I’ll be on vacation until January 6th. Until then, I’ll publish a series of “mini posts” with an occasional regular post if something interesting comes up. I may or may not answer blog comments or emails during this time. Thanks for understanding!
In my recent post “The strange economics of Kohl’s Cash” I said that “If you return something that was paid for with Kohl’s Cash, you are given store credit for the purchase price.” That’s what has always happened in the past, in my experience. Recently, though, several readers have said that when they tried to return items, they were told that the portion of the item that was paid for with Kohl’s Cash had no value. This meant that if the item was purchased entirely with Kohl’s Cash, the person returning the item would get nothing back for the return.
I can understand why Kohl’s might have implemented this change. Kohl’s Cash was meant to be a reward that expires quickly. I imagine that they have counted on a lot of Kohl’s Cash going unused. But, an easy workaround (previously) has been to buy something with Kohls Cash and then return it for merchandise credit, which never expires.
Still, you get nothing for a return? That’s crazy! How about issuing replacement Kohl’s Cash?
Has anyone else had this happen recently? Or, conversely, has anyone recently successfully returned items bought with Kohl’s Cash? Maybe this policy varies by store?
Click here to see other recent Frequent Miler posts about Kohl’s.
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Its good to hear that a number of people are still able to return items, but it does seem that some stores have implemented a strange no-return policy. weird!
Last night I tried to exchange a belt and pair of pants that I bought as Christmas gifts for different sizes. I took the items I was returning and the similar items (solely diff sizes) to exchange at customer service. I was told I had 1 cent credit for each item. Needless to say I was quite taken aback. I proceeded to ask for an explanation, of which the CSR could not provide articulately. I ended up leaving before I said or did something I would regret.
Just got back from Kohl’s 30 minutes ago after returning some ill fitting clothes that I paid for with 100% Kohl’s cash and it was merchandise credit like always.
That’s quite a rant considering it is the day after Christmas. Based on what I just read I’m guessing you got (and deserved) coal in your stocking.
…normally kohls is the most expensive place in town… Really?
Meant to reply to DaninSTL
Wow, that is really bad
My wife used $20 in Kohl’s cash that was 2 weeks past the expiration date a couple of weeks ago and no questions were asked. We’ve never had a problem even 30 days after expiration so this seems very strange.
Wake up folks, Kohls isn’t typically a good place to shop. Occasionally you can stack some deals and get enough of a discount to bring the price down to a normal level but normally kohls is the most expensive place in town with a 20% sale and some kohls cash thrown in. Their marketing plan is to have a regular price that is far above other retailers. Then they mail you coupons to get a percent off and hyped with sales or kohls cash events. One of the rare good deals they have is if you can work their system and only buy the deep clearance stuff, but then who needs a swimsuit in November? In addition they want you to, no they bug you, to use your kohls card so they can try to sucker you into carrying a balance with high interest in exchange for a percent off or the ability to use a certain coupon all the while damaging your credit score with a card balance on a low credit limit card and having a negative effect on your fico score by having a consumer store branded card account open.
You can buy better but you couldn’t pay more.
I was just about to put ” [insert some dummy comment about Kohl’s being overpriced here]”, but you beat me to it!
I’m not really surprised by this. Their IT is so bad that they are constantly losing money on returns. Someone at corporate probably woke up and saw that there were a lot of people taking advantage of this loophole. If this is indeed their new policy then I can’t see it sticking around. It really is unfair. Perhaps they will come to some middle ground like you suggest with a new Kohl’s Cash certificate that has an expiration date.
I’m about ready to boycott Kohls. They have some seriously bad policies. I STILL have no resolution for returning some items off of a big ticket that they refuse to apply all credit towards my Kohls charge first, and then give the rest on kohls gift card. They split the charges up between the two with some random percent and basically forced me to pay off the credit card for $80 more than I should have, and then give me an $80 gift card. So forcing me to spend $80 more on gift card with them. Should be fraud!
I’ve had this happen recently when I tried to return an item that I purchased with EXPIRED Kohls Cash or Kohls Cash that was already spent, but not otherwise.
I was able to make a return of items purchased solely with Kohl’s cash last week. They gave me full merchandise credit
I’d find this vary hard to believe. What if you bought items as gifts? That would cause a lot of confusion if someone brought a gift back only to be told it was worth nothing.
FWIW their website still says this:
If you are making a return or price adjustment on an item you bought with Kohl’s Cash®, the value of the Kohl’s Cash® coupon will be returned as a Kohl’s Merchandise Credit.