Off-Target?
Target has been flying high in recent years due to its nice selection of merchandise and well-designed stores, which are especially popular with women. Target has also benefited from some anti-Wal-Mart backlash.
I've been pretty critical of Wal-Mart recently, but at least Wal-Mart will let you make a return without treating you like a criminal. A recent experience in poor customer service left me feeling that Target is a little off-target.
My wife purchased some items for our baby Ella's nursery that didn't quite work out. She wanted to return two curtain panels and a valance. She didn't have the receipt, so we knew that we wouldn't get our money back. No big deal. We'd take a store credit. Here's what transpired:
"We'd like to return these items," I said to the red-and-khaki-clad teenager at the customer service desk. "And we don't have a receipt."
"I can't give you your money back," he replied. "You'll have to do an exchange."
"Yeah, we figured," I said. "That's not a problem."
He also informed us that this was only allowed if we hadn't made more than two returns in the last 12 months, and that we were only allowed two returns, not three. "OK," I said rather smugly. "She's returning two items and I'm returning one."
"I'll need to see each of your IDs," he replied, looking rather annoyed.
I started to get that nagging little feeling that this wasn't going to go well.
After punching in enough digits on his register to program the Mars rover, he handed our IDs back and pronounced us clear for takeoff.
"You've got three items, totaling about $52, so, you'll need to get $52 worth of merchandise from the same department," he explained.
"You mean we can't exchange it for anything in the store?" I asked.
"No, it has to be from the same department," he said. "That's our policy."
My wife, knowing that I have little tolerance for such things, said, "It's OK. We'll find something else for Ella's room."
We marched off to the domestics department, found some other items that totaled about $52, and returned to the customer service desk. The same teenager then informed us that we could only exchange an item for an item. So, we really didn't have one $52 exchange; we had three exchanges that totaled $16, $16 and $20 each. Therefore, we could only get three items that were of those values or more and pay the difference. If the value was less, we were out the difference. "Uh, sorry I forgot to mention that the first time," he said.
At this point, I'm afraid I lost it. "I know this isn't your fault, but your policy is terrible," I said. "I'm being treated like a criminal because I don't have a receipt. I understand why you can't give me my money back, but I don't understand why I can't exchange my merchandise for whatever I want in your store."
"That's the policy," he said.
Well, it's my policy not to shop at stores that treat me like a criminal or an inconvenience. I understand that there are people who take advantage of return policies to steal from stores and there is a cost involved in restocking merchandise, but that's a cost of doing business that stores like Wal-Mart and Costco accept to keep their customers happy.
I'll target my spending elsewhere.
Shortly after my Target experience, I attempted to return some telephone equipment Quality Digest had purchased from Circuit City and Best Buy. Because we had kept the equipment for about six months, I wasn't expecting much, perhaps a store credit. Even though I had the receipts, both stores told me that their policy was no returns after 30 days. I realize that six months is a long time to keep something and expect a refund or even a store credit, but 30 days?
Even though Circuit City's and Best Buy's return policies may be more Draconian than Target's, I wasn't nearly as annoyed by them. I think it's because it was absolute. There was no attempt to make me find items from the same department and spend exactly the same amount of money. Also, I expect that electronic equipment becomes obsolete faster than curtain panels.
I'd like to hear your thoughts about customer service, the state of quality in the world and more. To make this easier, I recently launched a blog--The Quality Curmudgeon--that allows readers to share their feedback and experiences.
For those of you unfamiliar with what a blog (short for Web log) is, it's a Web page that allows the owner and viewers to post comments, stories, pictures and other stuff quickly and easily.
I've posted all of my 2005 columns on my blog, and I'll post exclusive editorial there as well. I'll respond to as many of the posts as possible. To view the blog, visit www.qualitycurmudgeon.blogspot.com.
I've titled the blog, "The Quality Curmudgeon" because it seems that those types of articles tend to get the most feedback and have the highest level of reader interest. Take a look and let me know if I'm off-target.
Scott M. Paton is Quality Digest's publisher.
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Scott M. Paton