Target says it understands when people change their minds about a purchase. "No" and "problem" are among the first words of its return policy.
Target pledges to scan a receipt or packing slip to ease each return. For those who have lost the receipt, it will look up the purchase on the customer's credit-card records.
No problem. But what happens when a customer does not have a receipt and Target cannot find a record of it using receipt look-up process? That's a problem.
When Jan Angelillo of Rocky Hill attempted to return a duvet without a receipt to the Newington Target in June, she says the store could not find the corresponding charge on her credit card. It then offered her $53 in store credit for the $59.99 bedspread, which represented the store's recent lowest price on that item.
"Fine with me," says Angelillo. "I asked for a gift card so I could pick up a few other things I needed."
That's when a store representative told her it wasn't possible, that the $53 credit must be used in the same department for at least that amount.
"Ridiculous," says Angelillo. "There was nothing I needed in that department for $53. I carefully read their return policy posted, and nowhere does it state that rule, which I pointed out to the clerk."
The Bottom Line couldn't find it, either, even after being referred to a specific link on the Target website by a company spokeswoman. Angelillo says a store clerk cited "some exceptions."
Angelillo says she talked to the store manager for an hour but left frustrated and angry.
"I have just destroyed my Target card," she said when she first contacted TBL, "and will never shop in there again with that type of policy."
Why didn't Target's system recognize Angelillo's credit-card payment for the bedspread? Angelillo provided TBL with her credit-card statement showing payments to Target on June 9 for $199.58, on June 11 for $184.96, on June 13 for $149.80 and on June 15 for $35.07. Somewhere in those payments totaling close to $600 over six days, Angelillo insists, is the $60 bedspread. Angelillo called American Express, hoping to find the specific charge for the duvet. Credit-card purchases, however, are not itemized on monthly statements.
Target declined to discuss Angelillo's experience, but Target spokeswoman Meghan Mike says, "We apologize that Target was unable to look up the guest's purchase for this transaction."
Mike, more than once, suggested Angelillo contact the company's Guest Relations. Angelillo says she did, twice.
"The clerk at the Newington Target," she says, "even tried for me, to convince them to just give me a gift card for the amount in question."
Retailers lose billions of dollars annually to fraudulent returns, according to industry estimates. A TBL column in April detailed the experience of a Middletown man who returned a defective Blu-ray movie to Best Buy but was told the store would not accept other returns or exchanges for 90 days. His movie-return path led to The Retail Equation, a California company that verifies returns by tracking consumers' return and exchange history at participating stores, including Best Buy. (Target says it does not disclose its "vendor partnerships.")
If Target knows something about Angelillo's return history that TBL doesn't, it wouldn say. It's clear, however, that Target does not readily share all details of its no-receipt, no-credit-card-verification policy.
After several requests from TBL for information, Target finally spelled out its policy:
"We allow guests to return up to $70 in merchandise on a rolling 12-month cycle on an unlimited number of transactions without a receipt," says Mike. "The guest will receive a Target GiftCard equal to the lowest historical price of the item. Once a guest has reached the $70 limit on no-receipt returns, they may continue to exchange new and unused merchandise for a product(s) of equal or greater value within the same merchandise department."
Too bad Angelillo never knew about this policy. How many customers do? Target, despite several requests, would not say where anyone can find details of the policy either in a store or online.
Target's hidden policy might have restricted Angelillo's return, but a store credit might have kept a customer coming back.
