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Mar. 7th, 2006 02:03 pmIs it really this hard to actually purchase something from a store?
RTL and I went to Target on Saturday to buy huge pots for the citrus trees we bought. On a "let's go check out the garden center" fluke, RTL discovered some patio furniture that she really liked. So we asked whether they had 2 red chairs in stock and that we would like to buy them if they did. The very nice girl in the garden center calls the stockroom to find out the answer. Twenty minutes later still no word from the stockroom. Wait, that should be that the stockroom never answered the phone or any of the pages. She apologized profusely and got a manager to search the system for it. (Something was wrong with the garden center computer.) The manager can't find any at the current location but says that the other two reasonably close Targets have them in stock. So she calls one of the Targets and is told that their garden center closed at 5 p.m. She's a little dumbfounded because her clock said that it wasn't quite 5 and even comments that 5 is a little early to close the garden center. She gives us all the information we need and we go home.
Monday, I decided to make a short jaunt to the El Cerrito Target. Because I missed the huge garden center sign outside I go in and venture toward the area where the outdoor furniture is displayed. I don't see the chairs so I ask. The answer I got consisted of a lot of "ummms" and "I don't think we have that". No one ever mentioned there was an outdoor garden center to me. So I leave. As I'm driving past I see the huge garden center sign pointing me towards the side of Target. Ah Ha! I turn around and follow the arrow to the garden center entrance. Gates closed and locked. Sign says that they should be open, but the lights are off and I don't see a single person. I think to myself "maybe I missed the entrance in the store." After checking out the very solid wall, I finally go to the guest service desk. OK, so I could have saved myself a lot of running around and frustration if that is where I had started, but I was on a small adventure at that point. I ask the guest service person if there was a particular reason why the garden center was closed or if I had missed the entrance. She leans around me to look out the front doors. I say "yes, it's raining." She says "the person who works out there doesn't like it when it rains so she closes the garden center." I pull out my description with item numbers and say that maybe she can help me, that I knew exactly what I wanted to buy and had the item number and everything. She picks up the phone and calls someone, turns aways so I can't hear whatever she says, then walks off around the corner. She returns to tell me that "no, the garden center won't be opened again". And I, trying not to start screaming at her, ask "and you can't be anymore helpful than that?" She replied with a big fat "no". Inner Dana is saying "oh no she didn't", Outer Dana says "I'd like to speak to a manager". "There isn't one available." Inner Dana was planning serious bodily harm to this woman, I think I may still be planning some bodily harm. This is the point where I gave up, not because I was giving in but because I couldn't take her anymore. Now the question is do I brave it out and give Target some of my hard earned money or do I try and find similar chairs somewhere else and send Target a letter explaining why their sales revenue could have been higher. I'm thinking that the writing a letter might be good either way.
RTL and I went to Target on Saturday to buy huge pots for the citrus trees we bought. On a "let's go check out the garden center" fluke, RTL discovered some patio furniture that she really liked. So we asked whether they had 2 red chairs in stock and that we would like to buy them if they did. The very nice girl in the garden center calls the stockroom to find out the answer. Twenty minutes later still no word from the stockroom. Wait, that should be that the stockroom never answered the phone or any of the pages. She apologized profusely and got a manager to search the system for it. (Something was wrong with the garden center computer.) The manager can't find any at the current location but says that the other two reasonably close Targets have them in stock. So she calls one of the Targets and is told that their garden center closed at 5 p.m. She's a little dumbfounded because her clock said that it wasn't quite 5 and even comments that 5 is a little early to close the garden center. She gives us all the information we need and we go home.
Monday, I decided to make a short jaunt to the El Cerrito Target. Because I missed the huge garden center sign outside I go in and venture toward the area where the outdoor furniture is displayed. I don't see the chairs so I ask. The answer I got consisted of a lot of "ummms" and "I don't think we have that". No one ever mentioned there was an outdoor garden center to me. So I leave. As I'm driving past I see the huge garden center sign pointing me towards the side of Target. Ah Ha! I turn around and follow the arrow to the garden center entrance. Gates closed and locked. Sign says that they should be open, but the lights are off and I don't see a single person. I think to myself "maybe I missed the entrance in the store." After checking out the very solid wall, I finally go to the guest service desk. OK, so I could have saved myself a lot of running around and frustration if that is where I had started, but I was on a small adventure at that point. I ask the guest service person if there was a particular reason why the garden center was closed or if I had missed the entrance. She leans around me to look out the front doors. I say "yes, it's raining." She says "the person who works out there doesn't like it when it rains so she closes the garden center." I pull out my description with item numbers and say that maybe she can help me, that I knew exactly what I wanted to buy and had the item number and everything. She picks up the phone and calls someone, turns aways so I can't hear whatever she says, then walks off around the corner. She returns to tell me that "no, the garden center won't be opened again". And I, trying not to start screaming at her, ask "and you can't be anymore helpful than that?" She replied with a big fat "no". Inner Dana is saying "oh no she didn't", Outer Dana says "I'd like to speak to a manager". "There isn't one available." Inner Dana was planning serious bodily harm to this woman, I think I may still be planning some bodily harm. This is the point where I gave up, not because I was giving in but because I couldn't take her anymore. Now the question is do I brave it out and give Target some of my hard earned money or do I try and find similar chairs somewhere else and send Target a letter explaining why their sales revenue could have been higher. I'm thinking that the writing a letter might be good either way.
