Returning gifts has become much tougher. Returning things that you just purchased for yourself is much harder than it used to be. Retailers have steadily tightened and restricted their return policies is to the point where it has become very difficult. A lot of stores, if you can’t produce a gift receipt they have no interest in letting you return something anymore or they’re going to take a picture of your driver’s license and all the rest because they’re worried about internal theft, and theft rings returning things I actually didn’t pay for. So the burden is on you.
The easiest way for you to make sure you can return stuff is to buy it in the first place with a credit card where you have proof of purchase. You have that credit card receipt or you can go to your credit card company’s website and get information. And here’s a little known benefit you may not be aware of a lot of: credit cards offer extended return privileges, up to 90 days regardless of what the store’s policy is. There’s a great story about how to use this return privilege at Cardhub.com. I’m Clark Howard
