Returns without a receipt of a transaction record.

[Highlow]

As retailers, we must be able to return something without a receipt or knowing its transaction record.  It is so common in the gift industry, prob all retail too, to have gifts come back without a gift receipt.  I have used many POS systems in the past and there is usually an easy way to return items without having to have a receipt or transaction details.  This should available and easy to do.  Square, you must fix this!  The way things are now makes my job harder and complicated.  It's very frustrating and to our customers as well.

[JTPets]

I 100% support this, my best advice to you is report this as a feature request and explain why it impacts you with details about what you have to do to process a refund

[Highlow]

@JTPets  Yes, this is written as a "feature request", so fingers crossed!  We've been waiting so long already.

[Highlow]

To get into more detail regarding the need for this feature, here more commentary:

I've been working in retail for 20 years.  From fashion, to gift, to collectables, I've done it all.  And with that said, in every business I've worked in we have come across the scenario where a person brings a return and doesn't have a receipt or a way to track the transaction via a receipt number, date of purchase, or a gift receipt.  Being that I am in the gift industry, this is very common.  Bringing this up to date, I have opened my own brick and mortar shop and have chosen Square for Retail as my POS system and my biggest gripe with it is that I cannot process a return properly without linking the item to a receipt or a transaction.  This is a MASSIVE INCONVENIENCE.  It's been over a year now and I cannot believe this still has not been updated or even addressed.  Every few months I get back in these chat rooms hoping to read some good news but instead there's no mention.

Here's what happens when a customer comes with a return that has no receipt of transaction details:

1. After discovering there's no receipt, we have to ask them many questions to hopefully find a detail that will lead us to a transaction.  "Do you know the name of who gave this to you?  Do you know when this was purchased?  Do you know if something else was purchased with this item?  Can you ask the gift giver if they have a receipt?".  It starts to feel like we are giving the customer the third degree.  In the end, we usually can't find it in our transactions.

2. This is the worst part, as it is complicated and easy to make mistakes.  Using a calculator we figure what the item costs with tax and let the customer know they have store credit for that amount.  They then find something to exchange it for, and we scan the new items and change the price to 0, to as many as items until we reach the amount of the returned item.  The problems with this are: first, changing the price to 0 is not something I want to allow sales associates to do, but perhaps only managers. Second, it leads to inaccurate reporting for profit margins and number of returns  Third, the receipt doesn't show the return, it shows only a purchase for an item that cost 0 dollars.

3. After doing the exchange, we have to remember to bring the returned item into inventory manually.

The way some POS systems process returns, it allows for a negative quantity to be entered and that becomes a negative dollar amount, that subtracts from whatever new items are exchanges for.  This is a simple way to process a return.  

ie:

-1 soap = -$5

1 candle = $20

total= $15

I have also used POS systems that allowed you to toggle between transaction types.  You'd select "sale", "return" or "exchange".

Hope this helps describe the problem with some solutions, and that someone out there reads this and can do something to help us.  If that's you, please feel free to contact me and I am happy to help with suggestions.

[alexandriak]

You can look up an item under transactions by the product name. It will pull up every transaction that includes that item. You can then issue a refund onto a gift card. I'm not sure if this would help you or not.

[Highlow]

@alexandriak Thank you for your reply.  I am aware of all the ways to search.  This still is not solving my problem though.  Sometimes transactions don't have a customer's name and if a person is returning a gift I do not want to use the wrong transaction to link it to, if it's not indeed the correct receipt.  If it's incorrect, and say that actual customer comes in to do a return with their receipt, but say I already used their transaction for another return that I guessed was from an earlier return (without a receipt), then it would mess it up for them.  In other words, this doesn't help.  I need to be able to do a return without linking it to a transaction.  The choice to do so should exist.

[RobynR]

Hello @Highlow,

Thank you for highlighting the importance of allowing returns without a receipt or transaction record, especially in the context of the gift industry. Understanding the common scenario of gifts being returned without gift receipts is crucial for a seamless retail experience.

Since this particular feature isn’t currently available on our platform, I have updated the status to “Open”. Once more information becomes available from our Product Team, a Community moderator will update the status to the next phase. Keep an eye out for the email once this change has been made.

Your patience is greatly valued.

[KhrisD]

Agreed.  Please add this feature.

[YES_EcoSource]

Hi there. I see that people have been requesting this since 2018! It seems like a pretty key feature for a retail shop, and an issue that I imagine will be coming up a lot post holiday as people make returns or exchanges of gifts. I hope it will get prioritized soon!