Target sucks! Loses a good customer over $22
Posted October 5, 2010 – 8:46 pm
In the space of 24 hrs, Target has permanently lost me as a customer.
I used to think they were an excellent company: good products, good prices, and consumer oriented. The first two are probably still true, but the last one isn’t – and apparently I’m not alone in thinking that.
Target Sucks - Loses a Customer
Here’s why Target sucks: I bought 5 plastic storage boxes 2 weeks ago. The boxes appeared to be on sale for $5.44 each – there were big ‘SALE’ tags stuck over the regular price labels on the shelves. I happened to like the boxes, but this was purely a price-driven choice – these were the lowest priced boxes they had. I grabbed 5 of them and headed for the checkout counter.
At checkout, I noticed the total charge was higher than I had expected, so I made a mental note to double check later (I should have done it right then, but I was in a hurry). I checked that evening and saw I was charged $9.99 each for the boxes – and I was charged twice for another item that they’d called for a price check on.
After noticing the problems, I immediately called the store and explained the situation. The woman said it’d be no problem, if I could come in, they’d sort it out. I told her the store was quite a distance and I might not be able to make it over for several weeks. Again, she said that’s fine, we’ll handle it.
But it didn’t work out that way at all…and now I won’t be shopping at Target ever again.
Fast forward 2 weeks to yesterday when I was able to get back to the store. At customer service, the double charge was refunded no problem, but the front line rep choked on the sale item refund. She immediately escalated to a ‘GSA’ named Tracy.
Tracy was thoroughly unimpressed by my story: Why had I taken so long to come back? (because the rep said it would be okay.) Why hadn’t I gotten the name of the rep I spoke to on the phone? (I didn’t know I’d needed it.) Why hadn’t that rep recorded the call in their records? (how could I know she was supposed to do that?) Did I have any proof that the item was on sale? (no, I didn’t know I’d need proof.)
After pressing the issue, she found a circular from that week that showed that the same item, but in a different color was on sale that day for $5.44. My actual item – or more specifically, my color – was not actually on sale.
So technically I hadn’t been mischarged – instead, Target had stocked the wrong item in the sale racks. This still seemed worthy of a refund to me since I’d never seen the circular and even if I had I wouldn’t have detected the subtle difference in the sale vs. non-sale items anyway. Tracy remained unmoved. The possibility of mis-stocking an item apparently seemed unlikely to her (the items were still in the same place today when I was there, although the ‘sale’ sign had been removed).
To get me off her back, Tracy escalated the decision to her boss over the com system. The ruling: no refund. Period. Sorry, Charley.
Are you kidding me? I was dumbfounded.
The next day (today), I called the main customer service line listed on the company website (they don’t make it easy to figure out who to call in such situations). Again, the front line guy heard my story and immediately escalated the issue. The next woman then asked a series of questions which implied that she was deeply skeptical of my story. 15 minutes and lots of product codes and receipt numbers later, she said ‘no’. I protested, so she escalated to her boss. Same verdict: no refund.
6 Target reps and not one seemed even the slightest bit interested in giving me a refund – not one seemed to show any concern whatsoever that maybe they’d actually made a mistake and mis-priced the item. Simply wasn’t in their DNA to give a shit.
So this afternoon, I packed up a pile of stuff I’d recently bought at Target – about $100 worth – and drove back to Target and returned it all. When the rep asked why, I said ‘I was pissed at Target and was never going to shop there again.’ She said ok and proceeded to process my refund. Not a glimmer of interest in why.
After doing some searching tonight for this blog post, now I know why she was completely unfazed: she probably gets that all the time. Turns out there are lots and lots of people who have bad customer experiences at Target.
A quick search pulls up all sorts of sites dedicated to angry customers venting: Target Sucks, I Hate Target. Plus, there are plenty of individual blog posts like this one. And it sounds like the employees aren’t too happy either. They have their own sites: Target Sucks and Target Stores Suck. Looks like publishing anti-Target stuff is something of a cottage industry.
Some of the stories are quite funny. There’s the woman who had a light pole fall over and total her car in the Target parking lot. She got nothing from them. And another guy who put big signs to put on his car saying how target had ripped him off. He eventually got a refund and agreed to remove the signs.
Sorry for the off-topic post, but I needed to vent.
—-
I’ve helpfully posted this complaint in a number of other spots. My day job as a web publisher comes in handy in situations like this. My3Cents.com
20 Comments
This is where Big companies should focus. Loosing a loyal cutomer take seconds but to make one take years. John, these companies need to learn a leeson.
I’ve had bad luck with refunds at Target too. Good luck getting anything – even a straight answer – out of harried customer service workers…
Funny to see this topic, I stopped shopping at target along time ago. And I did not know there was such a problem with them. But as you can see by my name, I deal with and do a lot of surveys ( and no I’m not spamming). I have noticed lately that there have been a lot surveys about target and what people think of them. It was the same thing when Toyota was having issues also. So kinda seems they know, But what will they do about it.
John, this is indeed a valuable resource for one to vent his or her frustrations. To make an informed buying decision at merchants like Target, it is imperative that you become familiar with their “refund policy.”
I saw your visit on my sitemeter. Thanks for dropping in to some of my blogs (www.targetfiling.blogspot.com)
I post things now and then about Tarbutt, like the light pole, wrapped car and now I have a lot of new stuff about a class action suit in Calif. These suits are of interest to Tarbutt people because they can see just how badly treated the employees are, we already know that Tarbutt treats US like crap, but the Calif. and the Az suits are about actual Target people that their firm is screwing over.
Probably more than you wanted to know, but one site leads to another etc. My main blog is probably hitting its 5th year by now, 23 months of that they were suing me to get me to take down their AP Directives, they are still up, suit got tossed out of Federal Court in Atlanta.
