ben12

So let's say you've got a $25 gift card. You go and buy some $30 item with it. They take the used up gift card at the register. Then later you return it. Here's what I would EXPECT to happen: They credit your credit card the $5 and get reissues a new $25 gift card for that part of your purchase.

Well, here's what ACTUALLY happens:

They credit your credit card the $5, and they credit the ORIGINAL gift card the $25. But the gift card is gone! They took it and threw it away! Well, there's a number they tell you to call (They don't actually just tell you. They wait for you to notice the weirdness on your receipt and then ask them about it) to get reissues your gift card, which arrives in the mail a week later.

Seems stupid and wasteful (of my time and their time).

cdollaz

Yeah, that's stupid, but at least you are getting your card pretty quickly, instead of 6-8 weeks.

cdollaz

Note to self: when using a BB giftcard, make sure you want to keep the item.

jjcool

That's the first I have ever heard of this happening. Every time I have returned something bought with a gift card, they just gave me a new gift card with the balance.

jjcool

But if you go through the trouble of buying the item, shouldn't you already want to keep the item?

fujishig

Yeah, this seems like a lot of work... is this an isolated case, or a new policy? What happens when you have a gift receipt for the item?

jjcool

I would hope that a gift receipt return would go to a fresh gift card.
This really isnt that complicated. we were doing this in store in the late 90s and I am sure soem stores were doing it before that. Back when there were paper certificates, did they put the money back on to the old certificate?

I gotta think this is an isolated case of the salesperson not knowing what they were doing.

ben12

We bitched to the chick at the return station and she just pointed to the customer service number on the receipt and said "I don't know" a lot. Then we went to one of the registers (my gf thought they might still have the gift card in a bin at the register) and spoke with a manager. They said the same thing including all the "I don't knows."

Usually a store doesn't come out and admit that one hand doesn't know what the other was doing. Guess they don't give a shit how it looks.

It could still be an isolated case with just our local store. But when we called the customer service number to get a fresh gift card, the operator didn't need much explained, as if they reissue gift cards all the time.

jjcool

Well at least the customer service line was able to help you out.
If this is indeed a new company wide policy, it is completely asinine.

kenbenobi

Same here. The only exception I know of is if you buy something on bestbuy.com. In that case, it does return to the original gift card, even if you return the item in-store... I think the clerk in the OP's situation just didn't know how to do it...

kenbenobi

I just returned a gift card paid item on Tuesday, and was issued a new gift card on the spot... So if it's a new policy, the system doesn't force it. I bet this was an isolated incident...

dsa_shea

If that was the case then why didn't you just exchange the item for something else with a similar price?

mzupeman2

This just sounds like morons behind the counter. This is why I hate dealing with Best Buy. They aren't people that are knowledgeable about their products, and they aren't knowledgeable about the basics of retail business.

bsmith

BB CS can do some strange things sometimes.

I once purchased something online using a reward zone certificate for the bulk of the purchase and a CC for the remaining $1 and change. The disk was received damaged so I returned it to a store for an exchange.

He said he had to take it back as a return then do a re-purchase and that he would have to charge my CC and have my reward zone certificate re-credited. Not my preferred response but I said ok. After a bit of manipulating he got me a new copy and asked for my CC for the new purchase.

Once I got back to the car I noticed he only charged me the $1 and change so I figured that in the end I was not going to get the reward zone re-credited (actually what I wanted in the first case). However, in a couple of weeks I got the new reward zone certificate as a credit.

In the end, I got the disk for only $1 and change. Makes you wonder how they get anything right when they are very inconsistent in how they handle things. Not that I'm complaining in this instance.

Trevor

I've always gotten a new gift card, as recently as yesterday.

wvtechs

Yet another reason to avoid using gift cards.

mr. b_dvd

I don't avoid them, I just make sure whatever I buy I plan on keeping or swapping out for the same item if it is defective.

The few times I've returned something bought with a gift card, I simply picked up something of equal or greater value, and I also think I was issued a new gift card once when there was still a balance left. If I find something I purchased cheaper on-line, and I'm within the return timeframe, I'll return it and pick up something else. I can not recall ever having to call an 800 # to get a new gift card. With RZ gift certificates, those just get re-issued to you automatically if you return something you bought with one.