I ordered three items related to car batteries (special jumper-cable type products that work through the cigarette lighter in the car or cars) back in early August. After several attempts to use them (one was solar-powered, and designed to keep a car battery from running out of juice when not in use), with little or no success—I finally started my car by rolling it down the hill! —I decided to return the worthless products to the nearest Target store (as it said I could do when I ordered them), then shop for some other things that I might want.
My next bad experience was looking for a non-existent receipt. When I went back on-line, the web site said I had never ordered anything at all! Luckily I still had the box, with my name and address and the return address, as well as the credit card bill with the charges from Target, so I decided to go to the store anyway.
When I arrived, they (naturally) said I would need a receipt, and we went to their store computer, which repeated my previous experience. Luckily, when I persisted (and since I had the box, the three items and my credit card bill) the clerk made a phone call to someone who was able to confirm the purchases and authorize her to refund the original cost, minus the shipping charges.
I asked if they were going to refund the shipping charges, since the items were clearly useless, and the person on the phone suggested that I go home and call Target. I absolutely refused, since at that point I would no longer have the items, there was no receipt, and no one could see my credit card bill over the phone or on line!
At that point I asked for a supervisor, who spent almost thirty minutes on the phone to get my lousy $16 worth of shipping refunded. The supervisor, who was very nice and understood (and knew that the lack of a receipt was an ongoing problem) should have had the right to make the refund on the spot, without wasting any more of my time (or hers). I was there for nearly an hour at the counter to return three defective items, mainly because of Target's defective computer system compounded by their defective policies toward almost everyone!!!
I left the store without buying anything at all, and I can't really think of a reason ever to buy anything from Target Stores again, either on-line or in person.
Yours truly,
Ruth Ellen Treisman
[email protected]
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