Wal-Mart's Return Policy and Quickest Checkout Lines

You probably know that you can return merchandise to Wal-Mart with your receipt. What if you have no receipt? There was a time when I could return anything, from defective merchandise to my latest big impulse buy, without a receipt and get store credit in the form of a gift card, no questions asked. Eventually, they started to ask for a driver's license for non-receipt returns. Then I was shocked one day when a manager informed me of a yearly return limit on non-receipt items.

Early in 2006, I went to return some items that I had bought my husband for Christmas. I had no receipt and knew that I would have to settle for store credit. There are always long lines at the costumer service desk after the holiday season because of the heavy volume of reject gifts people get for Christmas. I had already stood in the post-seasonal return line three times during the first two weeks of January. Now it was February and I was in a time-sensitive situation. I had a jacket and a belt that had been sitting in my closet. I needed to get those items back to the store before my ninety-day return/exchange period expired. So to the end of the line I went.

I waited among the noise of the crowd. The florescent lights were mind-numbing after a while. The line extended behind me in no time. As I came within hearing range of the front-of-the-line transactions, I could hear the register drawer click shut and the cashier counting change from a return in the amount of two bucks and some pennies. I couldn't believe that someone would actually go through all this trouble for two bucks! Finally, I was up.

I placed my items on the counter and explained that I was okay with store credit since I didn't have a receipt. I handed my driver's license to the clerk. The counter equipment went into a series of beeps that was echoed by all the other scanners in the store like one big digital symphony playing at sunset on the planet WalMart. The young cashier finished up the transaction, handing me a gift card. Then she pointed out that I was now at my limit for returns without a receipt. I said, "What do you mean 'limit'?" She rambled off some stuff that sounded so unreasonable to me that I was convinced she was mistaken. I asked her to get me a manager to clear this up. The customer service manager came over shortly and verified that what the girl had told me was a fact, "It's a new policy. You have a yearly limit of three returns without a receipt." It was a surprise to me to learn that I really was at my limit. For the remainder of that year I was banned from returning anything else without a receipt! I sure felt like a WalMart outcast! However, I've been sure to save all my receipts in a special file box that I bought from - you guessed it - Wal-Mart.

I guess the reason I make so many impulsive purchases there is because they do have a lot of good stuff, and I'm always in a hurry to grab it and get out of there as quick as possible. It's so congested every time I go that It takes almost as long to check out as it does to shop. But I've recently discovered a remedy for that. The electronic department and the garden center will check out even merchandise that isn't from their departments, as long as it isn't produce. There's no limit on the items. And there are almost never any lines in those departments. What a time-saver!

One more thing on Wal-Mart's return policy: After a road trip during which I bought an item that didn't have the features I thought it had, I discovered my local Wal-Mart would take it back even though I had bought it from another location in another town!