That hasn't been my experience. Policies may have changed, although I'm not sure how they'd know if purchased something using a credit card if you don't have your receipt.

Most places typically will provide the refund if you have the merchandise and an ID. The ID helps loss prevent determine if someone's returning an abnormally large amount of goods, but there's no shortage of mules for this kind of scam.

I'm not in the loss prevention field (anymore), and my knowledge of these sorts of scams is a few years old.

>> Most places will give you a gift card if you return unused merchandise without a receipt.

> Usually only if you paid with a credit card, so there's a record you made the purchase no?

This makes absolutely no sense. If the store demands that it demonstrate to you that it knows you made the purchase, before it will allow a return, then you can easily demand to be refunded in cash. What purpose would the receipt serve?

> Usually only if you paid with a credit card, so there’s a record you made the purchase no?

No. Usually, if you can prove that you made the purchase at the store, by any acceptable means, they will refund you (for credit card purchases, usually exclusively to the card used for the purchase).

If you can’t, but they let you return anyway, they’ll typically give you store credit (if they don’t issue gift cards) or a gift card, so that the “money” you get ultimately is going to be spent at the store (or not at all.)