Intentional systemic fraud at Walmart with Christmas gift receipts?

Did you get a gift from a loved one at Christmas along with a gift receipt? If you did and used the gift receipt to return the item to Walmart. The chances are very good that Walmart ripped off you and the person who bought the gift.

I was sitting here thinking about this story and it explains why Walmart had such a great sales after Christmas. I remember those great “sales” and how they rivaled Black Friday. I have no direct proof that Walmart conspired to defraud customers by stacking “sale” items which have a higher return history by using after Christmas sales as a basis to short change customers with gift receipts. There is however more than enough evidence that Walmart is short changing customers with Christmas gift receipts since May 2011.

Here is how the fraud works. You take an item back to Walmart where at the return desk you give the customer service agent your gift receipt. The agent scans the receipt and the computers computes what you get back. The person returning the item often doesn’t the original price because it is not on the gift receipt. The customer service agent then prints out your receipt and gives you back cash or a gift card. The problem lies in the fact the computer uses the current sales prices not the original price that the original purchaser used to by the item. This is a pretty simple scam and an easy fix since the problem is computer based. This not a local problem for Walmart but one in every store in America!

Theoretically, Walmart could stack sales so that they coincide with trends and spending patterns. I could see Walmart finding a trend of defective items being returned so the rest of the stock is put on markdown. Walmart could benefit from both ends of this deal where they could back-charge full price for the defective returns to the manufacturer and short change the customer of the full retail price.

Call me a crazy but this is the exact kind of manipulation I would expect from a large multi-national like Walmart.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

“When a producer from the network attempted to return a TV originally purchased for $248 using a gift receipt, she was only able to get back $228 -- the unit's new on-sale price. A cashier told her simply that the register "will just generate however much [the original buyer] paid for it,” even though in this case the original purchase price was higher.
This is far from the first time such allegations have been made against Walmart. Last year, the same CBS affiliate aired similar reports that Walmart was shortchanging customers on gift receipts.”

www.cbsnews.com...

“An investigation by CBS stations CBS-13 in Sacramento and CBS-3 in Philadelphia found that Walmart's gift receipts don't always return your money's worth.
CBS-13 investigative reporter Kurtis Ming shared the story on "The Early Show."
Ming said team went to Walmart stores, purchased items, and asked for a gift receipt. But time after time, when they returned those items using the gift receipt, they got back much less than what was originally paid.
And the investigative teams aren't the only customers affected.
David Schmitz used a gift receipt to return a present he bought at a Walmart in California.
Schmitz told CBS News, "When I purchased the item it cost $15 plus tax. When I tried to return the item using the gift receipt, I was offered $7.50 plus tax."
The makeup kit Schmitz purchased had since gone on sale, so he was only offered back the reduced price -- not what he originally paid.”

www.pennypincherspal.com...

The problem comes in play when the gift recipient takes the gift back to the store for a refund and not knowing how much you paid takes whatever the cashier says the price of merchandise is at the time of return.

You may have paid $30 for the gift, but when it is returned to the store it may be on sale for $15 so that is the amount that is refunded to your gift recipient. You and they just took a lose of 50% and the store keeps the difference.

My first job was at a major retailer that used gift receipts, I remember back then (I worked customer service) that this occurred every now in than with them when ever an item happened to be on sale when the returned happened this would occur.

I brought this up and its was quickly written off as an error with the system, we where told to be vigilant about checking to make sure this never happened, yet I remember they had yet to patch it by the time I quit that summer job back in 1999.

I wonder if they have yet lol...

That's some pretty shady business practices...

But what do you expect from a company that supports third world child labor and sweat shops?

C'mon, Wal-Mart would sell their employees souls if it meant a 5% gain for the QE report...

I wonder if they charge for a restock fee?

This actually could have some rather serious tax effects as it would effect the revenue status of the difference between the gift and the original prices. IRS should go knock on Walmart's corporate doors.

Originally posted by benrl
My first job was at a major retailer that used gift receipts, I remember back then (I worked customer service) that this occurred every now in than with them when ever an item happened to be on sale when the returned happened this would occur.

