Target's Gift Registry is the Worst

It’s been several weeks since I’ve blogged. It’s been a hectic, but productive summer. I’ve been prepping for my sister’s upcoming wedding on October 12th in Vegas (threw a shower for 70, bachelorette fondue party/sleepover), I coordinated a friend’s wedding day a few weeks ago, consulting full-time, and running a professional organization with 1,200 members. Whew! I need a vacation.

This blog comes with heavy heart. My favorite store in the world has let me down. I am still very frustrated and angry about my experience yesterday with Target. I’ve always been a huge fan of Target, shopping there several times a week. In fact, there are four Targets in a 10 mile radius of my home and they’ve all been gracious enough to take my money each time. As long as there is a Target close by, all is good in the world.

My sister, Jen, who equally shares in my fondness of the Big Red T, registered there for her wedding. I thought it was a great idea because she would get all her essentials, her guests wouldn’t have to pay an arm and a leg to buy a gift, and there are so many stores around that you could pick it up and not have to pay for shipping charges. Awesome, right? Well, what she quickly found out was Target is not at the top of their game when it comes to gift registries. Their return policy is absolutely ridiculous. It’s so ridiculous, that I wrote a letter to the CEO last night, and woke up at 6:00 AM this morning (Sunday) to blog about this. I would highly recommend not using Target for gift registries. They are not gift recipient-friendly.

I was with Jen when she returned one item from her shower a few weeks ago, because it was a duplicate. The associate was so rude to her and said that she only had x amount of dollars worth of gifts that she could return. Um, huh? What does that mean? I remember the days when friends would return all of their wedding and shower gifts because they needed the money. In this case, my sister actually took the time to register for things they needed. She only returned something because she had already received it. This was her first clue that a Target registry may not have been a good idea.

Last night, we went shopping and of course, Target was one of our stops. Jen had a gift she needed to return, because it was another duplicate from her registry. We got to my favorite store in Manhattan Beach and proceeded to Guest Services to make the return. Since she didn’t have a receipt, the associate had to call Corporate for approval to give a gift card. We didn’t think much of it and said we would do some shopping and come back. As I was in the checkout line, my sister went back to Guest Services to check on her return. I noticed that she was visibly angry, and the associate was back on the phone. Apparently, Corporate could not approve the return without a receipt. How many people actually put gift receipts in with gifts? 10%? The gift did not show up on the registry as being purchased. Something happened where either the purchaser didn’t ask to have the gift registry updated or Target did not update it. In either case, this was no my sister’s fault and she was being penalized for it. I asked to talk to the person on the phone as a last resort. I reiterated what happened and asked what he could do to help the situation. The “gentleman” said that there was nothing he could do without a receipt, regardless if it was on the registry or not. Huh? Seriously? What? I asked to talk to his supervisor and he said he was the highest level of escalation there, and was incredibly rude. Does he realize who he’s talking to? Does he realize that this is not going to go away?

The manager of the store, who they refer to as the ETL (Executive Team Leader), was asked to call Corporate to see what she could do. We explained the situation to her and she completely agreed with us. She admitted that when she got married a few weeks ago, she didn’t even register at Target. She called Corporate and spoke to a few different people. I was shocked at what I was hearing. It was apparent that the “gentleman” on the phone was raising his voice with her. At one point, I heard her say, “I am not a team member, I am an ETL and you are out of line.” She was wonderful, helpful, and really wanted to do the right thing. She was shocked herself that this was the return policy. She kept repeating, “I have a very upset guest in front of me, and this is not her fault. This is on her gift registry and you are telling me that there is nothing we can do, as a corporation, to help her? This is a Target mistake that it’s not showing up as purchased. I think this is ridiculous. Yes, you did hear me, this is ridiculous.” When she hung up, her face was flush and she looked completely defeated. She felt so sorry and kept apologizing. She said that the man on the phone was raising his voice and was threatening to her. Not only was Corporate rude to a guest, but they were rude to their own employees. We waited about an hour, and the result was that we left with a $300 gift that my sister already had.

As I’ve mentioned above a few times, I am still in shock. This is cut and dry. I could see if my sister tried to return something that was opened or clearly didn’t come from Target or was trying to get cash back. None of these were the case. The money was going to be spent right back into Target, and this was on her registry!

I came home and wrote a letter to the CEO. I wish I could hand deliver it to him, because that’s how irate I am over this. I am hopeful that I will be able to update you all in a week that this ended in a positive result. We’ll see if Target holds up to their reputation for excellent guest services. Right now, I am not convinced.

If you're interested in reading about other similar issues, check out the following:
http://www.brides.com/forums/planning-and-etiquette/thread.jspa?messageID=384477
http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=16519
http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/dont-use-targets-gift-registry-it-sucks.html

They Are Listening...Now's the Time

I recently wrote a review about my experience with Vonage. I still remain a very happy customer with both the product and the customer service. I was very pleasantly surprised when I received an e-mail from Vonage's publicist shortly after posting my blog, letting me know that she had read the review and would be happy to provide any information I needed in the future. In my opinion, this is good customer service and corporate awareness.

Now is the time to Twitter, blog, or just spread the word, about your experiences. Vonage, among other organizations, are listening to their customers. Publicists are being hired to search social networking sites for anything written about their clients, and the leadership in organizations are watching and listening. Reviews are being brought to the attention of the CEOs and they appear to be paying attention to what their customers have to say. This will be the difference between the companies who survive during this economy and those who do not. It all comes down to the customer and the reputation. Make yourself be heard.

