[quote name='The Successful Dropout']The Wal Mart near me just changed their policy apparently and said that supposedly ALL Wal Marts have done so as well. I tried to return a game that I received as a gift from Wal Mart to a local Wal Mart and I didn't have a receipt....they said that a new policy states they can no longer take electronics without a receipt. I'm going to try my luck at another local Wal Mart...
...and no, I'm not on some watch list or something with them, I can only recall taking maybe 2 things back to Wal Mart without a receipt in the past 5 years or more.[/quote]
As an update to this post...
I called two Wal Marts near me to see what their return policy was. I told them that I received a newly released video game as a gift that was bought from another Wal Mart and I didn't have the receipt. They both told me that it wasn't a problem, just bring it in with my license and I'll receive store credit. I also asked both of them if this was a policy vaired store to store or if it was universal for all Wal-Marts. They both told me that it varied store to store.
So I went to the first Wal Mart and told the lady at the counter my situation and she said, "I don't know if I can do this." I told her that I had just called and was told I can and blah blah blah. She then looked at another lady (who was older with probably more knowledge on the situation), and asked her what she was allowed to do. The older lady told the younger girl (both were ghetto by the way), "it's up to you, you can do what you want." So basically, whether she helped me out or not all depended on whether she was on her period or not, if she thought I was cute, or if she liked what my girlfriend was wearing. She said, "I can't do it." I showed her my cellphone with this Wal-Mart's Customer Service # on it in my recently called folder with a time duration of a little over a minute. She conveniently tells me that she just signed on shift as well as the other girl and they have no idea who worked before them (sure.). I then asked to speak to someone else and the older lady went to find a customer service manager and after coming back 5 minutes later, told me, they can't do it. I then complained that I wasted my time coming up there when I purposely called ahead of time to save myself the time and gas money. I would've had no problem at all being shot down over the phone (or in person if I hadn't already been told the policy). I then looked on the wall behind them and saw the store manager's name and asked to speak to him. The older lady shook her head and picked up the phone for maybe 1 second, acting like she dialed that fast and talked to someone that fast only to quickly hang up and conveniently tell me that the store manager isn't working today. All a while, the younger (more ghetto) lady was picking at her fake pink press-ons while rolling her eyes at me every so often. I then inform them that they have wonderful customer service as I leave the store.
Trying my luck at the next store that I previously called. They informed me that they didn't think they could do it either, only they did it incredibly politely. I was already worked up from the previous store and went in assuming they'd do this just so I wouldn't be disappointed. I informed the two women behind the counter that I had called blah blah blah and they weren't sure who I talked to either (even though both times I called the customer service desk). They called a customer service manager for me without me asking and then told me that they weren't going to be allowed to do it. I simply said that was fine. While they were calling that customer service manager, I was making small talk with them about my experience at the other Wal Mart and they were apologetic for it (even though they had no reason to be). After being told that they couldn't do it, I just said that was fine, my last resort is to just throw the game on ebay. They asked if I wanted them to call another manager to see if they could get someone else to say yes and I told them that it was up to them, they were already overly nice to me compared to my previous experience. So they called the other manager and gave me a yes.
It seems to me that Wal Mart has a new policy that states that they can do whatever they want to do as long as they feel like it and/or like you. I don't care what their policy is, it's their store, they can do what they want. I have the right to decide whether or not I want to shop there so I have no reason to complain about policies. I do however think it's bullshit when I'm told one thing and come into the store only to be told something else...wasting my time and gas money.