I am a medical technologist and a working mother. My family just moved here in the US and we are enjoying the fruits of our sacrifice and hard work. However, we are currently living a consumers' nightmare courtesy of League City Super Target. We are a victim of a scam where an old broken TV unit is placed inside a box, sealed and being sold to unsuspecting customers. Target is fast to conclude that we are the ones responsible for the scam. Below is our story.
During Target's Thanksgiving Sale last year, we bought a TV set from League City Super Target. Around noon on November 29, we went to the store with the intention of finally purchasing a bigger and better TV set that we have been planning to purchase. We could have purchase it from other stores but we chose Target as we have a Target Card that we have not used for a long time.
After looking around at the different brands, we decided to get the Philips 42 Flat Screen TV. We checked out the item using my Target Card then we went straight home. We are all excited to have our first flat screen TV. When we arrived home, my husband opened the box and we were surprised to see that the TV inside was not the same set that we supposedly bought as indicated in the box. We found out that the TV inside the box is an old TV unit of a different brand (NEC), dusty and its screen is broken. There are also no manual and power chords.
I immediately called Target store and was able to talk to a Manager on duty. I relayed to her what we found inside the box. She instructed us to bring the merchandise back to the store.
Since I have to report for my work, only my husband brought the TV back to the store and proceeded to the Customer Service. The Customer Service staff however asserted that they cannot accept the merchandise as NEC was not a brand that they carry and that we have opened the box outside of the store premises. They concluded that the box we received could only contain the correct product. The staff is in effect implying that we switched an old TV with the new one and returned it to the store. Without going deeper into the situation, the Target staff is actually accusing us of being criminal elements.
Then I called the Target Guest Relations office. The person who received our call said that she talked to her supervisor and that they can not help us. She said she will call back to give us the manufacturer's contact number and we waited for her call but she never did.
We were told that upon review of the video recorded by the store cameras, they saw that my male companion (who is my husband) inspected the box. Sure he did! Just like any other regular customer, we inspected the box to see if the packaging indicates the brand, model and size of the appliance we chose. But obviously, one will not be able to know if the content is in fact the same as that indicated in the packaging.
In good faith, we assumed that since the box is sealed and the packaging indicates the brand, model and size of the TV we wanted, then that should be the item inside the box. Again that is what any customer would actually do. No customer will open a big box with all the hard plastic strap sealing right in the store and check its contents.
And if that is actually Target's store's policy then they should have informed us about it and it should be a store protocol that they open the box for the customer to check before every checkout. Otherwise, Target is being unfair and not transparent to its customers.
Later on the afternoon of the same day, I called Target Credit Card and ask that payment should be stopped to that transaction. Expectedly, since the credit card is also owned by Target, it was fast to side with the store and not with its client who were victimized.
On the succeeding days, we continued to make phone calls to Target as we continue to argue our case but apparently they already closed their minds and chose the convenient solution to the problem just blame the customers.
In the evening of January 7, we went back to the same Target store with a friend who pretended to buy a TV. We want to check if the store's staff will advice us to open the box to make sure that the item inside is correct. We also want to check if Target will inform us of a policy or a store protocol. We asked the staff who delivered the box if we need to open the box and he said there is no need. He also did not inform us of any store protocol or policy regarding opening the box outside of store premises.
The problem is that Target's personnel are fast to assume that we are criminal elements trying to defraud them. If we are trying to defraud Target, why did we choose a unit that cost only $899.99? We could have chosen other units of the same size that costs more. If we are simply trying to defraud Target why then would we even purchase a 3-year extended warranty worth $59.00 for the TV? If we are trying to defraud Target, we could be expert con-men who could really act so well that they can not even notice something fishy and suspicious in our actions and actuations recorded in their store videos.
The fact is Target's decision is wrong. Target has done a big injustice to us, honest middle class working family. With its anti-consumer decision, Target deprived our family with our hard-earned income.
Not only that but what this means is that there are criminal activities happening in Target's warehouse or somewhere along the chain; and these people would be repeating the same modus operandi as they are successful in making other people pay for their crimes.in this very case, it is us, honest customers; hard-working people who are being made to suffer by Target's apathy to a big scam that is happening in their store.
Joveejy
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.
0 comments