We’ve written here on this blog about lousy customer service, really lousy customer service, as well as lousy advice from customer service. I figured it was high time to pat the customer service dept. on the back because, let’s face it, more often than not, we DO get amazing service in this country. (If you’ve ever spent a year in any part of the Middle East, or even Italy, you know what poor customer service is really about.)
So here’s an uplifting, and slightly comical story that happened to me recently at Target. It all started when I bought the Braun toothbrush you see pictured here. For a couple months, the thing worked like a charm; brushing never was easier. But then, out of nowhere, I couldn’t get the toothbrush to turn off. No matter how hard I pressed the off button, buzz buzz buzz she went. The only way I could turn her off, was by putting her back on her cradle/charger.
And while this seems like a fine solution, it meant putting the toothpaste on the bristles while the thing was still on the cradle, not an easy task in vertical position. So I took it back to Target and they replaced it—no questions asked.
The second Braun worked well for about six months, but then the same thing happened. And this time, it wouldn’t always turn off when I put it on the cradle. I’d also lost the receipt for the second one and, because it wasn’t on my credit card (seeing as it was an exchange), I couldn’t prove how old it was.
But Target was so kind about the whole thing last time, I thought: what do I have to lose? So I put the buzzing toothbrush in a ziplock and headed back to Target where I stood in the returns/exchange line as people giggled and stared (buzz buzz buzz). When it was my turn, I held the ziplock up to the woman working the register and she laughed, opened the bag, and tried to turn the toothbrush off, to no avail. So she shelved it with all the other returns and this time gave me store credit after I explained it was my second lemon.
So what did I do with the credit? I used it to buy a 6-pack of old fashioned toothbrushes that require no electricity. And when I walked past returns after an hour of Target shopping (because you can never get out of the store without spending at least an hour and $50), the toothbrush was still on the shelf, buzz buzzing away. I could have bought the lemon at Wal*Mart for all they knew, and here they’d not only given me store credit, they were now suffering the rest of the day as the thing buzzed on the shelf behind them. Now THAT’S customer service.
What about you all? What’s the best service you’ve ever received? Or how about the biggest lemon you ever bought? Certainly the Braun toothbrush takes the prize for this writer.
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My husband bought me a new Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas. I had had one for 20 yrs., but this was an upgrade. The first time I used the new one, the motor smelled. I called the company, and a snippy young thing said, “Well, if you had read the manual, you’d know that the motor will smell for the first five or six hours of use.” Why would I read the manual for something I’ve had one like for all those years?! Around Thanksgiving, the thing still smelled when I used it. I called Customer Service back and explained the problem. The nice older lady said, “She should never have told you that. That’s incorrect. I’ll send you out a new one immediately. You just put the one you have back in the box that the new one came in, and I’ll have the UPS man pick it back up.” And so it was. The new one arrived, the smelly one went back in the box, and all as good. Gotta love Kitchen Aid.
posted by Leslie Booher on 6-9-2008 at 7:27 am
Wow, that’s shocking. Last time I tried to return something from Target, they almost refused. Apparently you can return something there without a receipt only once a year. I have no idea how they track that.
posted by Erin on 6-9-2008 at 9:47 am
Thank you so much for this post! I used to work at Target Guest Services and we honestly did want to HELP not frustrate our guests. Some of the policies may seem odd but it’s all to try to combat people taking advantage of the situation. And it is true that the nicer you are the more we’ll try to help. Not as a company policy but as a decent human being policy. People who yelled at me? I just did the minimum required but I never went to work thinking “how can I ruin someone’s day today?” because if you’re frustrated, I’m frustrated. :)
re:Erin – with no receipt they’ll usually ask for your id and they track it that way.
posted by Julia Rae on 6-9-2008 at 11:10 am
My husband and I got an insane deal on a new Kitchen Aid refrigerator ($400 for a $2600 unit), got it home and the thing didn’t work. We thought we were screwed because it was an “open box” kind of sale from Lowe’s. We called Kitchen Aid; they sent a repairman out the next day who fixed our new baby and ordered some spare shelves for us, AT NO COST! I’ve never had service like that in my life!
posted by Not the same Erin on 6-9-2008 at 11:42 am
i bought a car off some people at my parents insistance for 600 dollars and when we changed the oil it was chunky, and not knowing this was a really bad sign, were still suprised when it died soon aftwer. and since it was a personal sale, there was no way to return it or get the money back.
