Monday, October 08, 2007

Do NOT register at Target for your wedding or baby shower

I don't often blog about anything but my family. However, my recent experience at Target has prompted me to warn everyone about their new policy that took effect on August 1, 2007. I hope you will share this with your friends and family to save them the headache of dealing with Target's poor customer service when it comes to the baby and wedding registries. I would never be able to stop shopping at Target as it is one of my favorite stores, but at least I can influence others about where they register. Their customer service to me regarding this matter was terrible. At least I have some small influence in life! Thanks for reading! It was my therapy!!!

Here is part of the email I sent to customer service...

Between my baby shower and gifts that my friends purchased off of my online registry, I received around $80 worth of duplicate items that I did not need. While I was opening my gifts, I announced to the women there, "Don't worry, Target is really good about returns. It should be no problem to exchange it for something else." I am a huge Target fan.

However today I learned of a new policy that Target has.

"You cannot return an item without a receipt more than twice a year and not for more than $20 per time."

That policy seems fair and I can understand why policies are in place. However, in the case of registered customers I think it is a bad policy. Everything I was returning matched up on my registry, but because my gift givers did not include the receipt with the gift, I could not get a store credit. All of the gifts I had were still in there original packaging, nothing had been opened, and they all had there bar codes.

The best Target could do for me was return $40 worth of merchandise for a store credit and send me on my way with $40 worth of merchandise I did not need.

It is my feeling that if someone is registered and they receive duplicate items, there should be no question about a store credit. What if it was the cashier's fault for not properly scanning the gift registry sheet when my friends checked out? I am faulted for your employees mistake? Or for my friends not knowing or forgetting to hand in the registry when they checked out? Then I am stuck with $80 worth of things I do not need, when I could be purchasing items that would be very useful for me.

This was the response I got from them...
If you don't have a receipt, we still have a few options for you:

- Your Target store in Miami, FL will accommodate two no receipt returns a year for you on small gifts under $20.
- We have the ability to look up a receipt's information for the gift giver, so they can make a return on most purchases, provided they purchased your item with a check, Target GiftCard, credit or debit card within the past 90 days.

- If the gift giver still has the original receipt for the item, they have the ability to reprint a gift receipt at the Guest Service desk next time they visit Target.

And part of what I said back to them...
You are still telling me I am out of luck here. You want me to ask my friends to remember the exact items they got me (among several little baby items) and then go through their receipts or go back to Target with their credit card so I can get credit for my purchases? Doesn't that sound a little ridiculous to you?

As I stated before, I did receive the two credit returns for $20 each and I still have $40 worth of merchandise that I cannot use and that Target will not take back.

I understand why you have these policies. They are for people who abuse the system. I obviously am not one of those people because you can clearly see that my registry matches the UNOPENED items I am returning. Again, what if it was YOUR store employees fault for not scanning the registry? I am being faulted for their mistake.

9 comments:

Erin said...

You go girl! I understand their point, but agree with you 110%. Makes sense for everyday purchases, but a registry item return should be accepted no questions asked. They make sooooo much business off their registry that you would think they would go out of their way for customer service. I realize that they ALWAYS print out a gift receipt with every purchase, but I ALWAYS forget to include it!

That said, I still love Target! :) Keep us updated....I hope there is a happy ending to this story!

Johnson said...

Yeah, I hate to complain because I was so blessed at my shower and with all of the gifts I received. I don't want to seem ungrateful, but Target needs a good kick in the pants.

~Kelly

Anonymous said...

go kelly! i completely agree! i had the same annoying experience. our target has had that policy for a while i guess b/c after kaitlyn's registry i delt with the same things.. they told me to have my husband return some things too since i already had my two returns w/out reciepts..i guess you could just go have a bunch of people return for you.. i know its so frustrating! i always tell people not to register with them too... but i too still shop there..

Unknown said...

That was going to be my suggestion. Send Travis with the other $40.00 worth to get the money back. He is another person after all. But still, stand on your soap box and kick 'em!!

Anonymous said...

that's really crap policy kelly X_X

sorry for your frustrations

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry about your experience. We do get a lot of complaints about the new policy, but you could use your husbands id for two more returns, just a suggestion.

Johnson said...

I understand that I can use my husband's id to get the rest of my money. However, that is not my point. My point is that Target has a bad policy that punishes registered customers. It is not about finding loop holes in the policy, it is about changing it.

~Kelly

Anonymous said...

Look, you people are forgetting that in order to give store credit we need to know that the item was actually paid for. A gift reciept always prints out at the checklanes for ANY item on the gift registry. It is not up to us to give that gift receipt to you, that's your friends job. we're not going to baby you and bend over backwards for your friends mistake. If it's out of the store it's not our problem, it becomes yours.

Anonymous said...

I used to work the customer service desk, and I think about 50% of the customers who screamed at me were people angry over the registry. If only for the sake of the undertrained, underpaid Target people, DON'T register at Target.

That said, there was one time a woman and her mother got shafted by the registry return policy, they were so sweet and understanding about it... After the dozens of people who had treated me like crap... My grinch heart grew three sizes. I scammed the computer and gave them a bunch of illegal giftcards, and when my supervisor asked me I pretended I had just made a mistake. :D