Archived Discount Policy

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I'm a new Target team member from Illinois but I have a couple questions and I'm too chicken to ask my ETL. I understand the Target discount policy to be that you can only use your discount with a RED Card or cash. I don't agree with it but they have their reasons and I respect them. I also understand you can't use any form of payment of your choosing to buy a Target gift card in order to circumvent the discount policy. One of the TLs told me you can use your team member discount and RED Card to purchase non-Target gift cards. I bought a Starbucks gift card and my discount worked. But I have my head hung in shame because I feel guilty. At the same time I don't find it any different then using your discount to buy a drink at Starbucks.

Did I break the rules? Should I confess before I'm caught if I did?
 
Can you use the discounted gift cards in conjunction with your employee discount with stores that have Target in them too?
 
Yupp..buy a Starbucks giftcard using ur discount, payfor ur drink at starbucks using the discount and giftcard.
 
Isn't that double dipping? Is that an accepted practice?
 
I'm a new Target team member from Illinois but I have a couple questions and I'm too chicken to ask my ETL. I understand the Target discount policy to be that you can only use your discount with a RED Card or cash. I don't agree with it but they have their reasons and I respect them. I also understand you can't use any form of payment of your choosing to buy a Target gift card in order to circumvent the discount policy. One of the TLs told me you can use your team member discount and RED Card to purchase non-Target gift cards. I bought a Starbucks gift card and my discount worked. But I have my head hung in shame because I feel guilty. At the same time I don't find it any different then using your discount to buy a drink at Starbucks.

Did I break the rules? Should I confess before I'm caught if I did?

Unless I am missing something, you didn't do anything wrong. That is one of the great perks of our tm discount. I like to buy the restaraunt gift cards and itunes cards because it makes them worth more money when I use them. If you use itunes, I would watch for weeks when the cards go on sale. Sometimes you can get a $50 itunes card on sales for $45, then use your tm discount and your redcard discount on top of the sale.

That being said, don't ever buy a Target gift card to circumvent the policy. It sounds like you were told that, but it is definitely serious. It was a pretty big problem a few years ago, and you can lose your job. Technically, you can use your discount if you 1) Bought the gift card with a redcard or cash (sometimes used for budgeting), 2) Get the gift card as...a gift. However, I am paranoid about it, so I don't use my discount with a Target gift card, regardless of how I got it.
 
No. Don't forget coupons too.

What about coupons?

I think HM might mean you can use your discount in conjunction with coupons. Just makes things that much cheaper. Best day is when you hit a sale, tm discoust, redcard discount, and a coupon. Can get some sweet deals. Sometimes there are some great coupons in the RED magazine for tms. Typcially at least one a year for a high amount off of a Dyson. I also like to get the coupons for new Disney releases. Makes buying new movies for the kids a bit cheaper.
 
Thank you all for clarifying the policy around gift cards. One last question. A new ETL to our store says we are not allowed to price match in conjunction with our discount. Other ETLs say they believe its a smart way to shop and see no issue with it. I've asked for everybody to get on the same page so one person doesn't say yes while the other says no.
 
Target Giftcards cannot be discounted anymore, however AFAIK you can still buy a Target Giftcard with your regular credit card, and then turn around and use it with your discount.

@HLM, TMs can use printed ad price matching with their discounts just like any guest. The only restriction is online price matching, a tm CAN do it, but they may not use their TM discount card. I believe Target.com matching is exempt from this though (considering you can use your discount online anyway...)
 
Target Giftcards cannot be discounted anymore, however AFAIK you can still buy a Target Giftcard with your regular credit card, and then turn around and use it with your discount.

Target Giftcards could never be discounted--the system simply doesn't apply the discount to that portion of the purchase, and it never has. And yes, you technically can buy it with a regular credit card and then use it with your discount, but you aren't allowed to--that's the whole point.
 
Target Giftcards cannot be discounted anymore, however AFAIK you can still buy a Target Giftcard with your regular credit card, and then turn around and use it with your discount.

Target Giftcards could never be discounted--the system simply doesn't apply the discount to that portion of the purchase, and it never has. And yes, you technically can buy it with a regular credit card and then use it with your discount, but you aren't allowed to--that's the whole point.

Yeah it may not be allowed but its hard to enforce. Not sure which gstl/GSA would give a crap.
 
Thank you all for clarifying the policy around gift cards. One last question. A new ETL to our store says we are not allowed to price match in conjunction with our discount. Other ETLs say they believe its a smart way to shop and see no issue with it. I've asked for everybody to get on the same page so one person doesn't say yes while the other says no.

I haven't heard a ton about this since Christmas. At first the direction was that tms could not price match. However, this is difficult to justify since we should be treating tms the same as guests when it comes to purchasing normal items (there are some difference when it comes to high demand product). I will do some research and see if there are any new concrete rules that apply.
 
I spoke with one of our GSTL, she says there has been nothing firm. She says one person says we can do it, the next says we can't. Obviously we don't want to be doing something we shouldn't be doing. But since there is no yes or answer she's letting us use our discount while price matching until there is a definitive no and its across the board. When I worked at Walmart we were allowed to price match with our discount. I've always believed that we should get a lower price then the guest aka our discount. So if a guest can price match something from a flyer then we should be able to do the same and still get a slightly lower price.
 
Here is how it works...you can use your discount on purchases envolving Cash, Check, and Red Cards. Gift Cards may be used as long as you bought it with an approved payment method or received it as a gift.

If you buy a gift card with a non-Target card then turn around or wait week to use your discount on another purchase, then that is breaking the discount rules.

Technically, you can have a family member buy the giftcards for you, and it would be technically be on the up-up since they are gifts. But Target would not be very happy if you constantly used giftcards.

The POS does flag receipts on purchases using a gift card and discount. And TMs have been written up and terminated for breaking these rules.
 
Usually discount misuse will be an automatic final warning (happened to me), so in order to get termed they'd have to repeat offend. People are known to be stupid though.....
 
So here's how the price matching works. Any TM can have an item price matched, if they go through the proper channels like any other guest. If the TM cannot use their discount card unless the price match is though target.com....then it's perfectly fine.
 
So... what if you use, say, a prepaid Visa/AmEx gift card? I understand it is against store policy to buy a Target gift card with a non-Target credit or debit card, specifically with the intent to use the Target gift card along with your employee discount. But I've also read on here that if you use cash to buy the Target gift card, it won't be a problem. A prepaid Visa gift card is not a credit card or a debit card, it's basically the same thing as cash, so I can't see why it would be an issue... I do understand that this would still essentially not be following "the spirit of the law", so to speak, but can anyone tell me if it would be okay according to the "letter" of the law? What does the policy say exactly? Thanks for any advice.
 
You can't use your TM discount if you pay with a Target VISA/AmEx Gift Card, because it is essentially a credit card with the logo and is even run through as a credit. That is part of why they cannot be paid with by a regular Target GiftCard, because the regular Gift Card can't be used to purchase credit.

Buying regular GiftCards with cash is probably fine, but completely redundant. You can get your discount when you pay with cash or GiftCard, so there's no reason to even need to purchase a GiftCard with cash in the first place. The policy is only against buying GiftCards with your non-Target debit and credit cards, because you're not supposed to get a discount if you use those.
 
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