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March 14, 2007
Why you should never purchase a couch or any piece of furniture from Target.
You see, Elise and I got married and we went to Italy. When we returned, we started an overhaul of our place. Blowing up photos, hanging paintings, putting out the new appliances and trying to buy a new bookcase from Target.
We had this ladder bookcase in mind and it was expensive for a Target bookcase. A hundred smackers, actually, but we'd been eyeing it and we'd finally broken down. Target was displaying it proudly on an endcap and everything, with little cards that you take to an employee to retrieve it from the back. The first Target we went to was a bust, as the employee tried and tried to scan the card with a handheld scanner, looked confused and then just said, "We're all out of them."
A few days later, at a second Target store and another endcap displaying the ladder bookcase, another employee scanned the card and said, "It's discontinued."
"But you have no more in the back?"
"No, it's discontinued."
"If it's discontinued, can we buy this floor model then?"
"No."
Then we just gave up on our $100 ladder bookcase, settling on a smaller, simpler $20 model that does just fine. We saved eighty bucks, exactly what Target lost.
It made sense to me then why the first employee at the first store tried to scan the card so many times, his handheld scanner buzzing each time, before just saying that they were all out. Because it was telling him that it was discontinued, just like the second store told us. But it was confusing as to why both stores were displaying a discontinued item so prominently and why I had not seen it displayed in that way before the day we tried to buy it. Why would it get it's own special display and be discontinued in the same week? And why didn't that second woman, at least take all of the little cards that you're SUPPOSED to be able to trade for your new bookcase off the hook once she found out that the item was discontinued? Seemed like an easy solution to me. If I saw that the cards were all taken, I would just assume it was out of stock and move on.
Neither stores offered to check their stock rooms where they should be, just to make sure that they didn't have any.
The next week after that, after buying and assembling our second choice bookshelf, the original ladder bookshelves were still displayed in our local Targets... but not only that, they were now ON SALE. Funny that a "discontinued" and out of stock item would warrant a special sale price, huh?
Their loss, whatever, and all of that... but at the same time we were waiting for our new couch to arrive.
For our wedding my grandparents gave us a new armchair from our Target registry and it was missing a screw when we assembled it. But it didn't seem to be a very important screw and it's holding up just fine. It's not the most comfortable chair, but it's as comfortable and a whole heck of a lot better looking than our old living room furniture.
So the first thing we did when we returned from Italy was order the matching sofa from Target.com. $400 for a full-size sofa was a steal, even with a $100 shipping charge. I now realize that $500 would have been better spent on someone that trains birds of prey to train a very large hawk to peck my eyeballs out and build nests in their sockets.
The sofa that I am talking about is Target's Metropolitan Upholstered Sofa in the color Chocolate. To get this straight it is a Target Metropolitan Sofa in a color also known as Mocha. Metropolitan Upholstered Sofa Chocolate at Target.com .
Okay, now that I've said that in enough different ways that Google will surely index this post nice and good for any curious Target couch shoppers to stumble upon, I can continue with the story...
The shipping method for this full-sized sofa was listed online as "Target Ground" which was a sigh of relief for me, because I was horrified of the prospect that a single UPS man would have to deliver such a large thing up three flights of stairs to our apartment. We ordered the couch on February 16th and it had an estimated delivery of February 22nd through February 27th. On February 27th it arrived by "Target Ground" which it turns out, is really just code for UPS. Code for a single UPS man delivering two packages as big as him up three flights of stairs.
He said "I don't know why these companies think we're furniture delivery men."
I totally agreed with him.
Had I known the $100 delivery was going to be that awkward, I probably just would've gone to a real furniture store with real delivery to begin with.
When I ripped open the boxes, it was apparent that the largest piece of the couch was still missing. That would be the entire back of it.
It arrived the next day, a day after the last day of the projected window of arrival. The same UPS man. He said, "There's the REST OF IT," and sounded a lot less jokey than the day before. This package was indeed larger than the two previous and it was also ripped open all over. Thankfully, nothing inside was damaged.
