Uh, no, it's not stealing. Number one, the terms of these promotions are clearly stated in the advertising and annotated on the receipt. If you spend $75 and get a gift card, you're not allowed to return your $75 worth of items and keep the gift card. That would be stealing. The value of the gift card is deducted proportionally off of whatever items you return. So if you spend $75 and return the items you get $65 back in cash and have to use your gift card to get the other $10. Now perhaps they should have an option to let you bring the gift card back in and exchange it for cash, but according to this article, this confused individual didn't attempt to do that. She thought she was entitled to keep the gift card even though she was returning some of the items she purchased to qualify for it.

I thought she had more than $75 of stuff on her receipt even after she returned the easel?

I did, but they still wanted to deduct it. Even after returning the easel, I spent $92.11.

lol, I'm far from confused! Maybe you are confused. I still spent $75 (actually about $92) after returning the art easel so I still earned the $10 gift card. Apparently, Toys R Us and YOU think its ethical to go ahead and have me repay them for the gift card just because I made a return of an item that wasn't included in the $75 purchase requirement.

Obviously, this is their store policy...but it doesn't have to be. Lots of other stores give promotional deals and do not penalize their customers this way. Why does Toys R Us do it this way when other stores have found a way that is more ethical?

- because it lets them keep their customers money
- because they can
- because people aren't complaining enough about it.

This is pretty standard policy for any store. Anytime a store gives you a gift card the return value is always the value of the item minus the value of the Giftcard. Usually you have the option of returning the gift card (unspent) for a full refund.

At Target when this happens. (Say you buy 3 items and get a $30 gift card) Then each item will have $10 deducted from it from the return value. Target computers are usually smart enough that when you return it, they wont' return the gift card value, and on the reciept it clearly states what happens when you return it. Generally the Toys r Us computers just aren't smart enough.

What happened in this situation is correct, the employee should have seen the computer making an incorrect decision and manually overrode it.

If the policy defaulted the other way. (let you keep the gift card), then MORE people would take advantage of it by returning products and keeping giftcards. You aren't looking at this from TRU's point of view. They USED to do promotions like this in the past and you could totally take advantage of them. People would basically do stuff like buy 2 Games (get one free) then return the 2 games and keep the free one.

This isn't stealing, it's just protecting themselves from people who abuse the system. The customer service rep did the right thing, and manually overrode the problem. I don't see why this is worthy of a complaint.

Tim and JJ are right. This is the classic retail problem...too many smart consumer thieves and too little properly paid, comprehending employees. This also doesn't take into account employees who help cheat the system for themselves and friends. While I agree in general with the original poster, TRU and most companies post this type of information with the promotion.

Now from a corporate standpoint, ESPECIALLY with gift cards, not only is the accounting aspect a complex issue (I know this first hand) but unfortunately leaving ANY policy open ended and up to the employees' interpretation is NEVER a good idea. (I painfully know this first hand.) You would be surprised how many and how bad various employees would mess this type of transaction up if given the chance. Fractions, percentages, and mathematics in general are not a strong suite for many retail employees. I'm not knocking their intelligence, I speak from experience. Corporate policy is almost always written with thieves and employee comprehension in mind. So it's either have the occasional consumer unhappy or have a large amount of "professional" consumer thieves and unethical/uncomprehending employees rob your company blind.

Sadly, you can find this problem dictating many, many policy we live by in today's world.

Toys Arnt Us sucks when it comes to customer service. You wont get anywhere with them. Not dealing with returns but another situation happend that proves they suck.

A buddy of mine called the manager when he delt with an employee wheeling out a cart from the backroom with 2 cases of Star Wars figures. He asked if he was putting them on the pegs as this was the first time in weeks/months they had new figures. The employe said nope im buying them all and went to the registers. The manager said as long as he was on his break she saw NO problems whatsoever. Well for starters they were NOT on the shelf they were hidden in the backroom. it would have been more understandable had the employee got the figures off of the shelf. But no he used his advantage of being able to hide them in the backroom. After getting nowhere my friend called corprate and reported both the manager and employee he was told they will look into the matter as it WAS against policy for them to do that and of coarse he never heard back.

Also to get back at collectors, at the same store I guess somone had been stashing figures behind the overhead bins and a crudely written note was left saying "DO NOT PUT THINGS HERE this is under survallience." pretty sure hand written signs like that are AGAINST policy but theys till dont care, I laugh everytime I see it.

She stated specifically and quite clearly that she still spent well over the $75 required for the card, so there was no justification for the refusal to refund. She did not return the items that qualified her for the card.

And simply saying that it is corporate policy doesn't excuse it. I know a lot of chicanery happens, but that doesn't justify stiffing people who are playing by the stated rules.

Thank you Scott, you freaking genius.

I'm so sick of people acting like because a company makes something corporate policy that somehow it makes it right. Stealing and misleading people is wrong, even if you write it into your corporate policy or write it in stone or whatever. And quite frankly, I cant believe that so many people are so lazy that they are willing to put up with it. Big companies like Toys R Us love lazy complacent customers so that they can write policies that are a complete rip-off for the consumer. Grow some balls, everyone.

Thanks.

You should get a job in retail...if you don't already.

grow some balls and do what, exactly?

and is it irony that someone telling others to grow balls can't even post as their "real" fake name?

I did post my name but because I'm not a member it keeps posting as anonymous. And I did post to MY blog that I write that has all of my contact info and picture right on it.

And when I say "grow some balls," I mean that we as citizens should be outraged when a company is fleecing its customers. It still adds up- even when it is only 5 or 10 dollars at a time.

Toys R Us does fleece it's customers. However, you're overreacting, Holly. Plus, you shouldn't come here and start insulting people who don't see things your way.

I find your story hard to believe. It sounds like you're exaggerating. Whenever I use TRU reward money or gift cards, it prorates a discounted rate to each item in case you need to return an item.

But, as an extreme couponer, I don't expect much rationality from you. But then, I guess anyone who disagrees with you needs to "grow some balls". TRU doesn't "owe you" a $10 gift card. Nobody stole anything from you, you just lost your discount.

#1 I am not an extreme couponer and I have no idea where that came from
#2 They actually did give me the $10 gift card and I did earn it by spending the $75 required by them
#3 Everything I wrote was true
#4 You may feel that I am overreacting but that is exactly what I think the problem is with some people. If it isn't a big deal to lose $3 here, $5 here, $10 here then it makes it extremely easy for companies to get away with it. I hardly think that writing a blog post on the situation is overreacting.
You are entitled to your opinion- we all are, including me.

Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but when you come to a new board and tell existing members that they are confused and to grow some balls, that's not very nice. Add to the fact your sensationalism of claiming that TRU was "stealing" from you, when they are not. You also seem to confuse "earn" with "meeting the criteria of the sale".

You come here, make exaggerated claims and false statements, but worst of all you were rude to people here when you had no need to be. You have proven to me that your opinion isn't even worth listening to.

New people can't call obviously confused people confused just because they're regulars? What kind of logic is that? And the "balls" comment was obviously aimed at consumers in general, not at anyone here specifically. It seems like you're the one that's looking for a fight, and anonymously at that.

Emerje

I haven't made any false claims or exaggerations. You are wrong.

And really, my problem is with Toys R Us. I filed a formal complaint and they ignored me so I told them I was going to write a blog post about it and make sure that as many people as possible read it. Hundreds of people read my blog per day and I posted it several other places as well....so I definitely accomplished what I set out to do. It doesn't matter whether you agree or not.