I have been married about two months now, and I just wanted to find an outlet to share my experience wtih our Target registry so that other brides will not have to repeat my experience. My husband and I were excited to register at Target because it offers such a variety of products at such good prices. I knew there had been problems with their return policy before, but I thought these things had been handled.
I had used the online registry manager all through our engagement, and it worked fine. One day about three months before our wedding it said my password was incorrect and it wouldn't let me log in. I work in IT, and I know how little bugs like this can arise, so I chalked it up to a temporary site problem and let it go. About two months before our wedding I went to make a return--yes, I know, bad ettiquite--but it was a shower curtain in the wrong color and the one I wanted was being discontinued. At the store I was also unable to log on to our registry to view the purchase log. We used the same password for all our registries and I had used it often, so I knew that wasn't the problem. The worker was nice and let me make the return anyway, using my one-time, no-receipt return allowance for the year.
I planned to take off many of the items from the registry since we were having technical difficulties, but when I got home I tried to retrieve the password again-- it couldn't do it without a credit card number. We didn't give a credit card when creating the registry, but I even tried that and still my account wasn't recognized, but my registry was still active. I sent a complaint to the support team, and never recieved a response.
After the wedding we tried again to make a few returns, this time with the reciepts, but they said the receipts had expired, so we could have the current discount price if we used my husband's one-time, no-reciept return for the year. Foolishly, I tried one more time with a later gift that was shipped to me after the wedding--the same wrong shower curtain--only to find that the shipping reciept cannot be used for a return, and to make a return I would need to call the giver--a date of one of my friends--and ask him to print me a reciept or return shipping label. There is no way I am going to do that.
Target has left me with no access to update or cancel my registry. I continue to recieve duplicate or no-longer needed items with no way of making returns. They got me in, and now there is no course of action to get out, really it's worse than a cell phone company!
To be fair, the workers at Target were mostly kind and apologetic, but the policy is simply unsatisfactory. The people at the help didn't even have luck when they tried to call the higher up, outsourced support line for more options. When so many other companies are willing to bend over backward to help you out with registries, there is no need for Target. If you have odds and ends, then consider and Amazon universal wish list. Bed Bath and Beyond and Macy's have both been extremely helpful with calls to make sure I was satisfied, good support, and helpful returns/exchanges. They don't require receipts for items on the registry, and they are extremely helpful in making sure to apply registry completion discounts above and beyond what was promised.
I used to be a huge fan of Target, but these registry experiences have convinced me not to even shop there anymore. They have lost a valuable customer, and I hope they lose more until they revise their policies.