Target — Local services in Alameda

I love Target, but was very unhappy with the last experience I had there. There were several food items in the store that needed to be discarded in the meat department as well as in the produce department. Also during my visit I had four transactions I needed to ring up separate so I went to the self check out line as I have done many of times. While I was ringing up my items there was an employee standing near by watching my ever move. At some point security walks up standing next to the employee now they both are watching my every move. At some point I needed help so I called the employee over and she sends someone else over he comes helps me then leaves. Another employee comes over I don't know if she was a manager or just regular employee, but she comes over ask if I needed help I said no she said okay and walks off. She later comes back ask me if I wanted to apply for a Target red card, I respond no I have one she's just looking at me strangely then she said okay and she walks off. She then comes back telling me I can only have 15 items or less at the self checkout line so next time I need to go to the regular line to checkout.Now if there was a problem with the amount of items I had why no one said anything when I walked up. I mean they were all watching me. I have had these same amount of items several times and the store employee's will come ask me while standing in line would I like to go to self check out. Two items I was purchasing were not ringing up so I once again asked the one lady who was watching me for help she sends the same guy back over he scans both items and leave. Now here come the other lady again now she is trying to make conversation with my 4 year old daughter. I finish my last transaction I have all receipts in my hand security and the one employee are still watching we are making eye contact so they clearly see the 4 receipts in my hand. As a matter of fact I made sure they saw the receipts because I already knew where they were going with the whole watch me situation. I am about to walk out the store, but decided to take my daughter to the bathroom, I still have the receipts in my hand for when I walk out the door. The same lady that kept coming up to me while I was scanning the items stops me and say were you able to get receipts for your purchases, holding my receipts I say I sure did. While I am walking to take my daughter to the bathroom the lady tells me to wait right there she runs over to the self checkout where I checked out at and apparently checked my transactions to make sure I had paid for the items. She then turn around and say okay we all good here after she checked the transactions. If I had not of being in Target for hours shopping, I would have taking everything I purchase right back to customer service and returned it. I am a long time Target customer. Myself and my mother who was with me both have Target cards. I am in Target stores at least 3 to 4 times a week and each time I go to one I spend at least $80. I also order every month items on Target website at least 2 times a month and when I was in the store on that day I spent a little over $260.00 on the items I purchased. Besides shopping here myself and my mother also use Target pharmacy. What me and my family experience in Target on this day has put a very sour taste in my mouth. I am considering canceling my my prescriptions at the pharmacy, canceling my cards, and no longer shopping with Target period because this experience was unbelievable and such a hurtful, humiliating experience especially when I visit Target stores as often as I do spending my hard earn money. I would have to be a fool to try and take something I did not pay for when the camera is dead smack in my face, there was a Target employee standing behind me with his light turned out then the employee and security guard watching me and the lady that kept coming back over. Seriously! I had to experience all of this meanwhile there was actually someone in the store stealing, but they were so focus on me that they...

I went in and noticed as I was making my way to the back of the store to get what I wanted, that there were NO CASHIERS open. But I figured there would be when I got ready to check out. WRONG! I completed my shopping, went to the checkout, and inquired as to the open cash register. I was told there were NONE OPEN, and that I could use the self-checkout. I do NOT DO SELF-CHECKOUT, for several reasons, one of which is that it is actually faster to use a regular human to check out, and secondly, the self-checkout does NOT ask me if I have brought my own bag, which I do, and as such, target gives me 5cents discount for bringing my own bag. Thirdly, I am not given a discount for doing the work at a self-checkout, so why should I do the work for you guys and not get paid for it? Fourthly, quite frankly, it is usually much more of a pleasurable experience to deal with a nice cashier than a cold steel machine! Anyway, when I inquired about an open register, I was told to use the self checkout. When I said I don't do that, the girl told me she would help me. I told her I didn't need help, but wanted someone to check me out or ring up my items for me. She rang up the items and didn't put them in my bag. She then told me to put the money into the machine, which I refused to do, saying that she said she would ring me up. She then put the money in the machine, and then told me that the change was "right there", meaning I was supposed to take the money out of the machine myself. I then told her that she didn't put my items in the bag, so she did, but she clearly was annoyed. Then I inquired about my 5cents discount because I brought my own bag. She was really annoyed then, but went to another cash register, and gave me my 5 cents. She did not give me the money from the machine, but walked off, saying "have a nice day". I took the change, and my receipt, and immediately went to guest services and asked for Alissa Mahoney [sp?] who I had dealt with on this very same issue, in the past, and which, she had resolved in the past, but clearly the store went back to being lazy about there being no cashier on duty when the store opens. I was told that Alissa [sp?] no longer worked there, and so I inquired for her boss. A girl named "Erin" [I think] came over, and was really nice. She listened to me, and agreed with everything I had to say. She said she would take care of it, and make sure that someone was on duty to check out customers who did not want to use the self checkout. While this girl "Erin" was nice, this issue seems to keep coming up. It is simple really, if the store is open, then there should be someone working at at least ONE checkout. If the store isn't busy, then the person who just stands there watching people doing the work for your store by utilizing the self checkout, could easily also check out or ring up customers like myself, who do not want to use the...

Seriously... four stars? Not bloody likely. Here's my beef. The store sells Steam gift cards, knowing that they can not activate them. No joke, I bought my son a $100 Steam card for his birthday. The cashier neglected to activate it so when we went to use it, naturally it would not work. Back to Target where we get total ineptitude from the Customer Service teenager who feeds us a line of BS saying that "her manager told her that once the card is purchased, any card issues must be taken up with Steam". So, we contact Steam and they tell us the card has never been activated. Back to Target only this time we actually get a Customer Service rep that actually knows what she's talking about (hence the one star). She informs us that Target will no longer be selling Steam cards because they can not activate them and then she provides us a full refund. I asked her when this had all come to light and she says last weekend. I bought the card on freakin Tuesday, last week. So ask yourself this question, if Target can not activate the gift cards and if they knew this last weekend then why are they still selling the cards to this day. No lie, if you go to gift card section of this store, you will find Steam cards right there for sale, winkin' at ya. Poor management, poorer communication, no oversight. Won't be...