Interested in hearing y'all's ethical takes you might have on this:

Days ago, I placed an order (same-day-pickup) at target.com, and then I went to Target and picked it up (on the same day(see)). The gal scanned the pick-up barcode on my phone, disappeared, came back with my order and off I went.

In the following days I got texts from Target saying my order was "ready for pickup." I shrugged those off, figuring they just had to reboot one of their systems or something.

I then got an email saying the items were being re-shelved and that my credit card would be credited (indeed, a ≈$75 credit has hard-posted). A by-product of this is that the current Target Circle promotion (you get a $20 bonus if you spend $70 three times), was now farther from my reach; i.e., the system now said I'd placed one such order, instead of the actual two actual. So I set out to compose a message to Target to get this corrected; then I promptly realized... Why am I trying to resume my quest for an extra $20, when... if I just left things alone... I'd have effectively scored $75?

The devil on one shoulder advises me that I have committed no malfeasance; I submitted my accurate credit card info and clicked "submit" or "order" (or whatever that buy-it button says) all in good faith; I offered up the correct bar code for scannage and took the items off premises; I did not hack into Target's systems to effect whatever glitch was causing this; indeed this all just plain rolled my way. The shoulder devil might have said additional things but those are the ones that spring to mind.

I'll not submit anything specific that the angel on the other shoulder has advised since I didn't hear anything that wouldn't be obvious/self-evident to y'all.

What would you do? Keep the $75 and let Target absorb the loss that they/their own systems caused? Or step up and ask them to fix it?


(A little bit about my ethical record: Back when cash and human clerks were more commonplace than now, if a clerk gave me too much change and the error was less than $5 I would accept it - as a little treat from Fate. One time at a coffee shop on Drumm Street in San Francisco I gave the lady a $5 and she gave me change as though I'd given her a $20; I alerted her to this. Not going to pocket an ill-gotten $15 (let alone from a small business), no matter how "culpable" the clerk was.)

(Also, quite a number of years ago now, at a Target (again with the Target) in Walnut Creek, I possessed a store coupon for $1 off Coppertone (kids/babies) products. I presented it anyway when buying Coppertone for myself, hoping the cashier wouldn't notice the ruse. She went ahead and gave me the discount (didn't get the fine print or just didn't care). I felt entitled to this because dammit I am a good Target customer; who ought not to be penalized for not having kids.)

Airstud wrote:

(A little bit about my ethical record:

Seems to me that you're already ethically compromised so, live it up.

Realistically, I'm not sure that the folks at the Target Customer Service counter will be able to anything for you. I suspect you'll get the "dog head cocked to the side" dumb look.

Now, you can call the folks at Target and really get frustrated, but they may be able to figure it out.

In the end, you need to do, or not do, whatever makes you feel better, or not.

Realistically, I do not know if Target could do anything without much hassle and as such, it would cost them more in labor than the 75bucks. What would be more interesting to them is how it could happen in the first place. Seems to be a bug in the system which such not be able to happen and that they would sure like to know. So yeah, I would inform Target of their mistake, what happens then, is up to them. But I would indeed inform them in that frame, chances are that they say thank you and let you have the 75bucks as a kind of thank you for your information because that information is probably worth much more to them than the 75 dollars anyway. If not, your conscience is still clear.

Not doing much with cash anymore, but a few months ago, I changed some notes with my local grocery store and got way more than I gave, but indeed I did say something, otherwise, you have the change she would have had a problem and it indeed didn't feel right.
Anyhow, let us know what you decide.

I would try to send them a general support message or phonecall, if the call stuck in waiting system and left unpickedup for more than 3 minutes then that's their fault

Dutchy wrote:

Anyhow, let us know what you decide.

Already decided, hours before I posted this.

My decision is known only to the independent accounting firm of PriceWaterhouseCoopers until the sealed envelopes are opened on the air.

How did you enter this into your financial transactions spreadsheet?

Must have been much head-scratching about how to account for it.