Anyway, thanks for dropping in and check back now and then as some stuff changes.
John Doe
Target Sucks
This is the problem with alot of these large chains. They all seem to have lost the plot on customer service. No more is the customer always right but you’re treated with suspicion and sometimes contempt when trying to make a simple easily sorted complaint.
You probably don’t shop too many places now do you. These issues can happen anywhere. People are not perfect and mistakes occur. There was no record of you calling and you waited two weeks how on earth would the manager know if the signs were put in the wrong place two weeks later? Customers lie all the time. That is why you should have checked your receipt before leaving the store and then had someone come back with you and got the problem fixed before you even left. You are simply a whiner and really doubt Target cares if someone like you comes back.lol
This is what I did when Target gave me a hard time -
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/money/consumer/troubleshooter/medina-man-battled-to-get-target-to-honor-its-lowest-price-guarantee
If I hadn’t been there, I’d probably think the same thing, but they were assholes and it still pisses me off to think about.
Well done!
Target is lame, but alas this in not uncommon for big stores this time of year..
I agree that Target doesn’t care about their customers at all. I received a pack-n-play as a shower gift in June, I know that sometime has passed but it broke after only the 3rd time using it. The hinge won’t lock.
Went on Monday to exchange & was told they would return/exchange but needed the receipt. Great I called my grandmother in law and she found the original receipt. Went back today (2 days later, was unable to return the next day because I worked all day), they won’t exchange, the manager at the Westland store Chris rude accused me of returning it because of christmas (I didn’t ask for cash back I asked for a working item)Then tells the girl to see if they have item in stock then just walks away with out finishing the problem, they obviously dont have it (mind u about 5 or 6 other stores in the area do, but since that store doesn’t they couldn’t help) then when I make him come back says “I knew we didn’t have it.” THEN why did the employee have to check and why did you leave before rectifying the situation. POOR POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE won’t be shopping at Target anymore. All I did was follow the advice of the employee I spoke with on Monday and then I get accused of a christmas scam and a rude manager.
bought a DVD player for my granddaughter for her birthday 11 months ago and spent the extra dough for an extended warranty, when the clerk assured me that if the unit failed (for non-abused reasons, of course) within 2 years, that it would be replaced. She explicitly said “replaced”. So when it died at 10 months, I took it in to get another one and was told “Oh no. You have to ship it back to them. You have to go on the Target website, get a UPS shipping label emailed to you, box it up and schedule a UPS pickup, and you’ll get a refund. No exchange.
A UPS pickup is $15, though no one mentioned that until I called UPS. So I found a box, boxed it up and put the label on it and drove over and dropped it off at our local store and they kindly gave it to the UPS driver at no cost.
ONE MONTH LATER, today in fact, instead of receiving a check, since I was expecting a refund, I got a “gift card” which can only be used to get more stuff from Target that I don’t need, and I have no doubt whatever that if I were to go there and the stuff I got didn’t add up to exactly what the card says, I WOULD NOT be refunded the difference. The idea, of course, is that I’ll spend more, meaning that they get to make an extra profit on a bad sale.
One more thing… The card’s value is set at exactly what the retail price was. Nothing over. We have an 8% SALES TAX here in Washington state and that was NOT refunded.
So I paid for a warranty that was worthless, I was lied to, to get me to buy it, I was made to jump through a long series of hoops to get a refund including a 50 mile round trip drive to Target and back home for nothing, having to deal with Target’s website, doing packaging and shipping, driving to the local store and back, waiting a month and then getting this lousy piece of plastic. We’re only talking $70 here. If I’d known before I even made that drive to Target that I was going to go through all this, I would have told them to shove their DVD player and their warranty up their asses to begin with and saved myself a lot of hassle. But I foolishly stuck with it, never dreaming that they were such a crappy, anti-customer company that they would actually pull this sort of stunt instead of doing what any honest outfit would do and simply honor their warranty and issue a cash -or check- refund.
Target SUCKS and I’ll never set foot in any of their stores again.
True story! Target used to be good just a couple of months/years back, but their service has been steeply falling for a long time now.
You’d think that with the increase in competition among these consumer chains their customer service would increase – but no, that never happens, God knows why.
We purchased a vaporizor for our baby at cutler ridge Target only to find out it had been used. Returned it to Dadeland store and they put the used stinky vaporizor back on the shelf. Target you suck!
I have to agree Target sucks. I use to love this store but now find that they over charge you at check out constantly. Also never get a Target credit card. They suck you un and then raise your interest rate. I tried to talk to the customer service line and was informed it was due to the bad economy. I can say I will never shop at Target again. I feel bad for those poor folks that work there. Target practices poor labor skills. They promote child labor in other countries. There own customer service line is not in the US. DO NOT SHOP AT TARGET!!! Lets boycott target and treat them how they have treated their customers and employee’s.
Quit your whining, the responsibility is on you as well. As to you not shopping there anymore? haha, right, see ya next week. Whiner!
@Chris: Turns out I haven’t shopped there since – and don’t plan to anytime soon. I’ve just moved this past week and have spent many hundreds of dollars the past few days at all sorts of stores. Target has not been one of them.
‘Couldn’t agree more. I used to be a loyal customer. Now their PRICES suck. We’re in the midst of one of the worst recessions ever, and Target raises their prices on one of their luggage items by 30+ percent?! Same item from 2 years ago; SAME. Made in China. It’s like this throughout the store. Their back-to-school backpacks are OVERPRICED; buy at toys-r-us (they have the same prices from TEN YEARS AGO), plus you get a free lunch kit… Target, you need to shape up; you’re forgetting your original customer base.
Ditto. Do not care about their customers at any level in the organization.