Bad exchange policies at Walmart

Walmart on Lima Road in Fort Wayne, Indiana has no flexibility. I had
my sales slip which showed no activation of a McAfee product just
listed it and the price. The young female managers would not even hear
me out and said the receipt showed it had been scanned. They were so
mean I will never set foot in a Wallmart as long as I live and I am
out $30 for a product that I can not get to work.

I too live in MA. I purchased spray paint for outside plastic patio
furniture and when I got home I realized the little spray nozzle was
broken. As any busy mom of three boys, I put the paint back into the
bag and said when I go back next week I will just exchange it out for
another one. This Sunday my husband along with my 3 children went to
walmart, I could no longer find my reciept, no problem. They let me
exchange it for the SAME product.....BUT.......I HAD to PAY THE MA
STATE TAX again?!?!?!?!? REALLY!!!! I have never heard of this being a
MA state law! which is what I was told. My husband worked as a Market
Basket Manger and CVS manager totally 15 yrs of managment experience
and neither one of us EVER heard of this?! Has anyone else heard of
this?

I purchased a 3piece office furniture in a box from my nearest Walmart
and misplaced the receipt when i went to take it back the same week
that I purchased it I couldn't get a store credit or an exchange
because the purchase is over $50 but clearly you could see the box was
never opened .they should be a little lenient if they want to be the
store with "great" customer service!

I work at Wal-mart in the Claims Dept. I know the return policies and
they should have returned the sheets because all they would have to do
is put them back on the shelf to be resold...as long as they were
never opened. They would just have to add it to their inventory. And
to exchange them they would have to refund the money to a gift card or
let you go and get the same sheets in a different size and refund the
amount and then when they ring up the new sheets they just have to
apply the amount from the return and then have you pay the difference.
Its really not that hard and they probably either didn't know that or
they just didn't wanna honor it even tho the customer service policy
is posted right behind them on the wall. I'd tell ya to call the 800 #
and talk to someone from corporate.

I work at the Customer Service Desk and am currently training to
become a Customer Service Manager (CSM). Although you didn't have a
receipt, they should have honored the exchange. Even if you had 3
strikes against your DL for returns in a 90-day period, I would have
still overridden the sale in your favor considering it was an exchange
for the same product if I was the CSM.

If they didn't even pull up your records on the amount of returns you
have in the previous 3-6 months (most returns drop off the list after
90 days, but sometimes it can stay on the list up to 6 months)

Don't feel bad, the Walmart I usually shop at will let you cash out a
gift card if the balance left is $5.00 and under. Sometimes I will
use this option if I need bus fare.

I received a gift card from my Dad and shopped at a different store
location and wanted to have the $3.00 remaining balance refunded. The
customer service personnel at this store refused to honor the same
policy of my home town Walmart. I had to dance around her, get her to
call Walmart where I usually shop to verify that they do honor
refunded money back on a gift card under the condition that it was
5.00 or less and finally she agreed to accommodate by refunded the
cash.

She was a very young girl and seemed to want to handle the situation
anyway she liked. Young people sometimes these days do not like their
parents much and this could of been the case. If this happens to any
one of Walmart's customers be sure to push whatever issue you might
suspect doesn't sound right, more than likely you will get the
correct resolution.

What didn't make sense to me was most Walmart policies are the same at
other store locations.

That is obviously the most ignorant group of Wal Mart employees I have
ever heard of. I have been working at Wal Mart in San Diego for
several years and when I work in returns....More than half of our
returns are done without a receipt. It says right on Wal Mart's
"return policy" that all returns MUST be honored within 90 days WITH
OR WITHOUT a receipt. I would definitely compose a letter to the head
office and get both of their asses fired.

ok first off it sounds odd that they would not take it back for
exchange, unless you had already done 3 returns without a reciept @
any walmart. Secondly although target does have some advantages to
its return policies it also has its disadvantages.. for example i
ordered a nintendo wii from walmart.com that was supposed to ship in
middle of december. after i ordered the game system from wal-mart i
purchased to wii games from target. I ended up canceling the wal-mart
order for the game system. (decided i no longer wanted it) and went
to return the UNOPENED games to target with my 4day old cash reciept.
target would ONLY let me exchange the games for OTHER games for that
system only. I explained to them that i canceled my order for the
nintendo wii, and no longer had a system to play these, or any other
video games on. they said it did not matter, i spoke with the manager
and he said the same thing. so what i did was bring those games to
wal-mart and returned them WITHOUT a reciept for a store credit.
granted i did not get my cash back, BUT i did get $100+ gift card
which i used that same day for christmas shopping. so in your case
what you should have, or still should do is..

