Originally Posted by
84fiero
Illegal? No. Why would it be? There's nothing criminal about what is, essentially, a cash advance. Nor is it criminal to refund a returned purchase in a particular way (unless the refund is in the form of cocaine I suppose).
Is it permitted by the contract(s) the merchant has with Visa, MC, etc? Who knows. Even if it isn't allowed per their contract, that's not the same as "illegal".
Reading between the lines of OP, it sounds like OP would buy an item on sale, and so that (automatic ?) sale price return would not kick in when returning the item once sale is over. Provided merchant did not require sales receipt.