Tips on storing oil (for oil hoarders)

[haggler]

It is not fraud. They never say you cannot buy low return high, they also didn't guarantee you can return high if you buy high before a price drop without a receipt.

It just "cancel out" a sales they make today with a sales they make "yesterday".

It also doesn't make a difference if you do this vs going back to the store to buy a discount item and then return it with a 90 day old receipt because you bought it back then without a discount, or was there any difference vs asking for a price match afterward.


So if you buy something and keep it for 90 days, and then return it with a receipt for the same price, it is not ripping off the seller? That 90 days of inventory cost suddenly come back will cost them money as well, likely 3% minimum. Every return cost the retailer money as well even if you are returning for the same price.

Thing is, the rest of the world is not that forgiving in merchandise return, they usually have a no return, only exchange for defect policy. Are we ripping off the retailers as a whole? Or are the retailers doing this because this help them with sales overall? You be the judge. If they really don't want people to "rip them off" they would not allow the return for store credit without receipt policy, they left it there because as a whole they make more money and it doesn't cost them as much as losing a customer to competitors.

fraud
noun
wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.

They also never said you cannot beat your grandma, but that doesn't make it lawful. You're better off just shoplifting it, much easier and under $950.
Homedepot will only give you lowest price in 180 days if you return without receipt, and they want your ID as well. Walmart just limits to $60 and wants your ID. The fact there are limits to the policy and take the effort to ID you indicates they know they are susceptible to loss and abuse. If you want to return an item, common practice is to maintain your receipt. Return without receipt is a goodwill gesture by the retailer, not a cash machine.
Returns are not ripping off retailers, they factor this into the price of the product. So morally deprived people like yourself are the reason why prices are higher than what they could be. This is why I would never pay for a costco membership, you're subsidizing returns abuse. Go read a financial report and see what Walmart/Costco's overall margin was. But the corporations are evil right? No pride, honor, or morals becoming common.

 

[CKN]

Gee....you can tell who participates in this activity by the posts above. If ripping off Walmart or exchanging a Craftsmen tool you bought at a garage sell for a .25 cents and exchanging it for a new one-then reselling that is going to make a difference in your retirement you are doing something wrong.

The there is Karma and when it bites it hurts.....

 

[ZeeOSix]

Walmarts in my area don't do returns without a valid recipet. The "Nordstom days" are over.

 

[haggler]

Walmarts in my area don't do returns without a valid recipet. The "Nordstom days" are over.

Yup, wonder why? Same reason costco did the 90 day return policy on electronics. Abuse & Fraud.

 

[PandaBear]

They also never said you cannot beat your grandma, but that doesn't make it lawful. You're better off just shoplifting it, much easier and under $950.
Homedepot will only give you lowest price in 180 days if you return without receipt, and they want your ID as well. Walmart just limits to $60 and wants your ID. The fact there are limits to the policy and take the effort to ID you indicates they know they are susceptible to loss and abuse. If you want to return an item, common practice is to maintain your receipt. Return without receipt is a goodwill gesture by the retailer, not a cash machine.
Returns are not ripping off retailers, they factor this into the price of the product. So morally deprived people like yourself are the reason why prices are higher than what they could be. This is why I would never pay for a costco membership, you're subsidizing returns abuse. Go read a financial report and see what Walmart/Costco's overall margin was. But the corporations are evil right? No pride, honor, or morals becoming common.

The return policy is written online, return is allowed without a receipt, I don't know what your problem is. Do you think returning to the store asking for a price match is shoplifting too? If it cost them more than the policy is good for they would reduce it to 14 days for electronics like most retailer do now. Wonder why they keep it at 90 days still, must be a business decision they think is good for them.

Let me tell you what "morally deprived" means, it is "my standard against yours" because I use my standard to judge you. So let me use my moral standard to judge you now. You are morally deprived because your 90 day with receipt return policy is way worse than the no return only exchange on defect policy the rest of the world has.

 

[PandaBear]

Gee....you can tell who participates in this activity by the posts above. If ripping off Walmart or exchanging a Craftsmen tool you bought at a garage sell for a .25 cents and exchanging it for a new one-then reselling that is going to make a difference in your retirement you are doing something wrong.

The there is Karma and when it bites it hurts.....

Same as buying a bunch of engine oil with $2 rebates. I mean how many times we change our oil in our life right?

