I selected one of the three Wal-Mart's in easy driving distance from our house, and went after work. I found a few grills on the display floor, but they were not the one I was searching for. I made my way back to the BBQ area and started looking for the one I was after. With the help of Bill, an employee, I found a 3 burner Char-Broil with Infra-Red and an extra side burner, he said it was the one and helped me load it on a cart. I went up front and got in line. At that point, there was only one employee in the entire lawn and garden department, and it took a solid 10 minutes for my turn at the register with Rita, and the grill rang up at $258. I showed Rita the ad, and told her that Bill had helped me select it. Rita said mean things about "that old man" and went back to try and find the right grill. She couldn't find it, but did find a similar one on sale for $178, did I want that one? No I didn't, because it was charcoal, I wanted a gas grill. I answered that question 3 separate times for her.
While Rita was searching for the right grill, the woman who rang up a lawn mower in front of me, was waiting for the loading assistance that Rita never called. She was a very nice looking older lady, who had no business even pushing a cart with a lawn mower, let alone loading it into a truck. I could tell we would be alone for awhile so I told the woman to go get her truck, and I would find some other person to help me load it for her. She got her truck, I recruited a gentleman who was selecting a smoker with his wife, we loaded the mower into her vehicle, and she went on her way. Rita still wasn't back.
Eventually, Rita came back, asked me about the charcoal grill again, and then decided it was time to page someone. Over the next 10-15 minutes she progressively paged higher up the food chain, with no response, and she mumbled unflattering things about every single one of them. At some point a woman came over who was a CSS or CSM, I can't remember the title exactly, but we thought she could help. She went off in search of the right grill, and I didn't see her again until much later. At this point, Rita kept paging, complained that the only one left to call was Clinton, the Store Manager, and she didn't want to call the "Big Boss", then she took her shoes off because her feet hurt.
I am proud of myself here, I maintained a calm, patient, and business like attitude, when all I really wanted to do was tell someone off and storm off in a huff. But it was a good price, on a great grill, and it was supposed to be an awesome surprise for my husband....so, I got serious. I walked away from the check stand, got my phone out, and called the store's customer service line. I told the woman who answered that I needed to speak with Clinton, the store manager. "Can anyone else help you?", "No, Ma'am". In about 30 seconds, Wayne, the Assistant Store Manager answered the line. "Wayne, hi, my name is Kristina, and I've been waiting here in Lawn and Garden for about 30 minutes for a manager to answer Rita's page, I have an issue with pricing on a gas grill, and I'm wondering if you can be the one to help me out". He apologized, and told me someone would be right over. I walked over to Rita, and told her what I had done; she said, "Oh, good...that means the boss is coming over, I better put my shoes back on".
Ted, the other Assistant Store Manager came over, got a quick grasp of the situation, and promptly fixed it. He apologized profusely for the wait; he wasn't sure if he could give me the grill for that price, but I had been waiting long enough. He gave me the grill at $198, wheeled it out to my car for me, and recruited a cart wrangler to get it loaded into my car.
Victory!
I brought the grill home, surprised Josh (he was super excited!), briefly told him my story, we got the grill out to assemble it, and planned to grill the best burgers ever! Josh opened the box...and the bbq lid had a softball sized dent in it.
M.F.
There is no way we just paid $200 for a dented grill, we needed to exchange it. The last thing I wanted to do was go back to Wal-Mart, but with the deal I got, I knew that if I waited until tomorrow, the staff would change and I would have a very difficult time doing an exchange. So we loaded up the grill, Josh came with me for moral, and heavy lifting support, and off we went.
We talked to Rita, still manning her register, and she told us to find the grill we wanted and take it to Customer Service. Bill was back by the grills again and he reluctantly gave us a cart to go get the grill from our car. We brought it to customer service, Ted saw me walk in, and came up to ask what was wrong. I told him that it was dented and he helped us unload it. Ted took my reciept and kindly told us to go find the one we wanted to exchange it for. Bill helped us look for the one we wanted and realized there weren't any more of them. After a brief discussion with Bill about "What's in a name", where he tried to convince us to just get a different brand, while we explained we didn't want a different brand, he helped us pick one that was very similar to the one we were returning and rang up on his scanner for $258. Back to customer service.
