. "2016-08-02T00:00:00"^^ . "0"^^ . "0"^^ . . "1"^^ . "I would like to start off by saying that I'm a big fan of Target and have shopped there for many years. On Sunday afternoon my wife and I stopped by the store to pick up a few essentials. While walking past the Target Mobile department a team member in a black shirt and Target name badge flagged us down and told us that we would get a $5 gift card if he could check our eligibility for a cell phone upgrade. The same associate told us that if we purchased a qualifying phone as part of our eligible upgrade we would receive a $150 Target gift card. Well, I knew that I was eligible for an upgrade and figured i could use $150.\n\nWe began the whole process. it was becoming evident very quickly that our associate had no idea what he was doing. He asked both my wife and I for the same information over and over again consistently saying oh no or I need to do that again or I don't understand. Three hours later the associate told us that we were going to have to take the phone to Verizon because he could not figure out how to get it activated so off to Verizon we went where to the staff got us up and running in 15 or 20 minutes. The supervisor for this department had difficulty answering questions for our stumped associate and ultimately ended up disappearing before all was done.\n\nAfter two or three days with her new phone my wife determined that it was defective and needed to be returned. My wife went back to Target Mobile where the very same associate who took three hours to give us a non-working phone the first time, greeted her. My wife was at Target Mobile for over four hours while this associate fumbled and squirmed trying to figure out how to exchange the phone.\n\nMy wife is far more patient than I am sitting at Target for nearly four hours on this second trip trying to fix this issue. Receiving no satisfaction from Target my wife went over to Verizon to see if they could clean up the mess that was created at the Target Mobile store but not before they forced my wife to purchase a $150 Target gift card because I had the original in my wallet.\n\nMy wife ended up spending an additional 2 hours at Verizon because the Target Fiasco locked out our account. Target opened and closed, deleted and reinstalled and messed things up so badly that Verizon was afraid there was some type of fraud going on with our account.\n\nCollectively we have well over 8 hours of time sitting at Target and ended up purchasing a phone from Verizon. When I complained the the Target store manager she seemed disinterested and gave me a card with a phone number for guest relations. What a joke. I did call but after 10 minutes of being on hold I hung up. We already have far too much time invested in a one week period.\n\nI understand that Target Mobile is a separate entity from Target stores but they are still under Target's roof and It's a reflection of the store.\n\nDo yourself a favor and cut out the middle man (Target in this case) and go directly to the carrier."^^ . . "0"^^ .