Target does not honor prices posted on their own website.
I purchased , well, I thought I purchased a car seat for 42.99
Car Seat DealAuthor: Momstart // Category: Car Seat, Marathon, Sale, Target
I got wind of the Britax Marathon convertible car seat going on sale. $42.99 and free shipping (but still plus tax) They are usually about $279. I just bought one for $46.85!!!
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=huc_ja_1_txt/192-4420528-2491746?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B000YSNMG2&nodeID=&merchantID=A1VC38T7YXB528 my MOMS Club friend sent this to me and I had to get one myself. (As a gift)
Comments (0)
I got an e-mail today saying that they are not going to honor that price it was a mistake in their system. Now, this makes me very upset. I did a search on their site for Britax. They had two different car seats at this wonderful low price. The other was 52.00 not 42.99. So I purchased one for my cousin and I told his mom I’m getting him a car seat. Now I’m going to have to call and say. I’m sorry. Target canceled my order. I’m not getting a car seat after all.
I really don’t want to make this call, I want Target to honor their on-line price. It is their mistake and they should have to sell it to me at this price. Who agrees with me???
Please let me know so that I can tell Target, Moms think they should honor a price found on their website.
Amazon.com did this to me on the huggies deal a week ago. All they kept saying was “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…etc.” but never really did anything. I spent about an hour on the phone with Target, and all they said was “we’re sorry” and offered to put me on a mailing list for updates.
I’m ticked that this is happening, especially with HUGE (inter)national companies. I’ve typed emails out to them, but all I ever get back is your generic “sorry” BS letter. Out of desperation, I emailed the Good Housekeeping magazine – they have a GH to the rescue for wronged consumers. Maybe if enough people email them, they will take up the case.
I’m also looking to get in touch with a few news reporters or something. I mean, Target and Amazon apparently don’t care about their “Valued customers” and won’t listen to me. They just don’t care. Well, maybe they’ll start caring if news of their shady business practices and false advertising start cropping up on the 6 o’clock news.
I agree, I’m trying to get as many people to come to my site.
I personally did not attempt the purchase, but did look into the site. Of course Target, and Amazon.com should honor their listed prices. In such economic crisis, they should be welcoming customers. If they sent out an email explaining that the price is a mistake, but they will honor it. They would not have lost a lot of profits. People would even have a better image of the company. But now, to “shun” away loyal customer, they will lose unmeasurable profits.
I completely agree! I am in the process of TRYING to get a response out of Target…not that I’m counting on it but I’m documenting everything! Then I’m taking it to the better business Bureau, straight to the Target cooperate offices (in minnesota) and if I have to I’ll even call a newspaper or tv station. It is completely dishonest that they are trying this, if I put something in writing that I was going to give a product to someone, I better follow through or I would end up in court (never mind the fine print, you know it would happen!) but because they are a huge company they are “immune” to all this! It just makes me SO mad! Target has done this to me at LEAST 4 times in the last three months and I’m done. Whatever happened to respecting customers and owning up to your own mistakes? Really!!!
this is the second person i have found posting this.
i think target most certainly should honor their price for the people who have already ordered it.
if not, fight it, and once everyone fights it, you will win.
‘the customer is always right’
i was always taught this in minimum wage retailing jobs. i.e. if a customer saw something put on the wrong shelf, the wrong container, etc, and the price was supposed to be cheaper, if they fought hard enough, we had to give it to them. it was OUR fault the item was not at the right place, not theirs.
I don’t make a purchase either, but I think these stores feel they have the upper hand. BUT they shouldn’t since they say they are customer driven. Target and Amazon should learn from companies such as Costco and Nordstrom. These stores will NOT last the test of time if they don’t live and breath for their customers. Target and Amazon should beware or they will fall like companys such as Kmart.
Amazon and Target cater to the middle to upper middle class and these loyalties only run as long as both are giving. If Amazon and Target stop so will this cliental until their washed out. Maybe not tomorrow … but the test of time will wear on these companies …
They should definitely honor their prices. That is false advertisement on their part and they should pay for it.. It’s their fault, not yours!
I would fight it to the end!
I think alot of stores and company’s think that with the economy the way it is the public will buckle under pressure and just pay whatever. If a company or store advertises a price for something it should be honored and the customer should not be ignored. I would like to find a company that is completly USA made..but good luck with that. Even Hanes has factories in El Salvador, Guatamala, etc.!!
