Service & Engagement "The Sign Says" guest price disputes (demands) during COVID-19 crisis

Joined
Apr 30, 2019
Messages
1,195
Have you found any reduction from the Karens who make unreasonable demands that we change the price because supposedly "The Sign Says" it's much cheaper even though it's a different item, perhaps with similar-looking packaging? This is different than "price match requests" with dot-com or other competitors, though those can be a PIA as well. I know we have leeway to "make it right" particularly if it's a fairly reasonable request, but now that there are long lines I suspect some who abuse our "make it right" policies are just a bit embarrassed to hold up other guests. What's your experience?
 
In my state, all the Karens are lawyers. Here’s the law,

“If there is a discrepancy between the price listed on the shelf or item and the price that it rings up at, the consumer must be offered one of two corrections:
  • If the item costs more than $10 and rings up higher than the advertised price, $10 must be deducted from the lowest advertised price.
  • If the item costs less than $10 and rings up higher than the advertised price the item should be given as free”
 
In my state, all the Karens are lawyers. Here’s the law,
“If there is a discrepancy between the price listed on the shelf or item and the price that it rings up at, the consumer must be offered one of two corrections:
  • If the item costs more than $10 and rings up higher than the advertised price, $10 must be deducted from the lowest advertised price.
  • If the item costs less than $10 and rings up higher than the advertised price the item should be given as free”
Not the law in our state. To be honest, too many guests are willing to fib, exaggerate or flat-out lie. They are looking at the wrong tag, wrong shelf, or wrong item. They are looking at an adjacent item with an almost identical-looking box but it's the next model up: i.e. a good medium-priced vacuum Model Z-1 ($149.99 shelf price), and that vacuum with Pet Remediation features, vacuum Model Z-2 ($249.99 shelf price). Visually the box packaging is very similar until you look in the lower right-hand area where the premium Pet Remediation stuff is mentioned, and if you don't have the boxes side-by-side this isn't easy. Compound this if Model Z-1 is out of stock, and the Z-2 box is close enough to the empty Z-1 space.

Making matters worse is that the new POS system makes it very difficult to find price history, and the last upgrades on the old POS system, the "price inquiry" function frequently no longer displays past promotional pricing. Finally, because of lack of staffing and the difficulty of getting somebody in another section on walkie to go check the signage particularly if there's an outdated sale promotion sign, these disputes can be very time-consuming.

Very few guests in my experience actually are rude on this, but frequently the complaining guests are wrong. Too many of the guests who fight the worst about alleged incorrect prices this are NOT frequent shoppers at Target. Again, the biggest problem is with bigger-ticket items like I showed above. If it's a bottle of pasta sauce ringing up at $4.49 and they are insisting it's $2.49, they probably grabbed the wrong size, so for me it's not as much of an ethical problem to go ahead and adjust price per the guest's request.

A century ago, some owner of a now-bankrupt and closed department store coined the phrase, "The Customer Is Always Right". As mentioned, that store is now out of business. Two better ways to get across this point is, "The Customer Is the Lifeblood of Our Business" or "The Customer Is Our Priority". The ultimate truth is The Customer Is Always the Customer. At some point in any line of business, the customer doesn't have the unrestricted right to "name their own price" on merchandise. They don't have the unrestricted right to return unwanted merchandise. They don't own the business, they don't pay the business' daily overhead, the business' daily payroll, or the business' merchandise and service suppliers. They are welcome and invited to shop at the business but there are policies in place, as well as laws against things like shoplifting or harassing employees.
 
Had a Guest try to price match to Wally World yesterday. Some high-end vacuum. Shows me her phone. $239.99 vs. our website at $249.99 and our shelf price of $299.99.

Couldn't find it on the price match app. Explained about UPCs and stuff. She wasn't having it. I told her I'd happily make it $249.99 to match T.com which I know was $10 more than what she expected and she said no.

Lol aaite then. It's 9:07 PM anyway. You came in at 8:58 PM. I have no remorse in losing that sale. 😘✌️
 
Had a Guest try to price match to Wally World yesterday. Some high-end vacuum. Shows me her phone. $239.99 vs. our website at $249.99 and our shelf price of $299.99.

Couldn't find it on the price match app. Explained about UPCs and stuff. She wasn't having it. I told her I'd happily make it $249.99 to match T.com which I know was $10 more than what she expected and she said no.

Lol aaite then. It's 9:07 PM anyway. You came in at 8:58 PM. I have no remorse in losing that sale. 😘✌
Yeah especially price match guests who walk out it’s like lol ma’am someone is going to probably walk in here tomorrow and buy it at full price so your sale is not special
 
Yeah especially price match guests who walk out it’s like lol ma’am someone is going to probably walk in here tomorrow and buy it at full price so your sale is not special
Yuuuup , ill work with a guest to get them the lowest price but usually the ones i end up rejecting are the wallyworld marketplace ones.
 
Frequently, large resellers of mainstream consumer products (i.e. Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Macy's, Bed Bath & Beyond) will ask the vendor to provide their store with a unique Model ID and SKU for "their" version of the product. This eliminates price matching because the product sold is NOT identical, there might be a tiny visual difference (a strip of color on the handle). The SKU is different, the box is different, the MSRP is different, or it's labeled "Limited Edition" or in our case "Only At Target".

We are not supposed to price match items unless it is the exact same model.
 
Hahahahaha we had one prior to the Corona outbreak who insisted that “the sign said” and we price checked it over walkie, she was wrong the sign did not say. She then told them to hold her items and have us meet her back by the item so she could show us. Which she then insisted that we were lying and changed the signs and moved the items while she was in line. Claiming there were way more of them on this shelf earlier (it was boys pants) and that clearly I took them to The back room in order to prevent her from getting them at the rightful price. Our manager told her if she was going to keep arguing when multiple TMs have told her she misread the sign and this was the price, that she could leave. She then asked which pants where the price she wanted and hated them all and said she wanted the other ones at the cheaper price. She was allowed to get 1 pair at that price and no others, she tried to tell the cashier they should all be, but we were all communicating and the TL was watching the cashier so she only got one pair as promised. She was crazy.
 
We also had a gentleman come in this week and ask where the jeans for men were that were $8.99. We told him we had no men’s jeans on sale and even if they were there was no way they would be that cheap, he could check another store because he insisted he saw an ad. He argued that no it was Target and that he would just go to the other location to see if they had the $8 jeans. . . Even when we told him they wouldnt
 
Oh and, a lady rang up a sweater (self checkout) and complained that it wasn’t on clearance. Insisted she picked it up off the clearance rack and that all the other of the exact same sweater were marked as such. Telling me there were tons of them. (Unless it’s ugly there’s never TONS of any specific item on clearance in clothes) so I go look for her peace of mind. Nope. One person had set ONE clearance shirt in with the sweaters but nothing else in the area was marked at all. I came back to her with my report and she basically threw it at me sighing loudly.
around the same time at the self check lanes a lady kept typing in the numbers off the clearance ticket on the items she wanted instead of ringing them in. So they went to look because it was multiple items, and she had taken tickets off like ¢.99hairpins and put them onto other large ticket items, like a $90 curling iron. When the TM explained that these were wrong tickets for the item and would she like us to ring her up for the correct prices, she RAN out of the store.
 
Back
Top