Archived 54 days of Cartwheel hell

[Retail Girl]

This 50% off a different toy each day thing is obnoxious. If the deal is any good, we are out within hours. This morning we ran out of the Our Generation dolls within 2 hours. We didn't get any on the truck. So that was 12 hours of people being pissed off at us. Other days people simply call the night before to ask us to hold the item.

One day last week there was a recommendation on some blog site that people should do a price match to target.com and then get the cartwheel deal. And then I had people pissed off because I wouldn't do it because that's against our price match policy. I tried to explain to people that we do the cartwheel first, and if that lowers the price below whatever they want to price match to, then there's nothing to price match...but because some stupid blogger tells them to do it, they get pissed at me for not breaking policy.

The first day we couldn't even figure out what toy it was supposed to be, because whatever was in the description matched what we had on the floor, but the cartwheel didn't work on any of them.

It sounds like a great idea in theory, but it's a nightmare for those of us stuck dealing with this.

 

[Bosch]

Sounds like the ETL's should be keeping tabs on that for huddle each morning.. A new toy everyday? Its important to know what we won't have in stock on a daily basis.. Or what I should overstock cause it will fly out the door..

 

[Retail Girl]

It was gone before huddle this morning. So all we can do is have the operator tell the guests when they call it's gone, and the TM in toys and at guest services gets to apologize over and over again and the cashiers get to explain that we aren't subsituting, no matter how much the guest threatens to never shop here again. Fine fun.

 

[radiochu]

God I'm tired of this. The first day, we had people try to put through FF orders and then cancel them so they could do Cartwheel, to get around the fact we wouldn't hold them. So we started refusing to resell items once the order was cancelled. (actually I think that may have come from higher up?) So they have to wait until it hits the floor again to buy it with the deal. That stopped both those things. But what pisses me off most is days like today, the stupid deal was for three specific DPCIs and we had literally one in stock of each and yet a ton of all the ones that weren't included. So everyone whined about it being the wrong one. Sorry... I'm not giving you 50% off a random item. And quit complaining about stock levels on popular items. If we actually could keep in stock the amount of product you seem to think is 'reasonable,' our backroom would have to have a portal into an infinite space to fit it all. Go to another store that actually has the toy if it's that life or death. I don't care if you don't make that ONE purchase here, especially if you're rude. I would honestly rather you get the thing you want and be happy than make a sale.

(That always bothered me at my call center job too. Why in the world would you accuse me of being a bitch and not wanting to help? I would SO much rather fix your issue and get you off my damn phone than listen to you whine. If I tell you I can't do anything, it is because I literally cannot. Deal with it.)

 

[Gulfcoast]

Yeah, is been a damn nightmare since the first day.

The megablocks one was the worst.

"I can see them back there, I want a boys one"
"I'm sorry ma'am, that one already has a order sticker on it, I can't give you that one. I'm sorry this item... (Cue five minutes of me explaining how assortment dpcis work). I'm so sorry about this, is there anyway I can make this right for you?"
"GIVE ME THE FUCKING BOYS ONE, THIS IS BAIT AND SWITCH I KNOW MY RIGHTS, YOU ALL JUST BRING US IN HERE AND THEN YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE THE TOY, I'M CALLING MY CONGRESSMAN"

At which point she called her congressman. In front of me. While holding up guest services for twenty minutes. Without a TPS or AP member in store to escort her out. With LOD stuck opening an endless stream of containers.

I oftentimes wonder if it's really worth 11 an hour.

 

[Produce Queen]

Our DTL instructed us to sub a similar type item that has a similar price.

 

[Rarejem]

I wish they would have given us a list so that we could have at least researched to try to get more in stock. We are allowing guests to hold them with a limit of 4. It hasn't been too bad, but should definitely have been better planned with regard to being in stock.

 

[pfreshdude]

We have been out of each one within the first hour every single day for every item....its so great

 

[Best TM NA]

Our store was only shipped one of the three dolls that apply and we only had like 4 so we ran out before noon naturally. One lady was on the phone with corporate holding her screaming rat bastard, spoiled to shit child for foreveeeeer. I fear the next few weeks sin ce we seem to always get light shipments during events like these

 

[FlowChick]

Trial and Error baby. If they do it again next year, they'll be better prepared.

 

[Retail Girl]

Trial and Error baby. If they do it again next year, they'll be better prepared.

Hahahahaha.

No.

 

[redandkhaki]

part of the problem is that I think they were more prepared and they had a list ready to go for each day. Then someone leaked the list and people were buying the items ahead of time and getting them adjusted at stores so then the day of we are completely out of the item. They then completely changed the list and are only releasing it into cartwheel at midnight so now the stores are not prepared. Hopefully this will get fixed since they know what the toy will be in time now for the next couple of weeks.

