Before becoming a parent I never had any need to make very many store returns. But now, the daughter is always getting gifts we don't really need and a majority of them don’t include those gifts receipts you get these days even when you buy toothpaste and toilet paper at Target. I can see why people don't include them with gifts, it does send a weird message like “yeah, return this because I don’t know you at all and I guessed.”
Some family just gave my daughter a late Christmas gift - a Christmas dress (with a tree and Santa on it) that we probably won’t use. The thing still has a Toys-R-Us tag on it (you know with like the price area ripped off.) So I paid visit to the returns counter:
Toys R Us Woman: (blank stare…breathing heavily…staring at my hair as I walk up)
Me: Uh, Hi, I’d like to return this.
Toys R Us Woman: You gotta receipt?
Me: No, it was a gift
Toys R Us Woman: You gotta ‘gift’ receipt?
Me: No, we didn’t get one…
Toys R Us Woman: It’s our policy not to take that. There’s a chance it’s not from “R’ Us”…
Me: There's an ‘R Us tag on it
Toys R Us Woman: Sorry, that’s our policy (looks around me) Next!
Me: What? I've never heard of that...is this policy written somewhere so I can read it…?
Toys R Us Woman: Nope, it's our policy not to show our policy
I asked for the manager and 5 minutes later some kid, maybe around 20, chewing gum and strutting like John Travolta out of Saturday Night Fever comes over to me:
Toys R Us Manager: Hey bro', (nod's head) what’s up?
Me: Uh, yeah, I’d like to return this
Toys R Us Manager: Sorry bro', it’s our policy not to take stuff like that back
As you can imagine, I’m never shopping at Toys R Us, Babies R Us, or any “R' Us” ever again (and I was a good customer too with my video games habit --you hearing me R’ Us!? No more!)
I guess this could be one reason why so many people re-gift these days. Because it’s probably something they got without a gift receipt and the store wouldn't take it back. There’s probably this endless cycle of unused merchandise out there that’s being recycled between people.
What does everybody else do? (Besides break out the torches, axes and picks and go Giraffe hunting…)