Disclaimer, I have wasted $20 on stupider things.

MIL bought my son a hoodie at Academy for Christmas in early December. Purchase price was $28. Before Christmas came, she exchanged it for a different hoodie valued at $60. We have receipts for both transactions. First one shows the purchase price of $28. The second shows the use of the exchange credit of $28 plus the $32 cash. Total outlay by MIL was $60

Son decides he doesn't like the hoodie so my daughter takes him to the same store with receipts, where they return the hoodie and are given a gift card for $37.30 by the store ($32+ tax. This does not match the receipt, but it is a different argument).

When they get home, wife and I are confused because we expected $60. I have made two trips to Academy to resolve this with no results. The store says that the first $28 was store credit so I don't get that value. I explain to them that $60 has been outlayed, I have zero merchandise, and a store credit of $37.30. Where is the other $22.70? "You used it as store credit." is their response.

After about five minutes it was obvious I was getting nowhere with these two clerks, so I told them I respectfully disagreed, thanked them for their time, and asked whom I could escalate this to. They gave me the number for corporate.

Am I wrong in thinking they are screwing me out of some value?

This is a situation where I usually try a partial charge back via my credit card. Even if they fight it and win it still wasted their time/money.

What did the manager say when you asked about how they'd refund the difference?

I suspect the manager was whom I was talking to because when I asked who I could escalate to they came me a corporate contact. She essentially said that the refund on first purchase was used toward the second purchase and could not be refunded again. I was working with two clerks, and I don't know which one was the superior. One of them told me she had to do this to another customer over some shoes. I told her I didn't agree that was fair to that customer either.

Question for the manager:
If customer hadn't provided receipts, would customer have received $60 in store credit?

I'd ask the store manager to undo the previous transaction, take back the gift card and give back the hoodie. Then, while the manager is watching, I'd walk to the return desk, return the item, and say that I can't find the receipts anymore.

Target does this too, it's bs

AgsMyDude said:

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Target does this too, it's bs

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Interesting to hear that. If these two people would have said, "we have a policy that refunds can only be applied once" and showed where that was, I would have said "thank you for showing me that policy. Now that I am aware of it, I won't make that mistake again.". Unfortunately, they are trying to BS me into thinking I am bad at math.

You are not wrong. Your time is valuable, way more than the money your are out....I'd probably just take the loss.

Lesson is likely - return the garment without the receipt, and you'd get the lowest price for the item as store credit during the past 30 days, which is likely more than you got. In that scenario, if you are not happy with the amount they offer you - simply say, I think I have the receipt at home and come back with it later.

It's funny I came across this thread. Something similar happened to me at Kohls today. I returned a sweater that my daughter didn't want, bought by her grandmother. I was given $30 in store credit, despite the sweater costing $40 (I had the receipt which showed this).

When I asked for an explanation, the clerk said it was because the grandmother had earned $10 in "Kohls cash" when she initially made the purchase. This purchase included other items too, maybe $100 worth. I asked: if I were to return other items from that purchase, would they subtract $10 from those return amounts too? She didn't have an answer for that.

It struck me as very cheap and odd on their part. If they're gonna be that anal, then she should've given me $10 in Kohls cash to make up the difference. Even though Kohls cash is not as valuable as cash or even store credit, it would've followed their logic.

After the fact, my wife said the same thing that was mentioned here. I should've cancelled the transaction and then said "I'd like to return this sweater. I don't have the receipt." Odds are I would've gotten more than the $30 back.

To the ones saying to make the return without the receipt...
If you have the CC that was used to make the purchase they can use that to pull up the transaction. Without that you'll likely only get a store gift card for the lowest sale price of the item.

For sweaters and hoodies those items are likely deeply discounted now that winter apparel is likely on its way out of the store.

