More wedding/baby registry pain from Target, a reader calling herself Consumer in MD, has started a blog called “Target is the Devil,” with the aim of convincing other consumers not to register their weddings and baby showers with Target after they ripped her off to the tune of $75.01. She tried to return a gift from the registry (with a gift receipt), and Target told her that according to their records the current clearance price is what the person actually paid for the gift. It turned out that this wasn’t the case, and when she brought the actual customer receipt back to Target they refused to refund her the additional money.
I returned my highchair to a target in Brandywine and they returned it at $24.98. They said that is what the person paid for it off the registry……well that was a lie. The person paid $99.99 for it. I went to their house and got the receipt after your returns people lied to me. So then I call your store closer to me in Aberdeen and they say they will help me with it and were super nice on the phone….the 2nd time, the first time they had hung up on me. Well I go there with the CUSTOMER RECIEPT THIS TIME NOT THE GIFT RECEIPT THE ONE WITH $99.99 and they make me stand at the returns while they call New Delhi, India. The person from India yelled at me, said I had to drive to a different store (Brandywine and asked them why they lied to me) he also said that I was lying and my Step Mom paid $24.98…..she didn’t I had the receipt in my hand.
…
I talked to the store manager at Aberdeen, MD store she wanted to give me the right amount of money but could not figure out how to on the computer that is why she had called New Delhi. So then her mother came in and they went to the back of the store. When I got done on the phone with the man from India she wouldn’t come back up to finish helping me. I stood there 20 more minutes and left. You have wasted my time and money. Your customer service is by far the worst I have ever experienced. I have worked in customer service and I have to say I would never treat a customer this way.Your store took $75.01 from me. They lied to me, yelled at me, treated me like crap, and made me upset. Having a baby is a very expensive time. That amount of money is a lot of money to a new mom. I wish my family would have never shopped at your store. I used to love your store. I am now going to tell everyone I meet, everyone on the baby forums, anyone that will listen not to use your registry service. I cannot believe your own store manager could not issue a gift card for the $75.01 when she wanted too. What kind of customer service is that? She wants to fix the error and she can’t? I hope your store feels good about taking a high chair back from an expectant mom and stealing her $75.01.
The best part may be the email she got from Target admonishing her for trying to return things “without a receipt.”
Dear ******* ********,
I’m sorry the amount we’re able to refund you didn’t meet your expectations for the highchair you received as a gift.
During your visit our team members explored the possibility of returning your without a receipt. We’ve established guidelines when offering this service to provide you with a consistent experience.
We track and limit these exceptions to small gifts twice a year. Additionally, the amount we’re able to refund reflects the lowest selling price in the 90 days.
Also, I’m sorry you didn’t receive the type of service you’ve come to expect while contacting at Target. The team member attitude you described isn’t part of our guest service philosophy. We expect our team members to help you in a professional manner with your returns concern. We really appreciate your feedback and I’ll make sure to share your comments with our executives.
Sincerely,
Dannie
Target Guest Relations
The post has started to collect other Target horror stories, too. We like this one:
We did indeed have a gift receipt but since the person who bought it for us purchased it with a credit card they could not give us credit for the crock pot with out the credit card number it was purchased on. WTF?! What is the point of a gift receipt then? I fought with the clerk and her manager for almost an hour. They kept just telling me to contact the person the gift was from and get their credit card number. I finally said screw it and kept it. I will use it later on or can always re-gift it.
I know whenever someone buys me a gift, I always ask them for their credit card number in case I want to return it. Oh wait. No. I don’t.
So, is Target’s wedding/baby registry still broken? Tell us in the comments or at tips@consumerist.com.
Target Is The Devil
(Photo: pdxmac )
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@bristolcat: Your story is amazing in that it directly contradicts overwhelming anecdotal evidence which states that Target sucks for registries and BB&B is the gold standard for registries.
Interesting…
OP states that she didn’t have the receipt with her when she returned the item. Target: “without a receipt, we can only refund the lowest selling price of the last 90 days.”
Makes sense so far.
People may buy things on sale then attempt to get a refund for the full price, if the receipt isn’t required.
It’s not unreasonable to expect that someone might come back with a receipt, and to have a procedure in place in order to minimize hassle and hurt feelings.
Regardless of any class feelings that flare up in some of you for her 1)registering at Target 2)perceived gracelessness 3)unmannerly failure to pretend that $72 is a drop in the bucket to her;
By giving the gift, the object and the refund value of the item belong to the receiver. So yes, Target “stole $72″ from her.
@snoop-blog:
Hyuck hyuck…mah citah has 5 Wally Worlds and 1 Target. Hyuck hyuck hyuck….
(wish Target would come to the north side of town too…they have way more movies than WalMart.)
@homerjay: Ha, Ha you angered Roz the Moderator!
@Scuba Steve: Hmmm… now you have me wondering whether Gamestop has a gift registry. (Target has crap for games, another reason to boo them.) I’d be all for it, who needs fancy dishes anyhow?
->girl who wished for and got a xbox 360 elite for her birthday.
