My Wally-Mart Story

So, my Jeep died on me on tuesday. Was working fine until I went to Publix to grab some dinner. 15 minutes later and my car wouldn't start. Called my dad, he came, we jumped it. I drove his car for rest of week, he was out of town, so come friday (yesterday) i took my jeep to the Jeep Dealership to have them look at it. Picked it up today, with the report that the Battery, when under stress (forget name of test) fails, though if you just check the battery, the battery is fine. Time to replace the battery.

I bought the battery at Wally-Mart (Wal-Mart) in December '08 (4 months ago) so its under warranty. Drive across the street to Wally Mart (they had to jump my Jeep to get it started) and tell them (and show them the sheet) that the battery needs to be replaced (for free) as it is under warranty. No, they have to perform their own tests first. Of course, they come back saying the battery is fine DESPITE the piece of paper from the MANUFACTORER that says otherwise. They will not replace the battery!

My dad was with me and he is extremely irrate with them. Talks to the manager etc. The managers were illiterate or something...could barely understand them speaking...so my dad calls customer service. Apparently, people at customer service are surprised they wont change the battery so they will talk to the store and gives us a call tomorrow.

Great, just what I want to do. Spend my entire weekend at Wal-Mart waiting for them to change my defunct battery that I bought from them.

Yay Wally Mart.

 

Somehow, believe it or not, I only remember being in a Wally World once and only because my cousin insisted in going in to buy a set of batteries. We parked a mile away, hiked through the store, found her item, trekked over to the checkout, and finally got out to the car in around 20 minutes.

I asked her why she shopped there. Oh I save money! she said.

We could have popped in the local drug store and been in and out in less than 5 min and it might have cost 25 cents more...but no hassles!!!

I dont think I'll do business there ever.....

 

Wal-Mart Sucks.............I have not shopped there for 15 years.

The test your battery failed is called a "load test" which means even though the battery shows it is producing between 12-14 volts it doesn't have the ability to maintain the amperage to turn the starter and fire the engine.

I wouldn't suprised if your alternator is the next to take a dump.

Brad

 

Yup, not much of a fan of Wal-mart. I'd rather spend more money on items that are of better quality or in the case of food, not spoiled or about to spoil in a day. Some other generic non perisible stuff I may purchase from there but only if I'm there.

 

Brad is on the money, your alternator may even be at the root of your problem with the batttery not holding it amperage needed to crank the engine over. I wouldn't ever buy a car battery from Wal-Mart, only auto parts stores who actually understand how and why the electrical charging system in a vehicle funcitons.

I have never had a moments trouble with NAPA, or even the discount chains. The battery's "cold cranking amps" are just not there anymore, and that may be the fault of a poorly operating alternator. Before you just chase good money after bad, or open yourself up for more aggrivation by installing another battery, make sure that alternator is still "up to snuff". Four months is WAY too short a time for a battery to go to hell, but if your alternator isn't maintaning a full charge, both volts and amps, you are just wearing the battery out to the point it can't recover. Buy all the Cold Cranking Amps you can afford, I would always go for more than 750 CCA in a Jeep type unit. In Florida that would work out to nearly 900 CA since you are rarely under 32 degrees above 0 for very long a sustained time.

Another thing, always buy a known brand of battery; Delco, Autolite, ect., then even if you aren't anywhere near where you purchased it the warranty will be honored by any dealer in that battery line, nationwide.

I had my oil changed one time at Wal-Mart since they were having a sale, and I thought I would do some shopping while they changed the oil/filter. What those goofs didn't know about automobiles was stunning.

 

Go to a Battery Store and get an "Optima Yellow Top"........They are about twice as much as a standard battery; but, they have a Gel cell wich means no leaks and no maintenance, especially if you do anything off road with your J**p. Costco, Auto Zone, Schuck's and Checkers also sell Optimas; but, they are of lower quality specifically manufactured for chains and large retail outlets.

