How to Survive Holiday Gift Returns

January 9th, 2012

Did you change your mind about recent purchases or get some holiday gifts that don’t fit or don’t suit you?  Do you know what the policies are for the stores where you need to make returns or exchanges?  With 13% of retailers tightening their return policies from previous years, shoppers should become aware of those new terms.  You can’t afford to carry things around in the trunk of your car for an extended period before attempting to return them.  Otherwise, you’ll miss the window of opportunity and find yourself stuck with unwanted items!

While most retailers have kept basically the same return policy as previous years, rule changes are making returns a lot more difficult this year at many stores.  Some years ago major retailers began requesting identification with returns so they can track customers who make frequent returns.  These days, retailers are refusing returns from shoppers who have no receipt, are past the specified return period, or have made too many returns within a given time period.  But help is available, and customers who are denied a return or exchange can request a copy of their Return Activity Report from The Retail Equation by sending an email at this address. Then they have the option of disputing the report, with TRE acting as an advocate for them with retailers to resolve return issues, usually within 30 days.

Return Policies

Too late — For some retailers, it’s already too late to return anything purchased last month.  If you have items from Marshall’s and TJ Maxx or electronics from Staples, the deadline has passed on January 2.  For most other stores, you’d better get those items back this month, and even as early as January 24 for Best Buy.

Aim to please — Walmart’s stated goal is to satisfy customers, but there are still lots of specific rules. They offer exchange, refund, or repair during their 15-30 day return period that started 12/26 for all purchases made before Christmas.  This policy applies to electronics including TVs, cameras, computers, DVD and music players; all other items have a 90-day return period.

Without a receipt, Walmart gives customers the option of a cash refund (if the purchase was under $25), a shopping card for the amount of the purchase (if it was over $25) or an even exchange for another product.

In the event that a customer has returned more than three items to Walmart without receipts within a 45-day period, their cash register system automatically flags the transaction, and a manager has to approve the return. These cash register messages remain for six months and only disappear if there are no more returns during that time period.

Strict policies — Target probably has the tightest return policy. They’ve reduced their return period for computer hardware, cameras and camcorders from 90 days to 45, and they enforce this policy even though it may not be posted at service desks in every store. Although they’ve dropped restocking fees, they will still deny refund or exchange on open items.  Toys R Us has a similar policy– a 45-day return period, open items are not returnable, and they impose a frequency limit on returns without a receipt.

Relaxed returns — Some of the most lenient retailers include Kohl’s, Macy’s, Nordstrom,  LLBean, and Zappos.com, with no deadline on most items.  Macy’s now applies a customer return label to many items, so a receipt may not be necessary. But they, like JCPenney and Express, require all tags in place for returned apparel like special occasion dresses.

The following sampling of a dozen retailers, who have more simple return deadlines that could be compiled into a table, illustrates just how diverse the policies are this year.

Retailer	General Returns	Holiday Returns
Apple Store	14 days	thru 1/9/12
Dell.com	21 days	thru 1/15/12
BestBuy	30 days	thru 1/24/12
Amazon	30 days	thru 1/31/12
Overstock.com	30 days	thru 1/31/12
Buy.com	45 days	thru 1/31/12
Newegg.com	30 days	60 days from purchase
LLBean	365 days
Kohls	365 days
Nordstrom	365 days
Macy’s	365 days
Zappos.com	365 days

Amazon actually has 30 different product-specific return policies, with a special page of links to check them, as well as a returns center page for return labels and authorization. If you miss the deadline to return Amazon items, they have that covered, too — you can check this page for the option to sell anything purchased from Amazon.

Overstock.com doesn’t accept any returns on large TVs, and is one of the few retailers we found that still imposes restocking fees, which can be as high as 60%.  Best Buy dropped their restocking fees but shortened the return period by a week, except for Reward Zone members.  Sears reduced the return period for computers to 30 days and jewelry to 60 days.

Gift cards — If you received some gift cards you can’t use, either as gifts or in exchange for returned items, you still have another option to get rid of those as well. Websites we reviewed here will pay 85% to 96% of the value of those cards, because there’s such a growing market to resell them. You can choose payment in cash, through Paypal, or an Amazon.com gift card that will give you an extra 5% more. 

Entry Filed under: Shopping