I would like to make the public aware of a scam involving gift reciepts that I recently became aware of.
I purchased my grandmother some clothes as a gift. They looked terrible on her and so I took her to the store to exchange them for something more suited to her. I took her new selection of cloths and gave the cashier the items to be returned with my grandmother’s gift receipt. I had the original receipt in my wallet. To my shock the gift receipt showed a balance of over $25 less than I had originally spent on the items. I questioned the cashier and she told me that gift receipts show the last known sale price on an item and not the dollar value that was originally spent. I was horrified and immediately took out my original receipt, got all of my money back and left the store empty handed. Grandma got a nice pedicure and lunch instead.
If you think about it, there is no benefit to using a gift receipt. The first thing a person does when returning an item is take up their gift receipt to see how much they can spend. You are better off to make a copy of the receipt for your records and give them the original. Not only will this prevent you from looking like a total cheap skate (spelling?), but you will get the appropriate bang for your buck.
I suggest that before you agree to a gift receipt you ask a store employee their policy on gift receipts. It is fun to see them squirm when they try and justify the fact that they were going to try and rip you off.
Cheryl Tunningley