@Dooley: Romantic? Try registering for a PlayStation 3, like one of my friends did…
I don’t know if this just locally or a nationwide policy, but my wife and I were told that we were only allowed to return items on registry twice(this was after the fact, no one informed of us this when we were setting up our registry). So essentially if we had to return some things we received multiples of we had to wait and make sure we didn’t get anything else or we would be sol. I refuse to by anything of substantial value from target because of their hideous customer service.
@SomeoneGNU: If that’s the case, they shouldn’t give out gift receipts with ever purchase. The point of a gift receipt is that you get back what the person gave you. However, I believe Target’s policy with registries is store credit. We considered registering there for our wedding, but we wanted stuff you can’t get there. I have also heard registry horror stories from them, but then again, you are registering at a “discount” department store.
On the other hand, when I ordered 1 water pitcher from my brother’s wedding registry, Target sent hime 4! Victory for the little guy!
@Jevia: You’re not FORCED to shop there. They’re merely suggestions.
I don’t like sticking with one or two stores – it’s too confining. I did my registry at myregistry.com, where you can register for things from any online store.
@HogwartsAlum: I’m glad you like it. If you can figure out a way to have one engraved, let me know. The engraving place I went to couldn’t fit the extinguisher under the engraver, and they couldn’t engrave a curved plate or something to slap on the extinguisher.
@jenl1625:
Ah, you caught that multiple store issue as well.
That sounds ridiculous. If an MOD wants to give a gift card to a “guest”, then they can. How else do stores, target or not, grant gift cards to upset customers as a measure of customer retention?
Although this whole process seems insane, there was a simple solution that the customer should have though of or the second store with nice people could have suggested that wouldn’t have involved phone calls, car trips or crazy pills. So the seat is $25.00 now and you got it at $100.00 and have s receipt stating that. Buy one at $25.00 thus giving Target back the initial refund. Then return the one that was just purchased with the original receipt listing $100.00 as the selling price. Problem solved, headache avoided.
@RunawayJim:
Think about it this way – I walk into a store and buy $100 item on my credit card as a gift. I give person A the gift receipt and they return it.
If person A gets the cash back it is, in theory, a cash advance without the penalty. Credit card companies don’t like this and therefore “prohibit” it.
However, if person A gets a gift card then they are still square with the credit card company. The store has collected $100 in credit and $100 worth of merchandise is now available to the customer. The only real change is that the merchandise will be different.
I don’t want to be a “blame the consumer” here, but something does sound rather fishy about the story. And, of course, we’re only hearing one side of the story but here’s is what I understand.
She went to target to return something that was purchased as a gift. She was given back $X while her mother paid $Y. She went back to get the delta, $Z, but was refused. The manager “wants” to help her but is completely unable.
It is hard to understand from the story the full chain of events but is it possible she went to the store sans receipt and then got the lowest 90-day price? At that point the registry had the item marked as returned. Now, she finds out that she “lost money” on the transaction because the price paid was actually much higher. She tries to get this corrected and the system has it marked as returned.
As for the manager being “unable” to help, I find that hard to believe. I realize they have limitations and must justify a lot of what they do to meet goals and such however they do have enough power to hand out a $75 gift card. Perhaps it was attitude / behaviour that cost her that gift card? From my years of customer services I “wanted” to help a lot of people. And the minute they became a jerk I was “unable” to help them.
Don’t get me wrong – I think Target(and most big-box stores) have *horrible* customer service but even this seems a bit extreme for them.
Is it a new policy about making REFUNDs on the same tender as it was purchased(including same credit card down to the last 4 digits) a new trend?
I’ve heard about it from a couple of different stores now, and wanted to know if its something that has been around forever or is it a new tactic stores are using to not give out money once they have it.
The other policy regarding giving out store credit or gift cards for an item without a receipt for the amount its worth “now”(or in Targets case lowest price in 90 days)
has been around for awhile, also in a lot of different stores.
As for a policy regarding getting a return, then finding the original receipt and coming back to get it adjusted….i’m not sure a policy exists for that one, sounds like something she would have to get clarified with a manager before coming in to do it with a cashier….which would obviously have made a LARGE impact on my choice on whether i would have made the original return or not
IF the OP had known about the ORIGINAL receipt and not been LIED to about it, she probably wouldn’t have made the decision to return the item, and would have tracked down her stepmom to get it, and not have had to go through the trouble in the first place.
Thats why Target should make good on her needs and refund her the original amount.
Good thing I’m not married. I guess I’ll suffer that very soon.
Yeah Target is in the business of ripping you off on returns. I tried to exchange an umbrella I had bought the day before. It had a rip, and the tag still on it. Somehow I grabbed the wrong receipt. I told them I wanted a different one because it was ripped. The lady said I need a receipt. What? For an exchange?
Yeah so now Target DOES NOT do exchanges. In fact, they also do not apparently care if the item is defective. They told me I needed to use my license if I didn’t have the receipt. According to the lady they can’t do exchanges anymore. Everything is done in the computer as a return. So you HAVE to have a receipt, for anything, ever. Even if it’s exclusively sold at Target. Yeah. Anyway, when I finally returned it, even though I had told them it was torn… they put it in the regular returns basket. So someone is going to buy this torn umbrella.
