Target carseat return policy?!?!?!

Okay, I know this makes sense in some ways, it's just one of those things that makes me flinch in a huge way, in terms of waste, both environmental and need for good seats.

I'm trying to do three across in a Prius. Buy a Graco Turbo HBB to try, take it home, open the box and look at the seat - looks wide. Try to fit just the base in the car, w/o assembling, and I don't really see that this will work without major knuckle mashing, if at all.

Return seat to store. Clerk mentions that the seat will basically go in the dumpster. I NEVER EVEN ASSEMBLED IT.

I asked, don't you even donate them to Goodwill or anything? Nope, not for liability issues. I guess I can see their point and I know there are people who do unethical returns (returning a different seat, what have you), but man, what a waste. I would've gone to Babiesrus to try it first had I only known. I can think of so many families whose kids I wish were in a HBB instead of a LB. Major guilt trip. :thumbsdown:

I'll start by saying I work for Target, so obvouisly this will be a biased answer...

That being said, you have no idea how yucky the seats are we get back some times. Like the one with pb&j stains, or the one with goldfish crackers ground into the seat, the one who you could tell someone probably took a hammer to get two pieces to fit together or the one who was missing the latch straps, manual and locking clip. People do weird, weird things to car seats. I assume personally that any car seat returned has been mishandled. It's the same reason they don't sell the displays... you would be scared to see the crazy things people do with displays and the crazy ways the team responsible for putting them together, puts them together. It just isn't safe.

But just so you know, Target does donate items that are deemed safe and are able to be reused. Clothing, shoes, etc go to local charities like Goodwill. Baby items (shampoo, bottles, bibs, etc) that go salvage (no one buys them and they zero out in our store) and haven't been opened go to my town's women's shelter. Open bags of dry animal food go to the local animal shelter.

Now I'll end my puffy heart post about Target

Huh. I've seen several online returns on the Target clearance shelf.

ketchupqueen said:

Huh. I've seen several online returns on the Target clearance shelf.

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You're right. I wrote out and then deleted, that defecting out returned car seats is a store by store decision as far as I know (I actually am looking into it for other reasons to be sure on that). I actually have a big issue with my store because we don't automatically defect out the car seats that are returned that have clearly been opened... I'm trying to make someone else in my store understand why it's important to look at the seats that have been opened but at this point, I don't know how to say it any other way without sounding any crazier than I already do.

Also, on line returns are processed by a second team after the service desk. The service desk just accepts them, retapes if needed and then the price change team determines how they are marked down.

ketchupqueen said:

Huh. I've seen several online returns on the Target clearance shelf.

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:yeahthat:

ketchupqueen said:

Huh. I've seen several online returns on the Target clearance shelf.

Click to expand...

Me too. Last month I got an old-style Monterey (DOM 7/09) for $83 from the Target clearance shelf! The box had had never even been opened.

I've returned seats to Target on a few occasions, (where I assured the clerk that all packaging was original to the box, that the seat had not been used except to try it in my car, that all tags were still attached and the manual still in place), and I saw the seat end up on the discount shelf for sale

The super target by me obviously puts things right back on the shelf. I saw a frontier box and was intrigued by it (it was over a year ago). The top of the box had been opened so I pulled up the flap to look in and noticed it was actually an old style Parkway in a frontier box. Someone did a major switcheroo there and got away with it.

I guess the policy must vary from store to store. I asked when I bought it if it was returnable, and if they had mentioned this then, I would've gone to BRU. I had opted not to, because DD2 currently thinks it's funny to run off.

I'm just still sad over the waste. I wish they could find some kind of compromise. Couldn't they even donate a clean looking seat to a tech for education purposes?

Rather reminiscent of the whole Wal-Mart H&M thing, though that is far worse, as there is no question of the usefulness of those items.

I wonder if ppl try to return crashed seats