Saver in the City» New way to make money: just return it

New way to make money: just return it

January 9th, 2009

It’d probably be more work than it’s worth, but apparently it’s possible to make money returning merchandise.

I came to this conclusion yesterday evening when I went to Target to buy some Healthy Choice meals that were on sale for $2 each. I also had a coupon for $1 off the purchase of two so the grand total for both dinners - healthy ones to boot - was $3.

Here’s where the fun began. I remembered as soon as I swiped my credit card that I had a Target gift card with a balance of $2.35 remaining. I wanted to use it because not only was it taking up space in my already full wallet, it was also for such a small amount that I was likely to forget about it if I didn’t use it up.

I went immediately to the customer service desk where I thought it would be a quick transaction to simply refund my credit card and use the gift card instead.

The customer service representative seemed to understand what I wanted to do but the first glitch happened when she told me I would be refunded $4 for the food items. I was feeling honest so I pointed out that I’d used a coupon and therefore the refund amount should actually just be $3.

Before I could pat myself on the back for my upstanding ethics, though, the woman shrugged and said she couldn’t eliminate the coupon so she’d just give me the extra dollar. I certainly wasn’t going to complain.

To make matters worse (at least for Target), apparently the customer service rep rung the items in as “defective” because that’s the store policy at Target in the case of returned food items. So when I reminded her I wanted to re-purchase them using the gift card, she blanched and said I couldn’t purchase the Healthy Choice meals - the one’s I’d literally placed on the counter 2 minutes before - because they were marked defective.

I told her I was fine with it and I knew the meals were not defective, but she was adamant. She even called over a manager who seconded her decision not to sell me those specific meals.

So, let’s recap: not only was Target out $1 for the extra refund they gave me, they also were out the money for the 2 Healthy Choice meals becase they were now considered defective and couldn’t be sold!

While I did end up purchasing two of the same “non-defective” Healthy Choice meals (in which I was charged $4 for them since I no longer had the coupon), if I’d have just left right after the return I would have made a $1 profit on the deal.

And this is not the first time such a thing has happened. About a month ago I used a $5 off coupon at Kohl’s to purchase a shirt I was kind of iffy about. I ended up returning it and the lady in customer service confused the heck out of me when she handed me $5 cash as part of the return. She explained that part of the return was going to be in cash and part on my Kohl’s charge card so I left assuming it would all even out.

Nope, a week later I checked my Kohl’s account balance and she’d refunded the entire purchase amount to my credit card, meaning the $5 cash was extra.

Then there’s Aaron Brothers. Aaron Brothers has two different store locations near my house that are about 10 miles apart, although one is located in an incorporated town so its sales tax is different than the other.

I recently bought a frame for a work project at the Aaron Brothers with less expensive sales tax, only to have to return it since my boss didn’t like the style. Because it was more convenient I took it to the other store to make my return.

Imagine my surprise when the cashier handed me a receipt showing that my card would be credited an amount 10¢ over what I’d originally paid! I mentioned the inaccuracy there, too, but the cashier said she couldn’t change the sales tax amount because it was automatic. Again, not gonna complain.

Sure it was only 10¢ in that instance, but I would assume that mine wasn’t an isolated incident at all of the stores mentioned above. And if this happens several times a month with multiple customers, the money lost during such returns could really add up.

Sheesh, no wonder so many stores are going out of business these days…

Share and Enjoy: