Target.com Refuses to honor exchange policy Internet, Internet

Up until recently I have been a faithful customer of Target.com.  

On September 5, 2011, my fianc and I ordered 3 sets of dining chairs from them that came in sets of two.  When I ordered them, they were on sale for 149.99 per set and the shipping was free.  The chairs arrived and when we moved into our new home, we put them together and 5 of the 6 were perfect.  The sixth chair was damaged and we immediately boxed up both the chairs that came in the set to exchange them.  When I went online to make the exchange, I found that I was only able to return and then repurchase them (at full price), so I decided to call customer service instead, since I didn't want to spend an extra $50 for the same chairs.

When I called, I was told to only send back the damaged chair and they would send me a replacement. Later, I received an email stating that my return was being processed and we shipped the one chair back with the attached label.  Weeks later, I received an email stating that there was a delay in my order for 3 chairs.  I went online to check the order; however, the order number that they gave me was invalid, so I called customer service again to explain that I only needed one chair, not three.  They assured me that I would only be receiving one and that they would correct the error.  On November 4, I received another email stating:

We just found out about an unexpected delay that affects your order placed on 10/10/2011. We're sorry, but we may not be able to deliver your item(s) by the estimated delivery date you received with your original order. New estimated delivery date(s) are included below. If we can't deliver your item(s) by this new estimated delivery date, we will automatically cancel your order. Here's what you can do:

If you'd like us to keep trying to deliver these item(s) beyond the new estimated delivery date, visit the order detail page and approve future delivery updates.

If you no longer want the delayed item(s), you can cancel them from the order detail page if they haven't yet entered the shipping process.

You will not be charged for any items until they ship. If items need to be shipped separately, your shipping charges will not increase.

Thanks for shopping at Target.

Team Target

Again, I couldn't access the order online with that order number and it still was for 3 chairs, so I called again to explain that I only needed one chair and that I still wanted the order.  Weeks later, I received an email stating that my order for 3 chairs (still) had been cancelled.

So I called again to ask why my order had been cancelled (the chairs were, and still are, being sold on the website) and the staff had no explanation.  Well now I had an uneven set of chairs, so I asked what my options were.  They said that they could refund my entire order if I sent back all of the chairs.  I was heartbroken, since I really loved these chairs, but I agreed.  I asked if they could provide for the shipping cost since this was their error.  And to their credit, they complied but only after being extremely rude.  They told me that I would not receive the credit on the credit card until they received the chairs, which was fair, but I was worried since no one could tell me if they had ever received the first one.  They sent me a new email, saying that they were processing my return, but even then, email that they sent me with the information was incorrect. 

Since we had already thrown away the boxes (and didn't want to incur any other cost) we wanted to return them to the store.  Unfortunately, the store couldn't take them since it had been more than 90 days (Target.com's error, not ours). When I finally got around to getting something to send them in, the link to the shipping label was gone.  Another month went by while I tried to figure out what to do (my fault).  I have had these five chairs sitting in boxes in my home and I didn't know what to do.  So finally I called Target.com to find out what my options were at this point.  I asked if they could just send me the last chair (since it's still available for purchase) or if was still possible to return them all at this point.  They told me that they would not send the other chair since we (supposedly) had cancelled the order and that all they could do was refund me $149.99 and I could reorder it.  I told the representative that we did not cancel the order, they did, and they never gave me a reason.  All I wanted was the last chair.  She told me that she could only refund my money (they would not refund the tax).  I would be okay with that except, I would be stuck with the other five chairs (an incomplete set) and it would cost $199 to reorder them. So I finally relented to getting the refund and she put me on hold.

 When she returned to the phone she said that they would not refund any of our money since we initiated the cancellation and that they had already given us a refund.  I told her that we had not received any refund from them and that we had not asked for the item to be cancelled.  I even offered to send her the email noting that Target.com had initiated the cancellation and copies of our credit card statements.  She refused and said that she couldn't help me.  I then asked if there was a manager or anyone that I could speak with and she hung up on me.  I assure you that at no time was I rude to her and I completely expected that we would be able to solve this issue somehow.  I called my local store again and they told me that they couldn't help me, but to call back and to ask to speak to someone stateside.  I called the customer service line again and asked to speak with someone stateside.  He (very politely) told me that no one was available and gave me a second number to call.  I have called this number twice and both times the phone rang continuously with no answer and finally hung up.

So now I am stuck with this incomplete set of chairs and a reminder that at the end of the day, Target.com doesnt give a hoot about their customers.  On top of that, I have lost money and I feel that it has to be illegal for them to refuse to either refund my money or give me the chair that I have already paid for.