New York – Mega-retailer Target has improved its return policy, but it’s still far more complicated and less consumer-friendly than Wal-Mart’s.
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First, what doesn’t change: Target customers with receipts can make an unlimited number of returns or exchanges within 90 days. Products can’t be used, and must be in their original packaging.
What does change: Now, you can make as many non-receipt returns as you want, up to $70, in any 12-month period. Target’s previous “hidden” return policy allowed customers to make just two non-receipt returns of up to $35 each, over 12 months.
Another new twist: Those who receive gifts through the store’s gift registry now can use the registry listing as a de facto receipt. If you’re a newlywed who got six identical toasters from Target but no receipts, you can return five of them by printing out a copy of your gift-purchase log. Before, you could to return only two items if each cost $35 or less, and you hadn’t already reached your two no-receipt returns limit.
But wait, there’s more!
One of the biggest changes affects holiday gifts. Target allows for even exchanges if you’ve exceeded your $70 return limit. So if Aunt Minnie gave you a shirt in “large” but you’re a “medium,” you can exchange it without a hassle, even if she tossed the receipt. In the past, if you had reached your non-receipt returns limit, you couldn’t exchange the shirt, even with Target tags intact.
If you decide to exchange the returned item for something that costs less, Target will give you a gift card for the difference. But you’ll have to use it in the same department.
In all these cases, you’ll have to show a driver’s license or some other identification so Target can record your non-receipt transgressions.
Too complicated? We think so.
Why doesn’t Target simply have the same policy as Wal-Mart’s? That store lets you return just about anything without a receipt up to three times within 45 days (records are kept for six months). If you exceed that, a manager has to approve the return. If the price of the item is $25 or less, Wal-Mart gives you cash or a gift card to use anywhere in the store.
Also, Wal-Mart is upfront about its return policy on its Web site. Target’s Web site says only that “Target does allow a limited amount of no receipt refunds or exchanges for guests that don’t have a receipt,” without providing further details. The new gift registry policy is explained fully.
At a New York Target we visited this week, the posted refund policy continues to say only that customers must have a receipt for all returns. A Target spokeswoman said the retailer is updating its in-store signs but that they “aren’t inaccurate.”
Target customer service reps still have the ability to retrieve the receipt for purchases made using a check or credit, debit, or gift card within the last 90 days. But if you got the item as a gift, the person who bought it for you will need to be present.
How does this pertain to most Yidden? There aren’t even any Wal-mart stores in NYC!
I’d rather choose wal mArt than target cuz they are cheaper.
Not all Yidden live in NYC! Lakewood, NJ is surrounded by Targets and Walmarts! Thanks for this info!
uh, many yidden live outside of nyc?
Ahem! Ever heard of Monticello, Monsey or Lakewood?
#1 , you may be shocked to learn that there are readers of this site that don’t live in NYC.
Id rather choose Target because the sevice is infinitely better and their up brand is good quality at cheap prices. You can also check out in under 5 minutes as opposed to over 15 minutes at walmart.
Target has always been great about returns without receipts that were paid with a credit card within the last 90 days. I make sure to always use the same credit card when I shop there. It makes life much easier if I can’t locate the correct receipt.
I live in Lakewood where everybody shops at wall mart or target and i found that the service and quality at target is allot better and the prices are identical.
think of all the people who go to walmart upstate during teh summer. also there is walmart near monroe/ky
all you narrow minded jews of new york i let you in a secret THERE IS MILLIONS OF JEWS THAT IS FRUM JEWS LIVING ACROSS AMECRICA .THAT IS THE U S A that have a wAllmart and a targot near them. what about you winter birds that come down to florida for the winter ? i gusess the furm jews here are not furm.
Target employees seem to be able to answer customer questions about products. Walmart employees often can’t understand English.
Over 98% of Americans are not Jews. I had to break it to the readers here, however the amount of Jews outside of NYC is a drop in the bucket in real terms.
One of the take-home lessons from is this piece and perhaps the reason why it is on this site is that frum people should know to not make a chillul Hashem by buying and then returning items that were suspiciously used (ie buying a camera to use 1x and then returning it).
I never liked Target. they hardly ever have anything I want. I do most of my shopping at Walmart. Fellas, if Walmart or Home Depot don’t have it, you don’t need it.
I live near WalMarts & Target. There is absolutely ni comparison between the stores. Target is so much cleaner, nicer. Yes the prices might be 10% higher but the quality is 100% better. I also never had a return problem w/ Target. My wife is there so often I recently changed her mailing address to the Target Store in Howell, NJ.
Walmart and Target are crooked corporations utilizing Communist sweatshop slave labor in order to market “cheap” goods to glutenous American consumers.
As a collective, the Walton siblings are the wealthiest people in world (worth approximately 70 billion dollars), and they can’t manage to provide even basic health insurance for their over 1.6 million workers who are payed just above minimum wage.
Both companies, because of their size and reach, have run out thousands of small businesses by undercutting prices, all but eliminating any free market competition.
If your vision of the American future is 20 corporations who run the entire country, hoarding profits at the expense of hard working Americans, by all means, fill up your cart to the brim with Chinese-made junk. If however you desire to eliminate our reliance on a bunch of Communists, and create an America in which there is a free market with fair competition and locally produced goods and services, pay a little more, and only buy from local businesses.
to #18 , if the local stores would start treating the customers like mentchen and have return policies that make sense than maybe people would shop local. Most local stores treat you as if they are doing you a favor and letting you shop there, their prices are sky high and the return policy if your lucky is to return it the same day or you cannot. I was in a store and someone changed her mind after leaving the store. I’m talking about maybe 10 or 15 minutes later and the store would not take the item back. I once bought children’s clothing in a local store and told the saleswoman that I was taking the items to show someone and would very possibly return the items. She said okay as long as it was the same day. When I came back later the owner gave me such mussar schmooz about how wrong I was to return the items. this was on the same day I had purchased them and had specifically warned the saleslady that there was a good chance i would return them. When I shop at one of the above mentioned stores, I can buy clothing before the season, wait to see if i need them and if I don’t I can return them with no question asked. I know local stores cannon match such return policies but they can have decent return policies such as English Basics in Boro Park that allows three days to return and then gives back cash with a smile. Stores like that are few and far between and until more stores copy them, people will shop at target and walmart.
The policy did not specify what happens if the very readable Target receipt in your hand does not scan. I tried to make a return at the Target store at Gateway Mall just off the Brooklyn Belt Parkway. The receipt would not scan and therefor the asst. manager decided that the transaction was not returneable. The Day manager did make amends but it was not worth the trouble.
PS: even the manager could not believe the story till he verified with his employees.
I just want to share an excellent experience I had with a Walmart customer service:
I had left a bag of souvenirs that I had bought at a Walmart on the west coast. They shipped it to me at their expense. I believe that the shipping costs were greater than the value of what was in the bag!
To comment “1”. What do u mean?? I live in KJ (kiryas yoel/monroe) on the st ‘miron’ and I have a W/M and a Target just “FIVE MINUTES” away from my house. .. So I really don’t know what you want with your comment…. Any way have a nice day!!! Kjboy..
We have 2 targets and two walmarts in our close vicinity in Lakewood.