Stay on Target
So, I’m inspired by Meredith Farkas’ recent post on her poor customer service experience with Pottery Barn Kids to share my experience at Target this morning.
Cashier: “We don’t take these [Internet-printed] coupons.” Calls a manager. Manager says they don’t take any Internet coupons because of coupon fraud, that one of my coupons was “too good to be true” because it made the product almost free, and that “things like this make prices higher for the rest of us.” I say I got the coupon from the manufacturer’s website, so how could it not be legitimate? She says, no, it couldn’t be, it’s fraudulent.
So, I go home and call Target customer service. The good: It only takes a minute to get to an actual person, who says that yes, they do take Internet printed coupons. The bad: She puts me on hold for 15 minutes while she calls the store. The ugly: The manager claims that the coupons were fraudulent because “they didn’t scan.” I mention that they didn’t even TRY to scan them. Customer service person says, well, that’s what they are saying, and we can’t take them if they don’t scan. I say, they DIDN’T SCAN THEM. She says, well, they are claiming the coupons wouldn’t scan, and I’m sorry you had an unpleasant experience, but all I can say is to make sure that the coupons scan.
Big. Target. Liars. Here’s a tip: You don’t keep customers — and I’m in Target weekly — by calling them liars and thieves.
I won’t make the comparison to libraries, since Meredith has already done so quite ably. But I will say that this morning’s experience has gone a long way toward souring my view of Target, and that a single negative experience can have a huge impact.
Meredith:
Wow. That’s really pathetic. I could certainly see that souring me on Target (if we had one within 100 miles of home). That reminds me of the time I brought a shirt back to a cheap teeny-bopper clothing store because the salesperson had left the security thingy on it. Instead of taking it off, they accused me of stealing the $12 shirt. I never went back to that store.
8 January 2009, 12:35 pmDanielle:
That is horrible. Luckily I had a much better experience with Target. They totally did right by me and thus have a more loyal customer than they had before.
My husband and I were married in October and were registered at Target. The material they give you when you set up your registry indicates that after the wedding you may purchase anything left on the registry at a 10% discount, but there is no mention of how to receive said discount.
After the wedding date we received coupons or online codes from other places we had registered with but nothing from Target. Wanting the rest of the stuff off that registry we went into the store and went to the customer service desk there to ask how we received the discount.
Here is the one part where Target fails, is that no one there knew what we were talking about. This is a new store open only a few months, so I’m hoping they figure it out. We pointed out to them the part in the literature that states about getting 10% off. A manager was called over who also knew nothing about it. He tried to call Target’s main support office, but as it was a weekend there was no one there. Instead of sending us away and telling us we would have to come back because he didn’t know he just told us to go get the stuff we wanted and to return to the customer service desk where he would ring us up with a 10% discount. And that is what he did.
So unlike your experience I left as a happy customer thinking that even though Target should do a better job of training their employees especially on something that must happen frequently, they handled the situation as exactly as they should have.
8 January 2009, 1:57 pmTiffany:
I have a friend who has a saying–Don’t make it hard for me to spend my money with you (or at your store).
8 January 2009, 3:51 pmNot a bad thing to remember as we go about our library business, too.
Joel:
Low prices rarely correlate with good customer service. I’ve had trouble with coupons at Target as well. However, they give better customer service than Costco or Wal-Mart, so there’s not too many options.
Here’s a question: How much more (in dollars or %) would you pay for good or great customer service, for the same goods? For most people, that’s close to zero, which is why local merchants close and big-box stores proliferate.
8 January 2009, 4:56 pmJulie:
Hi Rachel,
Had my own “Target” moment today. 1) Sweats with no tag on them (and “no way” for them to figure out the price at the register) and 2) another item that was on the 30% off rack that the management told me was “probably there by mistake” (despite the fact that there were many items in the same color/size on that rack!) Totally aggravation, especially since I had to be to the library by 1:00 to work (and all this was happening at 12:45).
And I, like you, am a weekly Target shopper…one who probably sends $100 or more a week.
Ugh!
11 January 2009, 2:27 pmrachel:
Julie: that sounds about right! I took my coupons to Ultra Foods instead — spent a bit more, but no hassle.
11 January 2009, 6:47 pmJulie:
Oh, if only we had an Ultra Foods or the like close by. Not even a Costco this way (although I guess I could break down and spend the $ on a Sam’s membership). Either way, they didn’t get my money on the sweats or the sports bra (the 30% off item in question). But whether or not they’ve kept me for a customer, I’m still debating.
