I believe it. I've been in a fight with them all week. They double charged my bank account, and overdrew it. They refuse to refund the duplicate charge (saying it'll drop off. Whatever that means. What they mean is, if I call the bank and dispute the charge that TARGET ran through. Which I find highly inappropriate. They caused the mess) or the overdraft fee (which only exists because of them!). Target is sucking eggs big time. I'm seriously considering filing a complain with our state about it. I am truly in the right. I can prove it. I'm not sure why they're being so idiotic about it, but it sounds like I am not alone.

I bought a hair dryer there a few weeks ago that started acting up immediately. I looked at the reviews on Target's site and there were tons of negative reviews that talked about it smoking, catching fire, and shorting circuits. Guess I should have looked there first. I took it back and talked to a manager about it and she said that they have to leave them up for sale until they are told to take them off the shelf. I was dumbfounded! No common sense anymore.

Target's quality has gone way down. I bought two different shirts for my daughter and both ripped before washing. One still had the tags on it.

Wow. Can't believe they didn't take the sign down immediately... or that no one else complained about it!

Several years ago at Walmart I bought a toy guitar that had a sign above it for $29... it rang up much higher. The cashier said I had to take the receipt over to customer service to have it changed. I went back to the end cap and took a picture of the display and then waited in line (Christmas time) at customer service. The rep said I could've moved the guitar to that shelf myself, that the picture wasn't proof!

If my kid hadn't wanted this so much I would've just told them to keep it at that point. So I had to march back to the area and find an associate who verified the sign was there. It was incorrect, but that was not my fault and they did end up giving me the price on the sign.

Petco charged me 3 times for a single purchase and it took a couple of months to get it fixed. Next time I'll use their live chat to fix it because their phone people were impossible to hear Loud background noise and bad connections) and the accents made it worse. Finally, the store manager got it fixed for me but it was hard for her, too.

Notwithstanding rob's encounter (which isn't clear to me, how or why Target would be charging her bank account but seems like an error that should be immediately recognized and corrected), I think some of you have expectations that are too high.

A Target store must have thousands of individual product items. What would be a reasonable error rate for pricing or displays? Not zero, that's for sure. Retail pricing is never perfect, why be shocked if something is wrong? Expect it, don't be surprised. No one is trying to take advantage of customers, a mistake is a just a mistake. If you don't like the pricing of something and it seems to be different than what you thought, don't buy it. Problem solved.

Think of the kind of people who work retail jobs and how many of them have "who cares" attitudes. Why be surprised if someone you're dealing with has no concept of customer service and doesn't want or know how to correct your individual issue? That's also to be expected with rank and file retail employees. Dealing with someone at a supervisory or management level should be different.

Target like most companies wants customers to be satisfied and any product problems or dealing with them problems should be expected to be corrected once you're able to reach the right person with authority who doesn't act as if they'd had a lobotomy.

I was in Target last week, and was reminded how much I dislike that store. I looked high and low for the item I needed. There was no rhyme or reason to their layout. I finally returned the one item in my cart to its shelf, and I left.

If you're shopping for baby stuff, you're good. Otherwise, good luck.

I take advantage of the "free" gift cards when I am shopping for something I need. I have learned that they are always for multiple purchases. My main gripe is they will have a gift card promotion going for say toilet paper. But you have to buy the exact same item. That means if Charming TP has a 5.00 gift card for buy two 30 roll packs or two 24 roll packs you can't buy one of each. Plus it won't count Cottonelle and Charming as the same product either even if they have the same exact promotion. So you really have to read the fine print. i wish they posted the cards in an easier to read format. They are generally at ground level under stacks of overhanging paper goods. I also find the items "on sale" aren't always a better value than those sizes off sale but that's true almost everywhere.

I do save a lot shopping there for basics. I find the people on the floor to be very helpful. I use Cartwheel, coupons and sales. I like how you can stack manufacturers coupons with Target coupons on top of Cartwheel. Then an additional 5% for using my Target Mastercard.

Weird. I love Target and never have a problem there. Walmart, on the other hand, is another story.

Well I ran in there tonight to get some more Snyder pretzels they had on sale. Not only was the sign gone, but the display of Scott toilet tissue was replaced with Charmin.

I too am generally a fan of Target. I have had a few less than stellar moments there lately but its more been a matter of clueless employees. I find that Target - the store and employees are heads and shoulders and beyond better than Walmart.