AT&T Issue Resolution

As a follow-up to my cell phone saga with AT&T, as of today, it appears to be fixed. Since the problems are now intermittent (sometimes I can make a call from my home and sometimes I need to drive a block away to make a call), I am going to bite the bullet and get a VOIP phone in my home. I will be cutting back on my monthly cell plan. AT&T's CEO's office continues to e-mail me, and are monitoring the situation. It's great to have that level of service and a contact at the top. It definitely helped with expediting a resolution. I will be getting a month of free service.

I've been Twittering on this issue for the past few days, and my Twitter updates go to my Facebook page. A dear friend of mine in San Diego, who knows me very well and who has been following this issue, posted this on my Facebook page:

Given your reputation for extracting fine customer service I'm surprised that:

(1) The CEO of AT&T hasn't personally called you to apologize.
(2) He isn't onsite personally directing the erection of the replacement cell tower.
(3) The replacement cell tower isn't named after you.
(4) He hasn't invited you to work from his office and use his personal cell phone while yours is out.
(5) You haven't rearranged his personal staff, including firing two executive VPs where just laying around to make the entire operation more efficient at a cost savings of more than $1M annually.

This is the same friend who returned from Iraq several years ago, after serving there for a year in the US Marine Corps, and turned to me and said "JM, you could get the Shiites and Sunnis to stop fighting!"

You know the personality profiles and leadership exercises where you have to ask the people closest to you to describe who you are as a person? Well, it seems pretty unanimous. I am now, and will always be, a Gumptionista.

Last But Not Least - Beware of the Gumptionista, BMW!

My car lease was coming up in December, so in November I traded in my 2006 BMW and leased a new 2009. My last four cars have been BMW’s. Since I can’t afford a house in California, I might as well drive a nice car. During the lease negotiations, I told the salesman that I had two payments left on my current lease, which they needed to take over. Somewhere along the line, he missed that fact, and when I was handed the paperwork to sign for the new lease, it did not cover the last two payments. I asked about it and he said his “manager” would not agree to that. I was not happy about it, but figured that I would take it up with BMW Financial. I spoke to BMW Financial about two things. One, the fact that the dealership would not take on the last two payments and two, about a dent in the front spoiler, which I was told I would be charged $400 for on my last bill. BMW Financial agreed to split the last two payments with me, but I was stuck paying the $400. I paid my final bill in January however I continued thinking about it and knew that I had to take some action. Finally, after 6 months, I mailed a certified letter to the CEO of BMW North America. I explained the situation about the fact that dealership would not cover payments for a car that they had in their possession, and that I had to pay $400 for a dented spoiler. One of the reasons why I am so frustrated about the dented spoiler is that these cars are built to dent at even the smallest bump. If they are going to have a faulty design, I am not going to pay for what is inevitable. I was at the dealership recently and they did a walk around my new car and told me there is a dent on the front spoiler, and I nearly went through the roof. They need to figure this out, because I am not going to pay for this again. It is only going to get worse over the next three years, too. If you look at any BMW on the road, you will notice damage underneath the front spoiler. I will guarantee it. I requested my money back for what I paid on my final bill. I will keep you posted when I receive a response.

Beware of the Gumptionista, AT&T Wireless!

I hope my hellish day today is not a reflection on what my week is going to be like. My morning started off fine. I drove to my doctor’s office and picked up the sick note to fax to Southwest Airlines so I could get a refund. I haven’t needed a sick note since second grade, but, whatever it takes. I then tried to make a phone call on my cell phone, and lo and behold, nothing. I receive a Call Failed on any outgoing call, and all incoming calls go straight to voicemail. When I try to get into my voicemail, I get a Call Failed. I went to the local AT&T store twice today. The first time, they removed the battery and waited and it seemed to work for about 5 minutes. As soon as I got home, I had the same problem. The second trip to the store, they recommended that I go to the warranty location and get a refurbished phone. Through a friend who works as a Project Manager for AT&T, I was able to get my hands on the e-mail address of the CEO. I sent him an e-mail this afternoon explaining that I am a business owner and this is the only phone I have. I paid a lot of money for this phone a mere 5 months ago, and will not accept a refurbished phone. I requested a brand new phone (Blackberry Bold is what I currently have) and also a month of free service, since the Call Failed problem happens often.

A friend of mine, who sensed that I was going to slit my wrists over this issue, came over after work last night. He is my technical guru friend. As soon as he stepped foot in my parking structure, he lost his cell service. Thank God! I am not crazy after all! He called AT&T via Skype from my house, and was told that a cell tower had been down in my neighborhood since 8:00 AM. They were having issues bringing it back up and expected that it would be up with service back to normal by the morning.

This morning I woke up to the wonderful sights and sounds of Call Failed, again. I decided to get in my car and drive to see where I could get a signal. I got less than a 1/2 block from my house and was able to make a call. I called AT&T Customer Service and talked to them for 30 minutes before they switched me to technical support. Customer Service said that there was no report of an outage, but then Technical Support said there was an outage, and it was expected to be back up in 1 hour. Here we go again. While I was on the phone with technical support, the office of the CEO of AT&T left me a voicemail. I called him back and we discussed my e-mails and the situation. He was a nice guy, and very helpful. He has since called me twice today to give me updates. As of 1:00 PM, my service is still out so needless to say, I am getting frustrated. I am looking forward to a resolution. I supposed I should go back to a home phone for these types of situations, but I am fighting it tooth and nail.

Regardless of the situation or the problem, always go to the top. It may seem like a small issue, but if it's important to you, let yourself be heard. Also, it helps to blog and twitter on these issues. As someone recently told me, companies are starting to pay attention to social networking, because of the press issues.

I'll keep you posted.