Has anyone ever purchased something from a retail store (e.g. Farmers) using a gift card and later requested a refund? How do retailers usually handle the refund — do they return the money as gift card credit, or can they refund it to a credit card or another payment method?
For example, say I have a Prezzy Card with $500 loaded on it. I use it to buy an item from Farmers.
- The gift card balance is now $0
- I throw the card away
- Later, I decide to return the item
If Farmers refunds the purchase back to the original gift card, I wouldn’t be able to access the refund because the card has already been discarded. Would they have another way to process the refund, such as transferring it to a credit card or issuing another form of credit?
I've been in the situation with Farmers, and if I recall correctly, they refunded it onto one of their own (Farmers) gift cards.
If their gift cards are 're-loadable' (not sure on that) and you already have one with you, they might offer to put it on that card, but for me, I think they added it to a new gift card.
Which really means they kept the money, and just exchanged the item for something else, albeit at a later date.
However, that was some years ago, so might be different now.