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The Most Important Thing You’ll Learn This Holiday Season. Or, Like, Ever.

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Who remembers Geraldo Rivera and his crazy-arse exposés, like the time he pried open Al Capone’s vault on live TV to find nothing but an old stop sign and a few empty gin bottles?

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Well Bossy’s exposé is just like that, except it’s about gift buying. And while it’s true Bossy’s exposé doesn’t feature a vault, perhaps gin can be blamed?

Let’s get started.

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Here’s the deal: say you’re standing at a counter and you are purchasing Aunt Sadie a holiday present. And say the cashier, who is taking your money, asks, “Would you like a gift receipt?”

And say you say, “Yes, I would like a gift receipt,” if for no other reason than because if you say you don’t want a gift receipt, Bossy has no exposé.

But also because, let’s say, you don’t ever want Aunt Sadie to find out her new present from Target cost less than a tube of Bengay.

“Yes I would like a gift receipt,” say you. Says you? You say? This exposé stuff isn’t as easy as it looks.

Anyway, so now you give Aunt Sadie her present, and you provide her with the gift receipt in case she already owns a pair of Sock Monkey slippers.

Well. Did you know that most stores will not allow your Aunt Sadie to return her gift for a refund because you used a gift receipt? They will only let her exchange the item for something else in the store.

Who cares, you say? Well maybe Target is a bad example because Target has a wide variety of things available.

But say, as a random example, your 12-year-old daughter receives a gift from Lilly Pulitzer, and say she goes to return her gift from Lilly Pulitzer because it’s too small and while she’s in the store she notices that most of the clothes in Lilly Pulitzer are starched and pink and she’s not mad for starched and pink and then she does some quick math and determines that the cost of one Lilly Pulitzer vest could keep her in Sock Monkey slippers for the rest of her life so she asks you to walk to the register and get a refund from Lilly Pulitzer except Lilly Pulitzer won’t give you a refund because you are holding a gift receipt.

Just as a random totally made up example.

Gift receipts aren’t so much for the customer’s benefit as they are an insurance policy that the money will be spent in their store.

Down with gift receipts!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Well I’ll be……..didnt know that about the gift receipts. And I sure do remember the the whole Capone vault hilarious fiasco!

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  4. I did not know that about gift receipts–good to know. Far more useful that the contents of Al Capone’s vault (the opening of which I, too, remember.)

    Also, ew to the pink and starchy.

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  5. I knew about the gift receipts.

    If gift shopping for gift cards, one should always check to see if the certificate has an expiration date. When purchasing store specific gift cards, one should check to see if the store is going to be closing soon.

    Also, if you have expired gift cards, you should check to see if the store will still honor the cards. Many stores will honor expired cards after they charge you a small processing fee.

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  6. I always assumed, that gift receipts were like normal receipts in the sense that if the gift giver charged the purchase, the store won’t be able to give you cash, that at most they would either give you store credit or refund the gift givers charge card (not that that is much fun for the gift receiver…) I think though it is less about trying to keep the money in house, and more along the lines of giving cash ONLY if cash was originally paid.

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  7. P.S. I hope the second item didn’t sound obnoxious. The short expiration date I encountered and the going out of business but still selling gift cards happened to someone I know.

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  14. Keep in mind, that without said gift receipt, you will only get the current retail price, not what said gift giver paid. And some stores (J Crew, I’m just saying) have crazy return policies, that state if an item is on sale, it is not returnable EVER.

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  18. Thank you for mentioning Target. I discovered last Christmas when the kids received multiple duplicate gifts…and about that: that’s the last time I provide the whole family with the same list…anyway, Target will only allow (2) receiptless returns and/or exchanges per person, per household, per year.

    Bah.

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  20. Even worse is when you have no receipt at all and you walk into, hypothetically speaking, a Kmart to return some dishes that you got. Now these dishes are a brand that this hypothetical Kmart EXCLUSIVELY carries and all you want is a different color because the poo brown you got just doesn’t match anything you have except your poo. Only hypothetical Kmart won’t even exchange them because you don’t have a receipt, so instead you just take them out into the parking lot and break them one by one on the ground. Hypothetically speaking of course.

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  21. I just found out this news 3 days ago, when I tried to return some stuff to Old Navy. I had both receipts on me, but I found the gift receipt first in my messy purse (job of the day today – clean out messy purse!). Luckily, after digging around I found the original. Thanks for letting me know it happens in other stores too.

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  23. Tootsie Farklepants, thank you. I have just been stressing over a recent purchase from Target that I want to return everything I got. I stuffed my receipt and some other lame-o receipt look-a-like in my purse. Got home, found out that once again the hugest size tights available are actually sized for Bossy’s daughter, and I’m not that huge in the waist. (What do other people do?) Of course the receipt has disappeared, except for the lame-o thing that offers $1 off for I don’t know what. I shall march back into Target with my head held high.

