Comments on: Reader response: Wal-Mart frustration

Our readers write on Wal-Mart frustration

[exrob]

Crazy

Having worked at a major technology superstore on the grand opening of the store, we had people lined up for an entire plaza (equivalent of about 5-7 street blocks) and a radio station was there as well as other reps from T-Mobile, etc...

And the mad rush that ensued was overwhelming, didn't quite have the people being shoved and stepped on but this Wal-Mart debacle doesn't surprise me.

I think its ridiculous people have no common courtesy or respect, and I question what Wal-Mart was thinking by not having appropriate security or police presence on a black friday for a sale that had leaked their special sales weeks in advance to major media outlets such as CNET...

[markygam]

dell.com had the $400 notebook that weekend...

I am not a dell guy but I went to check their web site that weekend to see what they had done for black Friday this year. They had a $399 laptop! No waiting on the line and such. Besides it came with a widescreen LCD. Maybe they would run it again soon sometime before the last rush of Xmas.

[james.grimes]

Just try....

Just try working there. Try having to be one of two cartpushers at a Wal-Mart at 0430AM and pulling a full shift--until 1230PM that day.

[val31]

WHAT DOES CHRISTMAS MEAN?

rECENTLY IT SEEMS THAT EVERYBODY HAS FORGOTTEN WHAT CHRISTMAS IS. cHRISTMAS IS TO CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF JESUS AND TO BE WITH YOUR FAMILY. THE STORES ARE JUST THE SAME. wAL-MART IS A BIG STORE AND THEY REALLY DONT NEED TO HAVE SALES ADVERTISED LIKE THEY DO FOR THE DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING. iTHINK THAT NEXT YEAR THE STORES NEEDS TO GIVE SPEACIAL SALES PAPERS TO THEIR CUSTOMERS A FEDW DAYS BEFORE AND MAYBE THAT WILL STOP THE MADNESS.

Wallmart

Wallmart treats its' employees like dirt, its' manufacturing people like slave labor, why would anyone expect them to treat customers with respect?

[Stating]

Bait And Switch

The media was all over these stories of laptops for $199, big screen TVs for $19.95, etc. But how many people did you see actually leaving the stores with these deals? Come on people, wise up. These were "come on" deals. Stores only got 10 - 20 allocations of each unit. They conveniently "leaked" the deals beforehand to get the shills to line up at 3AM. Then these people were surprised when the stores ran out? Car dealers have been doing this trick for years, advertising a sale on a particular model. But when you read the fine print you see that the sale only applies to 1 or 2 VIN #s.

[rpms]

Try Staples next year...easier

I've been "doing" Black Friday for three years now. It's the
American equivalent of Boxing Day, which I enjoyed during my
youth in Canada.

Staples seems to have the easiest Black Friday sale. At my local
Staples store, a staff member came outside and distributed
tickets for the laptops. I believe people who lined up just a few
minutes before store opening at 6 AM could still get laptops.

Given that the laptop deals were similar ($380 to $400 at Wal-
Mart, $440 at Staples), why would anyone pick a general retailer
like Wal-Mart over a more specialized one like Staples? What
were people thinking, especiallly after they had seen national
news coverage, right before Black Friday, of an incident during
the X-Box sale at a Wal-Mart store? Link: http://www.cnn.com/
2005/US/11/23/xbox.scuffle.ap/

And why take bargain-hunting so seriously? It's supposed to be
fun. Bring a Thermos of coffee and a good paperback. Chat with
your neighbor in line. If you find something worth buying once
you get inside the store, great! If not, there will always be other
opportunities for you to spend money.

Paul Marcelin-Sampson
Santa Cruz, California, USA

[andyengle]

Charlie's rant

It's not Wal-Mart's responsibility to make sure their employees all make 50 grand a year. If the people want to make more money, they should go to work elsewhere. Nobody is forcing them to work there.

As for the "slave" labor, isn't it the manufacturers who hire the people, and it's Wal-Mart who buys their stuff? What does Wal-Mart have to do with slave labor?! Last I checked, slavery was done away with in this country!

[zavias]

Buying "new" items

Another Walmart Frustration....

I went in to buy a "new" humidifier for my house and picked out one that looked fairly good for the price. After waiting in line for nearly an hour at the checkout because they only had 4 tills open for hundreds of customers in line, I finally got out and escaped the madness. After returning home and opening my new humidifier, I noticed that there was no plastic wrapping on it, and there was still water in it!! Obviously, it was returned before and they just stuck it on the shelf again. This kinda pissed me off a little bit, but I thought "Oh well, someone probably just returned it and they put it back on the shelf." After trying to use it for a day, it was apparant that it did not work at all. This made me a little mad. I went back to Walmart, waited in the customer service line for another half hour to return it, complained to them about even having to return this item because it was a waste of my time. After returning the humidifier, I went to the shelf to get another one of the same brand. This time I opened the box and checked it out, and to my surprise it was previously used again!!! I thought that one was just a mistake, but having two the same on the shelf is just laziness and incompetance by the store. I went back to customer service, not waiting in line this time, and asked to speak to a manager. They said "I don't think its a good time to speak to the manager, because its very busy." I said, "You better call a manager over here before I make a scene and tell all of these customers how incompetent all of the employees of this store are." She immediately was on the phone to call someone. After waiting for FIFTEEN minutes, a manager came over to talk with me. He said, "What seems to be the problem?" I explained the situation and my frustration, and he simply said, "Oh, it must have been a mixup with returned items." I asked if there was anything he could offer to compensate me for their incompetance and wasting hours of my time and money, and he simply said, "I can't offer you anything." Not even an apology... I told him that I would report him to the BBB, but he kinda just chuckled at that remark and blew it off. I walked out frustrated and without a humidifier. Obviously Walmart doesn't care about their customers in the least bit.

[intent]

Wal Mart Response...

While no it is not Wal Mart's responsibility to make sure their employees make 50 grand a year it is their responsibility to treat their employees with respect (which they do NOT do as a company) Wal Mart when signing on for the company rants how family comes first when in the end they could care less about family yours mine or anyones what they care about is the bottom line buck.
They could care less if one gets sold to each customer or 10 as long as it gets sold. Sadly to say the way that Wal Mart has treated their employees in the past the future is not going to be great for the quality of customer service that is going to be available. It used to be that if you asked a Wal Mart employee where something was they would take you to that item no matter where it was in the store now it seems that policy is gone and they just say 2 isles down or across the store and expect you to find it yourself. Wal mart gets what they pay for and what they treat their employees like. Treat someone with no respect and they won't go that extra mile for your
customers.
Onto speciality stores where I find better treatment and if I look I can still find good prices for me.