Target: Have Not Been Able to Connect for Months

Update on Target? I have checked the table and it is a known problem, but the ETA keeps shifting. I have not been able to link my account for 2 months–if I try a refresh, I get a message that it can’t be done b/c of technical issues there.

Target has been a long-term problem for me. I’ve previously (& repeatedly) had to reset the account in a very cumbersome way (entering data at Tiller, being sent to Target, entering it there, being locked out of my account, having to reset all the info at Target, then back to Tiller). It had seemed to be working OK for a while, until this latest problem. Thank you.

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Hi @nvorsanger we don’t have any more information about Target than what’s on the Outage Dashboard.

At this point you might want to just consider manually tracking or just not using that card.

Yeah, same issue here. It’s pretty maddening considering Target is one of the largest retailers around and I’m sure many people make use of their Red Card to save 5% on their purchases there.

I’m disappointed Yodlee hasn’t made this more of a priority to get fixed. I have no desire to manually track or import transactions – that’s why I signed up for Tiller in the first place! – to automate that kind of work for me.

@heather Given how long the outage has lasted, are we at risk that when it starts working again, it won’t be able to pull the full history of transactions it has missed so far? I know, for example, when I started using Tiller that the initial imports only went back 1-2 months. Will the same apply to Target? Also, if I manually import/track that account, I assume I may have to delete what will become duplicate transactions, once it starts working again?

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Coming back to echo @Smitty. Not sure where the issue lies (maybe it’s on Target’s end?), but this problem largely negates the purpose of my having Tiller in the first place. I buy a lot from Target, and I assume lots of other Tiller users do too, since it is such a huge retailer. I am not planning to change my shopping habits to make it easier to use my spreadsheet.

The other suggestion was to enter Target purchases manually, but if I do that, what is the point of Tiller? I am already entering split transactions manually because I’m not willing to sign the very broad permissions Tiller recently started requiring. So it’s really frustrating and disappointing.

@nvorsanger and @Smitty, I totally hear you both on this and I know it’s a pain.

I will check in with our technical account manager at Yodlee to see if he has any insight into why Target has been on the outage list for so long and when we might find it working again.

There is the potential for gaps in the Target data at this point due to how long it has been out so manually adding the transacitons probably make sense, even though it’s a pain and does negate Tiller’s usefulness for that specific institution.

Do either of you know whether Target updated or significantly changed their website around the time the outage started in mid-October? That is the most common cause of an outage.

They might also be updating or have updated the site’s infrastructure to make it more secure and Yodlee is playing catch up to get it working with the updates. If they recently started requiring two factor authentication Yodlee has to build that into the login flow on their side too.

Thank you, Heather. I can’t recall noticing any changes to the site. I am on the main site to browse or shop a lot. I just signed into my credit card account with no problem and with no changes that I noticed, but it’s possible there have been some and I just didn’t realize.

Sorry, that doesn’t really tell you anything, I know.

Here’s a bit of info from another Yodlee customer, although the ETA for a fix is already past.

+1 that these issues take away from Tillers usefulness. I used to have one place to look for all upcoming bills (and if paid).

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Heavy Red Card user here – especially during Christmas! :blush: I do hope this can get fixed soon. Just a guess, but perhaps their devs are swamped with keeping up with the holiday shopping crush, that’s apparently massive this year, due to COVID lockdowns. I’m hoping that early in the new year it gets fixed. Any updates that Tiller employees hear of would be great – even if it doesn’t speed up the solution. It’s like being stuck on the tarmac – learning why doesn’t fix the problem, but it’s nice to know. Happy Holidays, all!

Hi @Adam_B! :wave: It looks like Yodlee’s revised ETA for a fix with Target cards is 12/25. We’re working to make that update available on our Outage Dashboard too.

What we have learned from Yodlee that they are needing to work directly with Target to get this fixed. I think your hunch is likely true-- with the online shopping crush this month, my guess (pure speculation) is that the fix with Yodlee might not be a super high priority for Target’s devs at the moment.

