Target Online & Customer Service. Not.

I finally figured out what the definition of customer service is over the holidays.  It means the customer is responsible for working their ass off to get any service they can possibly squeeze out of the company from which they have bought goods and services.

Case in point -- Target.com.  I ordered a playhouse for my son for Christmas -- the big plastic kind that you put in your yard in which children can pretend to be homeowners without any of the actual hassles of homeownership.  I ordered it on November 28, figuring I'd be more than safe in getting it in time for the Big Day.  This was the only thing he had asked for, his Christmas 2004 Holy Grail.  Every single time he ran into Santa he said the same thing:  I want a toy playhouse.  This item was the linchpin, the key to my enjoyment of Christmas morning.

I received an email from Target informing me the house would be delivered somewhere between Dec. 9 and 16.  I called Target on Dec. 20 (call #1) to find out why it hadn't yet arrived, and after calling the number back three different times until I figured out what magical combination of numbers to press, I got a real person.  This very nice person called the shipping company, Eagle Logistics, and was told that the shipping company had had the item since Dec. 13th and had been calling and calling me to schedule delivery and had not heard back.  Amazing, considering I had been home all week and hadn't heard a peep.  Helpful Target Guy gave me the number for Eagle Global Logistics.  I called them (call #2) and ended up speaking to a somewhat snarky woman who basically admitted someone lied to Helpful Target Guy, because they didn't even have my phone number on file.  I asked her whether anyone had planned to eventually call Target to get my number, or if they just planned to leave the playhouse sitting there until it crumbled.  Well, I didn't actually say that.  But I thought it.   She said she'd have someone call me to schedule delivery later that day.  No one called.  I called again that afternoon (call #3) and was told that the driver would call me to schedule delivery.  No one called.  In the meantime, I sent an email to Target's Customer Service department complaining.  They responded by giving me a 50% refund on my shipping costs.  Nice, but all I wanted was the product I had paid for, and they didn't offer me any further help on getting it.  So I called Eagle again on the 21st (call #4).  I eventually happened upon Helpful Eagle Guy Steve, thank St. Nick!, and he put me in touch with someone (call #5) who put me in touch with someone else (call #6) who delivered the playhouse to me on December 23.  And not a moment too soon.  Needless to say, I will never order anything from Target.com again. 

When I filled out my order form and paid my $640.46, I thought I had done all the work necessary.  Clearly, I was mistaken.  Anybody else work hard to get decent service this holiday season?

Tag: marketing

Comments

[Garrick Van Buren]

I had similar - though less irritating - Target.com experience. I purchase 4 kitchen chairs. The chairs were sold in pairs. When the (single) package arrived, I had 2 chairs. Half my order, though the packing slip said the order was filled.

I called customer service, they were very pleased I alerted them to this issue. For they weren't aware of the issue.

[David Foster]

As a Target shareholder, I find this pretty disturbing. In my view, TGT should not have handed you off to Eagle, but should have managed the relationship with Eagle invisibly and provided all status information to you directly through customer service.

The way this was handled is as if a manufacturer told you to call one of their component suppliers when you reported a problem with their product.

[Tom Asacker]

Hey Katherine,

Happy New Year!

Sorry to hear of your . . . I was going to write fiasco, but after all was said and done, you did receive the toy house. ;-(

I'm curious how this experience with Target.com will effect your perception or future dealings with terrestrial Target?

[Ian O'Neill]

I blogged about this topic on 'AdShift' on January 8th, at www.sunagency.ca/weblog/