Target should honor their prices!! Moms as consumers make up a huge portion of Target’s gross sales. If Target wants Mom’s to remain loyal then they should act accordingly.
It is disgusting to me that Target can get away with it. I will vote with my pocketbook so to speak and avoid Target until I hear that they make ammends to my friends. I didn’t order one, but some people I know did and Target is now on my blacklist until I hear differently. That should not be able to lie and manipulate people this way, and the only way to stop them is to decrease their profits (in whatever small way we each can). There are other stores…in Redmond, Fred Meyer and Kohls are right next door…give them a try everyone.
Just my own thought but if Target don’t want to honor that price on the car seat then I’ll do all my shopping from now on over at the Walmart or Kmart
I’d file with the better business bureau if they don’t. and let them know who you are and what you do. Maybe subtle remind them of the power of mommy bloggers (Ahem, Motrin?) I’m behind you all the way!
I am just going to play devils advocate for a minute….
I dont work for Target; but I used to be a buyer at a major department store. I started as a sales person and worked my way up as a buyer. And yes, while I always tried to do the best I could and give the customer the most service….I did make mistakes. It happens. When I would do advertising, I would pour over exactly what was printed. As well as my assistant and my boss… but still, I hve to admit to making a mistake or two in my life.
If at all possible, I would try to rectify the sitution. But that was not always possible.
I have never seen a Britex car seat for under $200.00… so just guessing that their cost must be around $100.00. How long could a company stay in business if they bought an item for $100.00 and sold it to you for $42.99?
Likely, not very long.
All I am saying, could this be a simple human error and not a sinister scam? Maybe I am too naive?
I think you should totally call and try and get them to honor the price- it certainly cant hurt.
I’ve heard (since the rumor mill has been on FIRE with all of this) that 35,000 seats were ordered. If target ate the $200 difference on everyone of those seats they would be out $7 million. I don’t think any company has that kind of $$ to spare right now!
Not that I don’t agree it sucks big time. I do think they should have had better/more uniform customer service answers much more quickly than they did, and that they should be compensating everyone equally.
If Target really sold that many then it is still their problem, They should have a computer system that notifies them of a price drop that low. They should have noticed that they were selling car seats out the waz zoo.
Technology helped them get all of the hits, they have an IT department that could have caught this before it got out of hand. It isn’t that hard. I know, I am in the tech industry. They can’t just stick their head in the ground and say duhhhh we don’t know how this happened.
Talking about Technology,
Target IT dept might don’t want to make that as a big deal for them.
The acceptance of customers complaints also rejected by Target by just saying “we’re sorry”
If it is advertised at a certain price it should be sold at that price until it is taken off of their Web-Site.
I ordered two, one in Granite (42.99) and Cowmooflage (59.99). I received a confirmation email and order number. It was canceled the next day. I am very upset about this and plan to boycott Target until further notice. They will lose a lot more money by not honoring the price than if they sent the seats out to the ones who were able to place the order. If this happened in the store, they would sell you only 1 item at the listed price. Why isn’t this being honored from an online sale?
The seats that were on ‘sale’ only rear face to 33 pounds. Britax has recently come out with RF to 35 pounds. This is a perfectly legit reason to sell off the old inventory at a discounted price. If they meant sell it for $85 off rather than 85%, that’s not the consumers fault. They made a mistake, it’s been fixed, great. But don’t they have a moral responsibility to fulfill their end of the bargain when they confirmed the order and issued an order number?
The funniest part about this is that i ordered..then i went back and cancelled my order by MISTAKE and then coudlnt reorder. So in an odd way, im happy i feel less slighted. LMAO. I was kicking myself in the ass all night.
trisha
I have called target.com and heard “I am sorry” where I returned to the woman that she should be pissed that her company only equipped her with being able to read the policy verbatim that was in the email that Target sent trying to cover their mistake.
I actually called CS after making the order to verify the true price and the lady assured they had full intention on honoring the price. I also got an order confirmation (which to me indicates a contract between myself and Target…me to pay and them to deliver).
Not good PR. Especially when you disgruntle the main purchaser for thousands of households.
I will be in on it.
jupry1
(don’t have an account so put it under anonymous)
Target is in the wrong here!! They may have posted the wrong price but that’s there fault and any other store would have honored the price it was posted at to all the people who bought it at that price because it was there mistake not the customers!!
I too have purchased a car seat for the $42.00 I strongly agree that Target should honor the “posted price”. What can we do to make them aware of that? Also, they have all of our credit card numbers!
