Target's Return Policy

I have no right to tell you that your opinion is either right OR
wrong...I will agree with you that in my personal experiences, Target
is definately NOT the leader in good 'ole Customer Service.

I recently had an electronic item stolen from my car that I had just
purchased for my Grandmother as a gift and it did not work (this kind
of made me giggle at the expense of the thief!). I was actually on my
way to return it...I went to my Grandmothers' nursing home and picked
it up, placed the item in my car, stopped at my house to GET THE
RECEIPT (Lord knows we don't want to misplace THAT) and while I was in
my house the car was broken into. I mean, this thing wasn't in my
back seat for 10 minutes, in my DRIVEWAY, and *POOF* it's gone.

So, whaddya do...I called the police, of course, and filed a report.
While he's writing all this down, I called my Grandmother to tell her
I would be a little longer than expected (she was waiting for me to
exchange it and bring her a new one that worked) and told her what had
happened. She said "well honey, there was a receipt in the box, I
made sure it was in there before you picked it up!"

WELLLL GREAT...NOW the thief has MY $50 set of non-working Philips
Cordless Headphones that don't work AND my name and credit card
number! Maybe HIS grandma can watch TV in HER nursing home without
disturbing her room-mate!

Well, now this just makes me angry. The policeman told me to go to
Target, explain the situation to them and let them know that a police
report was filed and the item was now considered stolen property, so
that if anyone brings it in for a return and produces MY receipt, they
may cooperate & call the police to catch this guy since my incident
was only one of 18 (EIGHTEEN!) in the last 2 weeks in my immediate
neighborhood and they really wanted to catch this person.

Being brand-new to our town, I'm pretty sure it would build a good PR
tactic for them to help me AND the police out on this issue, thus
gaining alot of confidence from the community.

After explaining all this to a girl of about 18 with multi-colored
hair and black fingernail polish, who replied by blowing bubbles with
her very obvious watermelon-flavored gum and without doubt wanting to
be somewhere else, she referred me to her "manager".

Believe me, it doesn't get any better!

So, again, I calmly explain my situation and relayed the officers'
suggestion that they watch for MY receipt and if nothing else, (I
mean, your name and last 4 numbers of the debit/credit card are
printed on the receipt, how hard can this be?!) DELAY the transaction
while notifying the police of his/her presence. That's it. The police
would then show up and question the person. Target personnel wouldn't
have to do any more than this. Easy, no?

NO. She tells me that this would be against their "policy", to
"question" a "guest" about a valid return-with-receipt.

**OKAY** let's pick THAT apart:
"policy" - what about customer service to the actual PAYING
"guest"...
"question" - they didn't have to question anything...all they had to
do was play dumb (HA!) for a few minutes, pick up the phone and call
911 and "delay" the transaction (come on, don't we ALL usually have to
wait 5-15 minutes for "approval" or something like that?!) until the
police arrived and took over (small town, wouldn't have taken 5-6
minutes)
"guest" - since WHEN is a thief, producing stolen-property AND someone
else's receipt, a "GUEST"?

After reassuring her that I wasn't asking her to break any "company
policies", which, excuse me, but isn't RUDE BEHAVIOR on their list of
stuff to NOT do? I'm pretty sure that an 18-year old with a bad
attitude, rolling her eyes and smacking her foul-smelling gum in my
face telling me to have a nice day is not anyone's idea of Customer
Service. I would call that RUDENESS.

Anyway, so I talk to this woman for a good 20-30 minutes (would you
believe I kept my cool?) and FINALLY talked her into at LEAST writing
down my information "just in case" someone came in with my receipt.
OK, I didn't expect much but if nothing else, the gesture made me feel
a LITTLE better.

Well, ya know those big round bubble mirrors they put on the ceiling
to catch thieves (goodness, gracious can you believe they don't want
people stealing from THEM?)...well, they catch alot more than
thieves...

On my way out the door, I saw her throw that piece of paper in the
trash.

And THIS, I wonder, would be in their policy book on how to treat a
guest?

Needless to say, I will never step foot into another Target store in
my lifetime.