Seriously, $60 of no receipt return is not going to make or break anything, retailers do know they want a loss leader to keep you around so they sell their milk and roast chicken below cost, so you will buy your expensive cereals at full prices.

Next time you and haggler better not buy any loss leaders they advertise for because their profit margin in the retail business is single digit and you are morally corrupted for buying what they advertise for at a loss.

You know what hurt them the most? Chrismas gift return in mid Janurary. Those gifts you return would be sold at deep discount and they are huge losses to the retailers and manufacturers. So, please, don't return those gifts if you want karma, just toss them in the trash if you don't like them.

 

[haggler]

The return policy is written online, return is allowed without a receipt, I don't know what your problem is. Do you think returning to the store asking for a price match is shoplifting too? If it cost them more than the policy is good for they would reduce it to 14 days for electronics like most retailer do now. Wonder why they keep it at 90 days still, must be a business decision they think is good for them.

Let me tell you what "morally deprived" means, it is "my standard against yours" because I use my standard to judge you. So let me use my moral standard to judge you now. You are morally deprived because you shop at Walmart instead of supporting your local family owned businesses. Shame on you.

Read your original comment again, then read the definition of fraud. If you can't grasp my point, then go on with your day. Price matching is not done for financial gain, just like buying something on sale.

Ironic that you mention family owned businesses. Many of them went out of business because they couldn't afford to amortize returns policy abusers, like yourself, like the big box stores could.

 

[PandaBear]

Read your original comment again, then read the definition of fraud. If you can't grasp my point, then go on with your day. Price matching is not done for financial gain, just like buying something on sale.

Ironic that you mention family owned businesses. Many of them went out of business because they couldn't afford to amortize returns policy abusers, like yourself, like the big box stores could.

My original comment was meant to be a joke, gee you need to chill.

If price matching and buying items on sale is not done for financial gain then why are you doing it? You just want to win an argument with customer service to feel better?

Return policy abusers huh? They do have a list in the store and they keep track of how many returns you make with receipt because you change your mind. My wife brought thousands dollar worth of clothes and return half of them to Macys once a month, every month. She probably wasted away $2k a month there despite the return. In my opinion she is abusing the system but it seems like Macys think otherwise and consider her a VIP customer or some sort. So my 2 jug a year return without receipt, probably lost Walmart's suppliers $6 total (Walmart won't lose the money as the sales are negotiated between Walmart and its vendors), is making me an abuser when I buy $1000 a year from there and make them $30 net huh? Well, maybe I should just buy them as needed and then go back to price match when they went on sale eventually, to get the same discount and earn back some karma. (In case you haven't run the math they are the same thing, they never make more or lose more between these 2 methods). Or maybe I should just avoid Walmart all together so you can be their VIP customer and I'll let someone else profit from me. I probably don't want to shop with some moral high grounders in the same store anyways.

 

[CKN]

Same as buying a bunch of engine oil with $2 rebates. I mean how many times we change our oil in our life right?

Seriously, $60 of no receipt return is not going to make or break anything, retailers do know they want a loss leader to keep you around so they sell their milk and roast chicken below cost, so you will buy your expensive cereals at full prices.

Next time you and haggler better not buy any loss leaders they advertise for because their profit margin in the retail business is single digit and you are morally corrupted for buying what they advertise for at a loss.

You know what hurt them the most? Chrismas gift return in mid Janurary. Those gifts you return would be sold at deep discount and they are huge losses to the retailers and manufacturers. So, please, don't return those gifts if you want karma, just toss them in the trash if you don't like them.

Buying something for $1.00 and returning it for $3.00 is immoral and dishonest. If that ruffles your feathers-I'm not apologizing. SORRY NOT SORRY!

 

[CharlesInCharge]

My tip would be to seek professional help.

LOL. Apparently some people never learn about the weaknesses of JIT inventory and shortages. I laughed for much of 2020 when people were standing in lines, crying because they needed XYZ and could not get it. All of the "where can I find (insert ammo, oil, car parts, computers, chips, etc.)" have been entertaining b/c of people who refuse to set something aside.

Barring catastrophe, even factoring time, inventory, buying heavy duty shelving, and moving this oil I will never have to buy another drop in the next 15-20 years. Selling oil has more than paid for all my time, effort, equipment, travel, and every drop of oil I've ever bought in my life or will ever buy going forward...

Why would I need professional help?

 

[PandaBear]

Buying something for $1.00 and returning it for $3.00 is immoral and dishonest. If that ruffles your feathers-I'm not apologizing. SORRY NOT SORRY!

That's fine, I still love you.

Still, what is the difference between that and:

1) Retailer selling something for $1 sometimes and then $3 some other times for no reason?
2) Retailer selling you $3 now and allow you to price match back to $1 to make you feel better about paying $3 now?
3) Retailer let you price match a competitor for $1 when they didn't tell you ahead of time the competitor is selling for $3, so some of you will not even realized you are played.
4) Retailer sell you something for $1 and you sell it to someone else for $3?
5) Retailer sell you something for $3 but you can only sell it to someone else for $1?

My answer is: your bias, they are all the same. The retailer knows what their policy mean, and so do you. Neither the retailers are force to have this policy and neither are you forced to buy from the one "with a relationship" with you instead of the one with the best deal. It is a free market, you can take your business elsewhere and you can change your policy anytime if it doesn't work out.

p.s. I buy oils all the time and I certainly buy them on sale and use them way more than I buy them on sale and return, after you return your on sale oil what are you going to do? You still need to buy them back later to use. What you did is just gave the retailer a loan to hold their oil for them when they go on sale, but before you need the oil. The discount is the interest they pay. Why can't they just hoard the oil if the discount is so profitable?




Which brings me to another example I've seen 30 years ago:

I read an article on the news that a tourist was asked to leave a Paris restaurant because he was only ordering the main course instead of the usual wine and deserts to go along. The chef-owner said they will lose money on that order so he cannot let him order like that. I'm not French so I don't know what their morality lies but it seems like the tourist was doing what make sense to him and has the right to order like that.

Then we see in McDonald's app that has free fries if you order $1 worth of items, and I order a $1 burger to go with the free fries, no drinks, no nothing else. This order probably cost McDonald's more than $1 so I feel sorry for them, but they know what they are doing and they aren't removing that deal, so it must be something worth keeping for them. Am I morally corrupted for taking advantage of that?

 

[ZedzAmg]

It is not fraud. They never say you cannot buy low return high, they also didn't guarantee you can return high if you buy high before a price drop without a receipt.

It just "cancel out" a sales they make today with a sales they make "yesterday".

It also doesn't make a difference if you do this vs going back to the store to buy a discount item and then return it with a 90 day old receipt because you bought it back then without a discount, or was there any difference vs asking for a price match afterward.


So if you buy something and keep it for 90 days, and then return it with a receipt for the same price, it is not ripping off the seller? That 90 days of inventory cost suddenly come back will cost them money as well, likely 3% minimum. Every return cost the retailer money as well even if you are returning for the same price.

Thing is, the rest of the world is not that forgiving in merchandise return, they usually have a no return, only exchange for defect policy. Are we ripping off the retailers as a whole? Or are the retailers doing this because this help them with sales overall? You be the judge. If they really don't want people to "rip them off" they would not allow the return for store credit without receipt policy, they left it there because as a whole they make more money and it doesn't cost them as much as losing a customer to competitors.

I feel bad for you if you have to use this much brain power and effort to save a few bucks on oil from walmart

 

[PandaBear]

I feel bad for you if you have to use this much brain power and effort to save a few bucks on oil from walmart

It's more of a way to get rid of my oil stash. I was impulse purchasing too much oil then suddenly pandemic hit and my parents bought another car with a different oil spec. They were all oils from Walmart to begin with so it just went back home.

It was also a coupon clipping game. No need to feel sorry for me.

 

[haggler]

If price matching and buying items on sale is not done for financial gain then why are you doing it? You just want to win an argument with customer service to feel better?

Customer: I'd like to price match this $40 item for $20.
CSR: Ok, I see the price. I will match.
Customer: Ok here is my credit card.

The only financial gain here by the retailer. Saving money on an item is not financial gain, you're negative $20.

You start conflating disparate ideas: loss leaders, returns, prices price matching, etc. Your logic is seriously flawed. If you can't see that, I can't help you. Your attitude is: is you can get away with it, go ahead and do it. That attitude is the problem with society. I'm done here.

 

[Silver]

LOL the margins go to planes and islands for the top execs, not covering some kid's refund games. Gee whiz.