Dads think they should honor their price also!
At the very least they should try to compromise; maybe sell them for $100 or so. That wouldn’t be ideal, but it would be better than nothing.
IIRC, when Apple dropped the price of the iPhone, they sent an iTunes gift card to those who had just purchased an iPhone. It wasn’t for the full difference, but it reflected positively on Apple.
If you can’t get that one, we’ve been impressed with the Sunshine Kids Radian carseats (we have 2). They’re very narrow because they’re steel-reinforced. They probably wouldn’t be much cheaper than the list price of the Britax, and definitely not cheaper than the Target price!
I agree that Target should have honored the price the was advertised.
I have worked in retail for years. There are 2 things that in any company we have always been told.
1: The customer is always right, even when they are wrong. If a company wants to keep a customer they have to please them.
2: If it has a price on the product or on a sign and a customer sees it, the company has to honor the lower price. I have seen this a couple of times, and I agree with it. People make mistakes. If it is a mistake, fix it, but honor the customer that made you realize the mistake.
I would think that Target or Amazon.com or any large company would be this way, but I guess not. I agree with you all the way that they should honor the price that you originally were going to pay.
Jodi
I had the same thing happen with a snow blower they were selling on the same day. I think that they have a legal obligation to fullfill selling the item for the price you bought it for…it is a contract of sale to go through that process IMHO. I would check it out with an attorney. ME, I dont have enough energy to go through the process.
Unfortunately this happens all the time and they rarely honor it as well as other companies.
I didn’t do the carseat but I did try the snowblower. I am very upset as well. If I were in-store and it was marked wrong, I would ask to speak to a manager and they would HAVE to give me the deal. Then they could go and fix the problem. A red flag should have gone off somewhere by the time two or three were ordered and then they could fix it and make good on the two or three mistakes.
I really hope GH or one of the other media’s pick up on this article so that they can fix this.
I too ordered the Britax carseat and am very disappointed with Target. One of their stores recently moved in across the street from my local WalMart. I have been loyal to Target ever since, but am now very upset and plan to take my business back across the street to WalMart. Unfortunately, I am afraid that is all we can do.
I originally posted a comment on 11/18/08 but needed to add something (in italic, third paragraph below) and asked Momstart to remove my blog so I could revise it. Then, I’m sorry to say but, I never got around to making the revision. Anyway, I guess Target read my mind as I received an email from Target today 11/26/08 offering a $25.00 gift certificate (see my second to last paragraph).
I saw this as nothing more than a “Scam” by Target to lure customers onto their website store in hopes that the customer will purchase more item’s than just the car seats (in this case). Then, Target cancels the “Scam” item (car seat) while still charging the customer for the other items purchased. What an ingenious way to make a sale, NOT!
My addition was = I heard on Ch 13 news 11/18/08 about 7:45am (this is almost word for word what the reporter said) – “Target will match Wal-Mart holiday price cut on identical item’s. All this came about because of a 24% decline in third quarter earnings. They also have about a half dozen Value Item’s ONLINE everyday at special prices”. (No doubt these Special Prices are to lure customers into their website to buy merchandise at a SPECIAL PRICE, like the car seats, and other items at regular sale prices and then, cancel the Special Priced items as they did to us).
I not only saw the Granite car seat on sale but also the Cowmooflage car seat at just about the same discount. I really thought this offer was for real, that the car seats were being discontinued and Target needed to get them out of their warehouse. Otherwise, how could someone make the same pricing mistake on TWO separate car seats?
If this really was a mistake, how did it get by not only the person that posted the erroneous price but also get by the proof operator who is suppose to double check for errors as well as both of their manager’s who oversee the department’s? Were they all on a coffee (or popcorn since its Target) break?
Even Albertson’s values their customer’s more than this. If Albertson’s listed something for one price and, when it was time to ring up the item it came up a different amount, they give the customer the item free. I am not saying that Target should give those that were able to purchase the car seats a free car seat (car seats cost a lot more than food item’s). I also do not want Target to take a big hit for the car seats but, I do believe since it was their fault, they could come up with a way to handle this incident without ruining their relationship with loyal customers. For those that were successful in purchasing the car seats, maybe they could offer those customers 50% off what should have been the sale price of the car seat or, give those customers a free $25.00 gift certificate for each car seat the customer wanted to purchase for their inconvenience and frustration.
There is a lot to be said for our ancestors who made deals by shaking hands or giving their word. If only we could trust what we read, see, and hear like they did back then.