Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Tuesday's Rant: Online Returns in Store

Most Tuesdays I take the opportunity to rant about something I do not like about Target… because although I love ‘em to death, they ain’t perfect. Today’s rant is about something new I just learned in the Target return line, and I thought I'd pass the tip on to you, dear readers.

When you return something ordered online from Target.com to the store, you first need to go online to print out a receipt to return the item(s) in store. Now say you've ordered 6 items, but you only want to return 3 of them. The online process prompts you to pick all the items you want to return at once (by simply ticking off the ones to return) and adds them all to one return receipt. They will appear each as separate line items on the receipt, but all be on one page. I never used to have a problem with this, until just recently. Now, the Customer Service Rep. starts the return and can't get past one item. Frustrated, they then ask me for my Target Red Card to complete the return of the other items.

A helpful Target employee clued me in to the issue yesterday. It seems that Target has changed something in their back-end system, and while the multi-item receipt used to work, he instructed me that it's now a lot better (albeit more work) to print out one separate receipt for EACH item you want to return. Otherwise, they need to start to try to process the return, then usually give up when the system cannot find the additional items on the receipt. For some reason, they're just not registering.

Now I think this is pretty silly, and annoying, but I am glad that this guy gave me this tip. While I'm not thrilled to be printing out more receipts, I'll gladly do it if it gets me through the returns line at Target faster!

5 comments:

txmom said...

I had this exact problem on several occasions in the last three weeks. Ordered quite a few items (boots and shoes that were sold out in stores, fleece in a couple of different colors and some pillows) thinking that if they didn't work out I could return easily to one of the two Target Stores within 7 miles of hy house. Was not the case. The first three items I tried to return (and I had printed the receipt as instructed at home for all three) resulted in a 45 minute ordeal with the customer service sales associate having to call in for an elaborate override and multiple codes to get my items returned. The next time I took an itme in to return, I thought it might be OK since it was just one thing, but no....same scenario. After spending 35 minutes returning the item, I called corporate and reported my experience. They were very nice, but clueless as to why this was happening! I returned the pillows (too big for my couch) last week. The Customer service desk ran into the same problem again. I had printed one receipt with 4 pillows and then 4 separate receipts. What DID speed up the return was CS asking for the Credit Card I had used to pay for the items. They somehow swiped that and in conjunction with my receipts were able to accomplish the return pretty quickly. I am now pretty hesitant to order things from Target.com unless I am pretty sure I am going to keep them or I have an extra 45 minutes to spend at CS returning the item!However, I love Target and hope that they get this fixed! I do have to say that all the Target employees I cam in to contact with were very nice and tried to help as best they could.

Target Addict said...

Txmom, I hear ya. Ordering online IS tempting, especially this time of year in order to avoid the crowds/lines in store. And Target's "free shipping on orders over $50" also reels you in. But I think I'll be curbing my online orders in the future too.

Unknown said...

I had a bizarre problem today-I found an Anna Sui jumper (the grey one with the black velvet trim) on the %75 rack today. When I went to buy it, the price would not come up on the scanner, and they told me it was no longer in the system, AND that I could not buy it...I asked the clerk exactly what was going to become of it, and she told me they would just put it back on the floor. After a 20 minute harangue with a manager, I got it for $14.98. But the whole thing was very weird, almost like, it is here, but it isn't...

Target Addict said...

Laura, I've had that problem before. Sometime the merchandise is so "old" (meaning its been out on the racks for so long) that it's finally taken out of their computer system. BUT, in these cases, they're supposed to honor the lowest clearance price printed on the tag. I'm glad they finally gave it to you, but they shouldn't have given you a hard time; they should have just sold it to you for 75% automatically.

sweetsy said...

I had the same issue returning an online order to Target. I thought it was a fluke..glad to know this valuable, time-saving info! I will be sure to print out sep receipts (stupid waste of paper that it is;)I don't like the way they make you jump through hoops to return online items..it has swayed my decision to click "BUY"