When I first got my '73 Bronco, about 5 years ago, I took it to my regular lube shop to have the oil changed. The kid doing the work had never seen a carbuerator and had no idea where to begin.
He managed to get the oil changed and I was on my way. About 1/2 mile from my house smoke started pouring from under the hood and oil was spraying on the windshield through the hood vents.

The little knucklehead did not remove the old oil filter gasket when he changed filters.

Brad

 

Don't I know it. The goofs out at Wal-Mart put the WRONG filter on my V-6, and also overfilled the crankcase when they did the oil change. Fortunately for myself, I looked in, spotted the filter that "looked wrong" for body length and had them double check the number. Wrong filter. Pulled the dipsick, and they had put in about a pint too much. So, last time for those fools to touch my unit. Saving two dollars on the job wasn't worth the grief.

That optima battery system is one of the best, by all means, but if you aren't really banging them around the normal lead-acid batteries will work just fine in normal service.

Hey Mussolini, it may behove you to pull your alternator off and take it down to your local NAPA for a spin-up test. I looked on the NAPA online for your area and there are eight of them within 15 miles of Windemere city center. They will do a full run-up test on your alternator, and with the short life of this last battery I wouldn't doubt it is toast-ola.

 

that sucks to hear about your wal-mart experience, even if wal-mart has a better deal i always try to steer away from going there, I've never had a bad experience there but I am very against the way their employees are treated there so i refuse to give them my money. we have the super walmarts here with everything in it the food the clothing electronics etc, id rather go to 3 or 4 places then go to wal mart.

 

lrusso ive heard such stories about how bad and unfair wal mart is to their employees its a damn shame but they give you everything for "cheaper" so they need a place to cut back and of course it comes at the expense of their employees

 

Not to mention Wally World sells a lot of Chinese "stuff". People think they are getting a bargain, but you get what you pay for!

 

All of you guys hit on some good stuff abou Wally-World.

I bought a battery from them once about 3-years ag, and its became defective somehow while still under warrently-and one fo the few actual compliments I can give to that company-to their credit-they didn't give me a hard time in exchanging it,

One thing I have learned from a senior wm manager-is that if you are shopping in the store-find a product sitting on a shelf or bin and had a certain price on it-and then if you but it and the price scans at a different and higher price-you do not pay the higher price but the one that the product was sitting over in which was priced incorrectly-or because a Stocker placed the product over the wrong price sticket. However, if you report it to a Customer Service Rep--which has happened to em several times here already--the CSR usually try to pull a fast one on you-which they did to me for the last time about 3 weeks ago) and will call to the dept where the item in question is on display at-and will have the item removed all so that you have to pay the higher price.

Normally I do not make an issue out of a mistake (on their part) however, the way it was handled in this last case-tiked me off so I complained to the main store manager who actually backed me up on thisand he told me that if a product is not priced correctly and you want it--they have to sell you that item at lower cost-which I think may be a law?

Well, said items I picked up which showed a lower than actual price-such as for DvDs, Cat Supplies etc-well, th e last two trips to WW I complained and I got the items for appx 1/2 the price you get when it is scanned. So from now on, I WILL continue to voice my complaints on mispriced or mis-placed items-not to be a jerk-but more to teach WM a lesson.

As for having to buy from them-I hate it but have to for now-due to whom I can buy my Meds from through my current Ins company, and also due to what is available that is anywhere near where I live.

The WW I go to that's nearest to my residence is several miles away so im limited where to shop--for now.

 

Great, just what I want to do. Spend my entire weekend at Wal-Mart waiting for them to change my defunct battery that I bought from them.

Yay Wally Mart.[/QUOTE]
A few mistakes you made:
1. Assuming the people in TLE know wtf they are doing...they don't. You know the qualifications for getting hired in TLE at Wal-Mart? Getting hired and them needing help in TLE
2. Dealing with anyone but the Service Manager (maybe) or a Co-Manager. Skip the assistant manager because they have too many areas to be over (same person will "probably" be over Sporting Goods, Hardware, Lawn and Garden, etc.) to be an expert or know. Department Manager would be best, but he/she has no authority.
3. Think they are going to give you anything without a fuss. It's company policy to make sure you leave happy, just not right away.
4. After the first 10 minutes, you ask for the phone number (it should be posted by the desk per company guidelines) of the Market Manager over the TLE department. And call him/her. You'd be suprised how fast things happen when he/she gets on the phone.
5. Always save your reciept, with a copy of the warrenty. I keep mine in the glove box.