Kimberly Hood
Weatherford, Texas

I work at a customer service desk. Allow me to bring up the old adage
of "Do not criticize a person unless you have walked a mile in their
shoes." With that said, let me give you a bit of insight as to what
we on this side of the counter have to go through on a daily basis.
First off, let me point out that when we say "no", it's nothing
personal. We don't know you, we don't really care who you are. We
say "no", because you want something that we have been told by our
supervisors, managers, and corporate policy that we do not have the
ability to give you. We don't want to say "no", because it makes you
angry and belligerent towards us, when all we are trying to do is our
jobs to the best of our abilities, especially when complaints from
unhappy customers make our employment such a fragile thing. On the
othr hand, it is not our fault, our companies' faults, or the
manufacturer's fault that you cannot or will not hold onto your
receipt. Receipts are gold, folks. Want a hassle-free return? KEEP
YOUR RECEIPT!!! I can't stress that enough. Why should we have to
pay for your incompetence in managing your shopping experience?
Another thing - most return policies are very generous in giving you
90 days (that is 3 whole months!) to return something. That is to
make sure that the things you buy are in working order, and have no
flaws or defects. We are not rental agencies. Don't buy something if
all you intend to do is use it but not keep it. Whenever we take
something back that is used/dirty/abused/broken, we don't get any
credit for it, and it is considered a loss and taken out of our
store's profit margin. You might say, "Big deal. The stores make
millions or billions of dollars of profit. Why should they care about
my $20.00 item that I'm returning?" Because, good folks, that loss is
not coming out of the pockets of the bigwigs. They get their money
either way. Who is suffering is us, the low-level employee, losing
out on raises, bonuses, and benefits becasue the store isn't turning
enough of a profit. That is the other reason we try to make our stand
on the return policy. We don't want to lose out on more money. It's
hard enough when we get people screaming, throwing things, and
insulting us. Please, just think about what we have to go through and
give us some understanding the way we try to give you understanding.

Target is terrible in returns and they will continue because customers
keep flocking at target stores. Look at the response to you complaint.
Everyoone just mentions that they love Target. I am not sure why. I
think they are terrible.

I know from being on the receiving end of a rude cashier how you feel.
However, if it's their store policy to place restrictions on certain
returns with "gifr receipts" or "no reciept" I don't think it's
unreasonable, They did try in some way to please you when you called
and spoke to a manager...a little flexiblity on your part and a little
flexibility on their part could have resolved this issue.

You did recieve full value for the returned ring so you are left
whole. They offered a little something for your trouble and you
refused. I can't defend you on this one.They at least tried. Now they
know how you feel and I doubt they'll try after being refused once.

Maybe a better solution would be to give them the benefit of the doubt
after some time passes.

And I'm sure posting your personal iformation was an
oversight...happens to us all from time to time.

Forget the letter...I just can't get past the fact that you gave out
your personal information on a public site...wow

If I were you, Cheryl, I would not post my phone number on a public,
internet forum that thousands of people read each day. That's like
saying "hey! I want lots of random people to call me at all hours of
the day. Hey Kids! PLEASE crank call me!"

Cheryl, Cheryl, Cheryl (sighs heavily).

I grow so tired of explaining this to the self-entitled and I know
we've all heard it a thousand times before, but NO does not always
equal bad customer service.

I understand that the ring was a gift, however, without any proof of
how much was paid for it or how it was paid for, how can they
accurately issue anything other than a store credit to you? What were
they supposed to do? Hand you cash and let you take your business
elsewhere?

The return policy is not "insane" at all. It is in place to protect
the interests of the company. You might not like that, but did you
not read the article about the White House Staff Member who had bilked
Target out of thousands of dollars by making fraudulent returns? If
it were your business, would you just hand over cash to any Tom, Dick
or Harry that walked in the door and demanded to return/exhcange
something?

The Guest Service Team member (regardless of her perceived
"attitude.") did you a favor by allowing you to exchange without a
receipt and even gave you back the difference in cash, which was
always a HUGE no-no when I was there. Yet, you are STILL
complaining.

I guess I don't understand what your point is here, other than to
whine. You got what you wanted, you were even offered additional
coupons by the manager. But somehow, you were still dissatisfied
enough to come to PFB and post this letter! What exactly is it you
hope to accomplish?

If you truly wanted to be outraged, why aren't you upset with whoever
bought you the cheap ring you didn't like in the first place and
didn't bother to give you a gift receipt in case it wasn't your taste?

Regarding returns without receipts:

SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS, PEOPLE!!!!

Why is this so difficult? Why is it so much to ask for people to hold
themselves accountable for their own purchases and finances?

Here is a little secret about me: I am EXTREMELY disorganized. I'll
give you one guess as to what happens to my receipts. Yep, you guessed
it! Ninety percent of the time, I lose them or throw them away. The
other ten percent of the time, the purchase is for a big ticket item,
In these cases, I have to FORCE myself into organizational mode and
put the receipt and it's corresponding warranty away.

Now, having said this, do I whine and cry when I want to return
something without the receipt? NO. Why? Because I hold myself
accountable for my own actions. I could choose to be more organized
and save them. I don't, and I have to live with the consequences.

How is it a retailers fault when a person doesn't follow the POSTED
rules of returns? Every other letter on PFB seems to be someone
WHINING and CARRYING ON because the big-bad retailer wouldn't break
the rules for them.

