I am writing in regard to a very frustrating ordeal with Target.com and the Target Corp. which would not help resolve the issue. I, like many customers, stayed up until the wee hours of Wednesday and Thursday night waiting for Black Friday deals to be listed and sold online. One particular order I found on Slickdeals.net was a listing at Target.com for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Blu-ray 6 disc set for a listed price of $7.99. As soon as this deal was posted I made my way onto the Target.com and placed an order for this for a total price of $11.10 shipped which I received a confirmation for at 2:03am.
On November 27th I received an email requesting approval for a delay in shipping due to an "unexpected delay with your item" that would cause the item not to ship in time for the holidays and perhaps not until January of 2011. This didn't seem out of the ordinary at the time because it was such a good deal that they must have received a lot of orders. One would think if supplies were limited however, that the item would be listed as "sold out online" and unable to be placed but I digress. I informed customer service of Target.com that I was disappointed with the delay as this was going to be a gift for the holidays, but that I wanted to keep the order and not have it cancelled. That day I received a reply from guest services stating;
"I'm sorry but the item is out of stock, we always fulfill orders starting with the oldest first and by the time we got to your order we ran out of stock. When the disc is back in stock we'll ship it out to you and you won't be charged until it ships."
Then on the 28th I received a cancellation notice via email from Target.com stating that unfortunately due to the high demand for the item, it is no longer available from any of their sources and thus will be cancelled. This new email stating that the item was part of a 2-day sale advertised as "quantities limited; no rain checks." However if I was still interested in the item, at regular price, I should check back to the website for its availability and place another order. Doesn't it seem strange that one day they tell customers to expect a delay due to the high demand, and then the next day they cancel it outright because of limited quantities? Just how many were part of the 2-day sale and why wasn't it taken off the website when their supply ran out?
It feels like Target intentionally baited myself and many other customers to their website for an amazing deal, where we would likely find other deals to order, only to cancel the orders once they crunched the numbers and realized they couldn't take such a big loss. I wrote to customer service again via email demanding an answer for why my order was cancelled, only to receive the same generic statement above that quantities were limited with no rain checks. However, this time customer service followed up saying that they noticed the Trilogy was currently available in local Target locations and that I should go there to purchase the item, again at full regular price. So while one set of emails is communicating that there were limited supplies and it's no longer available from any sources, another set of emails is instructing me to check back on their website or in local stores and pay full price.
Something is not adding up, and I blame Target for duping holiday shoppers on "great" deals only to not be able to fulfill confirmed placed orders. If I had known that the online supply was sold out, say by pulling the ad and not allowing orders to be placed, I would have gladly made my way into their stores at 5am Friday morning. Instead I'm left with a cancelled order and after countless phone calls to Target.com (which is all outsourced to overseas customer service reps who cannot answer any questions and only reply with "we're sorry but the item is sold out"). I demanded that they should at least honor the delayed shipping email which they sent me to begin with, and again I am met with "we cannot do that, It's sold out."
On the 29th, I contacted Target Corporate Headquarters to speak with a representative and file a complaint about the customer service. When they put me on hold for 7 minutes to look into the matter, I ended up getting connected to the overseas customer service myself and had to explain the entire ordeal for the 3rd time. After being brushed off yet again I called Headquarters a 2nd time and asked to speak to a supervisor regarding this matter. A woman, Kathy, then picked up and said after looking into my order and, noting how many times I've called to resolve this, that she was very sorry but the item is out of stock and was a 2-day only sale with no rainchecks. I asked why they took so many orders to begin with, I asked why was I sent a delay approval email, I asked if I go into a local store will they honor my order price, and she simply replied with "We are very sorry, but there is nothing we can do at all to help" and that was the end of the matter.
In the days following this, I have seen documented testimonies of Target representaties blatantly lying to its customers about a resolution and compensation. While I was told there would be no compensation, others have been offered anything from $5, $10, or $15 gift cards, which does not even cover the cost of 1 of the movies in question at its regular $20 price. Several people have even been giving a "promotional code" to take $53 off the price of buying the 3 movies individually for $60. This would seem acceptable but those customers are being instructed to not make this public and that the conversation should stay between the two parties. When other customers call to inquire about a similar compensation, they are told that this never happened and do not offer the same deal. Why was I told there would be no compensation? These are outrageous and dishonest sales practices being operated on a case by case basis which is unfair to those of us who can't "barter" such a deal with them.
Steve
Bradenton,#2Consumer Comment
Sun, December 05, 2010
WHY would you use the word "illegal" in your title?
There was nothing at all illegal here.
Ad mistakes happen. Supplies run out. It happens. Get over it.
Haven't you ever made a mistake?
Please explain exactly what was "illegal" here, and why.
Josh
Rolla,#3Consumer Suggestion
Sat, December 04, 2010
This was an obvious pricing error -- looks like the decimal point was off by one. I'm not sure why you expect to get something for nothing. The fact that Target is giving you a big discount off the regular price is already surprising -- most places will just tell you "tough luck" in cases of pricing errors. I'm not sure why you are playing dumb. The item is not out of stock; it is simply deactivated due to a pricing error. The only dishonest one here is you.