Returning without the receipt will only make this worse. I have receipts showing that they have received $60 (plus tax) for merchandise that has been returned, and all I have to show for it is a gift card for $37.30. On ammo sales they are very adamant that all sales are final. They never make this claim with clothing. There was no coupon or promotional pricing that is taken into account. We gave them $60 (plus tax) and what we got back was store credit in $37.30.

If they can show where this is policy, I will walk away, but they haven't done that

Burdizzo said:

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Returning without the receipt will only make this worse. I have receipts showing that they have received $60 (plus tax) for merchandise that has been returned, and all I have to show for it is a gift card for $37.30. On ammo sales they are very adamant that all sales are final. They never make this claim with clothing. There was no coupon or promotional pricing that is taken into account. We gave them $60 (plus tax) and what we got back was store credit in $37.30.

If they can show where this is policy, I will walk away, but they haven't done that

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If I had to guess, the fact that the original return was an exchange and not a return+new purchase is what's causing the issue. There is probably some catch with the "system" that the clerks and manager don't know how to override.

I hope you can get the difference back (it's definitely owed to you), but lesson here is NEVER do an exchange. Always do a return and then a new transaction.

Yeah, next time I will ask for a gift card and not credit toward another transaction (actually I tell MIL this strategy)

TXTransplant said:

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That is shady. I don't shop at Kohl's, but every other store where I do shop that has "cash" coupons like that typically prorates the coupon across the number of items you purchase using the coupon. So, if you buy one item, the discount is $10, but if you buy three items, the discount on each item would be roughly $3.33. This is often printed on the receipt. At a minimum, they should have prorated the $10 discount when calculating your refund. .

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Yep, I thought the same thing. There were maybe five items on the receipt. So if you wanna take two dollars off my refund, ok I guess. I've seen it done that way on Target receipts when you earn a gift card.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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To the ones saying to make the return without the receipt...
If you have the CC that was used to make the purchase they can use that to pull up the transaction. Without that you'll likely only get a store gift card for the lowest sale price of the item.

For sweaters and hoodies those items are likely deeply discounted now that winter apparel is likely on its way out of the store.

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Actually Target in my experience didn't care. They don't care what you paid. They'll only give you a GC or credit for what the sale price is today. This happened to me multiple times returning stuff my wife bought and the manager told me to pound sand.

I should have asked if I was speaking with the manager during my visit. When it was apparent I was getting nowhere, I asked who I could "escalate it to". They gave me the corporate phone number. I just got off the phone with corporate, and they told me they can't resolve it and that I need to talk to the manager. But she understood that it looks like the store is wrong.


Typical corporate runaround.

Back to the store to talk to the "manager". (Calling first)

Edit: Called the store, I oprimad zero to speak to a person, and it rang for thirty seconds without anyone answering. I will make one more trip to attempt to resolve this. Next step if it is unresolved will be filing a complaint with Consumer Protection at the AG's office, for what good it will do.

AgsMyDude said:

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Kenneth_2003 said:

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To the ones saying to make the return without the receipt...
If you have the CC that was used to make the purchase they can use that to pull up the transaction. Without that you'll likely only get a store gift card for the lowest sale price of the item.

For sweaters and hoodies those items are likely deeply discounted now that winter apparel is likely on its way out of the store.

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Actually Target in my experience didn't care. They don't care what you paid. They'll only give you a GC or credit for what the sale price is today. This happened to me multiple times returning stuff my wife bought and the manager told me to pound sand.

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I too regularly return stuff my wife bought at Target! I've never had an issue. I use a link that she sends me from her Target app or the receipt, and they put the full credit back on our credit card each time.

Maybe worth the principle but $20ish is sure not worth the time, 2-3+ trips to store, and whatever else it took.

As previously alluded to, this is likely not a policy thing so much as a software shortcoming. You dont need a manager, he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground, you need the 74 year old lady named Doris That's been working retail and cash registers since 1978. She'll know how to trick the system to do what she wants. You just havnt found the right person yet. But likely, it ain't the manager.

Or complain at corporate and they'll mail you a gift card and write it off as bad debt. Lol.