Walmart Apologizes For Humiliating Treatment Of Cancer Survivor

 

Comments

[Eviscerator]

Oh screw you Yahoo. If the lady had just kept her cool this wouldn't have gotten out of hand. I'm sorry she doesn't look like her photo ID, but a thirteen dollar book isn't something I'd want to get fired over.

Next time, don't bother trying to return anything without a receipt and be understanding if your ID is outdated.

[Chicajojobe]

I don't blame the employees for want wanting to get fired over this, but it's kind of ridiculous to blame the customer. It doesn't sound like she did anything wrong.
And since when are retailers this picky about doing refunds?
At The Baby Store the only time they would not do refunds was when they could prove that an item was not made by the company. Namely that it included a belt because the company has never made any belts.

For that matter why do they need a photo ID if there's no receipt? If there isn't a receipt they can't exactly put it back on a credit card, so most places would give store credit or a gift card, right?
In truth, it sounds like they thought that she'd stolen it and was trying to return it for cash.

[Bored at the Bookstore]

What, they couldn't give her an exchange or credit, if they thought $13 was too much to hand over in cash without a receipt?

And yes, I have returned stuff to WallyWorld without a receipt - like the package of socks Hubby bought himself that turned out to be those shortie anklet socks instead of crews (because he hardly ever bothers to actually read labels!)... But I just requested an exchange, not a refund, and they didn't even ask for ID.

[Lurker chick]

I think this was a satirical voice over for a real story. I can't tell though, and I'm really angry with yahoo for confusing me in this manner.

[BarStar]

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but since when is it a common and accepted practice to be entitled to returns without a receipt?

[Chicajojobe]

@BarStar,

To answer your question, offering store credit when there is no receipt has been common practice in retail for I believe about the past 20 years.
Do think customers are always entitled to refunds? No, a business can refuse to do refunds even with a receipt (and some do).

It isn't about not doing the refund. Them asking for her ID and not believing it was her was shady given the circumstances. She wasn't purchasing or returning alcohol, tobbaco, porn, guns, or any other item that requires proof of age and identity. There was no receipt therefore they weren't going to be putting the return onto a credit card, so they had no reason to want to establish that she wasn't an identity thief.
If they wanted to refuse the refund due to no receipt they should have just said so and been done with it.
Maybe some Wally World slaves here know more about this, but I can't see any reason they'd have to ask for an ID.

[Fellow Slave]

They use the ID as a fraud tracker (too frequent, types of stuff taken, etc), I think.

[Dhamp]

Having cancer, much like being in the armed forces, *does not mean that the rules no longer apply to you*.

This attitude really pisses me off.

[Snowball2507]

They ask for an id for any item over ten dollars, because you are only allowed 3 no receipt returns in a six month period. It's to prevent people from going into one store stealing something, and then taking it to another to get money back. Any id that is outdated, messed up in anyway, or doesn't look like the person returning the item we are supposed to deny. Then if the person escalates to the manager then they decide whether to do the return or not.

[qwerty]

I have a friend who's hair was really short and dyed when she got her drivers license, and it has since grown out and is now dyed another colour. A couple of times people have given her a hard time at bars because they don't think she's the person in the photo. They make a fuss whenever you don't look like your ID and realistically this story was not about her having cancer. I agree with Dhamp, the customer sounds like she was trying to get special treatment by bringing up her cancer. But I also agree with Lurker chick that I'm not entirely sure this really happened to begin with. The voiceover seemed a little conflicting with the things that were written on the screen.