Gift Receipts: Who Wins and Who Loses?

I know that this is sort of a long post but please read it anyway because I think people should be aware of this scheme that I think some stores do. So I am super far behind in blogging, but I think what happened to me on Saturday people need to be aware of. I have always heard that when you give someone a gift receipt, they will get back the price you paid for it. I no longer think that this is the case everywhere. Stores know that you don't know how much someone paid for you, so they know they can bank on it. So before Christmas I bought a shirt for my husband Steve at Express, and when they asked if I wanted a gift receipt I said yes, because I figured that way I can put it on top of the shirt when I wrap it, then my husband will know that he can return it and I won't be offended or anything. So we decide to bring the shirt and the gift receipt to the mall the day after Christmas just to see if there is another shirt that he would like better. We go to Express, and he liked the shirt I got him best, but he said how much did you spend on it because I don't really need a new shirt. I said I think it is about $35, so he decides that he wants to return it. We go to return it and pull out the gift receipt, then the cashier asks for some help from the manager and the manager says before January 1st we can only give store credit or exchange, and I overheard something about $25 dollars. So Steve said he wants store credit even though there was nothing else he wanted to buy. So I ask the girl how much are we getting for our store credit and she says $25, so then I ask, is that how much it was purchased for? She replies yes. So we are walking out of the store and I am totally questioning the price, so I look through my wallet hoping that I kept my receipt. Fortunately I had, I check the price and it was $38. Express was about to make $13 off of us. Now that I would not stand for. So I go up to the manager and I show her the actual receipt and I said this is how much it was purchased for, and I want cash back since I have the actual receipt, and they did. They seemed really embarrassed and they should be. Does anyone else have an experience like this? Please share if you do. I kind of want to test this out at other stores now. I now question if when I have given gift receipts if people only get a portion back of what I actually paid for them. I now think I might want to give them the actual receipt for a possible return instead of a gift receipt.