I consider myself a pretty honest person and would like to be all holier than thou and say I'd tell Target about their error. But in reality, I'd probably just keep mum and go on with my life. If I thought the clerk you dealt with could be in some hot water over this, I'd certainly try to correct it, but that is extremely unlikely.

ER757 wrote:

If I thought the clerk you dealt with could be in some hot water over this, I'd certainly try to correct it, but that is extremely unlikely.

She did scan the pickup barcode on my phone, which I'd assume transmits to their systems that the order is being picked up. Or... does the barcode only tell her the order # (and which shelf it's on?) and she's supposed to enter something on a screen somewhere to fully close the ticket? We non-employees of Tarzhay shall never know.

My DM to @AskTarget (after the part where I summarized the problem & provided the order number):

...Fix this, please.  I like $75.90 worth of free stuff, but that wasn't the promotion, and this is a screw-up that needs fixing.

(Once fixed, this will, I quite trust, qualify as one of the 3 $70 orders to qualify for the $20 Target Circle bonus?)

Their response:

Hello Airstud - In viewing the order and what you had described, I can only conclude when you had picked up your order, it was failed to be marked in the system that it was actually picked up. [Thanks, Sherlock] Unfortunately, there is no way to actually recharge on the system. What I can certainly do is check the status of your Target Circle bonus when it nears the end date. Thanks for reaching out to us. - Stacy

Me:

Is this to say that I _am_ emerging from this with $75.90 worth of free stuff?

Them:

Hello Airstud - We're going to call this a holiday moment of delight! Have a wonderful day - Alex

Reminds me of many years ago when US Airways accidentally sold fares for $2 roundtrip until the glitch was discovered and they fixed it. IIRC, they still honored the tickets.

My wife loves Target, she does a lot of online shopping with them. Every 3-4 months we will get an order, followed by an identical order, the first few times this happened we check the Amex statement, only one charge, tried returning the goods, Target wanted to refund us, turning it into a buy none get one free situation or just gave us the same blank look.

At this point this has been going on for 4 years or so, I've given up trying to make it right with them and just accept that Target acceptance this situation.

On a related note, I just moved into a new apartment. Previous tenant must have worked for a construction company and didn't do a good job of forwarding his address to the various agencies in his/her life. His company sent him/her a thank you package of Lou Malnati's pizza and Garrett's popcorn. Called up the food distribution company and was told because these are perishable goods, there's no point in return the food or trying to track down it's rightful location, and go ahead and enjoy the goodies. So I have two huge tins of popcorn and 4 Lou Malnait's pizzas in my freezer. Merry Christmas to me I guess.

LittleFokker wrote:

On a related note, I just moved into a new apartment. Previous tenant must have worked for a construction company and didn't do a good job of forwarding his address to the various agencies in his/her life. His company sent him/her a thank you package of Lou Malnati's pizza and Garrett's popcorn. Called up the food distribution company and was told because these are perishable goods, there's no point in return the food or trying to track down it's rightful location, and go ahead and enjoy the goodies. So I have two huge tins of popcorn and 4 Lou Malnait's pizzas in my freezer. Merry Christmas to me I guess.

Love me some Lou Malnati's!! About once or twice a year I'll order a couple. Super spendy but sometimes I just need my Chicago-style pizza fix and it's cheaper than flying back. I am envious that you got four freebies. A nice guy might invite me over for dinner one night -

Several years ago, this happened to me.

I ordered two book cases on Target's website, and paid for them with my Red Card. When I picked them up at my local Target, apparently the clerk did not indicate I'd picked the cases up in Target's computers, because I was never charged for them.

A week later, I went back to the Target store, and explained what happened. The cashier put the charge through on my Red Card, but discreetly lowered the price of my order by $20.00 to thank me for being honest.

Even though I was unemployed and concerned about my finances at the time, I've never regretted doing the honest thing.

WA707atMSP wrote:

Several years ago, this happened to me.

I ordered two book cases on Target's website, and paid for them with my Red Card. When I picked them up at my local Target, apparently the clerk did not indicate I'd picked the cases up in Target's computers, because I was never charged for them.

