Archived Using your Target Member discount for a friend.

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I had a new TM pick up their check the other day, and being new, they had their two discount cards with it. I gave them the usual spiel how it was only for them, their spouse, and any dependent children. They said they understood that, but would it be a problem with their spouse living half way across the country until at least the end of the year.

I paused, and said if it's their spouse, they are free to use it, but it's going to send up flags being used on opposite sides of the country at the same time so I would talk to ap for them. So I stuck my head in ap's office and explained the situation. AP told me that of course it's fine for their spouse since he's a Target TM, blah, blah, blah. I told him I figured that but I wanted to give him a heads up in case he got a call about it. He said he appreciated that because he was fairly certain they would contact him about that and that would save him some leg work.
 
[*]No, that won't work, Target will know it's fishy that a TM can afford such extravagances and send someone from corporate to his house to see if it's actually hooked to his TV.[/*]

*Which font was the sarcasm font again? :p

This one.
 
Policy says you shouldn't do it. But as long as you are the one making the purchase and presenting the discount, there is nothing they can do to you, no matter who they think the purchase is for. I just bought $60 in diapers with my discount the other day (for my sis) right in front of AP and he knows damn well I don't have kids. Just NEVER give your discount card to someone else to use. They seem to be very good at detecting that.
 
"I bought it as a gift" that is all you would ever have to say if you ever get questioned about your discount usage. Unless the person who you bought it for dimes you out they would never be able to prove it otherwise.

If Target is cracking down on this their priorities are really messed up. There is very little in that store that with a little know how you couldnt find the same exact item cheaper some place else. Its not like we get the "at cost" discount other retailers sometimes give their employees. I used to hit up my friends who worked at Best Buy and Circuit City all the time for their discounts as the mark up on car stereo stuff and cables is crazy! I think I got some Cat 5 back when it was expensive for about 70% off consumer cost with their at cost employee discount. Stuff like that retailers need to worry about employee discount fraud not someone saving 10% on something.
 
I sometimes have friend that wants to pick up something with my discount. If/when it happens I hand over the cash. I have MY Cartwheel scanned. I take the change and receipt. Either that or we just go to the other Spot up the road.

*Best Practice* = Just have them give you a list and money and have them stay home. That's what I do for my housemates.
 
Lol ok here is the deal target does not care who uses your discount trust me on this as long as you dont steal or use a stolen card with it basically they can care less if your friend uses it we do not check id over discount cards
We check id's if we don't know the person. We get lots of people trying to use team member discounts from other stores. I don't think our store is high high risk, but some of the neighboring stores are.
 
Lol ok here is the deal target does not care who uses your discount trust me on this as long as you dont steal or use a stolen card with it basically they can care less if your friend uses it we do not check id over discount cards
We check id's if we don't know the person. We get lots of people trying to use team member discounts from other stores. I don't think our store is high high risk, but some of the neighboring stores are.

What good is that going to do you? If it's a dependent card, it isn't going to be the same first name, and may not even be the same last name.
 
Sure it's true that it doesn't do you much good if it's a dependent card, but still sometimes you catch someone up to something. In the last few months I have turned away a guest with a card from another store (TM, not dependent) where the guest presented card with an Asian surname that was pretty clearly not his, and, better yet, turned away a male guest using a TM card with a woman's name on it from a store hundreds of miles away. Let AP know so they could follow up in both cases
 
Sure it's true that it doesn't do you much good if it's a dependent card, but still sometimes you catch someone up to something. In the last few months I have turned away a guest with a card from another store (TM, not dependent) where the guest presented card with an Asian surname that was pretty clearly not his, and, better yet, turned away a male guest using a TM card with a woman's name on it from a store hundreds of miles away. Let AP know so they could follow up in both cases
How could you know the Asian surname wasn't his? Maybe he was adopted by an Asian family.
 
We never check because basically its just 10% off not 25 or 50 just 10 which means your just taking off tax really.
 
Also its the start just before 4th quarter, spot loves to crackdown on this kind of BS this time of year. Same with checking discount cards when the ETL opens the door in the mornings. Lasts a couple weeks then business as usual.

So in short: You buy, your friend pays you when he buys you a coffee or a beer when you give them whatever you bought for them. It's how I helped my in laws set up an apartment, I bought tons of stuff for them, they paid me when they picked it up. Never was anything said.
 
Best two solutions for this:

1. Just say no and don't do it.
2. Do it but be extremely smart and careful about it. Do not leave any clues or evidence of your "crime".
Meet at your place or your friend's place, get the money from them or just make sure they pay you back. Let them tell you what it is. Go buy it when you're off and get the hail out of there and go to your friend's house or your house and give the item to your friend. Never appear together at your Target store when you buy stuff.


And lastly remember what Alonzo Harris said "it's not what ya know, it's what you can prove".
 
better yet, turned away a male guest using a TM card with a woman's name on it from a store hundreds of miles away. Let AP know so they could follow up in both cases

Most "womens names" started out as mens names. I know men named Courtney, Ashley, Beverly, Cassidy, Dana, Gale, Hilary, Kennedy, Kim, Lesley, Michele, Taylor, etc.
 
Not very feminine male names - Abraham, Moses, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Ishmael, Judas, Jacob, Isaac, Jesus, Thomas, Job, Lot, etc...
 
To be completely clear...turning away a guest who presents a TM card that appears to be an issue is only a matter of protecting your own situation and nothing more. If I am handed a TM card from someone I don't know (know everybody in my store) and I have a question about it I am obliged to ask for supporting ID. Never do that for a dependent card as no way to know. However, it's not unfair to ask John Smith why they are presenting a card in the name of Jane Doe from store # xxxx hundreds of miles away and to ask for supporting ID before processing. Equally, if (and I am aware of adoption and all sorts of scenarios possible) I am handed a TM card for Kent Wang and the person in front of me doesn't appear to be the usual type for that name, it isn't unfair to try to verify and turn away if either the guest (as this one did becomes belligerent and refuses to show ID claiming nobody ever asks) or, as happened once before, they show ID in the name of John Smith and say they borrowed the card from a friend. In both cases it is just a matter of doing your job. Also as Electronics TM I typically will inform AP of any and all really high value transactions using a TM card from any store that isn't reasonably local (and all the funky TM card issues are inevitably high value...multiple IPads and so forth).
 
My point is that Jane Doe can very easily be the name of a guy though. I'm not saying asking for ID is wrong, just that "turned away a male guest using a TM card with a woman's name on it" seems to imply men can't have names often attributed to women.
 
Agreed which is why I posted the additional details.....heck I am aware of androgynous names. My two best friends are both named Leslie and one is male and the other female. Go figure...
 
For that matter they don't have to be for a cis marriage, a gender straight person, or a relationship that that fits our living arrangement intensification understandings.

In this day and age it's not really our place to go playing detective.
 
Yep, my old GSTL told me it isn't our job to play detective. Spot has people to do that.

I will say, we did have a woman who would come into our store, and before she would check out, she would tell the cashier that her son works for another store in our district, and she would be using his card, and that the cashier had better not be giving her any trouble over it.

Umm...

Needless to say, if you are going to come out and tell us you are using the discount card incorrectly, we will then just straight up tell you no. If you keep arguing with us, and we get a name and store (we all know who this person is now) then you are getting them in even more trouble.

Funnily enough, we haven't seen her in quite some time.
 
as long as YOU are the one making the purchase or involved in the transaction at the POS you will be fine. Other TMs do it all the time.
 
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