<p>Actually, I’ve started buying with CASH AFTER speaking with the cashier & being assured that the recipient can get CASH back if s/he returns any gift (especially if its for someone when I’m not sure of their size/taste). If the store says they won’t give back CASH to the recipient, I don’t buy the item. When I buy for my immediate family & will be doing the return myself, I generally put everything on my credit card.</p>
<p>The cash with the original receipt taped to a tag on the gift works very well for me.</p>
<p>I am also unhappy with the Macy’s policy & find it very discriminatory. We use the gift cards from returns to eat at their restaurant (tho it’s somewhat overpriced), since you never get a discount there anyway. I’m try to go to Macy’s as rarely as possible. Unfortunately, there just aren’t many department stores left in HI.</p>
<p>ellebud,
I was so flabergasted at the clerk’s offensive comment that I didnt know what to say. I jsut left. Of course, that was like 25 yrs ago, and I am a tougher ould broad now! I was in NY last fall taking care of things for my father. I was in a drugstore picking up some things when a girl (in her late 20s maybe) walked down the isle, yakking loudly on her phone, talking an obviously annoyed tone. Good thing my memory stinks now that I am an old broad, and I don’t recall exactly what she was saying or what she said to me, but she made some rude comment about the woman, who was apparently an elderly woman for whom this girl worked. She grumbled and made some antisemetic crack about the lady to me. I told her that I was Jewish and that frankly I found her comment offensive. Her response… “oh they’re not all like that. I’ve worked for some who aren’t bad”. :eek:</p>
<p>Since the OP was not the original purchaser of the gift and the purchase was not made with cash, check, or debit, then the store has to give store credit because the OP doesn’t want the money to go back to the gift buyer’s credit card. If the gift buyer returned the purchase or the OP stated that it was okay, Macy’s and other stores can refund the amount to the credit card that purchased the items. If they gave that much cash back instead of a credit, it would be a cash advance, which is frowned upon. I assume that the OP’s kids would give her the money to buy something new, so she could just have had Macy’s put the money back on the card. It is the policy of many stores to only give store credit when presented with a gift receipt. The cashier could have scanned the return sticker on the item and credited it back to the card and the OP could deal with her kids about getting a new gift.</p>
<p>As of last year and probably still, it is Nordstrom policy that if you go to a store and the item you want is out of stock, it will be shipped to your home for free and you will pay whatever price it is in the store, except that the tax rate may be different, especially if you live in WA (tax laws). The comment made about the other customer by the employee was very out of line.</p>
<p>I think a lot of stores got burned by people taking advantage of their return policy so now most of us has to suffer. I had an almost bad experience returning something I purchased but was broken the minute I got home. I bought the item back to the store the following week for exchange. The store did not do an exchange without a receipt(which my husband left at home), and it would only give us a lower price without a receipt. We had to go back home and fetch the receipt.</p>
<p>Missypie, the one thing I do give Best Buys the highest praise for: they have always been so generous in their support of our childrens’ schools, and for this they get my support and recommendations to all of my friends. Any mom who has spent hours soliciting prizes appreciates retailers who give back to the community that supports them.</p>
<p>Had a lousy experience with Geek Squad and installation of items bought at best buy. 3 or 4 trips out to make it right. Finally requested a new technician (a woman BTW- first I had seen from Geek Squad) and voila! properly diagnosed. (Fix had to be by my contractor who had accidentally cut some wiring but at least problem was diagnosed.) Later we bought a camera at Best Buy and the sales woman was very helpful in helping us choose. I usually order chargers and batteries etc. on line rather than going to a store.</p>
<p>Macy’s is not the only major department store to give credits in the way that the OP described. Returns in general are somewhat of a hassle in my opinion. I usually don’t return those gifts that I would have rather not received. Some stores used to take back anything (with or without a receipt), but I think those days are long gone. There are a lot of things at Macy’s that don’t get the 20% discount - Ralph Lauren, Coach, and cosmetics I think…</p>
<p>to 3bm103… I work at Macy’s… When a customer returns an item with a gift receipt the option ALWAYS pops up to credit another Macy’s card. Also gift cards can be credited to your MACY’S card. Your post doesn’t make sense. You should have had two options to credit your Macys which you state in your post they would not do. Any manager would have credited your card without question. Especially with a gift receipt.
I have a feeling you were looking for cash. Sorry… though if that had been the original way of purchasing the item, it would have been returned in cash.</p>
<p>When the clerk told me I would receive store credit I asked if there were any other option. She said no. I would have been fine with a credit to my Macy’s card. Then the friend I was with told me that it wouldn’t be a problem because I could use the credit to apply to my Macy’s card so we stopped and asked a different clerk if I could and she said no. Then I spoke to a manager and was told that with a gift receipt there was no way of knowing how the original purchase was made so no cash return and no credit on my Macy’s card. I was even okay with the store credit until I discovered that I was giving up the discounts because of it.</p>
<p>So…That may be the case in whatever Macy’s you work at but it most certainly is NOT the policy at the one I shopped at yesterday.</p>
<p>I had a problem once with Macys. I won’t go into my complaint, just because nobody would be interested in the long story. I was somewhat satisfied with how it was resolved. I wrote an email to Macys, stating the facts, using their website. BTW, I have never taken the time to make a written complaint to a retailer before, but I was so angry that I did write to Macys. They replied stating that they would investigate and that someone would contact me by phone. Nobody contacted me by phone, so I thought that my email was being ignored. I was wrong. Several weeks later, I received a letter of apology, some changes were made to resolve some of the problem, and I received a generous gift certificate from them to use in their stores. I would say that I am satisfied overall. I think that they made their best effort to correct the problem, and recognized that my shopping experience on that day was not the way it should have gone.</p>
<p>My bad shopping experiences centered around when desperate for some new clothes that fit I would be forced to take d along. ( who was about three), to nordys where at that time the dressing room doors didn’t go to the floor.
