News on Target Jets

[John Missal]

Price adjustments are allowed at Target. But NOT on Clearance merchandise. It is Target policy to do adjusments on Sale/Advertised items from their circular.

John M.

[Average Joe]

If that doesn't work, return the item with the receipt (which, by the way, they will take back), then buy another one at the lower price.

now THAT is fraud

[gunslingercbr]

now THAT is fraud

no it isn't. your receipt allows you to return it with 90 days for the price you paid for it. what you do after that has zero bearing on that.

if you then buy another at the now lower price, that is a completely separate purchase entirely and has zero to do with the previous return. you simply cannot perform fraud by doing two separate things you are entirely allowed to do -- return an item within 90 days and buy any damn thing in the store at its clearance price.

[Random_Axcess]

While technically this may not be fraud in some peoples mind, it also generally says quite a bit about the person committing the act and defending it with there rationalization.

I would liken this to more like insider trading. Separately the act of knowing (or passing along the information) a stock will fall and selling a stock are not illegal, although combine them and misappropriation happens.

[FireFox91]

Give me a break. Target will take back any item within 90 days with reciept. Another one is on the shelf at a lower price to buy. Both of these issues are perfectly acceptable. And insider trading? Seriously? It isn't a secret how when Target puts stuff on clearance they start with a lower discount and increase it until the product is gone. I think some people are so high up on their moral high horse that they think some legal activities are illegal. Go ahead and screw yourself out of some money if it makes you feel better. But if I can save myself $5.00 through the act of returning and buying for cheaper, then I will. This is no different than if you returned 1 item to buy cheaper at a competator. In this case, the competator is the very same store.

[gunslingercbr]

While technically this may not be fraud in some peoples mind, it also generally says quite a bit about the person committing the act and defending it with there rationalization.

I would liken this to more like insider trading. Separately the act of knowing (or passing along the information) a stock will fall and selling a stock are not illegal, although combine them and misappropriation happens.

by that rationalization, bringing in a receipt to be price matched would be the same immoral act -- they both result in the same end, getting money back from the price you originally paid from a now lower price as opposed to simply accepting you paid a higher amount and living with it. perhaps not buying a figure today because you know they are going on sale next week is immoral as well because if you want it now you should be willing to accept the price it costs at that exact moment.

there's no rationalization in this behavior. I can return any item I buy within 90 days. if I do, that act ends the moment I get my money back, and Target is more than happy to do so if it encourages me to shop at their store instead of elsewhere.

what I buy immediately afterwards is completely irrelevant. what if I returned a figure to Target that I bought for full price and then went to Wal Mart where they are on clearance and picked up the same figure for cheaper. is that fraud too? by your logic, it would have to be. just asinine.

[meyerc13]

I posted this the last time that the topic came up, but Target's return and price adjustment policies are illogical. To have a return period longer than the price adjustment period means that someone can just return/rebuy if an item goes on sale within the allowed return period. I worked retail at RadioShack for many years while I was in college, and this is why the price adjustment period was the same as the return period. Most people don't know stores will do this so rarely do people take advantage, and it makes sense becuase we didn't want a bunch of open box items which is what we could have gotten if people did this (since returns were accepted at that time even if the box was open).

Secondly, saying that the price adjustment period doesn't apply if an item goes on sale is also illogical. Again, what's stopping me from returning the item I have at home, and rebuying another of the same item off the shelf? Both transactions are allowed within Target's return policy. The fix here for Target is simple, if you don't want people to continually do this as the item drops from 10% to 30% down to 90% discount, then spread the clearance period out longer than the return period. That seems to be what Toys R Us does, I was in there tonight and the Indiana Jones figures are still $5 on clearance. The problem is that stores like Wal Mart, and especially Target, want to clear room for new merchandise fast, so they discount at a very accelerated rate.

[FireFox91]

Actually there is some logic to the price adjustment period for Target. They are banking on a lot of people just accepting it. They know that you can just return the item and by it again on sale. But some people don't figure that out or just don't want to deal with the hassle. It is the same thing with mail in rebates. If there is a rebate, why do so many places still require you to mail it in with these days of electronic everything. Why don't you just get it right away? It is because they are banking on you forgetting to send in the rebate. If you do, extra profit for them. I read a statistic somewhere that said something like 40% of mail in rebates are never sent in. Well, how many people bought something that went on sale outside of that 14 day price adjustment window and just let it go? A lot.

[John Missal]

The difference in why CLearance merchandise is not covered by the price adjustment is that it is not "on sale." It is being liquidated and thus immune to "sale" policies.

Yes, returning something that is new in box and then purchasing it again at a lower price isn't un-lawful, but the return policy states it is to be "new and unused" unless defective. If you lie and say it's defective, there's nothing against the team member taking it back, but they then cannot resell that exact one back to you and you have to chance that there was one on the shelf still.

[yojoebro82]

Fraud or not, the truth is if the customer wants their cheeper price, there's always SOME game they can play to try and get it. I've worked at returns at the Home Depot for 8 years and I have seen ALL the games.