I Love Target , But ......

I love Target. I love their stores and usually have a very pleasant shopping experience when I shop at Target.

But.....

Lately, I haven't had the best shopping experiences at Target! I have been taking advantage of the great Target coupons (printable ones from A Full Cup or Hot Coupon World). In the past 2 weeks, I have had major headaches with the Target cashiers and managers and I am just not happy about it. One of the issues happened today so I'll tell you about it.

There is a $1/1 General Mills cereal coupon (Target coupon) that is available online. I printed 14 copies and redeemed them last week with no problem. This week, I printed another 10 copies and took them to Target and the cashier gave me grief about using them. She said I couldn't use them since the picture on the coupon shows a box of cereal and I was redeeming them for cereal cups. I told her that the coupon does not specify a size. She was rude and said again it was for a box of cereal and she would not redeem the coupons. I asked for a manager to be called and so she did. The manager basically said if it scans to take the coupon. Of course, the coupon scanned so the cashier had to scan all 10 of my coupons. The cashier eventually scanned the coupons although she was obviously not happy about it (her attitude and demeanor toward me was not nice).

My problems:

1) These are Target store coupons. Shouldn't Target address this issue with their cashiers? Shouldn't cashiers be made aware of these coupons?

2) The coupons should be very detailed with the sizes of product that they are to be redeemed for. This $1/1 General Mills cereal coupon may very well be for boxes of cereal but the coupon didn't say that. If it had, I certainly wouldn't have tried to use it for a cereal cup.

3) Cashiers are rude when you present coupons. Where do they get off being rude?!? I don't want to be made to feel like I am a con-artist simply because I am a savvy shopper! Today I left there feeling like I did something bad and the cashier didn't even thank me - she seemed put out by my causing her to do extra work. Secretly, I wonder if she was mad because I saved a bunch of money and she couldn't do it, too!

My solution:

1) I have called Target customer service and made them aware of my shopping experiences. I have actually had more than the one listed above and I have called for almost every shopping experience where I left feeling like I did something wrong. I suggest you do this, too.

2) I have asked for Target coupon policy to be emailed to me so I could be more familiar with it. The response from Target was, "All Target stores should be following the same coupon policy. The next time you have an issue using coupons please have them call us at (800) 440-0680 while you're still in the store. Our Guest Relations Team will help assist with any questions they may have about coupons."

Here is their official Target Corporate Coupon Policy:

Thanks for asking us about using coupons at Target. Coupons are a great way to save even more when shopping with us, and it's easy to use them at our stores. Because of the variety of coupons available to our guests, we do have some guidelines for how coupons can be redeemed at Target. When accepting coupons, we use the following guidelines:

• We accept two kinds of coupons: Target-issued and manufacturer-issued.


• We'll accept one Target coupon and one manufacturer coupon for the same item, unless either coupon prohibits it.


• We can't give cash back if the face value of a coupon is greater than the purchase value of the item; in this case, we're able to adjust the value of the coupon to equal the price of the item.


• We can't accept coupons from other retailers, or coupons for products not carried in our stores.


• All valid coupons should be presented to the cashier while you're checking out.For questions about using a specific coupon, we encourage you to stop by Guest Service and ask to speak with the Guest Service Team Leader. They'll do their best to help while you're in the store. If you still have questions after speaking with them, please call our Guest Relations team at (800) 440-0680. Either way, we're here to help!

I am wondering if any of our readers are having similar problems at Target or anywhere else. If so, please share your stories here.

~ Written by Elizabeth