On Sun, 6 Apr 2003 00:06:55 -0500, "JNJ" wrote:

To my shock, the clerk wouldn't exchange without a receipt.
Who keeps a receipt for 2 packets of seeds for 5-6 weeks?! I asked
him if he wanted to lose a customer over $1.89, and he seemed quite
willing to do so. He was not Japanese; I was tempted to contact the
management, but it's their problem; not worth the effort..

I'm taking my business back to the local nurseries that do not
give customers a hard time, even when returning plants. They value
repeat business.

Don't feel bad -- we took an item back to Target for an "even" exchange.
Just item for item -- it was the wrong size. We no longer had the receipt.
To our amazement, they told us they would credit us the sale price towards
the purchase of another. This was an even exchange! Their position was
that we may have purchased the item on sale in the last 90 days and we
therefore could only have that much money toward the swapped item regardless
of the fact that the item was the exact same thing. This applies to
defective returns as well. So you could purchase an item on sale Saturday,
find it was defective and return it on Monday to swap for a working model
BUT you'd end up paying more because the item was no longer on sale! The
real kicker here is that with that scenario it would not matter if you had a
receipt or not -- the recipt would show you purchased it at a sale price so
that would be what they would credit to you in the swap.

To me this is absolutely ludicrous -- an even exchange should be just that
and nothing more. If I am swapping for the same item and that item has no
price differential from the one I've returned, other than a sale that
occurred in the last NINETY (90) days, then I should not be charged extra
because it's no longer on sale. I can understand it in the case of a refund
but come on -- an "even" exchange????

To say the least, we no longer shop Target for items like appliances,
household goods, and the like or those that might be used as gifts. For the
main part, we do not even consider Target for any purchases anymore -- the
only time we go there is if they have some sale on a consumable (laundry
detergent for example) that is just out of sight.

Your story just bears out the trend toward megachains that couldn't
care less whether they please their customers and get repeat business.
People treasure the few remaining local businesses that respect their
customers and go out of their way to satisfy them.

It's terrible business practice for these biggies to behave so
chicken-****, but when you're dealing with a large, anonymous outfit,
staffed by low-wage clerks and "managers" who have no stake in the
enterprise except pulling a paycheck, that's what you get.




--
Polar