I checked. In the last year, my wife and I spent exactly $4,220.35 at Target. Diapers, etc. It adds up. What would you spend to keep us as customers? $100? $50?
Today, I tried to return a $24 lampshade (didn’t fit) to Target’s Burbank store. I had lost the receipt, but the return policy says you only need the card you used to purchase. I had that.
The “customer service” clerk scanned the shade and said “We don’t carry this lampshade.” Fine. Here it is. Doesn’t fit. Perfect condition. Just give me store credit, and I’ll go drop another $200 today in your store.
Nope. “There’s nothing I can do for you.” she says. My wife goes to see if she can find an identical one on the shelves. She does. Clerk’s Supervisor is here now. She scans it. That one doesn’t exist either. Hmm, strange. Flaw in Target’s system, they’ll probably give me the benefit of the doubt at this point.
Nope. “There’s nothing I can do for you.” I mention how much we spend at Target. Blank stare. Slight nod of acknowledgment. Okay, this is ridiculous. Go get your boss. Surely someone can override this policy. I’ve returned $200 jeans at Bloomingdales with no questions asked, no receipt, nothing.
Enter Eileen (pictured above). C’mon Eileen. You look intelligent. Surely, you’ll run my card, see how much we spend at Target, and give us the store credit. $24. Really now. I’m sure you put out fires around here all day long.
Nope. “There’s nothing I can do for you. Maybe if you know what date you purchased it?” We do. April 27. $306. Same day we bought a DVD player and other stuff we probably don’t need. “Hmm. No, I don’t see that.”
Okay, Target. Do the math. If you lose customers who spend $4,000 a year over a $24 return (not a cost, you get to restock the merchandise), how long do you suppose you’ll stay in business?
Target, today you lost a family who loved shopping at your stores. Bye.
18 Comments
June 6, 2008 at 3:19 pm
So you walked out with those other lampshades you pulled from the shelf right? Since they don’t exist in their system, who’s to say they belong to Target…
June 6, 2008 at 3:40 pm
No, didn’t go that far, but have considered telling Amex to chargeback the amount and let Target try to contest the non-existent lampshade!
June 6, 2008 at 4:09 pm
For some reason, I cannot get Consumerist to either email me my password nor approve the comments I emailed in.
So for anyone who’s stumbled here from the Consumerist post, let me say this:
1) The reason I mentioned the $4,000 is, amount spent = customer loyalty. We do not hope for special treatment. But how else can Target gauge my loyalty if not by how often I shop there and how much I spend when I do?
2) Yes, we confirmed with Amex that we made a purchase on that date. They are getting us a copy of the receipt, but it takes 8-10 wks.
3) Sorry, yes we shop at Bloomingdales and while it’s not the best comparison to Target, they are at every mall in my area, and I’ll remain loyal to them because they treat me better.
Re: #1 above. If you owned Target. How would you figure out who your best customers are? And once you did, would you try to preserve that customer loyalty? I bet you would.
June 6, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I work at my local Target as Cashier/”Guest” Service, and I’d say that your case is fairly unique. Not to defend the store, but lamps and shades cause us a lot of problems in terms of SKUs and returns, but in most cases, especially if you can find the exact same lampshade.
I’d say this sounds more like a case of the supervisor at that particular Target not stretching the return policy. And you’re right, you don’t need the receipt if you have the card. I would say stop shopping at that particular Target (at least for a few months, as supervisors change quite often), but I’d say to stop shopping at Target altogether would be a little much.
June 6, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Thanks for your comment, Brian.
On principle, Target needs to reward customer loyalty.
I believe this is less about Eileen, and more of a systemic problem within Target. I could tell she “got it” when I was telling her she was losing a loyal customer, but there was nothing Target would let her do.
Put this in the suggestion box: When you run a credit card, see if the person is a frequent customer (how hard could that be?), and if they are, make a judgment call to keep them happy.
Because Eileen could not do this, she lost us.
