Forgive me if a thread like this exists already, but I always find reading other people's experiences helpful.

Most of my friends and relatives get me DVDs for the holidays, and I don't always get a gift receipt, or want to ask for one. So invariably there are always a bunch of things I wind up bringing back to the store for credit.

Every year around this time there are stories on the news about how retail chains are cracking down on returns without receipts, which I think is ridiculous and unfair. Fortunately I've never really experienced a problem personally.

When I went to Best Buy with a bag of disks I either already had or didn't want this year though, for the first time I walked out with most of the titles I walked in with. Last year they were great and took back just about everything. But this time the computer was a little more choosy with what returns they accepted.

Now, I can understand not giving store credit for "obscure" titles, even if they do sell them on BestBuy.com. Someone got me the Lone Wolf & Cub box set, while someone else got me two disks that the box contained. Best Buy wouldn't take back the two individual disks, and I didn't bother to go look if they had any on the shelves, even though I could swear I've seen them before.

But then they wouldn't take back Season 2 of M*A*S*H*. Huh? I know for sure they carry that, because there was the reminants of a Best Buy price sticker on the box. The girl was nice enough about it and took back some other things, but it seemed odd that I still had M*A*S*H* with me when I returned home.

Anyone else have a similar experience? Any Best Buy employees know what's up with this? How do they decide what they will take back and what they won't?

I think it's bullshit that I'm assumed to be comitting fraud just because I got some gifts I can't use, and if Best Buy won' take them back, the remaining options are really slim.

If you take back a load of stuff without any receipts you're bound to get shot down.

I didn't take back a "load" of stuff, and they didn't shoot me down. I just can't figure out what the rationale is for what they take back and what they don't. M*A*S*H* is on the shelf and not oop, as far as I know. It's on their website. So why take the other things and not that?

It was weird.

Did you check to see if the UPC's matched? I've been noticing lately that many different retailers have their own unique UPC's, which I find kind of ironic since it's not quite "universal" as it states. I believe they do this to cut back on receiving product that wasn't theirs to begin with and might be the cause of why your dvd wasn't accepted.

technically they dont have to return an item if it does not have a receipt. If you know the name of the buyer(of the gifts) they might be able to track the purchase. IF item was paid with credit/ debit it woukld be much easier to track. The Best buy POS will not allow a return without transaction information, maybe if the manager allows it.

I say if they are not taking it back, list it on ebay, amazon, or half. Maybe try walmart, I heard they take back anything.

Return it to Borders. They never ask any questions.
They will give you the credit in the form of a gift card that can then be used at Borders.com (which is really Amazon).

Yes, they did shoot you down. You said that "I walked out with most of the stuff I brought in". If that's not how you'd describe it you should revise your post.

I do sympathize with you. I had asked for Scene it Deluxe and got the regular edition. When I went to target to exchange, they wouldn't give me store credit even though they didn't have the Deluxe Edition in stock. My in-laws told me they got it at Target and I have no reason not to believe that. I'll wait until they have it back in stock to get it. They told me that they wouldn't give me store credit unless the exchage was in the same "dept".

Good call.

I work at a seasonal game kiosk (sad I know.)

I was shocked when I looked at our refund/exchange policy. If someone has a gift receipt they can not get money back in cash because we do not know how they paid for it. So you could only exchange the item but we have so little left in stock no one is going to find something to exchange it with. (You can quote me in a couple of days when I stop working there "Screw this company, cash refunds for everyone.")

I didn't look at it that way. "Shooting me down" would be "I'm sorry, we don't accept returns without a receipt" and sending me on my way. They were very cordial about it, but only gave me credit for the stuff that came up on the computer when they zapped it.


Nice call on that! I looked and indeed there was a UPC sticker on the shrink-wrap over the regular UPC on the box. I peeled it off and went back to another Best Buy near my office at lunch. And this time it did show up on their computer...

Accept they would not take it back for a different reason. Apparently Best Buy allows you 3 returns without a receipt [bold]IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFETIME[/bold]. I returned Christmas gifts once in 2003, 2004 and then again the other day, so I have used up my limit and will never be able to go back for as long as I live. (Unless I get a different driver's license #, I guess...)

Word to the wise, then. If you are planning on going to Best Buy and returning things:

A) Bring everything you have with you in one shot, because otherwise you might not be able to return your Blu-Ray gifts in the future.

B) Use your passport instead of your driver's license as identification.

My sister got Banned from Kmart several years ago because she returned things without receipts. That must have been 10 or so years ago. I think they were yard sale items she was returning.

I wasn't trying to knock on the OP here by saying "shoot you down", I was just stating that they will turn you away for this. I have also seen the different UPCs on the same dvds. My Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 2 disc set from Best Buy had a different UPC than one from another retailer. I'm all for exchanging stuff that you don't need as long as you didn't obtain it through illegal channels. Your best bet is to return it to Borders as previously mentioned or take back one or two discs at a time. Try Wal-Mart as well if you see that they carry any of the items that you have.

