Lack of reliability of "in store pick up" services

[storewanderer]

I have done a few in-store pick up orders this month from Target. I have done this since the website prices have been lower than the prices in the store and combining some of these with Target Circle offers has made for some good deals. But you really have to watch because Target seems to have a nasty habit of increase prices on things right before they go on a % off offer on Target Circle. Especially in the pet category. It could be a coincidence but when Target's regular price is suddenly above Safeway (a high price leader on the pet category), I don't think it is.

I have in the past done these orders with Wal Mart, Macys, and Walgreens and always gotten what I ordered within the promised timeframe. None of these places have ever NOT fulfilled an order. The Wal Mart and Macys orders I believe have been pulled directly from store stock. In the cash of Walgreens, they just ship a box from their warehouse to the store and you pick it up.

For some reason with Target it is different. I did an order for 10 items earlier this month; 3 of the 10 items were "unavailable" I learned when I got to the store. The employee was completely unhelpful about it and basically just said you won't be charged. I went into the app and saw it was giving me an option to move the pick up to another store, including that store where they said they could not fulfill the order (I pointed this out to the employee who said to me like a robot "zero on hand at this location sir," or the app also offered me "free ship to home" for 2 items, but for the other item the only option offered was "request cancellation or we will cancel it automatically." Some option.

Since I must not have had enough I placed another order. This time a $2 grocery item was missing and again I went to the app and see unable to fulfill. It gives me the option to move to another store, this other store was over 100 miles away and the 2 local stores showed the item as unavailable. But it gave ship to home option free again. So there is that.

It looks like Target has some major problems with its on hands where the website is taking orders for store pickup, promising 2 hour pick-up turnaround, then not fulfilling orders frequently. Perhaps these problems are unique to the Reno, NV Target along with its always overflowing front trash cans, filthy restrooms that smell when you walk near them, and sloppily dressed staff. The store has clean floors, though.

[Super S]

There are a few local chains that are starting to advertise online ordering/pick-up in store. Unlike the national chains, the local ones are VERY inconsistent. I have been to one where the order was still on the printer, untouched, when I arrived at the store an hour later(when it was promised in 30 minutes), and one where my order somehow ended up in another town. The small chains simply do not have very well designed or thought out infrastructure to support this.

The national chains like Target, Walmart, etc., because of their size, have the resources to develop better systems for this, and should be more consistent. It sounds more like issues with that particular Target store than anything else.