June 6, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Nearly exact same thing happened to me. Bought an item, tried to return it because it was broken, but the system wouldn’t match the item I was returning so they wouldn’t take it back. I then talked to store manager, district manager and customer support, no help. So, I left and haven’t spent any more money at Target. I shopped at Target solely because I liked the atmosphere, once that’s destroyed, other alternatives are more attractive.
The even more insulting part for me is that they implied I had stolen the item or was switching it. I’ve never stole anything and make a decent enough living that stealing a $100 is really silly. Whatever…
June 6, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Thanks Robbie. Maybe if enough of us do that, they’ll do more to preserve customer loyalty.
June 6, 2008 at 5:44 pm
I’ve never had such disservice at Target or any other place. But then I’ve been a cardholder of theirs for 20 years and bring in my receipts (statements work, too). And receipts always get stores into action even when stories like yours defy logic. Trust me, if you had had your receipt, they would have found a way.
BTW, how hard is it to hold onto receipts?! I just have no sympathy for those without a receipt. “No receipt needed” policies be damned. I keep mine for seven years. Just like the IRS says. Then again, I actually write shit off like lampshades*. Plus, I use Quickbooks, which makes it easy to find receipts when sorted by date.
“Well, yes, Agent Audit, that lampshade was in my office for nine months. We just moved it to the living room the other night.”
*FWIW, it is recommended home businesses must make a profit every 3-4 years to withstand such an audit. Otherwise, it’s a hobby. (NOTE: This is not legal tax advice and should not be construed as such. Consult a tax attorney before pulling stunts like this.)
June 6, 2008 at 7:16 pm
This is, of course, completely ridiculous and the kind of customer service that is common these days. You are helped to a de minimis extent. Nothing more, nothing less. It is extremely probable that the employees in question knew very well how to resolve your problem, but simply did not wish to make the effort to do so.
That being said, Target corporate does listen very carefully to complaints and takes appropriate action when this kind of stuff happens. I complained about my local Target and there was a noticeable difference in the management after a short while. Very noticeable.
So I’d encourage you to complain to Target corporate directly (if they haven’t contacted you already).
PS I do not work for Target.
June 6, 2008 at 8:12 pm
To be honest no one at target really cares if you spend $4,000. All guests spend thousands of dollars there. What makes you think that we are going to break the rules just for you. No receipt = no return.
Why stress over a dumb lampshade anyway..
June 6, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Hey Crystal don’t you understand anything about principles? Or good customer service? Or perhaps common sense. Apparently you don’t. You also say “we” as if you are the embodiment of Target. Oh and here’s a tidbit of information, you don’t need the receipt to make a return. The problem was if you bothered to read was that Target’s stupid computer couldn’t identify the SKU of the item.
June 6, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Dear Jack- Wow, I really did believe there was no perfect person in this world but now I know I was wrong. You have never lost a receipt even for a $24 lampshade. I bow down to your perfection.
Give me a break.
BTW, don’t worry about those folks at Consumerist, Skodis, a lot of them sound like jealous teenagers or early 20-somethings who can’t afford to shop at Bloomingdale’s and don’t remember what it was like once upon a time when customer loyalty meant something. I understood your point about spending $4k at Target perfectly.
I can’t believe anyone would be in Target’s favor on this. They’re actions are ridiculous. Way back, I worked at a more upscale store and as long as we carried the brand, we took “returns” that were definitely not from my store. Can’t fix stupid.
June 6, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Oh, and Crystal, you make (or should make) minimum wage so wouldn’t $24 make a difference to you? And who are you to tell someone what they should or shouldn’t stress over? Like I said, teenagers.
June 7, 2008 at 12:46 am
I always found it funny how people would swear off stores due to bad experiences (myself included), while claming to be loyal customers. Most especially when people had spent a lot of money at the store, even more so when the customer would proclaim how much they spent to the spent to the employees.
Although, it is nice to say you’ve seen happy returns on 99.4% on the money you’ve spent there. Apparently Target hasn’t treated you well enough.
