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 $12
5.95.
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.
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 $12
5.95.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.