Nothing was damaged, but it certainly was missing the bag of hardware and all four legs. We finally had our brand new couch and now screws to put it together! No legs for it to stand on.
Elise was freaking out, but it was no big deal, I thought. I would call Target and they would get us the replacement parts shipped out overnight. The first Target customer service rep we talked to was extremely helpful and went on a search to find their supplier of the couch before saying that he would contact them and put in a parts order for us and hanging up.
An hour later we got a message from him saying that the parts order "wouldn't go through" and that our only option was to exchange the entire couch for a new one.
The thought that their only solution to a bag of missing screws was to have our giant pieces of couch picked back up by UPS and then three more giant boxes of couch delivered by UPS enraged me. Not to mention the fact that the packaging of our original couch was in no condition to be repackaged for a UPS return. I don't exactly have 7 foot couch boxes lying around, either.
Thus began the last month of my dealings with Target's customer service. Half a dozen phone calls and a whole dozen emails to them and the company that first person said was their supplier and we are absolutely nowhere. $500 out and pieces of couch all over our living room for an entire month now!
Finally though I was given a second option...
I'm sorry for any inconvenience you've experienced with this situation.Yes, the "Metropolitan Upholstered Sofa - Chocolate" may be returned
to a Target Store.We will issue a full refund for most items returned in new condition
within 90 days of shipment, with the original packaging and
accessories. If you no longer have the original box, the store
should still be able to accept the return in most cases.The store associate will issue the refund back to the original
payment method (credit card or GiftCard).However, our stores aren't set up to refund shipping or Gift Wrap
charges. So after you return the item at Store, please contact us
so that we can refund you for the associated shipping charges.
They WANT us to return the couch to a Target store over getting on the phone and getting me a few small parts! They want us to drop a bunch of pieces of couch, out of box, in their customer service department!
Now this is hilarious and will, it seems as of now, be our final solution to this stupid mess... but it's not easily done at the moment, as this sucker certainly won't fit in our little car. Thinking about how I have to put so much thought into just getting this stupid couch to their store to probably cause a scene with the store's customer service people really, really set me off.
This is why I've now decided that until I can get this thing into a store, I'll just keep writing emails to Target. I no longer believe that they can be of any help whatsoever, but writing them increasingly more off the wall letters brings me at least some satisfaction over the whole thing.
This is the letter I wrote to them yesterday...
Hello! I would like a full refund for this couch, including the cost of shipping, as I am DONE dealing with your company! Maybe you can see from my MANY previous emails or possibly notations from all of the calls my wife and I have made to customer service that our lovely couch that we purchased with money we received as a gift for our wedding... that we purchased to match the matching chair that my grandmother bought us for our wedding (and is in fine condition, but useless as it does not have a matching couch to compliment it and never will it seems)... our lovely couch came missing all of the hardware and legs to actually put it together. Returning such a massive thing seems absurd and returning through the mail is simply impossible as UPS will not ship anything out of box and I wouldn't know how to begin to find a box big enough for this six foot couch. Returning it in store is what I truly would love to do, as it would be hilarious and I would film it for my own enjoyment (sending a copy to your corporate headquarters, of course... so that you can see how I tell every customer that looks at my wife and I and our massive pieces of couch about our experiences with it) but returning in store would require the rental of a truck, as this thing could nowhere near fit into our compact car. It is ALMOST worth me biting the bullet and paying for that truck rental, but I've decided the best option for me at this point is to throw the pieces of the couch into a lake. I think you would also agree that that is my best option, dear Target, as you have not offered any better. Please refund all of my money for this purchase, I will draw you a map to the lake that I will throw the couch into and we can make our return.
I received this from Target in response...