 

[commiecorvus]

I wish they would have given us a list so that we could have at least researched to try to get more in stock. We are allowing guests to hold them with a limit of 4. It hasn't been too bad, but should definitely have been better planned with regard to being in stock.

I remember when they did something similar about five years ago only there was an endcap with changing signing.
They sent a list of the toys to the HL TL so he could set the endcap.
I guess with the coupon they don't see the need to send a list this time.

 

[looseseal]

We were told that Toys in general is going to be light throughout the season, and to flex flex flex because that solves eeeeeveryyyyythinnnnnggggg!

I mean, they could have at least given us a list of these toys a month or so beforehand so we could at least make sure they consistently get researched. Ahh, but right, that makes too much sense.

 

[jenna]

Hmmm... Sounds like a fantastic idea that fell short upon execution. - par for the course

--
Shipping each store a couple of cases of the each of the toys might have helped. Even then - the "hot" toys should have had more instocks. We only had about 6 of the OG dolls on the shelf, and they didn't last very long.

 

[Life201]

Trial and Error baby. If they do it again next year, they'll be better prepared.

Trial & error?

This company has been in business since 1902 - I would think they have some experience running sales & how to stock products that customers will want!

When brick & mortar stores are fighting to compete with online retailers, they have to make an extra effort to make customers happy to walk into their store. Aggravating customers even before Black Friday rolls around is a stupid move.

 

[FlowChick]

Trial and Error baby. If they do it again next year, they'll be better prepared.

Trial & error?

This company has been in business since 1902 - I would think they have some experience running sales & how to stock products that customers will want!

When brick & mortar stores are fighting to compete with online retailers, they have to make an extra effort to make customers happy to walk into their store. Aggravating customers even before Black Friday rolls around is a stupid move.

Well I meant trial and error about the Cartwheel deals part...haha.

 

[Retail Girl]

Part of it is I don't think they can get the stuff from the manufacturers. I doubt that the DCs are sitting around with a ton of OG dolls or Frozen crap just to make us miserable.

But I would believe that the manufacturers are holding stuff back to create demand. Which makes me want to beat them. Badly.

 

[redeye58]

Part of it is I don't think they can get the stuff from the manufacturers. I doubt that the DCs are sitting around with a ton of OG dolls or Frozen crap just to make us miserable.

But I would believe that the manufacturers are holding stuff back to create demand. Which makes me want to beat them. Badly.

*me passes a bottle of degreaser to RG, then another*

 

[tgtguy]

Spot also knows that when guests come into the store for the toys....even if we are out of stock ...more than likely guests are going to pick up other things while in there. So, by having the cartwheel deals on toys, they are bringing more traffic into the store...

 

[Amly_221B]

I get phone calls every day asking if we have whatever toy is on sale that day. (I wish people would just get off their butts and come into the store). No one had informed us the first day this started and we have a physco when we held toys for it and people were upset. We're no longer allowed to hold any 50% off cartwheel toys. And people on the phone just love that too...

 

[Barcode]

In a way this is kind of a bait and switch. They know we're going to run out almost right away, so its just a way to get people into the store. If they do these kind of deals they should make sure that each store receives an extra shipment of these toys for the week so there aren't only 2 on the shelves and none in the backroom.

So glad I'm not a GSA right now.... Would not want to deal with this kind of hell -_- lol

 

[Nauzhror]

Yesterday I had a real shock. Guest came up, asked if we had the toy, said I'd check. I told her the PDA said we had 2, but that I doubted we really had any. She said she'd look. They were both there. This was like 6 PM. Guess those weren't real popular.

 

[Barcode]

Yesterday I had a real shock. Guest came up, asked if we had the toy, said I'd check. I told her the PDA said we had 2, but that I doubted we really had any. She said she'd look. They were both there. This was like 6 PM. Guess those weren't real popular.

Yeah I always used to put emphasis on "it SAYS we MIGHT have 2...." covered my ass when we didn't have any, otherwise I had to deal with batshit insane pissed off soccer mom.

 

[radiochu]

I actually had a decent experience with this today... there was a guest who had a very similar toy to today's deal, but it wasn't the right one. checked stock on the right one, it said we had 2 in the back, so I had the backroom TM check and pull one for her, which made her happy. then I got to teach her how to use Cartwheel to scan items in store to make sure they're the right ones for deals or to find new deals to put on, and after that she was REALLY excited. so that was kind of nice...

I still hate this stupid promotion though.