OPTION 1. (easiet)
BUY THE KING SIZE SHEETS AT WALMART, KEEP THE RECEIPT THEN STICK THE
QUEEN SIZE SHEETS IN THE KING SIZE SHEETS PACKAGING, AND RETURN THEM
THE NEXT DAY. THE CLERK WILL NOT KNOW THAT THE SHEETS ARE NOT KING,
JUST MAKE SURE TO PACKAGE THEM NICELY SO THAT THEY LOOKED UNUSED.

OPTION 2.
IF YOU PAID WITH CREDIT CARD, DISPUTE THE CHARGE WITH YOUR CC
COMPANY.

OPTION 3.
WRITE A LETTER TO CUSTOMER CARE @ WALMART.COM, YOU CAN GET THERE
CONTACT INFORMATION FROM THERE WEBSITE WWW.WALMART.COM. OR CALL THERE
800 #

WalMart's return/exchange policy is: You are allowed 3
refunds/exchanges without a receipt within a 12 mo. period (that means
if your first exchange/refund was done in April of 2006, second in
let's say May 2006 and last one in August 2006, you won't be able to
exchange/return anything without a receipt until April of 2007). You
are, however, allowed an unlimited number of returns or exchanges with
a receipt for most items. There are certain items that have their own
guidelines for returns or exchanges. If the item(s) in question are
over $10 in value at the time of return, you must provide a valid form
of government issued ID (driver's licence, passport, Military ID or
INS card). If refunding, you are entitled to the sale price at the
time of return. (WalMart's prices fluctuate all the time, so if you
pay $25 for something 3 weeks ago, and want to return without a
receipt, if the item has been marked down to $20, you get $20. This
is why I tell people "KEEP YOUR RECEIPTS!" It is also the customer
service rep's discretion whether they will allow an exchange or return
within reason. (Say the mentioned sheets have obviously been used, or
stained, or torn, then no, you will probably not get a thing for
them.) If the above criteria had been met, then I recommend you
contact the district manager. (Just so you know, I worked as a
Customer Service rep at Wal Mart for a year, so I am quoting exact
corporate policy)

this isn't the walmart policy. The policy is you get your money back
with a receipt and you get an exchange without the receipt. They are
not following policy. I'd be ticked off too.

This situation sounds odd. I don't know if Wal-Mart's return policies
vary by store or area, or it's changed since the last time I returned
something...but the last time I brought something back, they gave me
my money back when I did not have the receipt. All they did was scan
the tag on the item.

I'm surprised to hear that WalMart will exchange sheets at all.
Unless the rules have changed in my area since I last managed a store,
ANY item like that, i.e., pillow cases, hats, undergarments, pillows,
swimsuits, socks, are not exchangeable OR returnable, receipt or no
receipt. Our receipts are even stamped Final Sale - No Exchange No
Refund.

What more can you say, huh?

I swear, it gets worse and worse with them. You just wanted to
exchange for a bigger size, and since it was from queen to king, you
probably would have had to pay a little more for the sheets. I don't
understand WHY WalMart would not accept the sheets for someone who
clearly wanted a more expensive sheet.

Be sure to let us know what they did. Also, don't be shy about
calling the Bentonville, Ark phone number.

GOOD LUCK.

Sounds like that Walmart changes its return policy every week or so.
And if you got the same manager I got, he's a smug jerk. I purchased a
bottle of vitimins there once, and when I got it home, I realized the
foil seal was broken. I brought it in and asked if I could exchange it
for a new one, and they charged me additional sales tax on it for an
even exchange. I have yet to find another retailer that does that, but
he lauged at me and told me it was state law. Apparently Walmart has
its own laws now.
I'm not sure where you are located, but I'm the next town over from
Attleboro, and I prefer to shop at the Walmart in Walpole, even though
it is still a Walmart. The one in Raynham is the best but that is a
ride and a half. I'm sure their return policy sucks too, but at least
the staff is a bit more friendly. The lesser of two evils, if you
will...

I guess the best advice I can give you is lock up any Walmart receipt
you have under lock and key as soon as you get it; you'll never know
when you might need it.