Most people don’t realize, as Jennifer said above, retail employees make close to minimum wage in most states, if you get more, awesome, but that would be the exception rather then the rule.
Of course making minimum wage and putting up with guests day in and day out gets very annoying and can lead to some very very apathetic employees. The employees who just go in and do the work to pay the bills.
I used to work for Target and I loved it at first. Then corporate started cutting back on ‘expenses’ early this year. They cut back on the air conditioning, which made it a pain to work in the building especially when you’re running back and forth. Hearing people yell and cuss at me because an item was sold out definitely didn’t help the situation. They cut my hours so I struggled to pay bills. But hey I went out of my way to help every single guest, I would call other stores and have things placed on hold, i would help guests search for items (because they didn’t bother to look) I would stay late and put in twelve hour days to help my team leaders with projects. I slaved away for that store, and got no recognition, in fact, all i got was even more work with more complaining from guests and management alike. A measly .13 cent raise (when a slacker worker who called in all the time, was constantly being written up, never reliable got a .30 cent raise) was all it took to make me leave.
One professional job and a day of quitting without notice certainly made me feel a lot better.
Back to your story, the employees can’t do anything, and even management can’t do anything. Target has everything tied into the point of sale system, if it doesn’t allow you to do it… oh well. It’s a good way to prevent overly generous or intimidated employees from making ‘exceptions’.
You did say the manager said they didn’t see the lampshade on there… is it possible that the lampshade didn’t scan the day you bought it? If so, then it’s possible the cashier used the “999999″ code which stands for “general merchandise” to account for the purchase, they are then able to insert a price that they feel is appropriate. It’s only supposed to be used if the item is under $20.00 though. But while that is a possibility… it’s also a possibility that you were never charged for the lampshade, either, I’ve seen that happen a few times to. Both options, you can’t confirm without the receipt. I know you probably have good memory, but you can’t be 100% positive either of these options didn’t happen.
Good luck.
June 7, 2008 at 12:57 am
For the record, Best Buy is rumored to have a rating system that ‘rewards’ people who spend more money there.
From what I’ve heard they keep records of who spends how much total there and give them a ‘loyalty’ rating where they then have the ability to ‘bend/break’ return policy rules for those customers.
IE, if you spend say 10K that year and you buy a CD and it ‘doesn’t work’ or it’s the ‘wrong one’ then they’ll let you return it even if you already opened it. (It only takes 10 minutes to copy a CD on a decent computer). Of course this can lead to horrible repercussions for the company.
I personally resent anyone who things that just because they spend more money at a store they should get better treatment. Just because I don’t make six figures and feed the pig doesn’t mean I don’t work just as hard if not harder (in most cases) for my money and to be a productive member of society.
Whatever, life is not fair, life is not equal.
June 7, 2008 at 6:07 am
I have a friend who works at Target and was “promoted” to the customer service desk but refused the position because she didn’t want to deal with guests complaining about their return policies. I had my registry there and could not return any items over $20 that I did not have a gift receipt for even though they were clearly from Target. Then I was told I was only allowed to return something without a receipt once a year. If I do have to shop there I make sure to save my receipt!
June 7, 2008 at 8:32 am
A few years back I worked at a national chain. A woman came in with a sweater she had bought, put in her closet, and somehow forgotten about: she wanted to return it. It still had the tag, but that did not have a scan code - because she had bought it some fifteen years ago!
The store manager allowed it. Which was corporate policy, BTW.
Target needs first to alter its policies and second to replace its entire computer programming staff (or, if the inventory system was purchased from a software outfit, fire the people who bought it and replace the system).
Oh, and a tip: if you buy something as a gift, ask for a “gift receipt” at the register - duplicates everything but the price, so if desired it can be returned/exchanged but otherwise the recipient need not know how much it cost. This was an option at the same chain, may not be universal.
June 8, 2008 at 11:11 am
To be fair, Eileen’s pretty hot…
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