yearofthenick
Active Member
My wife's grandmother is a lovely old woman. She's also very rich. She shops at all the best places. Places like Macy's.
So for Christmas, she decided to go to Macy's and buy me some sweater vests. She also bought my wife some high-quality dark purple corduroy pants with a waist height at the belly button. My wife is 26 years old.
Needless to say, we ended up returning all of it. Thanks to Macy's excellent return policy, we were able to return everything flawlessly and got the entire amount put onto a gift card.
$430.88.
I am still getting over how much money that old coot spent on us! It almost makes me feel guilty!!!
Now, my wife and I are simple people. I would even go as far as to say that we're minimalists. We only have one television. We get our own eggs from a chicken coop in the backyard. When I need new jeans, I go down to Costco and spend $20 on a factory reject pair. When my wife wants to go out and get new clothes, Target is our first and most likely our last stop. When we do decide to embellish our lives, most everything we purchase comes from craigslist, ebay, or amazon.com, with no tax, free shipping. We're deal-seekers in every sense of the term.
So when we go to someplace like Macy's, everything is too expensive. Pretty much every item I've found can be purchased for 20-40% less at amazon.com or another competitor's site. I cannot in good conscience spend any of this gift card money on stuff that I could easily purchase for MUCH LESS somewhere else.
I've thought about buying a few high-priced things and selling them on eBay to get cash, but I'd lose too much money in the process. I thought about getting watches, Jewelry for my wife, new coats for the whole family, a leather chair, etc etc etc. but in every instance, it hasn't been justifiable. I think watches are for the vain. My wife doesn't want any jewelry (can you believe it????) and all of us have plenty of warm clothes/coats. In fact, I just took a few jackets down to salvation army that I no longer use. I was interested in a leather chair, but found the same exact chair for $300 less at local furniture dealer.
SO.... in a last ditch effort, I hit up google for some other avenue to get cash back... and I found a loophole.
Senate Bill No. 250, Chapter 640 of the California Civil Code pertaining to gift cards states that:
"...any gift certificate with a cash value of less than$10 to be redeemed in cash, as defined, for its cash value..."
Link: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_0201-0250/sb_250_bill_20071013_chaptered.pdf
This means that if the gift card is less than $10, I can get cash back. But I don't have $10. I have $430. So what if I went down to Macy's tomorrow and asked for 43 (yes, fourty three) gift cards at $9.99 a piece? Then paid for these 43 gift cards with my $430 gift card? Then asked for them to liquidate each card into cash? I'd bring 43 pennies so I could get $10 bills back
Do you think I'm being a jerk for doing this? Too much? Or do you see my insanity as wonderfully creative?
Nick
So for Christmas, she decided to go to Macy's and buy me some sweater vests. She also bought my wife some high-quality dark purple corduroy pants with a waist height at the belly button. My wife is 26 years old.
Needless to say, we ended up returning all of it. Thanks to Macy's excellent return policy, we were able to return everything flawlessly and got the entire amount put onto a gift card.
$430.88.
I am still getting over how much money that old coot spent on us! It almost makes me feel guilty!!!
Now, my wife and I are simple people. I would even go as far as to say that we're minimalists. We only have one television. We get our own eggs from a chicken coop in the backyard. When I need new jeans, I go down to Costco and spend $20 on a factory reject pair. When my wife wants to go out and get new clothes, Target is our first and most likely our last stop. When we do decide to embellish our lives, most everything we purchase comes from craigslist, ebay, or amazon.com, with no tax, free shipping. We're deal-seekers in every sense of the term.
So when we go to someplace like Macy's, everything is too expensive. Pretty much every item I've found can be purchased for 20-40% less at amazon.com or another competitor's site. I cannot in good conscience spend any of this gift card money on stuff that I could easily purchase for MUCH LESS somewhere else.
I've thought about buying a few high-priced things and selling them on eBay to get cash, but I'd lose too much money in the process. I thought about getting watches, Jewelry for my wife, new coats for the whole family, a leather chair, etc etc etc. but in every instance, it hasn't been justifiable. I think watches are for the vain. My wife doesn't want any jewelry (can you believe it????) and all of us have plenty of warm clothes/coats. In fact, I just took a few jackets down to salvation army that I no longer use. I was interested in a leather chair, but found the same exact chair for $300 less at local furniture dealer.
SO.... in a last ditch effort, I hit up google for some other avenue to get cash back... and I found a loophole.
Senate Bill No. 250, Chapter 640 of the California Civil Code pertaining to gift cards states that:
"...any gift certificate with a cash value of less than$10 to be redeemed in cash, as defined, for its cash value..."
Link: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_0201-0250/sb_250_bill_20071013_chaptered.pdf
This means that if the gift card is less than $10, I can get cash back. But I don't have $10. I have $430. So what if I went down to Macy's tomorrow and asked for 43 (yes, fourty three) gift cards at $9.99 a piece? Then paid for these 43 gift cards with my $430 gift card? Then asked for them to liquidate each card into cash? I'd bring 43 pennies so I could get $10 bills back
Do you think I'm being a jerk for doing this? Too much? Or do you see my insanity as wonderfully creative?
Nick
