In some of the Christmas present threads people mentioned that they returned gifts which they had received. I am not asking about the justification for that, but how does that usually work from a technical standpoint?
Here I wouldn’t know how to do that:
[ul]
[li]No shop takes anything back without a receipt.[/li][li]Giving a receipt with the gift would be very odd. You are supposed to pretend that it’s a secret what the thing cost.[/li][li]Asking the donor for the receipt would be even stranger.[/li][li]Returning the gift to the donor is acceptable if you have a convincing reason. “I think it’s crap.” is not really socially acceptable as a reason. However you won’t be able to choose the replacement yourself.[/li][/ul]
Either I miss something, or there are some differences in gift customs.
Most stores here will take back returns without a reciept for in store exchange only. And they get a lot more flexible at Christmas time because of the holiday returns. If you want to make it easy for the reciever to exchange something, you can leave on the tags but cut off the price part. Or some of the larger stores (like Target) have a seperate gift reciept that doesn’t have the price on it.
Interesting. That sounds very convenient, but a bit surprising if you are used to our legendary bad customer service.
If the gift is from a close family member or friend, it’s generally acceptable to ask for the receipt if you want to exchange an item. Obviously you have to know the person well enough to know that they won’t be offended. Gift receipts are certainly more convenient, though kind of pointless since if you do exchange it, you end up knowing the price by how much store credit you get. (But if you don’t exchange it, it remains a mystery).
Department and other stores will give you a gift receipt if asked. This is a receipt that show the gift was purchased at the store but does not have the price on it. I usually get one for gifts that I give.
Even without a gift receipt (or any receipt at all), most stores will accept a return of merchandise, especially after Christmas. Individual policies vary, but most will give a full refund as long as the item is in salable condition and is something the store carries, even without a receipt.
People do try to take advantage of this, but most stores are willing to accept a few ripoffs (since they can eventually sell the merchandise anyway) in exchange for being more consumer friendly: a liberal exchange policy means some people who aren’t sure about an item will pick up the item and give it a shot, and the increase in sales due to that makes up for the handful who return something they bought elsewhere.
I’ve returned christmas gifts, but usually only for reasons that I could tell to the person who gave it to me, the most common being “someone already gave me this” or “I already have this one.”
The giver hands over the receipt and the recipient is responsible for managing the exchange details, in my experience.
Stores in Norway aren’t generally willing to refund cash for an item without a receipt, even after Christmas, but it’s generally no problem to exchange for an item of the same value or to be given a store credit, with no receipt.
In addition to a variation of the gift receipts others have mentioned (called byttekort, or “return cards”), Norwegian stores have at least two other methods of allowing recipients to exchange gifts withou the receipt. CDs, DVDs, computer games, and so on, can be sealed with a sticker marked with the store’s name. As long as the seal is unboken, the item can be exchanged. In this way you can’t listen, watch, or play the item before you decide it stinks, but if you get two copies of Halo 3, or your sweet but slightly daft granny figured you’d just love “The World’s All-Time Greatest Oompah Hits, Vol. VI”, you can fix the situation with no hassle.
Clothing stores will, on request, trim just the price from the hang tags, or you can cut it off yourself. This leaves the name of the store, so the recipient knows where to exchange it, and also leaves the bar code or code number intact so the clerk can check the price of the item on the store’s computer system.
In addition to the methods listed above, I’ve received a couple of gifts with the receipt sealed in an envelope, with “Open in case of gift emergency” written on it.
This was ostensibly in case the gift broke or had some problem, and needed to be returned or exchanged, but the real reason was so you could return it.
These were mostly gifts from small stores that weren’t as liberal as Wal-Mart, Costco, etc. (in the US).
Most large retailers in the U.S. have this similar type policy for returning gifts without a receipt:
-Can only be returned for store credit
(don’t want people buying on credit or gift card retruning for cash)
-Credit amount is based on the lowest price that item has sold for at that store
(don’t want people buying stuff on sale then returning it for full price)
-Item has to have been a current item within the past 90 days
(don’t want to return a discontiued item that is a year old)
-The ‘no receipt’ return policy is only valid 30 days past christmas
(don’t want to offer this deal year round)