-Luke. Dept. Manager, Sporting Goods, 7 years.

 

I should have read all of this before my first post. I have a few things to offer here, because unlike any of you, I have and do work for Wal-Mart.
I make exactly 3 dollars an hour less than my father does, who has worked for the same manufactoring company for almost 40 years.
I was able for the first time in my life to get my terrible teeth fixed and get a potentially fatal blood pressure problem corrected due to insurance offered. My cost per pay check? 18 dollars.
Shop ANYWHERE and find something not made in China. That's not Wal-Mart's fault, we buy and sell. We have to buy whats available.
Depending on state law, if the product is PRICED wrong, you get it for the lower price. If it's placed wrong? No. Because 99% of the time it's lazy ass people dropping crap off wherever the feel like
I don't do a lot of my shopping at Wal-Mart...I grocery shop at someplace smaller and off brandish but cheap, I buy all my L&G supplies from a feed shop, and I don't buy anything else. The wife shops wherever she wants, I don't ask.
Once thing you can't aruge with is....400 billion dollars in sales, and almost 2 million jobs. I have never been asked to work without pay, ever. Never heard of it in 7 years, in two stores in two states. That'd be something to take up with a local labor board not bash the company. I've been in private meetings with senior managers (SENIOR...Lee Scott, Eduardo Castro Wright, Rob Walton...and honestly...they are doing a lot of good.
Ask your local Wal-Mart how much they donated last year....ours was almost 40,000 dollars in donations alone. And that 4 dollar perscription plan all the major chains are doing now? Wal-Mart started it. I spend 8 dollars a month on pills that I was perscribed from my doctor at a cost of 150 a month from him. And the company loses about 40 million dollars a year on that program.
I'm sorta long winded but what can i say? My wife, 3 kids, and 23 animals depend on Wal-Mart! And believe me I've worked for smaller companies that were "family oriented" that sucked a lot more.

 

Should we also pat Wal-Mart on the back for running hundreds upon hundreds of local, homegrown stores out of business? Or for buying chinese made goods instead of american, making our dependance on foreign goods that much greater while destroying american industry?

Walmart, in a lot of places, is the only place to go buy things for cheap because all the local stores have been put out of business by them. Its like what happens when a Barnes and Nobles moves in, putting the local bookstores out of business.

 

Wal-Mart can go straight to HELL!!!! and hopefully it will use Starbucks to brake it's fall.

How many small to medium sized local businesses have been shuttered by Wal-Mart? Now with the "Super Centers" neighborhood markets are even passing by the wayside. Wal-Mart is not helping America.

 

