False advertising by Target

The two day sale flyer for the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving 2008 advertised a 2 gig thumb drive. It clearly says the price is $8.88 and includes 40 free prints. The website said the same. I went to the store and the package has the same information. It was a special deal between Target and Kodak and has the information printed inside the plastic package. "40 free prints. Who doesn't love free? 40 prints for you, from Target." You can't get much clearer than that! It also said "See coupon inside for offer" but you can't get to that unless you cut open the plastic package. I assumed it had some unimportant details such as expiration date.

Upon reading the coupon which was hidden inside, it turns out that this offer is not for 40 free prints. The coupon clearly states you receive 40 "free" prints with the purchase of 40 or more. This is NOT free. This is buy 80 for half price. I don't think I'm being overly picky here - this is very misleading and quite wrong.

I called customer service and spoke to a supervisor who took my phone number then put me on hold to research my complaint. After a few minutes, their system hung up on me. Since he had my phone number, I assume he'd call me back but he never did. I called back and finally got someone who took three tries to correctly record my phone number. I don't know what she was doing for several minutes but we never even got to my problem so I asked for someone else. That supervisor told me there was nothing she could do except for me to pay for the 40 prints and send her the receipt after which she would send me a store credit. While better than nothing, this is a lot of unnecessary effort on my part. I also have to trust I eventually receive the credit. What I wanted was some way to go to the store and get my 40 free prints without the hassle. But they don't know of any way. It took me 45 minutes on the phone to find this out.

Since it does not seem to be possible to communicate with anyone higher than customer service by phone, I wrote a polite letter to Gregg Steinhafel, President, asking how I could get the promised 40 free prints. I gave my address, phone number and email address.

About two weeks later, I received an email from Joseph who said he wanted to discuss this with me and to call him. He gave the customer support phone number and a reference number. I went through their horrible phone system again on Monday morning and finally got someone who told me he wasn't in yet but would be told I called. That was over a week ago and I still haven't heard from him. I don't know why he didn't call me himself in the first place.

I encourage everyone who was mislead by this item to write and complain to

Mr. Gregg Steinhafel, President

Target Corporation

1000 Nicollet Mall

Minneapolis, MN 55403

1-800-440-0680

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Follow up from original author...

Wed December 31, 2008 at 10 AM I called again and Mike told me Joseph, Cust Support Supervisor, was away from his desk but would call me. Mike informed Joe called me once before and left a message. I never received a call or a message.

Tue January 7, 2009 11:40 AM. I called. Mike tried to transfer me to Joe only to find he was away from his desk and would call. Mike said Joe is the only person who could handle my issue.

Wed January 8, 2009 2 PM. Joe called. He didn’t seem to be up on the details of what had happened but apoligized for the misunderstanding. I told him thank you but it was not a misunderstanding… the ads were wrong. He said he would have it looked into.

Thursday January 15, 2009. Received a call from someone in Consumer Affairs. Although the coupon is very ambiguous and poorly worded, it turns out it WILL be accepted for 40 free prints. It turns out that he purchased the same item and misunderstood the coupon in the same way. Ok, I stand corrected. But all of this could have been handled in one phone call had Target Customer Service just explained that to me during my first call. And the way I was treated after my letter is completely unacceptable. They really do have a lot to learn about treating their customers right.