This same situation happened when I wanted to exchange a piece of clothing for a different size. They also claim they can’t “always” look up a purchase via your credit card number. What does that mean?
She didn’t have the receipt in hand the first time, when she actually returned the item, and I don’t think their no-receipt return policy (lowest price within the last 90 days) is unreasonable. They still should have refunded her the difference when she did produce the receipt, though.
woah… I live down the street from this Target.
Word of advice, for anyone in New Castle or Delaware counties, go to the new Target at US 322/US 1, it’s QUIET… as in there’s no one there at all. The one at Brandywine Town Centre off of 202 in Delaware was 4x as busy as this new Target.
The Brandywine TC pharmacy screwed up but it wasn’t entirely their fault… kept saying they were getting my pills in when they never did.
If you’re returning something, all the more better since there’s no sales tax implications by returning it in PA. You’d be hit with sales taxes if you’re buying stuff in PA but if it’s something that costs $100, it’s $5 in tax. Might just be worth the effort to relax and not have to fight through people in that ultra-quiet store.
@RabbitDinner: Sometimes I wonder how people actually got to be star commentators.
I would have more sympathy if her letter wasn’t so emotional. It is right up there with calling people “minimum wage drones”, “high school drop outs”. It adds nothing to the argument and makes the person doing the insulting (or whatever) seem classless and stupid.
Just stick with this is what happened, and this is what I think should be done and thank you.
(Putting the refund on a gift certificate is appropriate. I always wonder about those who bring back gifts from a registry and then demand cash. I had a few when I worked in retail.)
I haven’t had any bad experiences at Target, but I’m sure I will eventually.
@baristabrawl:
Given enough time you will have a bad experience anywhere.
Even the best of stores and people have bad days.
@koreanforrabbit: “I have my wedding registry set up at Target mainly because you can always find one”
Oh how not true! When my brother got married in June, my wife and I reviewed the registry online before we went to Target. When we got to the store, all attempts to find and print said registry failed. Customer service was also unsuccessful. I found out my uncle had the same problem. For some reason, there must be different databases that the store and the web pull from, and for some even stranger reason, these db’s are not synched
@crashfrog:
Hmmm…the only thing I can think of is something like a thin metal plate with adhesive on the back, and perhaps that could be engraved and then bent and stuck on the thing. For some reason, I had “thin metal plates with adhesive on the back” pop into my head, but I can’t remember where I ever saw or handled such a thing.
I’m from MD and what is weird to me about this is that Aberdeen and Brandywine are REALLY far apart from each other – a good 2 hours! If everything else made the OP so made, why not that? Driving back and forth between 2 stores is a little crazy.
Well I once shopped at the uber spiffy SuperTarget outside NYC.
Laid out big cash over two years. (How big ? 9k)
One day I needed to return an unopened pristine item MADE BY TARGET.
They wouldn’t give me store credit.
Ridic….
So after a day spent haranguing with CSR, I gave up.
No more Target.
@usa_gatekeeper:
My thought exactly. The gifter already bought beer with the price match refund.
@Scuba Steve: You’re a genius! Why didn’t I think of that?
Wait, were you in the USAF? My husband’s roommate/suitemate in Korea uses that handle.
@sooner2k1: This doesn’t ring right, either. Gift receipts should have the original price on them, just in code that doesn’t make the price obvious to the consumer. The ones I’ve seen might say something like GZHH instead of 24.99–there’s a non-obvious letter-to-digit translation.
My wife and I registered for the wedding registry for our wedding last year. We got most of the stuff on the registry, but some duplicates so we went to return the extra items. They gave us problems at 2 of 3 targets we went to in one day. We live in NYC and use zip car, so it is not exactly cheep to go return stuff. The other thing was, three months after the wedding, they they deleted our entire registry with no way to restore or print out or purchase the rest without notifying us. There was no apology or anything.
What happened to target? When did they loose their “name brands for less motto?” It is now name brands for the same price as everyone else except in Brooklyn where it looks like a huricane hit the store every weekend.
Not sure all the facts are here on either story. If she did indeed have the receipt either time, then the price would have been exactly what was paid for it. On the other hand if she didn’t have the receipt and instead was using the “Gift Purchase Log” then yes the initial price is the lowest price in the last 90 days (in this case the current clearance price). But this can be easily changed by the cashier looking at the log (the whole reason its there) to see what the actual price paid was and pressing K1 (or maybe K2 I forget) and entering a new price. There’s also plenty of other things that could have gone on here, I’ve worked at the service desk for 4 years and I’ve seen guests absolutely confused (especially when upset) and unable to explain to whoever is with them why they can’t return an item or whats going on even after repeating it to them several times (and then I try again to explain it to them but sometimes people just don’t want to listen).
For the second case, again not enough detail to figure out exactly what was going on but what it sounds like to me is the item they were trying to return was not on the gift receipt and the cashier was offering the service of looking up the receipt if they can get the credit card number that was used to purchase the item. Its not something thats usually offered (telling them to get someone elses credit card that is) but I could see maybe saying that as the last resort of available options if the guest is irritated.