Every so often consumers send me stories about their surreal experiences at Wal-Mart. These stories are emblematic of what can happen in a huge bureaucracy. Here’s another story from Shopper’s Hell: “It all began on Christmas Day, 2002. My wife bought me a Lexmark X85 3-in-one printer, copier, scanner. Upon opening my gift I noticed that the paint job on the X85 was terrible. It looked as if someone had spray painted several coats of flat black paint on it and some of the buttons. Needless to say I was a
little upset, but I was sure Wal-Mart would let me exchange it since my wife had kept the receipt. I went to the customer service desk at the Lakeshore
Drive Wal-Mart in Birmingham, AL where she had purchased it on December 20, 2002. I showed the the defective printer to the service lady and she told me to leave it with them and go get another one from the electronics department, so I did just that. When I
returned with my new printer they called the “so-called” Manager on duty and he walked up to me, looked at the defective printer, said “I’m not taking that back!”, and walked away quickly. I asked why and he simply said “I’m not taking that back!”, and kept walking. I was rather upset and called for my wife
who was in line about to make a purchase. She came over to me upset as well and we had the manager paged again. When he arrived he said “I told you I’m not taking that back!” We asked why and he said, looking at my wife, “Because it looks like you spray painted it!” My wife then stated, “Why would I spray paint a printer I bought my husband for Christmas?”. He replied, “I’m not taking that back!”, and quickly walked off again. As he was walking away, my wife told him, “Then I’ll just take it to another Wal-Mart and call your District Manager!”. He said rudely,
“That’s fine!” and rudely scurried away. So, we did just that. We arrived at the Adamsville Wal-Mart and the customer service lady there was appalled at the
sight of the printer and told us to go get a new one. We got a new one and brought it up to exchange it when
she scanned the two items it showed that we had already returned the item at the Lakeshore location and had been given a credit of $32. We asked how we could get a credit when: 1.We had the product in our possession and 2.They didn’t give us any cash or credit the credit card on which it had been purchased. The manager of that store was called and said the
only way to settle this was to take it back to the location of the original purchase/exchange. So, back to Lakeshore I went and spoke with the overnight manager, who was a little concerned about our situation. He couldn’t take the item back due to the
fact that it was the wrong model, it was spray painted, and there was a strange credit. He did state that he would investigate the issue and get back with
us. I left him my name and phone number and left the store rather discouraged, but more satisfied with this manager’s attempt to find out what happened exactly. We then waited for a call from the night manager. We finally
got a call from him, and as we expected he wasn’t able to help us. We then called the Home Office, emailed the President of Wal-Mart and filed a
complaint with the better business bureau. Finally, today 1-6-2003, my wife went to the Lakeshore location and they finally let her exchange the defective
printer. All the people that recognized her and/or the printer were being very hateful and refused to provide her with service. It took several phone calls and many emails but we finally got our issue resolved.”
Post Script: “It’s a shame that it took so much effort for us to get what we rightfully paid for but in the end it paid off. I am relieved that they finally broke down and didn’t force us to take this to the courts. I am still
disappointed in the quality of service we were given and I am keeping my anti Wal-Mart site up to let the public know just how Wal-Mart treats their customers.” Go to: http://walmartsux.cjb.net