I just don't get it. And it makes me very, very frustrated.

why do people complain and accuse of people of being rude when they
don't get their way. it is the store policy, that's it. every store i
know asks for a recepit. target even prints out a gift receipt, just
in case you need to return a gift.

i have never had any problems with target. some of the employees have
this attitude to them, but only once was one very rude. people are
rude is south florida so i guess i am used to it. i have always found
soemone to ask for help, even though sometimes they don't know. as for
returning items, never had any problems.


about returning to the service desk i know that if you are exchanging
they ask you to come back to the serivce desk and they give you some
sort of receipt. if you exchange they give you your money or credit
and you can run along.

why do paople say that wal mart's return policy is better? the line is
always huge, and sadly in my area, the employees at walmart are as
rude as can be.

Why are people so nasty in response to this letter. I just wrote a
letter to Target regarding a similar situation when trying to return a
baby gate. Actually the return policy at Wal-mart is much more
accomodating to today's busy consumer. It's unreasonable to expect
that a customer could find an item in the same department for the
sdame price on the same day as the return.

Sorry Cheryl to see there are so many negative responses to your
letter. That Redhead person must work for Target becuase she/he is
always bashing anyone that says anything bad about Target. Target
sucks lately all around and they are supposed to be more up scale than
the rest. HAHAHAHAHA thats a joke!!!

>>>>First of all, did you know that stating your name as "Mrs.
Cheryl"
indicates you're divorced? If you're married, you use your husband's
first name.hey also failed to tell me that I had to bring my exchange
back up to the customer service area...I found this out after standing
in line at one of the cash registers.

when old ladies use it, like when they sign off on their letters to
the editor in the paper.

I think we need a new system. There's no different title for a man
who's married v. single. Kinda sexist.

where is our female president? heehee Other countries have female
leaders so that would make us backwards!

Cheryl...I live VERY close to you. Actually, I work even closer to
you. Thanks for including your address. Maybe I will give you a visit!
ROFL!

I just want to say this. If you needed help in the accessory dept.
then all you had to do was ask for it.

Also, I do believe, from your letter, than the attitude problem
started with YOU. You didnt get what you wanted the way you wanted it
so you pitched a fit. And then you expected the employee to kiss your
tootie. Yeah...thats gonna happen.

Dont spend your money at Target. Do them a favor. The responsible and
rational people will continue to shop there and not have a problem
with the return policy.

By the way...the San Jose Target is a nice store is a pretty good part
of town. Just putting that out.

And also just wanted to say the quipe about me coming to visit
you....JUST A JOKE!

http://www.target.com/gp/browse.html/601-8933735-5628109?%5Fencoding=U
TF8&node=1068622

This link is Targets in-store online return policy. Doesn't say
anything about a receipt that only allows you to return an item on the
same day before closing during a full moon when Mars and Venus are
aligned.

I honestly don't think there is anyone or anything in this world that
is going to make you happy. I could take the time to retype what
everyone else has said but instead of that, maybe I'll give you a call
since you so graciously gave everyone your phone number.

Sounds to me like Target has a policy that inconveniences a lot of
customers, as I have seen plenty of the same complaint. It is their
policy, but it doesn't make the customer feel so good about the maze
you need to travel to get the exchange. Hopefully they will make it
easier on both their customers and the employees that have to
implement this policy.

Why didn't you get the receipt or the gift receipt?

Am I horrible person because I'm thinking about taking advantage of
the fact that Cheryl posted her phone # and address?

Are you serious? You came into a Target with an item but no receipt,
they were willing to exchange it even without any proof of it's
provenance, and you are upset about some "body language?" Come on
now, be honest, are there more stores *on* your "list of places that I
no longer will do business with," than not? I have a feeling that the
answer is yes. I also have a feeling that Target's employees would
breathe a sigh of relief if they were to read this letter.

As an aside, it is the height of idiocy to post your full name, phone
number, and physical address on the internet. When will people learn
that there are crazy people out there?!

First of all, there was probably no employees near the locked up
jewelry because they can't stand in one spot the whole time. They have
other stuff to do. That's why there's a call button there if you need
help. If you press it, an employee will come within 60 seconds to help
you. If you were such a "good customer" and you spent so much money at
the store, you would know that.

Second, the store closes at 10. You had four hours to decide what you
wanted to get.

Third, if you really have a list of places that you "no longer will do
business with", my guess is that you're one of those customers who
complains too much and expects everyone to kiss your feet.

You spent $500 this month. You know they never have any help in that
department at any of their stores. Yet you don't know the return
policy.
They took something back without a receipt (or as you know - a gift
receipt that prints automatic with purchase yet was not given to you
with the gift). They went past their return policy, yet you're angry.
My guess is your list of stores that you don't shop is pretty long.

You claim that you don't want any coupons or freebies - - so why did
you include your full mailing address and home phone number in your
letter if you're not hoping to be contacted?