I'm not going to get into an argumen on here about this, especially with two people who's posts and information I respect. But Wal-Mart isn't going anywhere. I will say, don't tell me that Wal-Mart is responsible for eroding the American industry. American consumers are are. If you go to local stores and pay triple the price for the same items...good for you! I'm glad you can afford to do so. But, look at that product you are paying more for....chances are great it's made in China, Vietnam, Korea, or Tawain. A personal example...my dad works for a (former-now bought out by a Chinese company) American company that produced many of the models of faucets for Delta and other companies. Two months or so ago, I was looking to remodel my kids bathroom so I went shopping with him, because I figure hell he's got to know faucets, he's made them and fixed the machines that make them for 38 years. The Delta faucets they had (It was Home Depot, Lowe's, and specialty home decor place we went) were in the 150-200 dollar range. That's a lot. We found several that were faucets that used to be 100% American made, start to finish...most of them at my dad's company. Now, they still make the rough form, but then the tubing is sent, by ship, to China, where it is finished, chromed, assembled, packaged, and shipped BACK to American...to be sold as made in America. The same faucet, exact same faucet, made 100% in China, then shipped to America as made in China....49.99 at the more expensive specialty store. Guess what faucet I bought? Does it make sense to spend 3 times the amount of the same item that is basically made in the same place??? I don't have that kind of extra jack. It'd be nice if I did though. When I was just out of high school, I worked for a historic state park in Michigan, in the gift store. We dealt with a lot of school kids in the spring. Once I was getting about a box of crappy toys and cheap trinkets before the rush and came across an invoice that has stuck with me all these years. We sold these long pencils...probably a foot or so in length, for 1.00 plus tax. The invoice stated that we paid, 8 cents per pencil. The shipping and handling was on the bill of lading, and I took some time to figure out what each pencil cost the park to put on the shelf to sell it. Estimating the labor, because you could dump a thousand of them out into their slot in about 6 seconds, was probably a little high...each pencil cost us about 21 cents to get in house. Now, if you sell 1000 pencils a day at a 79 cent profit, that's pretty good. Now imagine if you sold those pencils for....50 cents. Only making 29 cents per, but I bed you'd sell 4 times as many. That is what Wal-Mart does. If you are a supplier, who are you going to give the better deal selling them to? Mom and Pops store who are going to buy 1000, or Wal-Mart who is going to buy 1,000,000? I'm all for American Industry, believe me, I've gotten kicked off my share of boards because of my rants against outsourcing and unionization...but I'm also a dad with 3 kids to support. I cannot afford to pay 3 times the amount for the same product.

 

A few mistakes you made:
1. Assuming the people in TLE know wtf they are doing...they don't. You know the qualifications for getting hired in TLE at Wal-Mart? Getting hired and them needing help in TLE
2. Dealing with anyone but the Service Manager (maybe) or a Co-Manager. Skip the assistant manager because they have too many areas to be over (same person will "probably" be over Sporting Goods, Hardware, Lawn and Garden, etc.) to be an expert or know. Department Manager would be best, but he/she has no authority.
3. Think they are going to give you anything without a fuss. It's company policy to make sure you leave happy, just not right away.
4. After the first 10 minutes, you ask for the phone number (it should be posted by the desk per company guidelines) of the Market Manager over the TLE department. And call him/her. You'd be suprised how fast things happen when he/she gets on the phone.
5. Always save your reciept, with a copy of the warrenty. I keep mine in the glove box.

-Luke. Dept. Manager, Sporting Goods, 7 years.[/QUOTE]

Luke, if you really read my post above yours-you will easily see that some lazy-assed person just did not drop of ten--that's TEN complete boxed sets of that TV series 2nd season-that I was talking about. All TEN of those complete 2nd season boxed sets of Two and a Half Men-were sitting in TWO dfferent slots on a DvD display stand both CLEARLY marked at $7.50. One slot was on one side of this rack and about a foot or so off the lowest slots available on this DvD stand. Ok--I can easily "see" your point in that maybe a mistake was made or "some lazy-assed person" placed a copy or two in that slow. However, there were five complete copied of season two of Two and a Hlf Men in that slot. However, that was not the only slot n that isplay that had FIVE copies of Two and a Half Men sitting in it. On anoter side of that display stand-was a slot that was one more tier higher than on the otherside-which was filled with 5 copies of season two of To and a Half Men in it. To me-the only mistake made was when Wally-World hired all of those wetbacks that they do hire-especially to work on THIRD SHIFT.

But I guess you can't fault those illegal aliens because they were told to do a task in a language they don't speak any of or understand any of-unless it comes to being hired by Wally World - over hiring legal citizens and or AMERICAN citizen-which IS the hiring practice of WALLY-WORLD (aka) Wal-Mart. You can bet your boots that Sam Walton is turning over in his grave-because of the sick direction tht his children took a comany HE busted his ass for-in creating and running. Sam Walton originally started his company in supporting AMERICAN made goods-not the goods that are allow made in various places like: Cina,Mexicao, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Greece, Brazil, Taiwan and G od knows whre else.