I'm sorry for the problem with your order. Well be happy to help
you out with this return. UPS will pick up the "Metropolitan
Upholstered Sofa - Chocolate" and when we get it back, we'll refund
you the cost of your order. The request for pick up has been issued
to the shipping address.We can't confirm the exact pick-up time or date with UPS. They
should make the first attempt within the next 5-7 business days.Here's what you need to do to get your order ready for pickup:
-The driver will bring the return label, so you don't need to
put one on the package.
-Put the item back in its original packaging.
-If you're not sure that you'll be home when UPS comes,
remember to leave the package where they can find it.
To which I replied with this...
This does not resolve my issue, but instead creates a whole different issue to deal with! A UPS man coming to my door when I have stated in every email that I DO NOT have the original packaging, as the original packaging was quite damaged and dirty and I did not want to drag it in and onto my carpet, so I cut the couch out of it outside. I cannot find any kind of packaging large enough to house a six foot couch. I did, however, like the part of the email where it said I could leave the package where he could see it if I was not home. I could leave this package on the MOON and he could see it, as it is taking up quite a lot of space amongst our apartment and has been for one month now. You see all I wanted were the missing pieces that should have come with my couch, but I guess that isn't possible, so I will just have to buy a hacksaw and saw this couch into tiny, tiny pieces and then eat each and every piece to finally remove it from my life, one bite at a time.
To be continued, I'm sure...
Posted by Christian at March 14, 2007 05:05 AM
Comments
You should submit to digg or consumerist.
Good luck!
Posted by: Cjb at March 15, 2007 11:21 AM
Thanks for giving a hugely pregnant and uncomfortable woman a good laugh :) (not that I'm happy you guys have had to deal with this crap when you are newlyweds) Hope it works out!
Posted by: Kelly at March 16, 2007 10:59 AM
If you're in the RTP area, I'll volunteer my SUV for return driving. Maybe you can find someone who'd love to see this return happen. I'm betting the link from Consumerist will help.
Posted by: Sharon at March 16, 2007 11:13 AM
Hi-larious correspondence with Target! This needs to be passed up the chain at Target Corp. Maybe someone along the line will recognize the absurdity of this situation and make it right, cuz obviously, the low-level CSR's you've been dealing with just don't get it. Best of luck.
Posted by: nffcnnr at March 16, 2007 11:43 AM
Sadly as one who's worked in customer relations for an online store(that also has a chain of real life stores, but no, it's not Target) your best bet is to assume that the CR people are so unmotivated (low pay, management, you name it) that they won't help you out on this one. What we did in these cases - find the manufacturer's info and talk to their rep. They could have the parts sent out within the week if that company has someone assigned to such tasks. Even if it's an import this still might be possible. So since you can't get anyone at Target to do this - since it's easier to cut and paste the same lame emails - what you should do is check the paperwork for manufacturer's information. A good percentage of the time the research we did to find contact info was a Google search, even though there were people within our company who could have given us this information. In some companies the purchasing/marketing folk won't have anything to do with the lowly grunts in CR, even if it means helping a customer.
If you can stand the sight of the couch at this point (and haven't used the chainsaw yet), you could try to check in with local hardware stores and furniture stores to see if they sell spare legs and find others. But I'd try going through the manufacturer first. If you want to really raise a stink with Target try calling the corporate headquarters. (Also usually available via Google.) Explain politely that you've had no luck with the email reps and that you'd like to speak with someone. They won't have anyone, so ask to speak with their CR dept. And if that fails ask for their mailing address and the name of someone they could send it to. If you really want to impress them look up some of their employee info online - someone who works in PR or retail management - and ask if that person still works there. If they ask why explain politely (polite goes a long way, believe me) that you are planning on sending him/her a copy and you want to make sure you CC the right people. Also mention that you will be posting it on your website, and how nice it is that Google archives these things for easy searching. Perhaps throw in that your story is already on your blog and other blogs are starting to link to it. This might not get the attention it deserves - in which case you add that to the letter. Then snail mail a copy, post it on your blog, and then email copies out as well. Believe me, this will get you noticed. Target is pretty savy when it comes to PR, and they have a net presense. Plus letters and phone calls from articulate people honestly do strike a chord with smart business people. And you folk are nicely in one of their target (no pun intended) demographics.
