According to one Target employee, Target doesn’t accept “just change.” You must have bills, or you do not get your stuff. Reader Mike went to Target with a bunch of change in his pocket. He didn’t feel like using an ATM, and the item he was at Target to purchase cost less than 5 dollars, so he figured he would pay with change. He figured wrong.
The cashier told him Target did not accept “just change,” and flatly refused to continue with the transaction. Mike ended up using his debit card and writing Target an email about the worker when he got home. This was Target’s response:
I’m sorry to hear about the disappointing experience you had during your recent visit to the Meriden Target store in Connecticut.Target accepts change as payment for merchandise, and I apologize that a team member misinformed you.
Upon receipt of your e-mail, I spoke to the Store Team Leader at the Meriden location, and they advised me that they will be following up with team members to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
If you’d like, you can also share your concerns by calling the Guest Service Team Lead at (203) 634-6049. Your feedback is a big help to us, and I’ll make sure to share your comments with our Store Operations team.
We’re always glad to hear from you, so whenever you have any questions or comments, give us a call at (800) 440-0680. You can also check with a Guest Service Team Lead at your store, or visit us on Target.com. Either way, we’re here to help!
Thanks for shopping with us. I hope we’ll see you again soon at Target.
Sincerely,
Aimee
Target Guest Relations
http://www.target.com
[THREAD ID:1-2JUXLR]
We think Mike handled this the right way. Target doesn’t accept change? What? It’s not like he walked in there with a flour sack full of nickels and tried to buy a PS3. Cashiers do the strangest things.—MEGHANN MARCO
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Two items to cover here.
- Why did this make it to Consumerist? It seems odd that this was the sort of thing that r81couldn’t be settled by talking with the manager or shift supervisor, unless the person was the manager or shift supervisor. I’m just not understanding why an attempt wasn’t made to get this resolved in-store.
- If for some reason management staff couldn’t be involved, in the rare cases (2 times, actually) that this happened to me, I found that whipping out a camera phone resulted in instant compliance. Go figure that one asshole move would resolve another.
dantc: agree
Your problem stems from going to Target to begin with. I remember a while back here in Brick, New Jersey, Target was refusing war veterans hand-outs. fuck ‘em, buy from somewhere less french.
“Target does not count change at the end of the day”
What??
So, um, two things. One…we’re talking less than 5 bucks. So somewhere between 500 pennies (unlikely) and 20 quarters. Not a big deal. Anyone with 4th grade math could figure this out. Two, I don’t buy this business about how writing a check is so horrible. You fill it out, hand it over, they run it through the little machine-all in all, not much slower than using a debit card, punching in your pin, declining cash back…just my humble opinion, though.
What swalve said…
Swalve and 5h17h24d: After the store closes the registers are cashed out and change is put in the bag to be counted before going either to the bank or back in to the registers, but not counted when the store is closed. The reason being the amount of time it would take could potentially cost Target more than any money that is lost or unaccounted for.
I could go in to more detail as to why but that would require me to explain the front lanes closing procedure. Suffice it to say that the policy make sense.
Nero says:
Your problem stems from going to Target to begin with. I remember a while back here in Brick, New Jersey, Target was refusing war veterans hand-outs. fuck ‘em, buy from somewhere less french.
Do people still believe this BS? Do a search for Target on snopes.com for the truth about this.
Story in short: The individual stores can’t contribute money, but Target Corporation as a whole can (and does). The guy who originally made the claim has since apologized and is sad that some people still spread this myth.
I actually find having a bunch of change to pay for stuff is one of the few times I’ll actually use a self-checkout. If I’m between jobs and have to go to my change jar and dig out nickels to buy my ten-pack of microwave burritos, I feel a lot better wasting some soul-less machine’s time and energy than some poor kid making minimum wage. Plus you don’t have to worry about the machine back-talking you, rolling its eyes, or refusing your dimes.
About the check comments – I don’t mind somebody paying by check if they’re cool about it. What I hate is the person who waits until everything has been rung up, then opens their purse and begins to hunt for the checkbook.
If you’re going to pay by check, then you should have it ready and have the date and store name all filled out by the time they finish ringing.
I also like the companies that put the checks through their register and it fills everything out but the signature. What a smart way to deal with a 19th century transaction.
DrWorm, thanks for responding, I had just searched Snopes to find this link for Nero when I scrolled past your comment.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/target.asp
How long will this inaccurate myth continue to circulate????? I hate when people blithely take whatever they hear at face value, question everything!
I work for target and yes the cashiers have the right to refuse change as payment if it is unreasonable If they are going to pay for a 5 dollar item with just change we can tell them they need to get that sorted out into cash and come back later to buy that and direct them to guest service or the bank. They cannot hold up the line for five minutes while they dig threw change or even 10 minutes.