Since starting this blog I have been contacted by readers many times with questions about couponing, Frugal Living, Walmart’s policies and procedures, and various other little things. I figure if one person is wondering about it, there might be others so this will be an on-going feature to answer the most common questions that come up. If you have a question, please check out the master list of Ask A Walmart Expert articles to see if your answer is there already or contact me and I’ll do what I can to help you out.
What’s the policy on returns when you use coupons?
Well…there really isn’t one. At least not a separate one for returning items you used a coupon on. You can check out the Walmart Return policies here and here.
However, I can tell you from personal experience that they typically handle it like any other return regardless of any coupons used. So if you bought something that was $6 and used a $3 coupon, you would get $6 back if you returned it. Although it has never happened to me or anyone else I have ever heard from, if for some reason the Customer Service Rep tries to give you back the after-coupon amount, you would be within your rights to demand the original coupon back as well because that was part of the transaction. Unless you just bought the product there is no way they are going to be able to find your coupon so I doubt it would actually happen.
It should be noted that Walmart tracks returns and if you have visions of buying things with coupons and returning them for cash, Walmart will know. If you do it multiple times or for a high enough dollar amount, Walmart is well within their rights to call the cops and charge you with fraud. That would be a stupid reason to go to jail.
Concerned citizen says
Actually your wrong upreme court ruled as long as you use the coupon for the coreect item it dont matter if you buy then return. Supreme court ruled they wouldnt lose money if its for the right item since a coupon is a valid form of payment
Francis Gaffney says
The store gets reimbursed for the full value of coupon plus a small handling fee from the manufacturer, so the store is out nothing by refunding you full amount. They would actually be making double the money if they refused to give you value of coupon back during a return because the coupon you gave will be reimbursed to them and they have product to resell and make profit on again.