Gift Cards

Yesterday a woman returned a gift card bought just before Christmas. In all of the years I've worked here, NO ONE has EVER returned a gift card. The card says right on it that it's not redeemable for cash, but nowhere on our receipt or return policy or gift card does it say that you can't return it.

Of course, the woman had a story to tell about why the person she was getting the gift card for didn't need it anymore, blah, blah, blah.

Not sure if policy allowed me to do the return, I looked at a couple of menus on the computer and found that the computer system *would not allow me* to return a gift card......there was absolutely no way to do it.

I called Boss, who also had no clue of how/if it could be done.

Then on to Big Boss (regional manager) who thought that someone had successfully returned a gift card at some point in time, but she didn't know who or how and the office was already closed for the day.

So......I explained the problem to the customer, who was frustrated but not as angry as some people would have been. The plan was for the customer to call me the next day.

Big Boss sometimes doesn't follow through on stuff like that, (maybe she forgets?) so I was planning on reminding her the next day, but not long after the office opened Big Boss called and explained how to do the return. While not something we want to be doing often because it could look suspicious, a one-time thing with a very detailed note to accompany it was OK.

What kind of policy does your store have on gift cards?