That’s what we know at this point. So while we do expect this connection will be repaired, I know the downtime (and the timing of it!) is super inconvenient and we’re sorry about that.

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Looks like the date has been picked out till 1/31

Thank you @brian3 for the update. This is so frustrating. I do a huge amount of shopping at Target (more than from any other vendor, by far). Not having those transactions feed into my spreadsheet means that Tiller is no longer very useful for me. I am now missing months of transactions, so I have a big catch-up job on my hands, whether they eventually make it into my Tiller sheet or I categorize them separately (which again, would basically negate the purpose of my paying for Tiller in the first place). I will wait till 1/31 and reevaluate. I will be so happy if this finally gets resolved!

ETA is suspicious as the Last Updated column still shows 12/2. However, on 12/2 the ETA was 12/25. So I guess the ETA is just a kick the can random date.
I think “No ETA” would be a more accurate representation.

Hi @stuart, thanks for pointing that out. It appears something is amiss with the script that updates that outage sheet and not updating the last updated date in some cases. The last update we received was on 1/1 which updated the ETA to 1/31.

Thanks for your patience on this one, folks. We know it’s a pain and we’re monitoring closely. The update from our technical account manager at Yodlee indicates that they are waiting on Target and need to work with them directly but Target has not been responsive in coordinating a meeting with their teams.

So, if you, as customers, try to put pressure on Target, perhaps that helps :woman_shrugging: - otherwise we’ll let you know when we know or hear more.

Even when we get the Target feed working what will keep us from having to manually split out transactions? The Amazon import is great but there is no option I am aware of for Target. Everything is currently getting lumped into Misc. Expense which is not helping me actually understand where my money is going. And to reiterate the fact the we have tiller due to automation, if not for that we would be doing it manually anyways without paying for it. I am not saying that tiller hasn’t been incredibly useful to me but missing Target is a Huge deal.

Don’t worry folks… tomorrow is 1/31 which is when the Tiller folks say Target will be working again.

… or when they change the fix date to 2/28/2021

Doubtful, but fingers crossed. Definitely will be baptism by firehose with respect to reconciling all the manual RedCard purchases I’ve entered. Ha!

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Target fix date moved out to 2/15

Just wanted to share the unfortunate update here that Target, for the time being, is no longer supported. So if you noticed it drop from the outage list, but it’s still not working and you can’t find it in search that is why.

We don’t have more information on this, but we anticipate it will be back up at some point though I have no ETA on that. From our technical account manager,

“I do not expect Target to complete their analysis on their end before the end of the quarter.”

I don’t even really know what that means. But for now your option is to manually track.

We have a community built solution to make this a little easier in the works, but I can’t share more or give an ETA on that either.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Heather

Thanks for the update Heather. What do we need to be following to make sure we get notified when the community-built solution is available?

I’m not sure if Tiller will allow me to post this…but…Can my fellow users suggest an alternative to Tiller for me–a person who barely understands how to use a spreadsheet? One that does automatic imports? I got Tiller for the automation, but now it isn’t automating a huge chunk of my expenses. I don’t want to manually enter those transactions or figure out some other import method. I doubt I’ll be able to understand the workaround Heather mentions, given my overall spreadsheet ineptitude. This is the 2nd issue for me–the first was Tiller’s new requirement that I grant very broad permissions in order to split transactions. I won’t do that, so I am already doing a lot of manual splitting. The old Tiller splitter was the only spreadsheet operation, other than basic sorting, I knew how to do!

I really loved Tiller for a long time and am very grateful for the help I’ve received from Heather and others. And I get that this issue may not be Tiller’s fault. But it’s hard to see the point of continuing if it no longer does the things I need. Of course, the prospect of transitioning to another system is incredibly overwhelming to me, so I may wind up staying here by default (although figuring out what to do about those 4+ months of Target expenses that haven’t been showing is also overwhelming…) Sorry for all this…but it’s just so frustrating!