When I go to Walmart, I usually walk out wondering why I bothered and ANGRY>

Holy Crap!! I have no place to put 48 rolls of toilet paper, much less 96! This thread is funny a little bit. I do want to drop a warning - Tis The Season, so go with a smile and enjoy the gifts you might put in your carts :)

I'm a big Target fan but wouldn't step into our local Walmarts.

I also purchased a hair dryer at Target a few weeks ago and it only lasted about 2 weeks before the fan started acting funny and it started smoking. I took it back. My husband has been double-charged by them twice in the past week. Fortunately, he always checks his receipt before he leaves any store. Wal-Mart...I won't shop there.

After working retail all through high school and college the one thing I learned is ALWAYS go to management if you don't get satisfaction from the average worker on the floor.!!! Just remember to be nice, they told you "no" because that is what they are TOLD TO DO. They have no power to satisfy you--even when they agree!! Go to management they have the POWER!!

elmer, how are you not sure how my card got charged? Really? I bought something online. They typically put a hold on the card until it's mailed. The charge cleared, and then, they charged it again when it was mailed. I'm not sure why you're suspect of what happened? You perplex me sometimes.

You should thank your lucky stars that your life is so good that not getting a $5 Target gift card is something to rant about.

I'm not sure what is up with the extra charges. I bought some things from Belk a few days back for close to $75. I had a $25 gift card and paid the rest with credit card. Yesterday, they sent another $32 to the credit card in addition to the balance that I had already been charged. Dh called them about it and they said it was some sort of hold. We're going to watch it. It's ridiculous that we should get randomly timed charges or holds. If that was needed, it should have been done at the time of my purchase.

Ditto adella! They kept telling me, the second charge would "drop off" since it was a hold. But they'd never admit that running it after a cleared charge was unreasonable nor was overdrawing that account. What's up with them? They act like it's business as usual, when it seems so capricious and unnecessary? Why not just charge me at the time I buy it, and nothing else?

I've always had good experiences in Target. Maybe it's a regional issue. One piece of advice I have is to use a credit card. You'll have a lot more protection and you can dispute any extra charges and not worry about overdrawing an account. Rob, I agree Target should have refunded the money and paid for the overdraw fee. A hold is fine but the customer should know about it beforehand.

Wouldn't have minded a hold. But a cleared charge, PLUS another hold, that wasn't cool.

It was online, so it can't be regional though? Wonder if they've begun the downhill slide?

Credit card companies can make the same mistake..I had a balance on one card of 159+ change I called and paid over the phone using my bank card..all seemed fine until BOOM I get a letter from my bank that I overdrafted..WHAT..after theCC took their payment it went thru a second time and took another payment. It took 5 weeks to be refunded and they refused to reimburse my the 30$ overdraft fee.

Hate to hear about the difficulties, especially regarding the bank drafts. I hate Wal-Mart and almost refuse to go in one even though I drive by it every single day. However, I did relent when someone referred me there for a particular item for canning last spring. I also find the laundry detergent I use and a couple of other items are much cheaper there. So I maybe stop by once every 3 months on my way home from work. It's in a fairly upscale area and isn't bad. DD lives near a brand new store and uses their pickup service all the time. She loves it.

I make a run to Target about once every 4-6 weeks for basic items and will pick up a few other things while I'm there. I can sympathize with the OP about the confusion of their gift card deals. It used to be fairly straightforward but now it seems you have to buy 2-3 of some group of things to get the card. Fine print. It always makes me mad. We're just 2 of us and I don't like to buy 2 of a lot of things to get some deal.

"elmer, how are you not sure how my card got charged? Really? I bought something online."

No, I said I wasn't sure how a Target purchase resulted in a bank account overdraw. That's a fairly rare event from retail purchase. So from what you said you either paid with a debit card or they have a feature for website purchases for a direct draw from checking accounts. Just as is done when paying a credit card bill online.

If it's one of these two, or something else, consider restricting your retail purchases to Visa or Mastercharge credit cards. Consumer protection laws for credit cards are much stronger than for debit cards and other means of payment. A request to reverse an unauthorized charge (for whatever reason) that falls within their normal rules MUST be honored. That fixes most issues.

I hope you get your problem resolved soon.