Toys R Us wouldn't take a DVD return w/o receipt from me this year. Probably that was the intentional reasoning behind recently offering a free DVD with a portable DVD player. They consider it a free promo and wouldn't even let me even exchange Cinderella for another title. Target will still let you even exchange, or trade up for a higher-priced item in the same dept.

I've always had the easiest time returning extras to Suncoast. I know their prices are terrible, but when they're giving you MSRP credit for the movies you're returning, paying MSRP for the alternate titles makes it a wash.

I believe that the "slightly different" UPCs (the two digits at the upper right) indicate which security method is used (square spiral that CC uses vs. rectangle with very sharp pieces of metal inside vs. whatever else).

If a store sells something under a particular UPC upper-right code and you bring in a different UPC u-r code, it might very well not show up in their computer when they scan it.

And Borders doesn't necessarily take every DVD as a return; after Christmas of '04 I had to take a couple of fairly mainstream DVDs back to Best Buy when the Borders computers didn't recognize them.

Me too. I've outright said that I bought a dvd online from a Canadian retailer, and they still said it was okay to exchange it (a B5 season set that came with floaters.)

I didn't realize you could use Borders GC's at Amazon. Is there some trick to it? I went to borders.com (amazon) and checked the balance on my card. Everything was fine. I added a DVD to my cart, checked out, and when I entered the GC # it didn't bring up the credit. I tried a lot of things (including adding an item from www.borderstores.com) and I can't get the GC to be recognized. It is an old card, but it's odd that I can get a balance but not use it.

A few things to note when ordering with a Borders Gift Card:

1. ALWAYS remove everything from your amazon.com shopping cart first

2. ALWAYS enter through borders.com

3. ALWAYS enter the 16-digit gift card number on the very last page of your order (the final checkout page)

4. If you were successful in applying your gift card, you'll see a statement "you have applied Gift Card XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX to this order", or some such wording. You WON'T see how much was charged to the card until your order enters the "Shipping Soon" phase.

5. If you have Amazon Gift Certificates (either regular or promo), those can be entered as well. You can also use the AMEX 25%-off Wish Certificates with borders.com orders, as long as you select paying with your AMEX card. Even if the total amount of your order is covered by your Borders Gift Card (meaning that your AMEX card wasn't charged), you will still get the 25% discount.

You can also verify your card balance by using the automated phone method: 1-877-728-4000

Thanks bhauge. I had filled my cart up and then entered through Borders.com. I think that was my problem.

As I am apparently barred from returning DVDs (or anything else) to Best Buy without a receipt for the rest of my life, I guess returning things one at a time is not an option. In fact, if they really do only allow you 3 Lifetime No-Receipt Returns, I would recommend that people really make the most of them and return as much as you have to in one shot. Otherwise you'll be stuck with all the Playstation 5 games you might not want in the future.


Thanks for the advice on Border's. Does anyone know if they also keep track of how many times you've been there? If I return my LONE WOLF & CUB duplicates this year, will I pay the price next Christmas when there are no more stores left to exchange unwanted gifts to?

Speaking as an ex-Borders employee, this is the correct way to do it. Great info!

They were not doing return tracking when I worked there 3 years ago.

I went to the Danbury Borders yesterday with about 6 box sets. They only took one of them back. They said that they couldn't sell the other sets. I didn't understand why they wouldn't take them back. They were all sealed and in perfect condition. I checked their inventory online to make sure that they currently had them in stock and they did. Maybe I tried to return too many box sets at one time(it would have been around $400 on a gift card). Anywho, they asked for my name, address, telephone # & signature. They didn't ask for my driver's license, so I could've given a phony name and they didn't take my driver's license number.

For my birthday I had also received 2 different boxsets that I already owned. I know for a fact that they were purchased at a Borders, but since Borders do not offer gift receipts I had no proof.

They accepted one and gave me store credit, but the other one caused some problems. Apparently they check the computer to see if the title was in their inventory, and if that specific store has not sold any in the last 6 months, they will not give you credit for it. I actually took it with me when I went out of town and returned it at the same store he picked it up at.

I thought that the experiences posted by people here meant that they might be more forgiving about such things post-Holidays, but maybe, as with most things, YMMV. They did take my driver's license # both times though, so who knows if I could go back again now with my remaining unwanted Christmas gifts without being flagged by some central Borders hivemind.

I've never had a problem returning anything there as long as they carry it in stock. I always check the store stock at borderstores.com before I go. Historically, at least from my experience, if the store stock says "Order", they won't take the item.
Every time I've returned items, they have consistently asked for my drivers license as well as filling out the return slip, but they've never questioned me - and I've done it about a dozen times in the last year.
I hope they are not changing their policies.
I do know that Best Buy only lets you return items without a receipt three times during your lifetime - and that's with a large hassle.
Wal-Mart only allows you to return items without receipts three times in any given six-month period - There is no limit on the amount of items you can return during one visit though.
I suppose as with everything else, there is always a large YMMV.