I brought this up and its was quickly written off as an error with the system, we where told to be vigilant about checking to make sure this never happened, yet I remember they had yet to patch it by the time I quit that summer job back in 1999.

I wonder if they have yet lol...

edit on 1-2-2013 by benrl because: (no reason given)

HI Benrl, I was adding the thought that they could do this with defective merchandise too .... and back-charge the manufacturer 100 percent..... Did you see anything like that?

Originally posted by YouAreLiedTo
That's some pretty shady business practices...

But what do you expect from a company that supports third world child labor and sweat shops?

C'mon, Wal-Mart would sell their employees souls if it meant a 5% gain for the QE report...

off the clock of course .... I have been using Walmart less and less ..... frankly it isn't even the low prices but the fact that I can make one stop instead of 3-4 .....

I wonder what would happen if you bought an item that was on sale, and received a gift receipt. Then returned it when the price went back up?

If you get the sale price refunded instead of the non-sale price, then it is obvious that they are knowingly frauding their customers, because my test would confirm there computer systems track sale prices.

Nordstrom Rack did something similar. I bought my wife a pair of shoes and I wanted to pay cash. He said that I'd have to transfer the cash to a gift card and then use the gift card to purchase the shoes. To me that was a fraud! If the wife did not like the shoes and decided to return it and get something different elsewhere, they would say that it was a gift card that purchased the shoe and would not refund the money.

Originally posted by Kr0nZ
I wonder what would happen if you bought an item that was on sale, and received a gift receipt. Then returned it when the price went back up?

If you get the sale price refunded instead of the non-sale price, then it is obvious that they are knowingly frauding their customers, because my test would confirm there computer systems track sale prices.

I actually searched Google for that too but I could not find any data, information or news stories about returning an item and getting the higher "off" sale price..... I like you plan on testing this out....

reply to post by fnpmitchreturns


With the global misery that is caused by Walmart, I don't pity anything they do to their customers. They are also part of the problem. I hope they rip off all their customers into not shopping there anymore.

reply to post by fnpmitchreturns
Walmart tries to rip off their customers in all sorts of ways. I've never had a problem at the Walmart in my city, but every single time I've gone to one of their "Super Centers" they have tried to charge me quite a bit more than they should have. I check prices on everything I put in my cart- I even match the UPC codes to the shelf sticker to make sure the item matches the price. I keep a tally of all the items and estimate sales tax before I ever get in line at the register so I know how much the total should be. Yet every time there is a discrepancy- sometimes just $5, but often $10 or more and once even $35! People behind me in line get mad, but I make them call a manager and I point out the differences and make them give me the correct prices even if it means them having to call several different departments for price checks if they don't trust the prices I have written by the items on my list. Every time they claim it's a computer error, but come on- every time? Really?

Originally posted by littled16
reply to post by fnpmitchreturns

 

Walmart tries to rip off their customers in all sorts of ways. I've never had a problem at the Walmart in my city, but every single time I've gone to one of their "Super Centers" they have tried to charge me quite a bit more than they should have. I check prices on everything I put in my cart- I even match the UPC codes to the shelf sticker to make sure the item matches the price. I keep a tally of all the items and estimate sales tax before I ever get in line at the register so I know how much the total should be. Yet every time there is a discrepancy- sometimes just $5, but often $10 or more and once even $35! People behind me in line get mad, but I make them call a manager and I point out the differences and make them give me the correct prices even if it means them having to call several different departments for price checks if they don't trust the prices I have written by the items on my list. Every time they claim it's a computer error, but come on- every time? Really?

LOL Granny, I don't do that same thing but I know within $5 what my bill will be when I leave. I always check my receipt because far too often I have been slammed by wrong prices at checkout. I remember when Walmart had a policy where if they charged you the incorrect price they would take $3 off your bill but I think they changed that policy.
Wat to go granny .....

Wallmart, schmallmart. the whole gamut of businesses of any size do the same thing........
It seems that Buyer Beware is their motto these days....
I remember when it was "the customer is always right"
Truth to tell there is a permissive side to capitalism that encourages such scams and end runs around total honesty in dealing with others....
It almost looks like this attitude is now a basic given......if you can grab it, then take it....anyone stupid enough to miss the scam deserves to pay for their stupidity......
Morally bankrupt corporate greed.......

