And nothing new, this has been in place since I remember shopping there for my first computer (early 90's).
It prevents people from buying the item for the weekend and returning it for a full price refund, which they'd probably have to markdown to sell again anyway, due to it being an open box item. It makes sense once you think about it, and is posted in their stores, so I didn't know or nobody told me isn't an excuse they will accept.