Target review: Drive up order

Jerry, Store Manager
Target
7930 E Northfield Blvd
Denver, CO 80238
United States

Dear Jerry,

I am writing this letter to let you know about my experience with your store last night. Both my sister and I are loyal and frequent customers of Target, despite my disappointment in your corporate policy that canceled the DEI program. In this economy it’s more and more difficult to find businesses with quality products, everything you need, and the positive environment most Target stores used to have.

I use Target as a primary choice to shop for multiple reasons, a few include: the CVS at Ellsworth is my pharmacy, the website makes finding everything you need at the same place whenever possible very convenient, and, most importantly, lately the drive up option has become very useful for me!

My sister recently had her 4th surgery to remove a rare form of cancer she was diagnosed with 6 years ago. She started work again this week and has to leave for a business trip this morning. She was hoping to have time to find some business casual clothing for her trip but was too overwhelmed with work, so I offered to go to Target and find a few things she really needed. Her flight leaves at 7:00 am. I found what she needed online and checked the stores to make sure that everything she needed was in stock. I also had a few items I placed at the Aurora Ellsworth store because the website said you didn’t have a few more things I personally needed. I understand you close at 10:00 pm so I did my best to place the order in plenty of time in case you were out of something I could check another store and make it there in plenty of time.

After waiting for an hour I decided to drive over to your store and get a couple things my sister had forgotten. At that point I had already received notice that my Aurora/Ellsworth order was ready for pickup, even though I had placed the Northfield order prior to the Ellsworth order. After waiting in my car for quite awhile I finally received your notice and it said some of the items were out of stock by that point. I clicked on my order #[protected] in the amount of $205.11 with only 6 items. The notification said ALL 6 items were out of stock?!? I found this very hard to believe so I went into the store to double check for the items before I canceled the order. At that point it was already 9:00 pm.

It took me less than 30 minutes to find all but one of the items I had ordered. I was understandably upset and I am pretty sure I could’ve found everything if I wasn’t so disappointed in your store. The first thing I heard at 9:00 pm was a notice that your store was closing in an hour. You had several employees, most of which were doing nothing! The store itself was a mess and there weren’t many customers at all! I had to sit down because I was already exhausted and realized I wouldn’t have time to make it to the Aurora store in time or without being considerate of their closing time. I cancelled both drive up orders now that I found most of what my sister needed. I cancelled your store’s online order first and then the Aurora store’s order. The Aurora store immediately sent me a refund but your store didn’t deliver my $205.11 order refund. At his point i was even more aggravated and disappointed with your store. By that time I also didn’t have an option of going anywhere else in time.

I took my basket and went to customer service, which, unsurprisingly had no employees there? One of your employees finally came up and I asked to talk to the manager. She said that she was on the other side of the store and I replied “I don’t care where she is, she needs to walk over here because I need to talk to her before the store closes!” So she asked your manager, Judy, to come over.

I explained to Judy why I was upset. Judy was extremely unprofessional, lazy, rude and could care less. She literally leaned casually on the cart she had rolled over and asked your employee why I was upset instead of addressing me? At the very least she could’ve stood up and apologized? Instead, after I asked why I had received the refund so quickly from the Aurora store but had yet to receive my money back from your store, she proceeded to tell me it was my fault for canceling the order and it would take 24 hours to receive my refund. I had $269.00 worth of stuff in my basket and Judy said I would have to go get in line and pay for the order again. She basically blamed me for your employees being too lazy to bother finding the items for my initial order? I didn’t know it was my responsibility to know how to handle your lazy and incompetent employees. She also could’ve helped me with my order herself at customer service?

At this point I explained to her that your store was too lazy to fulfill a simple order that clearly shouldn’t have taken much time. I also felt like they waited for almost the entire 2 hours to notify me (despite the fact that they were clearly lying about not having the products) so that they wouldn’t have to deal with the order at all! Then I explained to Judy exactly why the drive up order was so important for me and my health! Six weeks ago I was hospitalized in the Cardiac ICU for the 3rd time for stress-induced heart failure! I spent a week there and I am now on several daily medications alone for heart failure! It’s something I have to deal with for the rest of my life and stress/getting sick can quickly and unexpectedly trigger it. I don’t use the drive up because I am lazy (which clearly your employees and manager are just plain lazy and poorly trained and managed) but because of several health problems that are genetic. My medications cause weight gain and my anxiety and health issues can cause serious symptoms such as pain, fatigue, swelling, fainting, etc. I was understandably angry with both your store and the worst retail store manager I have ever encountered! I asked her why I could find the products that your employees so easily dismissed because they were too lazy to look for them? Why I had to come in and how I found them myself? Why she found it so difficult to walk over to customer service? How almost $300 worth of products clearly is very much un-important to your store, much less keeping loyal customers who shop at Target at least once a week? Why it was my fault that I didn’t receive the refund in the same manner as the Ellsworth store and within a reasonable timeframe? Why I had to pay an additional $100 in cash while I wait for my refund to arrive? Judy’s, once again, extremely unprofessional response was “well I will bring it up in our next team meeting.”

At that point I turned around, went and checked out at the only open checkout lane with a single customer in front of me and after paying for my order I asked for Judy’s name and the store manager’s name. I called Target corporate and explained the situation afterwards and Lucine at corporate apologized for everything and said the situation was unacceptable and she would let her team know and they would refund me asap.

To say this experience was disappointing is a huge understatement! I walked out feeling exhausted, fatigued, with swollen ankles, my heart racing and extremely anxious. I spent over $65 at the Aurora store earlier that day when I went to pick up my prescriptions. I spent another $120 online for a Target gift card that afternoon and over $70 at the Aurora store and $205 at Northfield. I expected a lot more from both your store and employees! Instead I had to go and find the product my sister needed, spend another $269 and drive 40 minutes to get to my sisters house so she’d have the stuff to start packing after 11:00 pm? The whole situation is frustrating and never should have happened. Then for your manager to act like I was an inconvenience and not apologize or even pretend she understood why I was justifiably upset was beyond unprofessional! Not to mention her body language, tone, attitude, poor management skills and plain laziness was absolutely unacceptable!

I hope that this raises awareness and At this point I am not convinced that I will continue to shop at Target! Apparently the loss of a customer and money isn’t a concern for your store?

Thank you for your time and consideration and I hope that your customer service and store makes the appropriate adjustments to improve the quality of your store and the customers experience!

Regards,
Tiffany C