Target Customer Service Sucks!

I try to always keep this blog scrap-related, but tonight I'm going off topic a bit. I do know that a lot of you do get a lot of your scrapping supplies at Target though, so it's kind of related. Anyway, here goes:

Ok, so I've always know that Target is not user friendly when it comes to returns, but the "service" that we received at our target in Flint, Michigan tonight was beyond horrible.

My Mother stops in at this store at least once a week and buys outfits for each of my girls. She's just that kind of Grandma (and customer). Anyway, the shorts for my oldest that were purchased earlier today were the wrong size. We took them back to the store just to do an even exchange (the wrong size for the right size). Seems simple enough right? So wrong!

The fault on our part was not checking to make sure the receipt was in the bag. My girls had been so excited to see shopping bags at Grandmas, that they tore through the bags not knowing that some things had to go back. So, it was our bad that we did not have the receipt when we walked in the door.

However, apparently it is Target's policy to not allow even exchanges without a receipt. Keep in mind that we were not trying to return them for cash or credit, we just wanted to switch the size. What they could do is let us return the wrong size at the penalty of the sale price and then go through the line and purchase the right size at the full price. That, or we could drive home, get the receipt and go back, but with gas $4+/gallon, who wants to do that?

Top that with the way they handled it. Now, when I started in retail 20 years ago, I was taught to apologize, apologize, apologize any time a customer was upset. Had we heard at any time, something such as, "I'm really sorry about this, but the store policy has our hands tied," we probably would not have gotten so mad. However, nothing even remotely close was even said. Instead, they were rude and even had the nerve to talk down to us (as though working at Target makes them far superior to those of us customers to whom they depend on for their jobs). The "clerk," actually said, "Do you understand that you don't have your receipt?" Can you believe that? When I said, "So at Target, policy comes before service?" she answered, "Yes it does."

So, long rant short, we are lucky to live in an area where we have many choices of where to shop. Sorry Target, you fail in customer service, you fail to get our business any longer.