Just a few days ago I praised Target.com’s super fast shipping on a headboard. It was, indeed, a great experience… that I need to temper with another experience I had with Target that was pretty lousy.
To go with said headboard we wanted some night stands. We chose a particular model, listed plain as day on Target’s website. The site offers a handy dandy “find at a store near you” feature. So I punched in my ZIP code and soon I was told that my local store had just one, and no other store within 20 miles had it. Harrumph.
I had to call our local Target with a question regarding a return so I took the opportunity to ask them if they had any of the night stands in stock; I just wanted to be sure. So I gave the helpful fellow on the phone the catalog number of the item, listed on the website. After a few minutes he came back and said nope, we’re all out. Good enough.
You can see where this is going, right?
Off I went to that particular Target to return the other, non-related item. Since I was there I figured, eh, I might as well check if they have it. I went to the furniture aisle to find… two of them!
That was perfect. Two night stands? Wrap ’em up!
The thing that was most bothersome about this was that I had three different inventory levels given to me: one from the site (which was wrong), one from the person at the store (which was wrong), and the truth (which was right – and truth-y.) I understand that Target is a giant corporation with over 2.4 million locations and 93 billion items in stock but this seems really silly to me. Don’t they know how many items they’ve got? I mean, that’s a basic part of retail isn’t it?
In any case I’m glad that I got my night stands but am way disappointed that to truly find out how many were in stock, I had to actually visit the store. Blah.
Posted in Consumer Commentary
Jeani July 14, 2008, 4:58 pm
As the old fogey that I am, I’ll also add that I was most annoyed that the guy you spoke with on the phone didn’t do his job. He obviously just looked in their computer to see what it said, and didn’t actually walk to the aisle or into the back of the store to check on their stock. Feh!
I still love Target, but I won’t trust them now when it comes to whether or not they have something in stock, which is kind of annoying.
Ryan July 14, 2008, 7:08 pm
Paul, just join me in hating everybody. You’ll learn to avoid disappointment that way.
Tracy Pompura July 15, 2008, 2:37 am
Old People just work to pay for thier benefits they will say anything to make the day faster then again they don’t know if they are coming or going. If trhey do remember they are doing something they just don’t remember what it was.