Abob Teff

I ordered a few movies from Target’s Black Friday sale online. They arrived very quickly (actually on the Sunday after Thanksgiving). I was very pleased with this quick and easy transaction. Unfortunately, two of the four were incorrect items. They should have been the BR+DVD+Digital versions but they sent the single disc BR versions.

I verified the website, my order confirmation, shipping e-mail, etc. all said and showed the multi-packs. I went online and reported the mistake through their automated self-serve system (no live customer service agent). It basically said “no problem, we’ll fix it, no need to ship the wrong ones back”. Cool, still happy with this easy and seemingly quick resolution.

It took over a week for the replacement package to arrive, but I’m not going to complain. I open the replacment package and ... still the wrong items. Again, everything shows the multi-pack, but I received single disc BRs. My happy is starting to fade ... I go online again and try to get a “live” agent but am told none are available. I end up doing the same self-serve reporting. Same message: don’t send it back, we’ll fix it. Then it offers me a survey that I expressed my frustration in and asked for a person to contact me.

The next day I decide to go to the local store with the 4 BRs (2 of each title) to see if they can help. I didn’t expect them to be able to, but they said sure! They send me back to look for the correct movies. I find one in the BR+DVD+Digital pack. They do not have the other, just the single disc BR version. The customer service folks (really nice guy and gal) look it up and say they have a bunch of them. They go over and discover the tag and system claim the single disc is the multi-pack.

The gal says “Would you want the 4K version? It has the BluRay and the Digital code, just not the DVD.” I’m OK with that.

I go back up to the customer service desk up front and explain it to the guy who initially helped me. “No problem, we’ll do it since you are having so much trouble online.” He tries to scan the packing slips but can’t get the transaction to come up in their system. He tries to look up my credit card number, nothing. He tries using my ID, nothing. Then he says “I’ll just return these, give you cash, adjust the prices on the new ones, and you pay for it from the cash.” Fine by me.

He scans back all four BRs at $6 each, and sets $26 and some change ($24 + tax) on the counter. He the adjusts the correct ones down to $6 each and charges me $13 and change. I ask if that’s right and he says yes.

Uh, OK ... so I paid $13 and some change online for these two. I got a 4K upgrade on one, got the correct other one, and then he gave me my money back (for the second set which was a free replacement).

When I get home and check my e-mail I have a short message from Target.com saying they cannot fill my order (even though both items are still available online) and are issuing me a refund. Well, another refund I guess.

I am one who usually tries to help customer service people out when they make mistakes. I generally attribute their shortfalls to the company or supervisor who trained (or failed to train) them. But when the company is busy stepping on its own toes, I tend to get out of their way and enjoy the debacle that happens.

Thanks Target! Had your online customer service been of any service, you’d have a happy customer and not lost money. Instead, I’m unhappy with you and the fact that I had to spend my energy fixing my order. I’m not going to spend any more energy trying to fix the fact that you gave me a double refund PLUS an upgraded product.

Am I bad? (Or am I just drawn that way?)

movieguru

Target's inventory system is always screwed up. i tried to order some Bose Headphones from them online for instore pickup. It sais they had 3 in stock at that store, I ordered one. They cancelled saying not available. Their online system still said 3 for at least a week after. Placed another order for the headphones at another location. Same thing happened. Rince and repeat a few more times. Called customer service and complained because I had bought a Target gift card to make the purchase and didn't want it if they were going to keep cancelling my orders. They told methey would mark a note in my account and I could go to my local Target and get a cash refund for the gift card. Of course when I went there, there was no note in the system and i had to waste an hour there while they contacted their corporate office to get the refund authorized. They refused to authorize it and told me I could just spend the gift card in the store. I will never again order from them as their systems are not alligned and it's just ends up being a huge waste of time.

Troy Stiffler

That happens because those 3 are lost or stolen. And they are not allowed to manually adjust stock quantities. It’ll get updated a few months from now when they do an inventory adjustment by scanning every single upc in the store.

All the big box stores have this problem. Mostly because of theft.

movieguru

Possible. It would be weird that there was that much theft on Bose headphones at a number of different locations considering they are locked up in their glass cases unless they have a lot of untrustworthy employees at each location that has access to the electronic items.

One employee told me that they count the demo one in their inventory, so when it says one they really don't have any. Seems inefficient to count the demo though since they wouldn't be able to fullfill a store pick up order if they only have their stock listed as one.

Abob Teff

If you were ordering it online for in-store pickup ... shouldn’t they have shipped them to the store if the store didn’t have them in stock?

The store inventory has nothing to do with it so that excuse is invalid. I think it was a case like mine, they advertised a sale they had no intention of honoring.

In my case, store inventory had nothing to do with it. They were deliberately choosing to refuse to send the correct items. The right ones were available online, they just didn’t want to honor the sale. It could be they screwed up and listed the wrong ones, but they never said that and have made no effort to correct it.

PhantomStranger

I've heard that Target.com orders are often filled by local Target stores around Christmas because of inventory issues. People may remember when I complained about being shipped a Blu-ray locked inside one of their plastic security cases for in-store usage. When I went to return it to the store, the clerk told me this was the third time she had done it that week.

zyzzle

Think of the extra $13 and the online refund as payment for your time and aggravation. You did nothing wrong, and I'm very glad that you ended up profiting from their screwup. Good to you for persevering.