D would wait until I had all my clothing off, then she would take off and hide in the center of a rounder.</p>
<p>Eventually I gave up trying to buy things for myself for a while.
When we shopped for her it wasn’t much better, she would remove tags before trying anything on, curl her toes so shoes couldn’t be fitted and when she was older briskly walk through the perimeter of the store without glancing at anything apparently being able to tell through her ears that there wasn’t anything worth looking at.</p>
<p>After that salespeople are a piece of cake ;)</p>
<p>My d worked at macys last winter to earn money for her gap trip, but she worked in Impulse? which I think is a newer dept.
I rarely go to the mall and still call macys The Bon.
I rarely went to thebon marche either, their frequent sales were confusing because their prices were already higher than other shops around town so 20% just brought it down to regular price.</p>
<p>But I did spend many years at Fredrick& Nelson, my grandmother worked in small housewares at their downtown Seattle store until she retired. She was a fixture during a time when " dept stores were dept stores"
They had everything from fabric to books to a deli ,bedding and camel hair coats.
Nordstroms isn’t a dept store, it is a shoe store that merged with a dress shop.
Sigh</p>
<p>Last week I went to a stand alone Sears Hardware store in a local strip mall for some vacuum cleaner filters. When I walked into the store, I think I was the only customer. I went up to the register to find the clerk on the phone chatting with a friend on the phone. She immediately put the phone aside, I told her what I wanted, she told me where to find it and then went back to her conversation. I was fine with that.</p>
<p>Ten minutes later with some discounted Christmas items (80% off!) and vacuum filters in hand I walked back to the register. There were three people in line in front of the original clerk and two in line in front of a new clerk. The original clerk was still on the phone chatting to her friend while she was ringing people up! I couldn’t believe it and I could tell that the other customers were taken aback at her also. When I got up to the new clerk I told him that unless the other clerk was helping a customer on the phone she should get off right away. He agreed and looked embarrassed. You could tell it was chit chat too, not store supplies.</p>
<p>I tried to return an item to Barnes & Noble with the original receipt and within the acceptable timeframe, and was only offered store credit. Why? The item was originally purchased by my husband on his VISA card and the last four digits on my card were different. Their policy states that they will issue a refund to your original form of payment.</p>
<p>I walked into a nearly empty Toys R Us and stopped at customer service to ask if they sold model kits. CS said, “I don’t know. You’ll have to walk back to the boys section to look.” She probably thought I was the lazy one.</p>
<p>I had that same experience (of only being offered store credit because H who purchased had a different last 4 digits from my CC) at CompUSA. It made me so unhappy I got H to return it instead so he could get his credit back (we didn’t want to purchase anything else at that time).</p>
<p>I was also very unhappy that KayBee toystore imposed a significant monthly fee because we didn’t use the store credit in their time window. NEVER purchased from them again.</p>
<p>In December when I finally got my H into a store for some new clothes we ended up with several items that needed to returned. The stuff was purchased on 2 occasions. The first on H’s card and the 2nd on mine (same account but as above last 4 digit difference). Macy’s was not willing to put the credit all back on my credit card. She was able to credit my H’s card back without having the card from the receipt. </p>
<p>What is annoying about the policy these days of crediting back the credit card of purchase is that if you give a gift and include the receipt the person can’t get return it without being credited back to the buyer. I have had this happen several times when I have sent clothes to my D. I don’t want a credit back. I want her to be able to return something and be able to get what she wants, even if that means taking the cash and going to another store.</p>
<p>Crediting it back to the original account is part of the merchant agreement. It’s also security … otherwise Iit could be stolen out of your car with the receipt and the thief gets credit on HIS account for the return. </p>
<p>Seems like most of these annoying rules are due to security issues, theft issues, or customers taking advantage of merchant’s generous return policies – and the honest and good customers are shocked and affronted by the new rules.</p>
<p>I shop a lot online, this year I was just angry-Son asked me to buy an Ipod battery on Ebay, a buy it now, so I did for $8.49! It never came, they kept saying they shipped it, do I want a refund! The tracking number was useless (they never shipped it) Their phone number was an answering machine! FINALLY, as I paid for it with PAYPAL, I lodged a complaint & my money was refunded! What a lot of frustration! Paying with Paypal paid off. </p>
<p>I ordered my usual huge “At a Glance” calendar through Amazon, but another vendor! When I checked the tracking situation, it said it had been delivered! Well, I never got it!
I live in a rural area & UPS leaves everything in our barn (barn door usually open) or on the screened in porch, always available! Calendar is huge, no one could miss it. Filed a complaint & UPS said they delivered it! I ended up going to Staples & bought another one. My neighbors would never keep something that was delivered to their house by mistake! All I could think was it was delivered, left out in full view, and it was stolen! Not a terribly exciting theft for somone! A 20" x 30" At-A-Glance-Calendar!</p>