What Store Is This? Asking For A Friend.

One summer, my brother was getting married. Of course, I left dress shopping to the last minute, so I bought a dress without trying it on, as I was on my lunch break and there was a sale so there were a lot of people and queues to dressing rooms. I reasoned that the dress was a bit oversized so it could not look bad. I was wrong, of course; it did not look oversized, just big and ill-fitting.

The store had a return policy where you could return any items for thirty days and get the cash back, or if the item was on sale you would instead get a gift card so you could buy something else there. I went back to the store and got the gift card with the intent of just buying something else, but I could not find anything that I liked or that fit. I went back again after a few weeks but still had no luck, and I started to think that just getting my money back would be better. I asked the employee if I could just return the gift card for money, but no, that was not possible.

So, while hopelessly wandering around the store, I suddenly came up with an idea and went to the same employee.

Me: “If I buy something from the new collection for full price with a gift card, then could I return it and get my money back?”

He was a bit taken aback.

Employee: “Yes, that is how it works.”

Me: “What is the point of the policy if you can bypass it this easily?”

Employee: “No one has ever asked that before, but that my coworkers and our friends do it that way.”

I took the dress that was right next to the counter. The employee asked me to wait for a few days before returning it so it would not look suspicious and checked me out. I came back to the store two days later when another employee was working, returned the dress, and got my money back.