Sunday, November 26, 2017

How to Return an Item Without a Receipt, and Without Original Packaging


Return Without Receipt, and Without the Box!



Deboot, verb:  To return unneeded boots and get much-needed cash.  In extreme cases, this can be done even after the box is recycled, and without a receipt.

How to do a return without a receipt, and without the box
How to do a return without a receipt, and without the box


The other day, my wife showed me some boots she had picked up at Kohl's sometime within the past few weeks.  She mentioned that they pinched her feet and she wanted to return them.

On one hand, this was great news.  She got the fun of shopping and getting new boots, and it wasn't going to cost anything.  We could get the money back, plus we would regain valuable closet space.

But the bad news is that I remembered recycling the box.  I usually save boxes for a few weeks after a purchase in case we need to return an item.  But I knew this one was long gone.

"Do you have the receipt?" I asked.  Mrs. Penny Pincher said it was probably in her purse.  After a thorough search of her purse, her car, and the recycling bin, I concluded that the receipt was also gone.

So we had some unwanted boots with no receipt and no box.  But we knew what store they were from, and she knew she used one of the credit cards in her purse to buy them.  I was willing to give returning them a try even though I knew it would be a challenge.

I found a Kohl's bag to carry the boots into the store.  It wasn't as good as having the box, but at least it conveyed that the boots were bought from that store.  When I reached the front of the return line, I explained that I needed to do a return without a receipt.  They said they could look up the purchase if I had the credit card.

I started going through my wife's collection of credit cards from her purse.  We checked her Kohl's card, and it wasn't that one.  We tried a U. S. Bank card, and it wasn't that one.  We tried looking up her Kohl's reward card number, but this also failed.  We tried another U. S. Bank card and it was a winner!

The entire process of doing a return without a receipt and without the original packaging took only a few minutes.  It was well worth it to get over $33 back and avoid wasting a pair of boots that were not needed.

Here are the highlights of how to do a return with no receipt and without original packaging:

  • Make sure the item you are returning is clean and is in new condition
  • Take the item back to the store and ask to return it
  • Request to search for the purchase on a credit card transaction
  • Be friendly to the store employees in the return line, it might take some patience to find the purchase on a credit card
  • Bring all of the credit cards with you that could have been used to make the purchase
  • Keep track of which cards you have checked so you don't end up checking the same card twice


What if you paid cash instead of using a credit card?  Doing a return without a receipt is easier if you used a credit card since there is a record of the transaction that the store can look up.  You might still be able to return the item even if there is no record of the purchase, but you might get store credit instead of a refund.  Also, you might get the lowest sale price for the item instead of the price you paid.



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