Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Target's website crashes yet again...


Target's website crashed again Tuesday, adding to the discount chain's online troubles.

This is the third time that Target's re-designed site has crashed since its debut back in August. Target faced harsh criticism last month after it drummed up so much hype around its offerings from Italian designer Missoni that its website crashed and was down for most of the day the that that the collection launched. And just two weeks ago, Target.com's president, Steve Eastman, left the company to "pursue other interests" the day after the website crashed for a second time.

Company spokesman Lee Henderson confirmed that Target's site was down for 2 1/2 hours midday Tuesday. The company did not give a reason for the site failure. "Target strives to deliver an exceptional experience in its stores and online, and we regret the inconvenience to our customers," Henderson said.

Target supposedly ranks #22 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide (with Amazon at #1) but I have a hard time believing they'll keep that spot at this point. I personally avoid Target.com these days, as it's so slow and hard to navigate. The search feature is useless, bringing up dozens of items that have nothing to do with my query. And they continue to have hundreds of items still listed on their site that are "out of stock", and have been for months (dating back to March!).

8 comments:

tina said...

I used to shop target.com all the time. Since they got the new website, I have found myself shopping less and less because I hate it so much!

Furiously Curious said...

Has anyone been able to print a return label since the site change?

tina said...

Furious...I was able to. There's about 50 more steps involved than there used to be.

Shopping Celle said...

FYI:Not really related to the web site (that I hate) but my store has the few Missoni items they have left now marked 30% off. I was able to rebuy a few things I had purchased on day 1 & save a little $.

Music said...

Dudes - I was SOOOO infuriated the other day with the Culver City Target! Someone had returned Missoni items, one of which was a pair of girls' rain boots that were sold exclusively ONLINE. Of course, there was no tag; so the cashier said that, according to the pricing in their store, the boots were $39.99. I was getting them for my mom and went ahead and purchased them.

But I knew the price was questionable; so I mananged to find the original page for the boots on Target.com (maybe a cached page or something). They NEVER were $39.99. They were $29.99. So I later headed to the closest store at that point for a price adjustment.

At Manhattan Beach, the guy there said that anything that was sold online exclusively is handled different and that the original price doesn't matter. He indicated that I would have to go back to the same store for an adjustment, but he did go ahead and scan the sku just to see. $7.56 on clearance at Manhattan Beach. Huh?

I went to Culver City armed with the $29.99 listing from Target.com and the crazy clearance price printout from Manhattan Beach (he was kind enough to let me keep the sticker) and all of my evidence fell on deaf ears.

"Well, it's $39.99 at this store. The online price doesn't matter. It's on clearance at Manhattan Beach but not here." I told them that they could keep the boots and I would take my money. I'll get mom a different pair.

Seriously? Why should I have to pay whatever weird added expense they claim to have had a Culver City because it was returned Target.com item? Or is it a scam where store employees pocket the diff? Grrrr....

Sorry for the rant!

Target Addict said...

Music, that's really horrible! Unfortunately, I HAVE experienced that different stores do have different discount schedules, so that part does not surprise me. However, the original clerk at Culver City store was in the wrong, for overcharging you the original price for that online item. I don't blame you at all for just returning the boots in the end. Very frustrating!

Anonymous said...

I have Christmas gifts to buy that amount to a few hundred dollars and was planning to shop online at Target. I started last night and the site was horrible. It was so slow and the search engine was lousy so I stopped shopping. I went on it again today to see if it changed...nope. I was so angry because it was doing the same thing. They just lost me as a customer forever...and I shop a lot online....shhh don't tell my husband ;)

Lisa said...

I have been disgusted by the Target website this weekend. It is soooo slow and keeps giving me error messages and timing out. Then I had no idea you can only use 4 gift cards for an online purchase! WTF?!?! I have a LOT of gift cards (we get a % off my sons tuition in a gift card program) and I've been stocking up to buy some furniture, some of it only available on line and now I cant use my gift cards! This is just dumb.