JCPenney's Registry Snark

MusicSoul24

My husband and I got married on August 2nd (yay!!) and we received quite a few gift cards to JCPenney's, one of the places where we chose to register.  I was able to combine 4 of the gift cards to purchase a KitchenAid stand mixer - one of my dream registry items that I didn't receive - and it was on sale this week!  When I went into the store to ask about registering way back when, I was assured that gift cards could be used online and in-store, and that I could also order things through the store to avoid shipping charges.  Well, when I went online to order said mixer, I could only input two gift cards!  So I figured I would just go into the store and order it through them, since it wasn't in stock at the store.

Then, I was informed that the employees use the exact same online form for ordering items that I would see at home...meaning I could only use 2 gift cards.  What was the point of registering with them???

The situation was handled - I ended up having to purchase items totaling the amount of the gift cards, return the merchandise, get issued a solitary gift card from the store for the returned merchandise, and then use that gift card to purchase the mixer.  But really??  This entire process took almost an hour and a half, from speaking to a sales associate, to speaking with the manager, to figuring out what to do, and then actually doing it...

Moral of the story: JCPenney's gift cards are really only good for in-store purchases.

emmaaa

Could they have not just combined all of your gift cards on to one fit card? I'm glad it worked out though!

tammym1001

It seems like they could have just let you purchase one gift card with all of your gift cards in the store. What a mess!!

PrincessOfHavoc

tammym1001 said:

It seems like they could have just let you purchase one gift card with all of your gift cards in the store. What a mess!!

Retail manager here. Not JC Penney's, but some retail parts are pretty common.

Most places won't let you use a gift card to buy a gift card. For us, it's to prevent store credit/merchandise cards being transferred to a gift card. Merchandise cards go if you don't have a receipt, and you won't get a receipt at any time on it. Done to limit shoplifters stealing an idea, then returning it for a gift card. With ours, you can cash out a gift card at your bank, but merchandise cards won't cash out.

tammym1001

PrincessOfHavoc said:

It seems like they could have just let you purchase one gift card with all of your gift cards in the store. What a mess!!

Retail manager here. Not JC Penney's, but some retail parts are pretty common. Most places won't let you use a gift card to buy a gift card. For us, it's to prevent store credit/merchandise cards being transferred to a gift card. Merchandise cards go if you don't have a receipt, and you won't get a receipt at any time on it. Done to limit shoplifters stealing an idea, then returning it for a gift card. With ours, you can cash out a gift card at your bank, but merchandise cards won't cash out.

Ahhh that makes sense. I guess I don't think of stuff like that because I don't try to rip people off. LOL

mysticl

We registered with them and ended up having to return an item (we got three of the same thing).  I printed out the form online that the registry said I needed to return an item.  Yeah, it took like 30 minutes to return it. Apparently that form wasn't what I needed.  They insisted that I needed the phone number for the giver.  Which I didn't have, nobody had it.  There was some family drama going on at that time and the giver had changed numbers and not shared it with my branch of the tree.  It took a manager and lost of phone calls but I finally got the item returned for store credit, but what a freaking pain.  

PrincessOfHavoc

tammym1001 said:

PrincessOfHavoc said:

tammym1001 said:

It seems like they could have just let you purchase one gift card with all of your gift cards in the store. What a mess!!

Retail manager here. Not JC Penney's, but some retail parts are pretty common.

Most places won't let you use a gift card to buy a gift card. For us, it's to prevent store credit/merchandise cards being transferred to a gift card. Merchandise cards go if you don't have a receipt, and you won't get a receipt at any time on it. Done to limit shoplifters stealing an idea, then returning it for a gift card. With ours, you can cash out a gift card at your bank, but merchandise cards won't cash out.

Ahhh that makes sense. I guess I don't think of stuff like that because I don't try to rip people off. LOL

Yup, most people don't fully understand. If you've not worked registers for retail or management, most people have no clue on why we do some odd seeming things. But it's the few who ruin it for all.

Granted, today I had a customer use up 7 gift cards on one transaction, then his credit card. Took forever to finish, and a manager (me) had to authorize anything over three cards. But our system lets us do that. Not all systems have that override set up, not sure fully on why.