Target, Worst "Guest Service" Ever.

I was looking through Target the other day and I saw a video game I had been wanting. So, I purchased it along with a few other things. The game was $37, tax included. I got the game home and ripped the cellophane off only to notice the top sticker said "pc requirements." So, I read the pc requirements and realize "oh, well my computer is not equipped with this, so I should return the game BEFORE I open it."

A few days later I go to a Target closer to my home (different from the original store where the game was purchased). The game was purchased at a Colonie, NY Target and I was going to return it at a closer Wilton, NY Target. I walk in the store and this bitter old woman is standing there arguing with the customer in front of me, oh sorry.. I meant to say "guest." Riiiiiight. The woman eventually leaves angry and red faced. It's my turn. I step up to the counter and say "I'd like to return this for a refund." She looks at the game with the stickers still in tact and the game never being opened and she says "this has been opened." So, I say "no, I did rip the cellophane off, but it hasn't been opened. So, "Diane," takes her grubby fingernail and rips the top sticker off of the game and says "yes, it has been opened." I tell her "no, YOU JUST OPENED IT." She says "no you did." Seriously, how petty is this!? So, I get annoyed and ask her what she can do for me. She says "is the game defective?" I say "well, I wouldn't know because I didn't open it." She says "well, if it's not defective I can't do anything for you." I say "well, it is 'defective' to me because I am unable to use it." She continues to stand there with her lips pursed and covered with dried cracking pink lipstick. She says "there's nothing I can do for you." I say "well, I need to speak to someone else then."

She promptly at this point says "well, I can give you the number to guest relations." So, I suggest that I would like that. I go over to the red phone and dial the number she had given me and the guy tells me she gave me the wrong number! So, he gives me the right number, I call it and the guy "Doug," from customer service tells me the same thing that I cannot return the game because the cellophane is not on the game. At times like this I wish I had a damn cellophane wrapper!!! AHHHH!

Anyway, Diane at this point is yelling over the counter at me in the Target store while I am still on the phone with Doug from guest relations. So, I end up hanging up on him and reaching over the counter to grab my game and leave.

So, I go online at home and the target policy states that if a game is defective then you can return it for a full refund. At least, that is how I read it. So, I call up "Scott" from guest relations (the number I got from the target.com website) and he says "yes, you should be able to return it for a full refund if the game is defective." So, I get in my car with the game in tow (now opened, thanks to DIANE!) and plan on telling the guest relations expert (haha) that the game is defective in order to get my refund.

I pull up to the Colonie, NY location where I originally bought the game and I tell the person at the GR that I would like to return this game "it is defective." I made up some lie that it kept turning my computer off and that it was defective. I needed to lie only because otherwise I would've been in the same situation as before. The girl says "um, no ma'am, we can't return that." I said "well, it is defective and I spoke to someone named Scott on the phone at Target.com and he said I would be able to get a refund on it." She said "well, let me call my manager down here just for you..." She gave me a snotty attitude and when her manager arrived she said in a snotty tone "she (referring to me) says that she called a guy named Scott and he told her she could get a refund, and now to my acknowledge (nice grammar by the way target employee, it's knowledge, not acknowledge) she can't get a refund unless the game is unopened." The manager then states the same exact thing the other girl stated just then, and says that all I can have is another game. She even said that they would have to rip the cellophane off of it because that is how I brought it to them. So, whatever.

I go back and grab another game, when all I wanted was a refund. I get back to the counter and the girl forgets to unwrap the cellophane!!! MY WIN! Seriously. So, I say thanks and leave the store in a hurry.

I get back to my car and drive to the Clifton Park, NY Target where I go in with my original receipt and this newly cellophane wrapped game. I say I need to make a return. She says ok, scans the receipt and says "did you just try to return this?" I say, "yes, and the girl at the albany store wouldn't give me a refund, so I told her I was going to a different store." She said "oh, well can I see that receipt that she gave you?" And, I gladly hand it over and she says "well, I take it the original game was opened?" I look up and say "no, it wasn't." So, she says "ok, can I have your credit card?" I open my wallet and get my refund.

Target, if you're going to create these crazy policies, which are totally ridiculous by the way, you might want to consider hiring people who actually graduated high school. Maybe you might even want to consider hiring people with bachelor's degrees. There are always loopholes, and if you're going to be so petty as to stop me from returning something because of a measly cellophane wrapper, expect me to buy a cellophane wrapper on late night tv, just to spite you. Your corporation sucks, and the reason it sucks is because you have unreal policies and nothing really too unique to your store. So what--- you sell Isaac Mizrahi sunglasses, BIG damn DEAL. I can easily drive to wal-mart or k-mart or any other store that sells big stupid sunglasses and get those. I will never in my life step in a Target store again, I will never drive anyone to a Target store again. I'm even considering never going into the same parking lot and shopping at other stores bordering the Target again. Thank you for your absolutely horrible service, you just lost my business.

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Comment On This

I empathize with this frustrated consumer. What is happening to the way businesses are run in this country? It used to be that the customer was always right and that employees treated customers with respect and appreciation, for without them they wouldn't have a job. One of my biggest complaints is that "customer service" is a thing of the past.

Comment On This

Many stores have the same policy with the same kind of customer service, not just Target. You will be very limited on where you can shop and people with bachelors degree usually are not going to work in the customer service field in a retail store.