps name, get the managers name, write down what you were told, note the time, etc.

In terms of effectiveness, I rate this as a 3 out of 4. Managers are usually much better at customer service relations that lower level staff. I’ve found that if you present your case in an honest, forthright way, you will usually get what you want.

2. File a BBB report: I’ve also found that businesses hate to have a bad Better Business Bureau report filed on them. Filing it is free at https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/GetStarted.aspx. When filing it with a national company, you sometimes have to look up their home state or city. I’ve had many a case where I’ve been complaining to a company’s reps without getting anywhere, then as soon as I file a BBB complaint, I get a call or letter from the corporate headquarters giving me all I want.

In terms of effectiveness, I rate this as a 3 out of 4. Maybe businesses are in competition with each other as to how low a number of BBB complaints are on file against them. I don't know, but this strategy seems to work.

3. File a state attorney general complaint: Google to find out your state attorney general. This is not as effective as filing a BBB complaint because 1) you are dealing with usually lazy state government employees and 2) state attorney generals are sometimes political hacks that depend on corporate interests to fuel their re-elections.

Getting someone in the government to do anything is pretty hard. You’ve got to find that rare gem of a person that believes in helping the taxpayer and will take your case. But it can be hard. For example, what do you think your chances of getting the Arkansas Attorney General to take action against Walmart or Tysons chicken? Pretty nil, in my opinion. You should also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This is a federal agency that takes most type of complaints, but not all. You can do this at their website at http://www.ftc.gov/.

In terms of effectiveness, I rate this as a 2 out of 4. You’ve got to do this because many a big company has been brought down by some state attorney general finally taking action against them. Also, the media always checks the attorney general's office to see how many complaints have been filed on a company their investigating.

4. Publicize your case with the local media: This will get you what you want, but the problem is finding a local media personality or newspaper writer that will help. I love it when the TV cameras chase a manager for wronging a customer. However, many cities don’t have a dedicated consumer reporter, and when they do have one, the reporter can only do a limited number of stories per week, month or year.

In terms of effectiveness, I rate this as a 1 out of 4. If they run your story, you’ll get what you asked for, and then some, like a bouquet of flowers delivered on bended knee (wow!). But don’t get your hopes up that they’ll send a TV crew to your house after you've left them a message.

5. Post your case in online consumer websites like Planet Feedback, the Ripoff report and others: These are some sites that promise to help the consumer when they take on a corporate titan. The problem is that the companies hardly ever look at these sites. As long you’ve come this far, you might as well do one, but don’t get your hopes up. http://www.planetfeedback.com/ http://www.ripoffreport.com/

In terms of effectiveness, I rate this as a 1 out of 4. I’ve posted my complaints on these sites, but to be honest, I’ve never had a complaint resolved through them. Maybe I should change my rating to .5 out of 4 stars for this one, ha-ha.

The fool-proof strategy: Sorry, but I have never come across a method that I would rate 4 out of 4. Maybe one day. We can dream, can't we!?