Tuesday, November 18, 2008

My turn to rant: Target


So, the Better Business Bureau won't accept my complaint and Target has turned a blind eye to this issue.

I was one of the many people that Target has decided to upset by not honoring the price tag for a Britax Marathon car seat. It was shown as being priced at $42.99 with free shipping on their web site. A super fantastic deal. I placed my order and received a confirmation e-mail. The next day, I checked my order and from Target's account page, at one point it was there and later in the day it was gone. I later received this e-mail from Target:

Greetings from Target.com.

Due to an unexpected error, the following item(s) you have ordered
were incorrectly priced at the time of your order.

Britax Marathon Convertible Car Seat - Granite

We're sorry, but we are unable to offer this item for the incorrect
price. The correct price is $279.99. We have canceled your order for
this item. If you would like to order this item at the correct price,
please visit Target.com to check for availability.

Despite our best efforts, a small number of items on our site are
occasionally mis-priced. We do, however, verify prices as part of our
shipping procedures. If we discover that an item's correct price is
higher than our stated price, we will either contact you for
instructions before shipping or cancel your order and notify you of
the cancellation. This pricing policy is posted in the Help section
on Target.com.

Again, we're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused
you. Thank you for being our valued guest.

Sincerely,

Guest Service Department
Target.com
http://www.target.com
WHAT? You know, I don't really feel like a valued guest right now. I feel like I've been duped. You offer something on your Web site, you honor the price. Mistakes happen to everyone. If I incorrectly priced something on my Etsy shop, do you think I could turn around and tell the buyer "oops, sorry!" NO. I couldn't and I WOULDN'T. It is an ethical issue to me. I respect my buyers and it is obvious that Target is indeed a corporation and cares about one thing, their bottom line.

So, bye Target. No holiday shopping for me or my family there and I encourage others to do the same. Buy handmade, buy local, buy from the small folks.

11 comments:

Kelly said...

that totally sucks and i think you are right to boycott target. as an fyi, babycenter.com is having a sale on britax carseats this week and they are $249 instead of $279. not the savings you could have gotten at $42, but still a little cheaper than normal. a positive customer service story about babycenter is that i placed an order for the the same carseat as you on sunday and got the email about their sale the next day. i called and they credited me the difference.

drakeandlulu.blogspot.com

Katy said...

Almost all of my X-mas gifts have come from etsy this year. In fact, you made two nice crayon rolls for me. I have found the craftspeople/artists on etsy to be professional and fabulous. One lady even refunded me some money when I was charged too much for shipping. I hadn't even said anything!

Anonymous said...

I usually shop at Target because I thought it was a step above Wal-Mart, but jeez, maybe not! You're right, its better to support the little guys, who at least have more integrity. The Internet makes it easier than ever to find really unique and cool things sold by individual entepreneurs! (Uh I spelled that wrong, but oh well!)

Nowheymama said...

I can't believe they didn't at least offer it to you at a reduced price! Think how many people you would be praising them to if they had handled this better.

The Stitching Surgeon said...

So totally unfair!!! Cannot believe Target did this! Like you, I also am planning the greater majority of my Christmas gifts will be handmade by me or purchased from etsy or local artists (exception being my niece who is to young to appreciate/understand handmade...loves the plastic).

Erin said...

I agree with you about all of it. There service is not always the best

Clear Pink said...

Like you, I am trying to do as much handmade shopping as possible this year.

Ellen Seidman said...

I agree, they should have honored the price they posted. I wonder if they would have honored it a few months ago, before all the stores started struggling (someone was just telling me that Target's sales have been considerably down). Still, that is no reason to not honor prices you advertise, mistakes included! Especially if you are going to lose customers over it. Argh!

Christy said...

I just have to say that although I was irked by it, I will still shop there. Target really does a lot for several charities. Especially providing apartments for patients and their families at St Jude. I am talking about very nice apartments, completely furnished. So I am choosing to look at this like they would have lost out on a lot of money they could have then used for good.

Bartleby the Scribbler said...

Wow, that sucks! New reader to your blog here...for what it's worth, I eschew places like Target as much as possible, and I *adore* etsy. You have some cute clutches posted up!

cheers...

Anonymous said...

If they made a mistake, and it's pretty obvious they did then really they haven't done anything wrong. It's kind of unreasonable to really expect to get it at such a reduced price.