Long but would appreciate help

Nancy Siebern

New member
Just a bit miffed. If you wish, I would be grateful for you to drop a line to the CEO below named and voice your disproval of these tactics. BTW, every other business has cheerfully accepted my temporary checks.

Mr. Bob Ulrich
Target Stores
33 South 6th Street
PO Box 1392, CC48C
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55440

Mr. Ulrich:

A week and a half ago I moved from Texas to Colorado. The very first business day after my arrival, I opened a checking account and got a valid Colorado driver's license. That was 22 February, 2000. Today (1 March, 2000), I wanted to purchase three (3) dresses for my granddaughter, who will be starting kindergarten this summer. The purchases totaled $44.41, a small sum when compared with the total sales volume your company stores generate on any given day.

I was informed at the checkout counter that my temporary check was no good at your store #T0933 R100, because that's what the "rules" say. At this time, please let me assure you, the clerk was extremely polite and helpful. So I asked if there were a form I could fill out about this and that is how I came to talk with your "Guest Relations" team member. When a customer calls your 800 number with a complaint, that is not the time to address her/him by his first name. Nor is it the time to try to shunt her/him to another department, especially when I specifically asked for your name and address after determining that response letters are generated "in your behalf" by the "Guest Relations" team, and that my complaint would most likely be filed somewhere and forgotten. Again, I do wish to assure you that the young lady with whom I spoke at the 800 number was polite, but she did not even tell me her name, yet felt perfectly free to call me by my first name.

Now to the crux of this valid complaint. When a person moves from one address to another, obtains a valid driver's license for their new state and opens a viable checking account, it is not within their purview to demand the bank give them electronically numbered checks on the spot. It isn't even possible because the checks come from the printer's and it does take time for the order to be processed and mailed. So your "rules" for temporary checks are extremely discriminatory against a person who has done absolutely nothing but move, and is caught up in a waiting period for printed checks to arrive. Please note, the temporary packet of checks the bank gave me in the interim were electronically coded with the bank access code and my checking account number.

Therefore, here is what I am prepared to do in return for your lack of consideration for a customer and for violating the concept of the customer is always right. As soon as I finish this letter to you, I shall be contacting all the forums I participate in on the Internet and telling them of this shabby treatment. I shall include a copy of this letter, your name and address, and a request that they will follow my lead and refuse to shop at your stores until such time as you retract this discriminatory "rule" and notify me personally that you have so done.

Yours,
Nancy M. Siebern
 
Oooo! Le Target!

With sublime pleasure!

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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
 
Nancy:

You have made a quite reasonable expression of your displeasure, I would be annpoyed to by the operations of such a petty bureaucracy, brought the matter to the attention of others, who will do whatever they may.

At this point, obviously, the result should be that you do no business with these people, under any circumstances.

Good luck in your new locale.
 
Look folks...
This is a not so subtle pressure to use credit cards. One more push for a cashless society; one where you can't control your own earnings.

Nancy used the Internet to reach people, many more than she knows personally...can you now see why "they" want to control the Net? We can bring reverse pressure.

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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
 
Thanks to all of you who will help. DC, you are correct about the none-too-subtle push for credit cards. That was the first thing the cashier tried to hawk before the whole thing about the temporary check ensued.
But what both irks and amazes me more than anything is the fact that we are all very quickly becoming Stepford Americans.
By this I mean we are all being brainwashed to obey our masters and seem to have that vacant stare with the pasted on smile as we tell those who resist, "I'm sorry, but we have rules about that." And they can't even think anymore. And they like it. I am scaring myself now, so I'll stop right here.
 
Having been involved in business I can tell you that while this practice is not fair (and has pissed me off when I was declined), there is a reason behind it. Businesses lose millions each year to bad checks. Scam artists (no implication here Nancy) open dozens of accounts and write away.

There was recently had a problem with a small group of Nigerians on the East Coast. They opened several dozen accounts with minimal money, all up and down the coast and wrote checks in excess of $300,000 total, then disappeared back to Nigeria.

Merchants are afraid of this. It causes prices to go up[ and we all suffer for it. While you are justifiably outraged and many shops still accept newbie check. It is still at the discreation of each business how much risk they are willing to accept.
 
Nancy, welcome to Colorado! Well, for what it is worth, I guess!

The check was for a small amount. A reasonable manager would waive it.

I rarely use checks (in favor of 1 to 2% cash back and full invasion of my privacy). I went to a sporting goods store in early January, and wrote a check for over $500. The check approval company denied it (no reason other than I don't write a lot of retail checks). The manager overrode the decision.

For all of you, there is no anonymity in writing checks v.s. using credit/debit cards. Experian approves the checks and records the transactions, which they sell to any bidder. Only cash is anonymous...
 
Again, thank you for the help and for the explanations of why I am being punished. Trouble is, we accept this without a word. I am not in an accepting frame of mind.
 
Hey which target store? My brother and his wife both work at target and know just about every manager of the front range stores. Let me know and I'll get them to do some complaining too.
Stick it to them
LOCHFAL
 
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