i was driving up a hill and the head, the bearings, and some of the other shit all died at once. lol
what a bummer. especially since it was my money. O.o
posted by Sue on 6-9-2008 at 12:33 pm
I didn’t know ANY store would take an item back after six months of use! That’s about as long as most consumer items are designed to last anyway.
posted by Miss Cellania on 6-9-2008 at 12:36 pm
your Target stands alone… a few months ago my boyfriend purchased a head lamp from Target and threw out the packaging but kept the receipt. A couple of weeks later he went to return it, and the customer service rep wouldn’t allow him to, even with his receipt, not even store credit. He offered to go find the exact same packaged product in the store to prove it was the same, but she said no.
posted by Casey on 6-9-2008 at 1:27 pm
I am shocked that someone is reporting a positive return experience with Target. I have heard nothing but horror stories regarding Target and have several obnoxious examples myself.
The latest was with an item that arrived in the mail through Target.com. It was two Lego sets that my son already had. I kept all the packaging and returned to Target with the paperwork that arrived in the packaging. In fact, I never even opened it as I had such a bad time with Target previously. They would not take the item back, even though they carried it in their store and even though I only wanted to change it for different Lego products. Seems the packaging is not a receipt and that you have to go to the web site to print one. They actually told me to go home, print the receipt and come back. I threw a fit and turns out they could print it there in the store, if only someone knew how to work their computer. It just got worse from there.
Another instance I tried to return black gloves for identical brown gloves the day after purchase but without a receipt and they wouldn’t exchange them.
On another occasion, and this is the kicker for me, they would only give me clearance price on a beach chair that I purchased two days prior and even though I had the receipt. They said it went on clearance and therefor I could only get clearance price EVEN THOUGH I HAD A RECEIPT! She explained that because it was a seasonal item, they would not be able to sell it at full price. It was South Florida in August and they had a store full of chairs that were NEW.
I despise Target and while I realize they need to take steps to battle the people who abuse the system, it shouldn’t be at the expense of those who do not.
posted by Karen on 6-9-2008 at 1:29 pm
verily i say unto thee. as noted, they took a photocopy of my DL and said it was possible to return any item without a receipt once a year!
posted by David K. Israel on 6-9-2008 at 1:56 pm
Why oh why do you keep going back, Karen? If you despise Target, don’t shop there, it’s as easy as that.
posted by Lisa Lu on 6-9-2008 at 5:09 pm
I’ve always liked Target customer service, though that may be because I insist on shopping at the ones in nice neighborhoods.
My best customer service experience was when a local builder’s supply store accidentally screwed up our order. We ordered about $500 worth of laminate flooring, yet they sent us off with two different kinds! (Granted, those two types had the same SKEW number and were the same color, but were a different texture which was VERY noticeable.) We took all that flooring back, obviously pissed out of our minds. They didn’t have enough of each, so they let us return the flooring (not their policy, btw) and choose a new kind. We had to go with a lighter floor color, but every associate in that warehouse apologized to us profusely, including the manager who drove from home to help us sort it out.
Another time, we were at Home Depot, looking for the things we needed to build a wall. We had no clue how to do this, btw. The sales associate walked us through the store, getting the items for us, and even talked the rental department into holding their last truck so we could get everything home. He was German, and my boyfriend’s mother lived in Germany for several years, so they both swapped stories of the country while ringing up the purchases. When we had to return a little bit of unused drywall, he stood in the returns line for us so we could go get a few items for the bathroom. He was so good, my boyfriend even went to the manager to compliment the man.
posted by Nicole on 6-9-2008 at 7:51 pm
Go with a SonicCare, David. There’s no better electric toothbrush.
posted by mike on 6-9-2008 at 8:07 pm
Note: Per Consumerist, you can return 1 item at Target without a reciept once a year, IF AND ONLY IF that item costs less than $20.
Target’s return policies are rediculous. I only buy commodity items there (toilet paper, laundry detergent, soap) or things I can measure the usefulness of immediately upon purchase (unpackaged plates, towels, wall art, pre-assembled furniture). The worst thing is their gift reciept policy, _even for Wedding Registries_. It doesn’t matter if you print the registry out, show up with it in hand, and point to the item whose bar code is identical to the item. No receipt, no return. AUUUUGH. There is no other store with such an asinine registry policy. DO NOT GET A GIFT REGISTRY AT TARGET, unless you want to get comfy with regifting! Khols, on the other hand has a fantastic registry system and reasonable prices (which is why most folk that register at Target do.) I advise all my engaged friends to register for the bulk of their day-to-day items at Khols (for ONLY, EXACTLY what you need — my best friend didn’t listen to me, didn’t get any bedding and ended with a PS2 memory card and no PS2 AND she registered at Target. *sigh*), and do a very, very small high-end registry at Macys (or Sears if you feel you desperately need to register for a big screen TV and an elliptical and couldn’t care less about crystal or china). It’s the very best way to guarantee you get what you need, might be suprised with something you want, and won’t be left doing weeks of nasty returns with unfriendly CSRs after the honeymoon.
