Pocket Change - Shopping Blog

Retailers are usually glad to make a consumer happy by returning something they don’t want/need. Unfortunately, thieves and other shady characters take advantage of this with compulsive returns. This high expenditure has caused most retailers to fight back with a black list.

My experience with Target, Mervyns, Nordstrom, and Sears is that they will place you on a list after three returns without a receipt in a single year. It has also been my experience that Sears can place you on the list after one incident if the manager feels it appropriate.

Out of the hundreds of thousands of transactions I engaged in, I only saw about 10 people that were blacklisted. It was not easy to tell them they could no longer return items without a receipt. I could actually watch them go through the 5 stages of grief.

1. Denial – “There is no way I did that many returns. Try my license again as you must have typed it in wrong.”
2. Anger – “I am going to call 7 on your side if you don’t take this back!!!”
3. Bargining – “What if you just let me do this one return and I promise to never return another item as long as I live!”
4. Depression – “What am I going to do with these crappy shoes? I couldn’t even sell them on Ebay for a 1/10th of what I paid.”
5. Acceptance – “Oh fine. I am just going to have to keep my receipt from now on.”

The good news is that banning can typically be deleted at least once by calling the corporate office and requesting removal from the list. Honest people with legitimate identities are not meant to be punished. When calling, you can catch more flies with honey. Calmly explaining your reasons for the returns without receipt will get you much further than yelling at the poor operator.

The best advice is to keep your receipts for at least 90 days. You can also try the form of payment you originally used. The computers keep track of all transactions and can trace back debit, credit, check, and gift card transactions. Just try not to count on this as the computer is far more likely to remember your license number then a credit card.

Daryl