Also, it is well-known that When Wally WOrld comes to town-many mom and pop stores close down for good. WW also tried to get into the Banking Businss-but their attempted Monopoly into that endeavor-was Nixed by the Federal Govt. Also, WW is chiefly responsible for many many Pharmacies closing down for good-simply because those independant Pharmacies cannot compete with WW.

About 20 or so years ago-the Super S and Kroger Supermarkets close down in most areas of Texas-because they could not compete with WW. Several clothing manufacturers that had been located in South Texas-all closed down-thanks to WW. Places such as Hagar-when it closed-made just in our area alone-over 1,000 people lost their jobs. WW might have hired up to 100 people-but most of none who had previously worked at the Hagar Clothing Manufacturing plant located about 20 miles outside of Kingsville, Texas.

Other things that are also well-known about WWs business prctices are that the reason why you do not see at least anywhere in South Txas-any WW store carrying Rubbermaid products.WW nixed the idea from he Rubbermaid company to slightly raise their prices on their products telling them if they did-that WW would not allow their products on their shelves. Because of the possibilities of losing a lot of money due to the raising prices for the materials they needed in order to make their products-Rubbermaid declined to accept WMs offer-in no longer inmy area-have products on WWs shelves. In other areas-I can't say-but i my area-I can say what I se.

Also, it is WELLKNOWN that WW has many "sweatshops" in CHINA-jobs that AMERICANS should have but are overseas thanks to those greedy bastards running WM.

Also, it is well-known that WM lost a huge lawsuit from an Electronics company that they (WM) tried to force out of business because WM--set up Electronice=s manufacturing plants in CHINA-selling the exact same TV set that this American company were making-however-for 50% less. That company sues WM for unfair Business practices-and won their lawsuit against WM. This is why you see M selling TV sets for $500.00 instead of $250.00!

Luke-defend YOUR employer at your will-but that still does not change the fact that WM is responsible for directly causing so many businesses out of business-thanks to their cheaply made products made in foreign countries--like China.

I bought a pair of slippers at Wm-which were made in China sweatshops where their average employee-makes less than 30 cents per hour in wages. Anyway,two days after I bought these slippers-I had t return them because the side ripped out of the platic that was holding it in. I took them back-found another pair of slippers-willing to give WM a chance-had a bit of trouble in tryingto exchange these slippers-even though I still had my reciept-and from the same store I got them at. Finally-after waiting almost 30 minutes-I was finally allowed to exchange the ripped slippers for a new pair. Well, I don't know what was in the materials that made up this pair of slippers-but it caused welts on my feet as well as redness. No-the slippers are not tight and no-I don't have Diabetes. These crappy-made shoes caused some problems with my feet that I neve had before.

I immediately returned these slippers-was told I couldn't get cash back but a WM credit card-thusly FORCING me to spend my money with them. As it was only $9 and change-it still irritated me but-ONLY because I needed a few other things there-like Irish Spring Soap and such-I used the card to purchase the few products I needed and didn't make an issue out of it.

Like many here-I loathe shopping at WM if I HAVE to--and I only HAVE to-because they ran most of their competitos out of business.

Anyone interested in seeing others opinions about WWjust google Wal Mart Complaints-and you will find out more.

PS,if WM hired AMERICANS and or people who reasonably speak and understang ENGLISH--most of these problems would not happen-such as someone mistakingly placing a product on the shelf in the wrong slots which were meant for other products. I now make it a "thing to do" when aving to shop at WW-to point out pricing mistakes there. If a person understood enough ENGLISH in the first place-they most likely would not make that kind of a mistake.

Piss on Wal-Mart.

 

My best advice regarding any company would be: "If you can afford it, vote with your dollars." Your buying power is what keeps Walmart (and others like it) afloat. I avoid the place not only because of all the bad business practices but because their lineups are hell (full of screaming children), I get lost in the massive aisles, get pushed around or almost run over by hordes of people and can never find a sales associate when I need one.