A week later, I went back to the Target store, and explained what happened. The cashier put the charge through on my Red Card, but discreetly lowered the price of my order by $20.00 to thank me for being honest.

Even though I was unemployed and concerned about my finances at the time, I've never regretted doing the honest thing.

It eases the conscience. One outfit sent me a computer printer, and try as I might, I couldn't get billed for it. They didn't even have a record of the sale, so correcting it was not possible. They were not in business a few months later.

I can bet this has happened many many times.
My thought is, in your case its just added to the pile, and when some bean counter sees its costing them then they will fix it or adjust the process. Somewhere sometime you are going to loose $75 bucks to someone or something and it will all even out.

Would I have alerted them, nope. there process there mistake there problem. I guess though if it was a small independent or Ma and Pa shop I would probably point it out.

C.

Airstud wrote:

Me:

Is this to say that I _am_ emerging from this with $75.90 worth of free stuff?

Them:

Hello Airstud - We're going to call this a holiday moment of delight! Have a wonderful day - Alex

Brilliant

I'm keeping the money, this is not small retail establishment where $75 is important, this is a giant corporation, I've got no problem getting one over giant corporations.

Maybe if you try hard enough, you’ll be rewarded.

https://www.12news.com/article/life/hea ... 849a6f2196

Mine is a $2000 mistake. Ordered a product, billed to my credit card, and went to the store to pick it up. The clerk was having difficulty with their system, told me not to bother waiting and to leave with the product. Days later, I receive an email from the store that the product was not picked up and I would be credited the full amount of purchase. The credit appeared, and I had a $2000 product for nothing. I called the store... nope, nothing wrong, the product was not picked up. "What is it you want?" They couldn't understand. I called a friend who is a senior staffer with the company that makes the product. He said "nothing you can do. Consider it a gift. Most people wouldn't complain, why should you?" He said call the store manager if I still had an issue. I called the store manager. He said "consider it karma, and that you must have done something good for someone. You can't return a product that wasn't bought as their systems can't handle it."

A that point, I accepted it. Still leaves me uncomfortable, but confident I did everything I could to rectify their error. I think they earned a customer for life, it such errors don't drive them out of business

Kiwirob wrote:

I'm keeping the money, this is not small retail establishment where $75 is important, this is a giant corporation, I've got no problem getting one over giant corporations.

So, just out of curiosity, what’s the threshold that your integrity kicks-in?

fr8mech wrote:

Kiwirob wrote:

I'm keeping the money, this is not small retail establishment where $75 is important, this is a giant corporation, I've got no problem getting one over giant corporations.

So, just out of curiosity, what’s the threshold that your integrity kicks-in?

For a large chain store the sky is the limit.

We bought some new sofa's a couple of years ago, when they were delivered the delivery guys also dropped off two quite expensive lamps which were also address to us. My wife called the shop and enquired about the lamps, they had no record of them so we kept them.

Kiwirob wrote:

We bought some new sofa's a couple of years ago, when they were delivered the delivery guys also dropped off two quite expensive lamps which were also address to us. My wife called the shop and enquired about the lamps, they had no record of them so we kept them.

No issue there. The effort to correct was made.

Kiwirob wrote:

For a large chain store the sky is the limit.

Really? What about a smaller establishment? Surely, you have a price there, since you have, essentially, no price set on your integrity on a large chain.

No offense intended, just a thought experiment.

For a small business, I would let them know straight away, unless the service was terrible then I might not bother.

Kiwirob wrote:

For a small business, I would let them know straight away, unless the service was terrible then I might not bother.

Ahh, retributive justice. Nice.

fr8mech wrote:

Kiwirob wrote:

For a small business, I would let them know straight away, unless the service was terrible then I might not bother.

Ahh, retributive justice. Nice.

I'd like to call it karma.

I suppose if I had been compensated at some hourly rate trying to correct all the mistakes that were made not in my favor by corporate America. Not that Target should have to pay for the sins of the telecommunications or medical industry, but if there is an ethical case, the telecommunications and medical billing should be in prison for life.