Advanced CVS Deals: Returning items paid for with ECBs

In the latest of my series of posts on how to do CVS deals (see CVS category listing for prior posts), we will discuss how returns are handled when you paid using Extra Care Bucks (ECBs). There can be many reasons for returning an item paid with ECBs, whether you bought an item that was defective or that you thought would generate more ECBs but didn’t.

The big note of caution is that if the cashier scans in the receipt for the return and your cash out of pocket total is less than the item price, the system will not allow the cashier to refund more than the cash out of pocket amount. However, it is not CVS policy that they will only refund the out of pocket after-ECB amount, so don’t let any cashier or manager tell you that. If they refuse to budge, call the CVS corporate number on the back of your Extra Care card while at the store and let them tell them how to do it correctly.
The proper handling of a return in this situation is that it is processed as a no receipt return. The amount refunded should be the price indicated on your receipt, regardless of whether you paid using ECBs. If you used CVS or manufacturer coupons on the item, the cashier may or may not deduct the amount of the coupon from the refund amount. However, unless the return item is the only one on your receipt there is really no way for them to tell whether you used a coupon on that particular item, so you will likely have the post-coupon amount refunded. This is even more likely because CVS coupons and ECBs are listed in the same manner on the receipt (both are listed as “CVS Coupon”). Also, whenever you return an item the store isn’t going to pull out any manufacturer coupon you might have used, so the store will still get paid for the manufacturer coupon you used on the returned item. Whatever amount they refund, the refund will be in the form of a “money card”, which is a type of CVS gift card.

The nice thing about this policy is that by returning the item you effectively convert an ECB that expires to a CVS gift card that doesn’t. Just don’t abuse this part of the policy, or the fact you’ll probably be refunded the pre-coupon amount.