The best service my family and I have ever recieved, was when we spent a week at an Embassy Suites hotel at Myrtle Beach. The Weather was terrible the whole time, but the hotel staff was amazing. There were gift baskets left in our room daily and complimentary turn down service complete with pillow mints. The service at the hotel took what could have been a terrible vacation and made it wonderful. They deffinitely solidified our family’s business at their chain for years to come.
posted by Ashley on 6-10-2008 at 8:31 am
My husband found this deal with Senseo where you paid for shipping but they sent you a new unit for free. When it arrived, we eagerly turned it on and followed all the instructions, but it wouldn’t brew coffee.
I called up customer service and after asking a few questions said they would ship me a new unit for free. We got shipping labels to send back the old unit and the new unit arrived and worked great. The best part was we got to keep the free coffee and other free things (like a mug) that came with the first one. And all of this was for a free product. Pretty cool!
posted by Genevieve on 6-11-2008 at 1:48 pm
I was a little disapointed by this article because I was expecting a bad customer service story about Braun’s 1-800 number. I used to work for them and they fired me so I’m disgruntled.
To answer your question I find that the kids that work at Disneyland are always calm and helpful even when fat tourists are screaming at them.
posted by maticdog on 6-11-2008 at 3:56 pm
I bought a pair of $100 V-Moda earbuds for my iPhone and after a couple months the right earbud quit on me. V-Moda has a 1yr exchange policy, but I needed a receipt. I misplaced it during a move from our last apartment to our rental house, so I emailed the Apple store that I bought the headset from and asked if they had a copy of my receipt from 6 months ago.
The store manager could not find it in their system, but he offered to exchange the headset in store, *despite* not having any record that I bought it there. Suffice it to say, I went there that evening, and left with a brand new $100 headset.
posted by m. dave auayan on 6-11-2008 at 3:57 pm
I had an awesome experience at Target this past Christmas… while visiting my mom, I got some Star Wars stocking stuffers for my son but, because I didn’t want him to see them beforehand, I had her go pay for them before getting the rest of our stuff so they would be in a bag and hidden.
Well, turns out I changed my mind but it was so close to Christmas that we weren’t going to go back any time soon to return them so we waited.
I live about two hours away from my mom and she came out for the Christmas Program at my mom’s school so we decided to return them before going to the program.
The service person was very nice and scanned all the items, we thought everything was fine but she finally said that none of the items were on the receipt. We looked at the receipt (by now it had been about a month since we got the items) and were thinking maybe we bought them at Wal-Mart but I distinctly remember buying them at Target because I took my son into the mall to ride those vehicle rides while she bought them and only Target is at the mall.
Then it hit me…. she brought the wrong receipt because we had two purchases that day!
Normally, I guess they can look you up with the card you paid with and my mom didn’t have the card with her but they took the exchange anyway and gave us a gift card.
Bravo!
posted by Sarah in CA (formerly just Sarah) on 1-21-2009 at 3:03 am
My son is a huge Star Wars fan and he HAD TO HAVE THE DARTH VADER HELMET FOR CHRISTMAS!!! But it was no longer in the stores or on their sites so I checked the Star Wars Shop and sure enough, there it was.
They also had a new toaster that wasn’t going to be available until Jan but we got them both, thinking they would ship the helmet out first because it was still November.
I waited and waited and waited…. turns out they only ship items in stock out in the middle of the month. I wanted to call to find out what was going on, where they holding the helmet to wait for the toaster or what, but there is NO PHONE CONTACT!!
So I emailed them and they said (after having to wait a week), yes the entire order would be held until the toaster was available (even though they are too big to be shipped in the same box together anyway, duh) but I could split the order (for additional shipping) and they would send the helmet out now.
Well, it was THE present for his Christmas so we did it… but nowhere does it say when you are ordering that this is going to happen when you are also pre-ordering a product.
Good thing we ordered it way before Christmas and had enough time to fool around with them.
I will never shop there again unless it’s something I absolutely cannot get anywhere else.
posted by Sarah in CA (formerly just Sarah) on 1-21-2009 at 3:12 am