OK..... I have read all the replies thus far to my original
post....... many of them were very constructive!! but here are a few
points.....

to those that were questioning the Target return policy, I do Know
that Target can look up a purchase by the credit/debit card number if
that is how I pay, not usually an issue because if i buy something I
usually want it, and I DO usually have my receipts, this time it just
seems to have disappeared and I have no idea what I did with it, BUT I
do know that Target can look it up by the card number, which is
fine..... and that brings me to the posters that said Walmart can do
the same thing..... which peeves me even more because they never ONCE
mentioned that, nor did they ask to see my DL, as some of you said,
they enter in the DL #, to keep track of how many returns w/o receipt
a person has made.... IF they had done that, they would see it would
be a big ole zip!!

To answer another post, I was not rude at all, in my opinion, I do try
to treat everyone with complete respect.... Honestly by the time I
left Walmart I was very perturbed, and definitely not as cheery as
when I first walked in, but still I was far from rude, no yelling,
swearing, finger wagging, or anything of the like occured..... On the
flip side, the CSR was not overly friendly, nor was she rude, she
seemed busy, and overwhelmed (As I would too working in a place like
that for pretty darn close to minimum wages), so maybe that was just
it, she did not want to deal with it.

I already replied to this one... but will do so again because it is a
good point.... Perhaps someone DID see me walk in, never saw me walk
out, and then there I am trying to return the sheets... who knows....
if I HAD to guess I would say probably not as it was very crowded in
the store, and the entrance and exit doors are not near each other...
BUT stranger things have happened.... if this was the case though, I
wish they would have told me.... I know there are tons of cameras in
the parking lot, I could have suggested to review the tapes and
perhaps they would see me getting them out of the car... and if not,
at least that is more of a VALID reason for not doing the exchange,
rather than what it seems to me know which is simply they did not WANT
to.

And lastly.... to those that responded and replied to the OP as
"she"... Gotta wach those pronouns..... don't know too many Women
named John or Jack :-)

That's pretty much the way it is at all major stores these days. The
reason you can't bring back stuff without a reciept is so people can't
shoplift stuff and then bring it back. It sucks that the policy
sometimes impacts honest people too, but imagine the alternative: if
all returns were accepted without reciept no questions asked,
shoplifters would make out like bandits and honest customers would be
the ones paying for it through higher prices across the board.

no receipt= Out of Luck
Sorry.

Not being rude, but what more can you expect? I totally sympathise and
all, but there are rules for a reason. When i worked at Circuit CIty,
we'd ask customers for their phone #. Some declined to give it. It
wasn't a spam mailing list or calling list, It was a way to keep track
of a customer's purchases in case they lost a receipt, or needed
another copy for whatever reason. Never failed...Those who refused to
give their number, were the first ones complaining when we couldn't
return something without it. Others got lucky bc we can enter a credit
card number too to pull up those transactions...

Maybe using a debit card would be better for future purchases

Im going to add some two cents into here.

First and foremost, if you were unsatisfied with what the manager told
you, you could have asked for his boss, the store manager, or even
better, the district manager.

Or, if you didn't want it to escalate in that way, you could have
left, and taken it to a different walmart, maybe the one you
purchased it at, and tried returning it there. That store would have
the capacity to look up your receipt even, and most CSMs will do it if
you are nice to them.

But there might be more to this story - have you had more than three
returns without a receipt this year? If so the register will prompt
not to return the item.

Have you ever wrote a bad check and neglected to pay for it? The
register will prompt for that too.

Wrote a lot of checks over the past couple days, or made a lot of
returns in the past couple of days? Again, register will prompt.

While there's a simple overrride that can be done for these, with a
fair warning to the customer, its not in the company's benefit to do
this, especially, like someone said before, you were looking at the
product, left the building, and then came back in with a very similar
product.



If I were you,

I would wait a couple of days and then bring it back to the facility
that you purchased it at. Bring it in with you THE FIRST TIME, wait
in line, get a gift card. Then purchase the sheets with the said gift
card at a normal register.

Then purchase a pair of shoes. KEEP the shoebox for ALL your
receipts, even from the gas station and grocery store. Once a month
or so, go through it. Then you will always have a receipt for an item
youve purchased.

Just a thought....

