Whenever an employee at a store doesn’t understand their own store’s policies, I never know who to be angry with – the employee or management. Because it’s quite possible the employee was never adequately trained, like the one I dealt with at Target this morning.
Back in late December I purchased some Up & Up (a Target brand) panty liners. I’ve been buying these for years now. I didn’t actually run out of them until recently and was disappointed to learn they completely changed them. They aren’t as long as before, the sticky backing is a bitch to remove, they bunch up, and the top layer literally disintegrates after a few hours. I wrote a 1 star review online and noticed a ton of people complaining about the same issues.
I couldn’t remember when I had purchased them, so I went through my orders on the app to see. I was bummed when I realized it had been more than four months, but then I noticed they have return exceptions.
The first one actually addresses this:
“If you’re not satisfied with any Target Owned Brand item, return it within one year with a receipt for an exchange or a refund.”
So off to Target we went with my opened box of panty liners to get a refund but the girl helping me out claimed that policy only applies to clothing, even after I opened up the app and showed her that exact verbiage. Then she told me she’d override the system and ended up giving me the refund back in cash. She was pleasant, so I remained pleasant, but I was still irked that she was acting as if she was doing me a favor. She even had the audacity to tell me she’s worked there four years as if she knew better than I did.
So of course I immediately chatted with Target customer service when I got home. The first person I spoke with transferred me to their store related customer service. They confirmed I was interpreting their policy correctly, apologized, said they would contact the store management, and offered me a $15 gift card for my trouble. I declined it, though, since I wasn’t trying to get anything extra from them. I honestly just want them to have adequately trained employees who don’t make their guests feel like they are doing something wrong asking for them to honor their own policy. Hopefully that girl doesn’t get in any trouble, particularly if she wasn’t trained properly.
They don’t have an option to email yourself the entire chat history, so I was only able to grab a couple of screenshots:
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Kohls
In late November I ordered a couple of Tek Gear sweatshirts from Kohl’s. I fell in love with the brand a couple of years ago when I got multiple sweatshirts secondhand from Savers. I was particularly excited about the deep green sweatshirt I got for under $10 on sale. I only wear it occasionally with a particular pair of leggings, so I’ve only washed/worn it a few times since getting it. I was folding it after washing it last month and noticed there was a very thin spot on the front. I could put my finger behind it and see it. Not good.
I chatted with customer service online but they couldn’t help me even though I ordered it online because I picked it up at the store; I would need to take it back there. That was frustrating because I could tell they didn’t have any replacement sweatshirts in that color at the store, which I explained to the representative I chatted with. They said it would be possible they could order it at the store to be shipped there and do the exchange that way. Well, I kinda sat on that for a bit and finally decided today I really needed to address the issue. I checked online but now there aren’t any dark green (juniper green, to be exact) ones at all, even online. Damnit!
I called the store and explained the situation and they said they could process it as a no receipt return but I’d only get whatever clearance price the system has listed for it. Online it was showing $10 and I know I paid a little less than that, so I thought that should work, and headed to the store.
For whatever reason, though, the system was only willing to give me back $6.94. I wasn’t happy with that since I paid more than that and have a faulty product. I asked the girl if I could do an even exchange for a different color, and she went to ask a manager. I overheard him say that if it’s been over six months he wouldn’t personally approve it, but she could ask another manager if she wanted.
As she headed back toward me I told her I thought they return period was only four months, but my purchase was on November 22nd so it was less than six months, therefore we could do a receipt return so I can get all my money back. It ended up being $9.21. I’m sad I no longer have the green shade of sweatshirt I wanted, but happy it worked out. Maybe I’ll find one at Savers one day.