    And immediately find the sock monkey slippers to purchase instead. I lurf them.

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  25. Bossy makes a very scary Geraldo. As far as Target goes, I have a Target Visa that I only use there because you can use it to return stuff if you’ve lost, thrown away, eaten your receipt. I just write down how much I spend in the check book and pay it all at the end of the month.

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  29. I discovered this last Christmas after returning a pair of pjs from DH to Victoria’s Secret. I still have the store-card credit because as a mom of two small kids I really have NO USE whatsoever for sexy bras and silky pjs and such (haha) no really the one time I got the chance to go try to find something–nothing looked good on my postpartum body. Anyway, yeah, gift receipts are a consipracy.

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  31. and also? gift cards are a total scam. loads of them never get used. you’ve spent $20 on a gap gift card that you give to your niece, and your niece? never uses it. and gap just pockets the $20 when the gift card expires. they just EXPUNGE the $20 short term liability from their balance sheet. gift cards, gift receipts. just all made up gifts and made up money.

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  35. Gift cards suck too. I just heard a piece on NPR Monday about gift cards to Chapter 11 companies, like Circuit City….guess what? Gift cards can be worth nodda! That’s right….buy someone a nice $200 gift card for X-mas, but the company is shaky…..Chapter 11 means they keep your cash and offer nothing!

    Be carefull with gift cards.

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  37. I understand why you might be upset about the whole gift reciept thing…but most places will only give store credit for the price the item is selling for right then if you don’t have a reciept at all…Really, the store is just protecting itself. Anyone see the Dr Phil this week with the million dollar shoplifting couple? Send your complaints to them.

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  38. I love Lily Pullitzer. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want to wear it myself, but there’s something so fresh looking about a little girl in those beautiful pastel outfits. Good point about the gift receipts though.

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  39. Hey Deeb and Cat (and everyone else too):

    The Receipt Lookup system at Target stores will find an item purchased with ANY Credit or Debit card, Check, or Target Giftcard within 90 days of purchase. As a former Guest Service manager at Target I understand the frustrations of the return policy. That’s why I always tried every possible solution, such as receipt lookup, to help guests return/exchange items.

    On the subject of gift receipts however, I never really thought about it from the perspective of keeping the money inhouse but Bossy does have a point.

    -jeff

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  41. I was in the audience of the Geraldo Rivera talk show once in the 80’s. The theme was women wrestlers. It was the worst three hours of my life. I’d rather redo labor- at least I knew that was going to end.

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  45. Jeff, thank you for the inside lowdown from a former Target Guest Service manager perspective. Very helpful.

    Bossy, you managed to connect with all sorts of angles for us today!

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  50. Reeb, I’d like to apologize for incorrectly spelling your name in my first comment. I just noticed my error and feel like a fool.

    -jeff

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  51. I didn’t know that and will certainly take it into consideration when purchasing gifts For some reason I just can’t think of anything witty tonight. Time for sleep.

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  52. So, I was at a dinner party last night, and somehow (blame it on the booze) we started talking about Geraldo Rivera. Friend at the party said her husband met him in the 70s when he was doing a story on Marine Boot Camp and friend’s husband was a marine.

    Guess what?

    G.R. is short. Uber short. like, 5 feet tall short. Wears lifts, platforms, and stands on a box to do his interviews so he is eye to eye with the subject. There’s an expose for you.

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  56. you know – you’re right! They do that here too!! You know what else I hate? Shops that put a notice about no refunds available in this store ad it’s in an 8 pt font behind another item for sale at the side of the checkout where no one EVER looks until the attendant waves it in your face when you ask for a refund. That – drives.me.insane!

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  61. So interesting : ). Target, which is a great store that I LOVE, has a TERRIBLE exchange policy. It kind of makes me a little mad. Well, actually VERY mad or I would not be noting it in this comment : ). Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving week.

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  65. Oh, thank goodness! I thought Bossy was going to expose that Geraldo was her boyfriend! And I got slightly ill.

    Yeah, I love Tar-jay, but I agree, even with a receipt, their return policy is not the best. And those gift receipts can be a pain too.

    Gift Cards – about the only ones I do buy are WM because you know they will around, like the roaches, even after the nuclear holocost.

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  66. please send this post to lily pulitzer corporate offices so we can see their reaction, ie the showering of gifts upon you and your family. pink, starched gifts!

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  68. I did not realize this horrible truth until this Christmas. I actually read the receipt because we are buried under enormous hills of snow and I didn’t know when I could get to the mall. I was very annoyed to see the return policy on there and thought it was a store aberration. Now I know it is all of them. That sucks! NO more gift receipts for me!

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