Myself, I never take gift receipts from stores. I give the real receipts if I anticipate any chance of a return.

Anyways, this is outright fraud and theft. Heck on class action lawsuits etc.. I think someone should go to jail. This is what would happen to any other "civilian" thief.

Originally posted by YouAreLiedTo
That's some pretty shady business practices...

But what do you expect from a company that supports third world child labor and sweat shops?

C'mon, Wal-Mart would sell their employees souls if it meant a 5% gain for the QE report...

Yes Walmart likes cheap child labor and sweatshops; and who buys the stuff to the tune of billions per year allowing further exploitation and criminality all over the world? A gigantic percentage of Americans. Otherwise Walmart would shrivel and die. They seem to be doing splendidly, so one would have to conclude that people just don't care. At least not enough to stop shopping there.

Walmart isn't the only store that does this when you try to return an item that's now selling at a lower price.

It would be interesting to know if you can return an item and get more than what was paid at time of purchase.

It does usually work both ways in some stores. If you buy something and a few days or weeks later it goes on sale, you can take your receipt in and get a cash refund to match the " on sale" price. I've done this a few times. Or I've negotiated the price down at time of purchase to match up with the future sale price. You only have to ask " will this be going on sale?" I don't know if Walmart will do this because I don't shop there.

If true, it just show how bad greed can get. No way Walmart is hurting for money.

flaggs...starr they're doing the same thing with their free replacement batteries....claiming that I was confused...but their computer is a scam.....on a 90 dollar battery....they wanted to give me 16 dollars exchange.....hail...the core was worth 9.00 dollars....we went round and round....it was like they were new world order shills....I proved them wrong when I finallt went out the door with a new battery instead of 16.00 dollars....and that lady Edna....was still hollaring that I didn't understand the math......let me see....a 90 dollar battery or 7 dollars counting the core charge...let me see....

reply to post by littled16


I do the same thing!!! It drives me nuts how many price errors they have.

It's a computer issue only because they haven't switched the pricing manually with a pricing gun. I worked at Target yrs ago and you have to scan sale items or scan items that have price changes and put them in the computer system so they ring up properly. Wal Mart is LAZY!!! I remember when Wal Mart wasn't like this but now it's ridiculous at the amount of pricing errors that occur.

I remember a while back the manager tried to argue with me over the price of a bottle of sun tan lotion! I checked the UPC and bar code, things i KNEW how to do since i worked in various retail stores previously. She refused to go check and said it was a different size. I held up the line and went and GOT the bar code and price tag that said the price. It was a $3 dollar difference! I was RIGHT and she didn't say anything just fixed it and walked off. They changed the price tag but NEVER scanned the price into the system!

I don't care if people get mad at me in line. I will not pay more than what the tag says esp when it's THEIR fault it's coming up wrong. When I worked at Target their policy was if it was within a $5 difference you gave it to the customer for the price they say without a price check. Anything over $5 required a price check. I don't know if it is still like that but i wouldn't be surprised if it is still like that. Target has always been better at customer service and still is!

This doesn't surprise me with Wal Mart in the LEAST bit! I refuse to shop there. I use to love Wal Mart but it has just changed so much that i don't want to give them my business. The employees (where I live) are rude and lazy. The store is disgusting and they never stock their shelves. Heaven for bid you ask them any question, you get ignored and told "Oh that isn't my dept." When I worked at Target it didn't matter whose dept it was you TOOK the guest TO that area and got someone to help them! Wal Mart should take a few lessons from Target!

I had to go into Wal Mart last week since they are now our friggin Ticketmaster. The guy at the electronics dept said he had no idea that there was Ticketmaster there nor how to get the tickets to print, yet there was a FRIGGIN touch pad device FOR Ticketmaster WITH a sign!!! They didn't know how to get my ticket so I left. I was too pissed off after waiting 20mins for someone to even acknowledge we were there. They had better not even mess around with my Matchbox Twenty ticket, they will see one hormonal pregnant woman. I will have to go there next week and try again. I will get management involved this time. I mean it's THEIR dept and they don't even know how to use the Ticketmaster part! AHHHHH!