Complaint Review: Target

I placed an order on Target.com for in-store pickup on 11/10/15.  The order was for 10 bottles of Nuka Cola Quantum for Fallout 4.  The total price of the order was $32.29.  Upon completing the order I received a confirmation order email at 7:58am local time indicating that the order was ready for pickup at the Target store on 14200 E Ellsworth Ave, Aurora, CO 80012.

Its worth noting that this was a limited edition item/product that I was getting for myself and for my family and friends as gifts.  I was understandably excited and relieved to find out that my local store had the item in stock and that I was able to secure these items, as these were to be Christmas gifts for friends and family.  To ensure that I had the items in hand, I took a half day off from work so I could get to the store in a timely manner to pickup my order.  Unfortunately I was not able to leave the office until after 12:00PM.  Knowing that I had an order confirmation (with the funds being removed from my account) I felt that this wouldnt be an issue.

Upon arriving at the store I was greeted by an associate named Jean Anne Murray.  When I presented my order confirmation to pickup the items, I was told that the items were unavailable.  When I pressed her on why I would have received an confirmation if the item was not available, I was told that other customers had come into the store earlier and complained about the lack of availabilty of said item.  In order to placate these customers, my PAID FOR items were then re-sold to these other individuals.  This is unacceptable.  Target should not be able to sell the same item twice (and receive payment for it twice).  Furthermore, my order was already placed and confirmed.  It is unfair and unacceptable that I, a paying customer, must bear the brunt of their customer service issues.  He who screams loudest should not be the one who gets their way.  That is not how a civilized society should operate.  Furthermore, that is not how a publicly traded corporation/retailer should operate.

While this is an uncomfirmed assumption, I believe that this issue was exacerbated by unscrupulous behavior of Target and their employees.  Please refer to the attached article which makes claims to Target employees purposely buying out stock before it is released to the consumer, just so they can resell it on ebay for a personal profit.

gameranx.com/updates/id/31600/article/target-employees-reportedly-buying-out-nuka-cola-quantum-bottles/

If this was a matter of an antiquated inventory system that was not up to date, then my card should not have been charged.  To date, the money has yet to be returned to me.  This is THEFT.  They have taken money and failed to deliver the product as agreed.  Furthermore I am out time and money for taking the day off work so that I could go to the store to pickup the order that was unavailable.  These inappropriate actions by Target is unacceptable.