August 3, 2011 - dbizizme

Tricky way around their price match guarantee.

I have learned the hard way that Target offers their amazing price match guarantee giving you two weeks.  If Target or someone else offers the same product for less, they’ll match it!  Sounds great – it should give you peace of mind in shopping that you know you’re getting the best deal out there!  Well, they offer that, but the reality is, they have their way around it.  Instead of putting items on sale, they offer them on a “gift card with purchase”.  Then, it doesn’t qualify for the price match, because the price is the same, it just has a gift card promotion that you can’t qualify for!

I bought a cell phone from Target.  Exactly 1 week to the day later, I was back in Target (it USED to be a weekly or bi-weekly event for me) and saw that the exact phone I had purchased one week earlier was now offered with a $40 gift card with purchase.  Later that day, I returned to Target, receipt in hand, asking for them to match the promotion and give me a $40 gift card.  Well, they said it’s not a price match, so they can’t match it.  Sorry.  So I asked, well, can I return it and rebuy it and get the $40 gift card?  They said, if it was ANYTHING else in the store, yes.  But, it’s a cell phone, so if they return it, it will deactivate it, and they can’t resell a deactivated cell phone, they have to return it to the manufacturer, so they can’t do that.  I said, ok, I see that your system is not set up to work that way, but as you just said, if it was ANYTHING else, you could / would do that.  So what is another way to issue me a $40 gift card?  And they said there is NO way.  I asked for the store manager’s phone number and the next time she’d be in.  They gave me her first name and the store’s main phone number, but told me there was no way they could check a schedule and see when she’s in next.  (Really??)  Then, another person told me, oh, she’s on vacation.  And no one could tell me when she was due back from vacation.  (Really??)  So I asked for the manager on duty, and some 20-something kid came up and reviewed everything they already told me with me.  I said I understand all of that – how your computer system is set up to deal with cell phones – so what is another way you can help me?  Nada.  I called and emailed their customer service, and again, nada.

I have since gotten a Costco membership and have been so happy to give all of my money to them and other stores instead of Target.  I don’t do business with sneaky companies – don’t offer a price-match policy then have a sneaky way around it.  TARGET SUCKS.

Love,

Deron

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Customer Experience / TargetSucks