… lest your experience parallel my own.

Here’s what might happen.

1.  You buy an online “gift card” via Target.com to be sent via e-mail to its recipient.  (The recipient is then supposed to apply the balance to their Target.com account so that they can make purchases.)
2. Your credit card will be charged promptly, but your intended recipient receives no e-mail from Target at all.
3. You call to rectify the situation.  Target then sends the promised e-mail to the recipient with the virtual gift card.  But it is useless because it has been cancelled.
4. You call to rectify the situation again, but the customer service rep informs you that Target’s computers are down.
5. You call back the following day, hoping to get it all straightened out.  But Target’s solution is a slightly confusing process by which they send the gift card to you, then you resend it to the intended recipient.  It’s confusing because this e-mail from Target makes it look like they have sent a SECOND gift card to you to apologize for your trouble.  (No, that’s the gift card you mean to give to your friend.)
6. Honestly?  Just buy a f&*$ing Amazon gift card, people.