If you have any reward money from Target, you might want to use it now! One Target customer recently claimed she was blocked from cashing her Circle Rewards out in-store.
In a viral TikTok with over 227,000 views, user @theeczemaqueen shares her experience being denied her Circle rewards at Target.
“Target,” she begins. “Why, when I went inside y’all’s establishment, I get to the register, and I tell the cashier I’m tryna cash-out, and she’s like: ‘Oh we don’t have that program anymore.’
“Baby—” she pauses and taps the camera for emphasis, “Since when?” The woman leans over and grabs her phone, gesturing to it as she lists the problems she has with how Target handled the situation. She expresses frustration at the fact that Target didn’t notify her of the change via their app. To make matters worse, they didn’t even let her cash out her existing rewards.
“Not only that, but y’all didn’t even let me cash out, OK.” She points out that Target sends out promotion notifications regularly, implying this situation is odd.
The problem with Target
“The minute that y’all take something away from us—” she begins, pausing to clarify that “us” refers to consumers, who keep the brand afloat. “The people that keep y’all going—y’all take away our rewards program when y’all the only sort that don’t be having no sales for real.”
She goes on to explain that the rewards program was the only justification she had for shopping at Target in the first place. “Those prices are outta line, Target,” she concludes, promptly moving on to a different consumer complaint for the final seconds of the video.
“Now, to the next person: Apple,” she starts. “This update? Was garbage.”
The text above her head reads: “Apple update was POO TRASH,” as the video closes out.
Commenters concerned about Circle
Some people in the comments were in the same boat as the original poster.
“I had like $40 in rewards dollars,” someone said. “They could’ve at least converted the rewards balance into a gift card for people that had rewards balances before zeroing them out smh.”
“I complained and they kept telling it’s there and I said no it’s not,” another person added. “She’s like ‘you have to update,’ and I’m like I did. I had $40 in rewards!”
Other users were having a different but parallel experience.
“I was able to use my rewards today In-store and online,” a commenter stated “However, I did notice a while ago that it stopped adding to my rewards balance when I buy things.”
“I just used my balance yesterday but it told me every time I checked out that it expires in April,” commented another user.
Some more informed Target shoppers tried to explain the recent changes to Target’s Circle rewards program.
“They took the rewards away but they added bonuses almost every week,” another person added. “Also ur rewards didn’t go away if u had some and they did notify the changes months before.”
“Target updated their app in… April. It’s circle 360 now,” one woman clarified. “Any earnings you had before that update, you’d have a year to redeem them.”
“So basically they did away with it six-ish months ago,” summarized a user. “They sent a few emails and did a notification in the app. They want you to spend X amount to get rewards but crap sales.”
So… are Target’s rewards gone or not?
Target’s loyalty program, Target Circle, was revamped in April. A press release from March states that the new version of the program includes automatic coupons at checkout, personalized bonuses, and “exclusive partner perks.” It also announced a paid tier of the program, “Circle 360.”
Noticeably absent, however, is their “one percent earnings” program, which gave customers one percent cashback on all their Target purchases. These are the “rewards” sums referred to in the video and comments. According to the Target Circle “About” page on their website, this feature will not appear in the new version of the program.
“We’ll be removing the 1% earnings,” they state. After reiterating their newer benefits, they add: “Your current amounts won’t be impacted. They’ll still be available once the new program launches unless they aren’t redeemed before their expiration date.”
So @theeczemaqueen should have been able to use her rewards dollars—if they were not beyond their expiration date.
The Daily Dot reached out to @theeczemaqueen via TikTok direct message and comment, and Target via email.
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