11 January 2009, 8:45 pmTangee:
We boycotted Target for a while a few years ago and now just don’t trust their way of doing business. Let me explain. We were in need of DVD racks because we have a large collection and needed more storage space. We searched Wal Mart, Kmart and Target. We found a nice one at one Target store on clearance but they only had one. So we bought it knowing we could return it if we did not find more at other stores. We searched 4 other Target stores in the same city and found 3 more of the one we had originally purchased. Those three however, were on clearance, but not a full clearance-they had only been marked down once and the first one we purchased at another store was on final clearance. We expected to get the same price, but when we made the purchase we had to speak with customer service about the price difference. We were told because we purchased the first one at a different store, it had been marked down on a different schedule which made it cheaper and the ones we were purchasing there had not gone through all the mark downs. We asked them to price match with the other store—their own company and they refused saying they would price match a competitor, but not their own store. To this day, we don’t spend much money at Target because of this. Target has a strange way of doing business and I am not sure where the business plan originated, but it isn’t a good one.
12 January 2009, 11:15 amThe Liminal Librarian » Blog Archive » Credit where credit is due:
[...] I make a point to complain about bad customer service, I figure I should give credit for good customer service as well. Yesterday, craving a burrito, I [...]
20 January 2009, 3:50 pmDenise:
I shopped at Taget on 12/16/09. Since I usually use coupons at my local Target store (both printed and from circulars – with no issues), I planned my shopping trip accordingly. At the register, I ended up with a trainee with someone supervising her. Oh my goodness . . .you would have thought that I was a crook in the way the supervisor treated me! She layed out all my coupons, and one by one excluded them with the following excuses:
- Picture on the coupon does not match the item (even though it states that the item is acceptable)
- Coupon exceeds the price of the item (although they did allow one item that exceeded the coupon, but not the other)
- Can only use one coupon per “type of item” (i.e. can only use 1 green bean coupon, 1 deodorant coupon, etc.). I planned on using $1 off 4 cans green beans and then another $1 off on 8 cans of green beans, for a total of 12 cans of green beans. I was not duplicating and using multiple coupons on the same item.
- Too many coupons used . . .although they would not state how many is too many.
I asked to speak to the manager. The person in charge said, “No” (later I found out that this was the front store manager and it would have been nice for her to say “I am the manager”). I asked this person to call corporate headquarters to get clarification on their coupon policy, as I have never been treated like this before. The reply, “No, I can’t do that.”
Okay then . . . I went home and called Target corporate customer service. Oh my, it got worse!!
The customer service agent said that the Target store did everything according to their guidelines. She passed me off to another agent.
Next customer service agent said that indeed the store did everything right. Indeed, the manager and store clerk can use their own discretion in accepting coupons. I was told that corporate store coupon policy is just a general guideline and it is left to interpretation by store employees. I told her that this was highly unfair, just give me the rules and I’ll play by the rules. If the store would state, 6 coupons per transaction, I would plan my shopping trip and abide by this. The customer service rep then told me this, “It’s like going to school and you turn in a paper. The teacher may give the student an ‘A’ and the next student a ‘B’. It’s not fair, but that’s the way it is.”
My jaw is hanging open at this point! I said, “For clarification, you are telling me that I can be standing in line with 5 coupons and the clerk may deem this as too many, and then the next person in line may have 7 coupons and would be accpeted.”
The rep stated, “Yes, that is correct.” I then said, “But, that isn’t fair!” To which the reply was, “Life is not fair.”
Oh my gosh!! I cannot believe that this person represents Target!!
The customer service rep then went on to tell me “It’s customers like you that has changed the coupon policy. If people weren’t taking advantage of coupons, then there wouldn’t be issues like this.”
Oh my gosh!! I cannot believe that this person represents Target!!
And finally, the customer service rep told me “You should have resolved this before leaving the store.” I said, “I tried, I asked for a manager, I asked for help and was told ‘No’ by the store empolyee.” The rep said, “It’s your fault that you did not resolve this in the store. There is a red phone by the customer service desk and I should have used this.” To which I responded, “I know this how?!!” She also stated, “It is your responsibility to call corporate headquarters in a disput, not the employee.” To which I stated, “I’m sorry, I don’t carry the Target Corporate Headquarters phone number in my phone.”
The rep then went on to acknowledge that the store empolyee made one error (only one!!) – that the coupon picture doesn’t matter, it’s the wording on the coupon that should be followed. She said because of this one error, they would send me a $10 gift card.
How generous!
19 December 2009, 6:18 pm