Target Tanforan on Monday evening, March 22nd, 2016 between the hours of 09.00 and 10.30 p.m. We were initially looking for an iron skillet to properly prepare our late Filet Mignon dinner, but also strolling through the aisles, looking for, checking out and adding items of interest to our cart.
One of them should, or could have been this one here, a folding lounge chair here posted:
http://www.target.com/p/sling-lounger-tan-room-essentials/-/A-17184287#prodSlot=_1_6
Inspired by yesterday's warm weather and dreaming of balcony quality time, we compared it with similar chairs and prices (which helped btw. memorizing this particular price: $59).
Remembering all price tags is tricky when your cart is overloaded. When your receipt is like 20+ inches long, you may occasionally not notice that the checkout price differs from the price displayed in the showroom. When finally checking out, the nice and helpful cashier couldn't find a barcode/price tag and couldn't checkout the chair, so she called for help.
And "help" arrived.
"Juan" (not his real name), who ran the customer service counter that night took possession of the chair, told the cashier to cancel all transactions and asked us to go over to the customer service counter and wait while he left to check for the price.
I remember thinking that's a kind of unusual approach to address this. A one minute wait at the cashier, while an employee checks the price tag is common practice. Why canceling the whole transaction? But it was past 10 p.m., we we're hungry.
"Juan" came back saying the price is $79. To me it didn't feel right. I wouldn't have purchased this chair for $79, close to $100. Just over $50 was an OK price, so I got suspicious about his action. I walked all the way back to check it out by myself and found out I was right.
It was clearly offered for $59 (in my uploaded pics). In my mind now, that guy turned from trusted to very suspicious. How can you get this one wrong???
Even at 10 p.m., if you're acceptably literate and have normal eyesight, you can recognize a product and read it's price tag even at early stages of Alzheimer's dementia.
From a store employee I should expect that as a basic skill. Business requires this level of trust to stay partnered. Once trust is gone it's over. There are no second chances.
I'm aware of the fact that people make mistakes. That's why "Juan" still had a chance to ease my mind. So back at the counter, the first thing I asked "Juan" was if he wants to screw me over 20 bucks? That statement should have ring an alarm bell to start paying attention to his role and provide customer service.
But he preferred diffusing the situation and serving other customers. He didn't give it the kind of attention one would expect. Instead, he was mumbling something about he scanned the price and avoided dealing with me exclusively. He could have solved this ASAP, but for some strange reason he didn't.At my preferred grocery store for example, they hand you over the product as gift, after you make them aware of their mistake. And they do that quickly and thankfully and it happened twice within 2 years.
And at Target Tanforan?
"Juan" continued rather dealing with other customers, keeps us waiting, and called for someone else to deal with us. That was the end of it. I got really angry.
He didn't act like he made a stupid mistake. He acted like a guilty man who was caught on the act. He avoided me. I told them to keep their chair, headed back to the cashier again to pay and we left. It was too late and we're too hungry to deal with this.
I will bring this to the attention of the store administration because that's something I would wanna know if I would be supervisor. read more