Disney Store Gift Receipts and Questionable Business

Ever shop at the Disney Store for a gift and got a gift receipt? Do you know the gift receipt is just about worthless? If you return the gift with gift receipt, the Disney Store policy is to give back the sale price of the item, not the value paid for and documented on the gift receipt.

Here’s a transcript learning of this policy:

Cashier-“According to the gift receipt, the swimsuit was purchased at $14.50 but is on sale for $9.99 now so I can only give you merchandise credit for $9.99”

Customer- “Whaaattt???? Aren’t you supposed to give me credit for the purchase price?”

Cashier- “No, that is the store policy.”

Customer- “So what is the purpose of the gift receipt?”
Cashier-“It’s just to prove that it was a gift.”

Customer- “So why do you have numbers on it?”
Cashier- “That’s so that the person who bought the gift can return it with the original receipt.”

Customer- “That doesn’t make any sense. Have you ever shopped at Macy’s and returned anything? You get back exactly what you paid for it.”
Cashier- “That’s because Macy’s is a high-end store. This is the Disney store-we aren’t high-end like they are. All the stores like us have similar policies.”

Customer- “What??? I shop at a lot of different places and they all give me merchandise credit at the purchase price if I have a gift receipt.”
Cashier- “Let me get the manager.”

Manager comes over.

Customer- “This return policy with gift receipt doesn’t make sense. This gift receipt says that this swimsuit was purchased at $14.50 but I can only receive a merchandise credit for the sale price now?”
Manager- “Yes-that is our policy.”

Customer- “So why does it say at the bottom of this gift receipt that the merchandise credit will be issued at purchase price.”
Manager to cashier “Just give her back the credit at the purchase price.”

Oh and the original price the item was bought at is actually on the gift receipt, encoded by high end computations. You divide the numbers for a particular line item by 12. In the example above, the gift receipt showed 17400. Divide that by 12 and you get 1450 or $14.50 which is the actual purchase cost. So you can tell if you’re getting your fair value back if you need to visit the Disney Store. Or you can just stay away and avoid this store altogether.