In any case, good luck! This sounds so incredibly frustrating. What's sad to me is that this isn't an insignificant $20 item - and there are still some stores that give customers results for a defect in such a low ticket thing. You'd think Target would value your buisness a bit more!
Posted by: batgrl at March 16, 2007 03:28 PM
(Oh and by "since it's easier to cut and paste the same lame emails" - I mean that the lame CR folk are probably just sending the same email to everyone with only a few changes in wording - and not really reading through to see what your problem is. Sadly most good CR places will first check the amount you spent and how long this issue has gone on - and thus prioritize. And in big ticket items actually write an original email. But I guess this isn't the case or you'd have had better service long ago.)
Posted by: batgrl at March 16, 2007 03:32 PM
Hey, assuming your couch was paid by credit card, I would simply call the credit card company, dispute the charge and let Target deal with it then. You'll see how much more motivated they are once they actually don't have the money.
That is basically what I have learned to do with poor customer service. A few calls and messages exchanged to give them a chance to come to their senses and to build a document trail. Document everything and submit it to your credit card company. When I get particularly pissed off, I also place a sign on the back of my car for a couple of weeks advertising to the world my problem with the company. It's my only personal satisfaction to daydream that their ineptitude cost them more than myself as a customer.
Posted by: April at March 16, 2007 09:31 PM
If I were you I would tell them that you talked to your friend (or uncle, cousin, etc.) who is a lawyer and told you that Target has breached their contract with you. If you are forced to rent a truck (per their instructions) in order to return the couch you will be filing suit is small claims court to recover the cost which emanated from their original breach. Maybe that will get a supervisor's attention. If not, ask if they have the contact information for Target's legal counsel.
This worked for me with Home Depot. They delivered a dish washer and I had paid for installation. When the guys showed up they told me my previous dish washer was "hard plumbed" and that I would have to hire a plumber to install the new one. I followed their instructions only to have the plumber tell me it was not "hard plumbed" and the people hired by Home Depot could have installed it. Nonetheless the plumber bill came to $150 (almost what I paid for the dishwasher). I told the Home Depot customer service about this situation and they tried to give me the same blow off. I made a threat of legal action and they caved and refunded the entire $150 plumber bill. You see, it would cost them that much to hire an attorney to drive to small claims court and once you get to court you are probably going to win anyway.
Good Luck!
Posted by: Bob at March 18, 2007 07:41 PM
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Posted by: Karen at March 30, 2008 04:52 AM
THANK YOU so much for this blog entry. I have been debating whether to buy a couch from Target through their website. There are a couple that I really like, but had no idea how it would get here. I also live on the third floor of an apartment building and cringed at the thought of a UPS guy delivering it. So I called Target.com and asked how they handled shipping of such large items. "UPS" they said. But you're right, UPS delivery are not furniture movers. I figured assembling would be required, which I was OK with. But after reading your experience, I have totally chucked my idea of buying this sofa out the window. I can see this same thing happening to me, because that is just my luck.
THANK YOU Again!!!!
Posted by: Andy at April 13, 2008 08:05 PM
THANK YOU so much for this blog entry. I have been debating whether to buy a couch from Target through their website. There are a couple that I really like, but had no idea how it would get here. I also live on the third floor of an apartment building and cringed at the thought of a UPS guy delivering it. So I called Target.com and asked how they handled shipping of such large items. "UPS" they said. But you're right, UPS delivery are not furniture movers. I figured assembling would be required, which I was OK with. But after reading your experience, I have totally chucked my idea of buying this sofa out the window. I can see this same thing happening to me, because that is just my luck.
THANK YOU Again!!!!
Posted by: Andy at April 13, 2008 08:06 PM