This is like watching partisan political cults go at it. "What so and so did was wrong. Oh yeah? Well what so and so did was wrong so there!"

They all get what they deserve. Well, not everything they deserve. They're lucky.

 

[PandaBear]

Customer: I'd like to price match this $40 item for $20.
CSR: Ok, I see the price. I will match.
Customer: Ok here is my credit card.

The only financial gain here by the retailer. Saving money on an item is not financial gain, you're negative $20.

You start conflating disparate ideas: loss leaders, returns, prices price matching, etc. Your logic is seriously flawed. If you can't see that, I can't help you. Your attitude is: is you can get away with it, go ahead and do it. That attitude is the problem with society.

No you are wrong here. There is a thing called fixed cost and there's a thing called overhead. If it cost the retailer 20% markup to keep an item on the shelf for you and you price match it to below 20% the retailer will lose money. Which is why the retailer will ask their supplier to pay up in those situations and why suppliers mandate minimum prices to whoever they sell to (there's workaround of course), and why we have different model numbers between stores.

There's also policies between suppliers and retailers regarding to when will they pay the bill. Typically when suppliers provide inventories to the retailers they will ask them to pay at 90 days instead of right away, which is how they can finance the 90 days return period. The retailers are not going to eat the inventory if you buy and then within 90 days return it to the store. They will subtract the inventory they order from the supplier instead, and basically the sales is a wash. This is how the retailer mandate 90 days with receipt and why they price your no receipt return to the lowest price they ever sell for within the last 90 days (yes, you hear me, it is the lowest price within the last 90 days), the supplier eat the cost difference, the retailer may waste some effort loading unloading holding stuff around etc.

So in the end they all end up back at the suppliers eating the cost, not the retailers, let's agree on this regardless of where your "moral compass" points to, this is financial and there's nothing to argue about.


So, why are the suppliers changing the price all over the place within 90 days? How are retailers and customers protected when this happen? The answer is the famous American return policy. So the suppliers are changing their prices around with these policy in mind, they may not like it but they factor that in when they set the price and whether to change prices or whether to change their operations. They are the same thing whether you return $60 without receipt or within 90 days with receipt. $60 is not something that they are worried about because they know you are just having buyer remorse instead of large scale trading like those guys in Goldman Sachs.

Your attitude is: is you can get away with it, go ahead and do it. That attitude is the problem with society.

The only thing you can see is your own logics and not how the accountants planned their policy with, and how they actually don't mind you doing that at all because you end up spending more there after you return (p.s. they give you store credit, not cash). They are making their money back. I don't really care if I am on your naughty list or not, I don't think the society cares about what happen between me and Walmart if Walmart like this policy and I like buying stuff from Walmart with occasional return without receipt. Seems like the only one who cares about this "problem" is you.

 

[PandaBear]

LOL the margins go to planes and islands for the top execs, not covering some kid's refund games. Gee whiz.

This is like watching partisan political cults go at it. "What so and so did was wrong. Oh yeah? Well what so and so did was wrong so there!"

They all get what they deserve. Well, not everything they deserve. They're lucky.

I wouldn't call "what they deserve". They are playing a game when they provide return with receipt for 90 days or $60 return without receipt for the lowest price they sell for, while increasing sales despite higher prices. They know what they are doing and in the end this policy is making them more money than they cost.

This is nothing different from McD's free fries Friday with $1 purchase. I may have the discipline for $1 burger with fries and no drink but based on my observation, 20 other guys don't, and McD is making money off them and don't really care about me.

 

[Lubener]

Under my shed...

 

[ollie]

Buying something for $1.00 and returning it for $3.00 is immoral and dishonest. If that ruffles your feathers-I'm not apologizing. SORRY NOT SORRY!

Thank you for that. It blows my mind how many ways a person with zero integrity will justify being a thief.

I’m pretty vocal as to why I can’t stand shopping at Walmart. Every time I go, there is some low life criminal or group of dregs stealing or deceiving to get one over.

I don’t miss at all purchasing a oil filter with cheap one put in box or missing caps on spray cans. Or waiting in line while watching someone only scan half the items and stealing the rest.

 

[CharlesInCharge]

This isn't a morality thread, this is a thread about tips for long term storage. Mods, please delete all the OT comments so we can restore the thread.