If I have seen someone in my store looking at an item on the shelf,
and shortly thereafter they were at the service desk trying to return
that item with no receipt, it would make me wonder if they had taken
it straight from the shelf to the desk, Particularly if I had noticed
them walk in with nothing in their hands.

Is it a possibility that this happened to you? You say you entered the
store first without your sheets, went to the sheet aisle, looked at
the same sheets, then went and retrieved yours from the car and went
to the desk. Perhaps someone saw you enter without them, saw you again
in that aisle, and then try to return what you had just been seen
looking at. I understand that you DID own the sheets, but other people
have been known to pull this exact scam.

If they thought there was a chance that this was the case, it is
perhaps understandable that they enforced their policy.

I, for one, am happy that Wal-mart is FINALLY sticking behind their
actual return policy.

Yes, Target does have a similar policy, but they also offer receipt
look-up if you paid for it by check, credit card, debit card, or
giftcard.

But the first line in Target's policy is "A receipt date within 90
days is required for all returns and exchanges." Target does allow 2
no receipt returns/exchanges per year that are tracked by a drivers
license. So if you don't have a receipt, and Target can't look it up,
and you already used your 2 no receipt returns/exchanges, Target will
tell you the same exact thing.

I just don't get it when people think a business owes them anything
when they don't have proof that they even purchased it. If you don't
have a receipt, they don't have to do anything for you. It's your
responsibility to keep a receipt.

I've exchanged things at Walmart several times over the years and
never had a problem. In fact Walmart normally will give me store
credit or a refund if I ask. (Normally baby shower or Christmas gifts
that I'll never use) My first thought would have to be that maybe the
writer had an attitude coming into Walmart, or had previously returned
too many items without a receipt. I know that Walmart keeps track of
exactly how many returns you make, with and without a receipt. Many
employees also become very defensive when they know that a customer is
already cocking an attitude walking into the situation. All of this
is speculation of course. I would have been pretty upset if Walmart
hadn't accepted an exchange and I was forced to walk across the way
and spend more money for a 2nd set.

The fact that the items had 2 different UPC's shouldn't matter -
especially since the item being returned had the UPC code on it (since
it hadn't bveen opened). I've seen people trying to return items
without the original tags and say "But I just want to exchange for the
same item, different size!" and it can't be done. But if the sheets
were unopened, I can't understand what the big deal is for the
exchange. I've returned plenty of stuff to Wal-Mart without a receipt
(I'm horrible at keeping track of them!), and all they do is ask for
my driver's license if it's over $10, they scan it in their computer
(it tracks to make sure you haven't returned a ton of stuff with no
receipt recently), then they put a refund amount on a gift card as
store credit. And if I'm doing a simple exchange, I don't even have
to give my license, they've always let me just pick out the same item
in the appropriate size - and if I picked out an item that cost more,
I could pay right at the service desk.

It just seems so strange to me that Wal-Mart would not allow the
exchange!

That IS unusual. I have returned many things at Walmart, with and
without a receipt, and have never had a problem. Although the sheets
were not an even exchange, I don't see why they didn't either give you
a store credit, or make an adjustment for the more expensive sheets.

Do you think it's possible they were just being ornery because the
sheets were not purchased at that particular store?

This is where policies and common sense collide. Yes she didn't have a
receipt but the item was clearly a store item. One would think the
employees would take the item back and give store credit. Thus
allowing the customer to buy something else in that store. You now
have accomplished two things money stays in the store and you have a
happy customer. That is good business.


Hanuman

Doesn't Target have the same exchange policies??

Even though you were exchanging for the same pattern and brand of
sheets it is technically not the same item because they were different
sizes. This means that the sheets have different codes that the
computer recognizes in order to help track inventory.

In order to complete this exchange, WalMart has to scan your purchused
sheets into the computer effectivly placing them back into their
inventory. Because it is not a straight exchange for the exact same
item with the exact same barcode numbers they would have to preform a
refund and then use the refunded money towards the purchuse of the
larger sheets. This may not be possible without a recipt number.

It's dumb! I mean, you weren't asking for cash back, and would
actually be giving them more money, kings are generally more expensive
than queens.
Sorry you're stuck with sheets you don't need. Maybe your letter will
help you get the exchange or refund.
Very good letter, btw, straight to the point, and not asking for
outrageous compensation. Hope it works!

That sounds unusual. They let you return them unless there is a
problem with a customer who repeatedly makes returns but that doesn't
sound like that is the case.