Thank you for your kind wishes elmer. It's resolved for now. but how I will conduct business, if I do, with them in the future is less certain. It's sad they'd prefer to lose a customer over a $17.30 (+$36.00) bankcharge is beyond my understanding, but there you have it.

I never use debit/atm cards. I don't even have one for my accounts. I do have one for DH's checking account so I can draw the money out easily if something should happen to him. I'm on the account but kept my name off the checks hence we call it "his" account.

Debit cards over zero protection for the consumer. Much better to use a credit card. I have evolved from cash to paying for almost anything with a credit card. I like the extra protection offered and the benefits various cards offer from price travel erasers, rewards and even price rewinds. Not to mention how much interest I've saved over the years using zero interest promotions wisely.

Also online management offers another layer of protection. Instead of waiting a month to find out your card is compromised you get immediate notifications if something is amiss. You can set the security features at the level you are comfortable with.

My Belk order was online also. The time lag in the second fee was the strangest. Dh has everything including banking and associated credit card setup online. All purchases are sent to his phone. I can make an order online and he has the notification within a minute or two. I usually try to tell him when I get cash from the atm so he doesn't worry about it.

Cash. Use cash at these retailers. And NEVER use a debit card.

I like Target but don't shop there a lot. The gift card thing is always for multiple purchases. Never saw a time that I recall where it wasn't. And I like that they have price scanners to check prices when you're not sure. And of COURSE you have to buy what's on the promo to get the discount! LOL The manufacturers are paying for it so why on earth would they pay for you to buy a competitor's product? Sheesh!

I firmly believe everyone should work retail for a while and deal with the public. There would be a lot of eye-opening for a lot of people.

For online purchases I use PayPal most often but when they won't accept it, I use a credit card. I never use a debit card for anything but cash at an ATM and bank ID. I know there's a number of people who don't qualify for credit cards for various reasons so they use debit.

GREAT POST VEDA BEEPS!

'You should thank your lucky stars that your life is so good that not getting a $5 Target gift card is something to rant about."

I firmly believe everyone should work retail for a while and deal with the public. There would be a lot of eye-opening for a lot of people.

YES! Thank You! I assure everyone that no one goes to work in the morning thinking "How can I screw up someones day?" I still have nightmares of trying to get everything done and everyone waited on.

On a separate note that has been said here before, DO NOT use a debit card for online purchases. Debit is instant out of checking. Always use a CREDIT card. You only get billed once a month and you can dispute an incorrect charge and not have to pay. If you will set up online access for your credit and debit cards, you can check as often as you want for charges. Most companies online will put a "hold" on the amount until the charge goes through. If this is on a credit card this is not a problem as it falls off before billing. If this is on a debit card it WILL affect your balance in your checking account until the final charge goes through and then the hold has to fall off. FYI, returns after using a debit card, ask for cash back. Most will do that for small amounts. When you bought the item, it came out instantly. When you return it, the amount takes two to three day to credit back to your checking. That is why if I am purchasing something big at a store I will use credit not debit.

Can't stress using credit over debit enough.
Yesterday morning when I checked my email I had an alert (questionable purchase) from one of my CC companies. I checked and with one click was able to tell them it was not me who made the purchase. The card was closed within seconds. I later called to make sure a new card was on it's way and was told a second charge had been attempted. That one was immediately reversed due to my earlier contact with them. The earlier charge will remain pending while they investigate further. What could have been disastrous was not more than a minor inconvenience because of my practice of managing all CC cards online with notification settings.

I rarely use my debit card, only at Woodman's where they don't accept credit. So glad Aldi accepts cc now. It's so much easier, plus I use rewards cards. I have almost 500.00 free money just by using my Sam's card this year alone. Also use a BP gas rewards card. Interestingly, Delta keeps wanting me to sign up for their American express cards really badly. We frequently fly and I will fly first class often, so that probably put me on their radar. The enticements started at 30,000 miles and are now up to 80,000 miles, and it is tempting but there are too many rules. I don't understand their MQM classification, and the fee is 195.00 I think for the second year and beyond. They say there is no fee for using internationally, but I really haven't seen much acceptance of AE in Europe, anyway. Wonder how high the enticement will get. As to the OP, I love Target and have never had a problem with customer service there.

I find the best way to deal with these issues is to go online to the official Target or what ever store web site and send a letter of complaint. Both times I've done it I got phone calls within hours and they honored my side of the issue.