After waiting in line, listening to every employee in earshot complain about something, we made it to the front. The woman at the register, I didn't see her name she will be Lucy, couldn't find the reciept. Lucy paged Ted who explained on the radio that he set it right in front of her. Lucy looked around for a minute or so, then turned to her manager, Helen (not really her name), who found it in her pile of receipts. As it turned out, Helen didn't know what it was so she just put it into her pile. Lucy took the reciept and started the return process. At this point, it must have been Lucy's turn for a break, because another employee (couldn't see her name tag either, she will be Tara), took over the transaction. Tara breezed through the transaction, and told me my new total was $175.
Apparently, the grill that Bill helped us load rang up at $358. For several minutes Tara, Helen, and another employee, Suzie (again, couldn't see a name tag), searched for the grill I was trying to exchange for, and tried to understand why the grill we had rang up as $258 for Bill. Tara decides its time to get her supervisor, which was the right thing to do, and the same CSS/CSM from earlier comes out to help. She gets the story from Tara, and talks about me like I can't hear her, saying things like "I dealt with this earlier", and "she doesn't have the right grill". They discuss it and the conclusion is that they don't know what to do.
I kept it together, but I had had enough. Josh's presence helped me maintain an even keel as I firmly told CSS/CSM "I have been ridiculously patient, this process has taken over an hour, not including the time it took me to drive home, and drive back. I need someone who can assist me, or I need a refund". They paged Ted.
While we were waiting for Ted, Josh pointed out a sweet old lady, clearly someones Grandma, trying to exchange a toaster. The first one she bought wouldn't stay down after she put the bread in it, so she wanted to try this one out before she brought it home. Josh and I watched as the customer service staff refused to let her plug it in, or plug it in for her, over the counter Suzie pointed her towards an outlet along floor. Grandma slowly took the toaster out of the box, bent over, and plugged the toaster in. It didn't stay down, maybe because it didn't have bread? Grandma explained to Suzie, that she didn't want to come back again and exchange it, so Suzie found her some bread to try in the toaster, handed her the entire loaf, and walked away. Grandma opened the container, painfully bent down to put the bread in, and pushed the lever. It didn't stay down. Josh was extremely frustrated for Grandma, and no one was helping her. I turned to Josh told him I'd help her, and walked over. I bent down, looked at the toaster, realized that the knob was set to zero, explained the issue with the toaster to Grandma, and went back to stand with Josh. He overheard someone say something about charging her for the bread, he let Grandma know she should not pay for the bread. Grandma still had to wait about 10 minutes for customer service to complete her exchange.
We were unaware of it, because no one had let us know, but all this time Ted had been looking in the back for a comparable Char-Broil grill for us to exchange. He came to the front with a different grill, this was 4-burners, with an extra side burner and no Infra-Red technology. It's MSRP was $298, would this work? I deferred to Josh, he was happy with it, and Ted made the straight exchange for our brand new grill. Wahoo!
It would have been very easy to lose my temper, and storm out the first time with no grill, and easy the second time to storm out with a refund. But, I'm proud of the way I handled it. Ted was dealing with a frustrated, but patient couple, rather than an irate woman, and I think it paid off for us. We got an amazing deal, a $298 grill for $198. But, all we were really after was the advertised deal, and a reasonable shopping experience.
The customer service wasn't just bad. It was awful. Abysmal. I met nine staff members, and overheard several others, every single one of them, excluding Ted and Wayne, complained about something. None of them, save Ted, Wayne, and Tara were even remotely helpful. On two occasions, I provided better customer service than the people that are paid to provide it.
It had been at least 3 years since I had purchased something at a Wal-Mart, and for good reason. Was it worth it? Sure. Will I ever purchase something at a Wal-Mart again? Not if I can avoid it.
Josh and I pay to store our camper at a home nearby. On our way home from Wal-Mart, the owner called to let us know that one of the other storage-rs hit our camper.
Best. Monday. Ever.
