A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

walmart

If you deal with customers, at least put on a happy front

Customer service sure seems to have taken a step back at times.

Not always, mind you, but at times.

Allow me to share a recent tale of woe for you to enjoy.

First, when I shop – I look for the lowest price. Though I like to shop “local” when possible, it doesn’t always make sense, such as my recent search for an iPad mini.

I’ve wanted one of these for a while. Though I have a work iPad, I wanted one that was mine and I could do with what I want. The mini is better in regard to size, so I kept watching. It needed to get to a certain price before I would consider it.

And I didn’t need the latest and greatest version. The iPad Mini 2 was just fine (to me, there really wasn’t that big of a difference between that one and the 4, well for me anyway), so that’s what I set my sights on.

In the past few days, Walmart had it listed for $199. That’s some $50-60 lower than many others. And it seems like Apple (just based on a few things I read) might be trying to phase that one out, which is fine with me if I can snag a deal.

Enter Walmart.

So, with it set at $199, I finally decide to pull the trigger. I place the order online knowing I could pick the item up after work.

I never receive a pick up e-mail, despite the website saying it would be available to pick up by 12:06 p.m.

So after work, I head to Walmart. I have the printout in hand and to the pickup area I go.

I’m not in the system. Not by name. Not by order number. Nothing. The guy can’t help me, it seems. He can’t answer questions. But he does tell me that I wouldn’t be charged until I picked it up or something.

I decide to go out to electronics. Maybe they don’t have the iPad in stock as Walmart’s website thought? I speak with a person out on the floor who checks and the store definitely has it and the price is $199.

Why the hell did I even bother ordering online?

My next step is to go online and cancel the order. It then shows the request is going through and they will cancel if nothing has gone through yet, otherwise they’ll tell me when it ships (in which case it will be an immediate return and put the funds back on my card).

Then I head out to my car for some privacy and to call Walmart.com’s customer care.

I get a lady and explain my situation. She then informs me that I’ve put in a request to cancel.

Gee, really?

I once again explain the situation, this time adding if it could be pushed through, I wouldn’t need to cancel and I’d be more than happy to let it go through.

Well, you see, I’ve put a cancelation request in, so the best bet is to wait 48 hours and then call back. Or something along those lines.

Seriously.

I then ask what the issue is and wonder why the heck it’s still processing (well, now being canceled) if it told me it would be ready by 12:06 p.m. and it’s now after 5?

She responds I’d have to ask billing that because it’s not her department. She then asks to put me on hold to see if there’s anything else she can do. Usually, that’s a good sign in my experiences.

Nope.

She comes back to tell me the same stuff she had already told me once before and mentioned the 48 hours again etc. At this point I want to ask about if I’ve been charged. If not, I’ll just go buy the one in store and ignore the website all together. She again said it’s not her department and I follow up asking if I could speak with billing.

Not happening.

Turns out they can’t transfer me to speak with billing (she did tell me earlier it was something I’d have to speak with billing about), but that I should speak with my card holder to see what the holdup is.

So wait – is it my card or Walmart holding it up? Now she’s got another side that she won’t elaborate on.

At this point, I do something I never do – I hung up on her.

See, I realize it’s not her fault. I know there are protocols that need to be followed. I know there are things she can and can’t do. But I also know that if you are in customer care, you should treat the customer a tad better. I thought from the beginning she didn’t care and was just like “Whatever.”

So I hung up.

I went back inside and bought the iPad in there. But my plight wasn’t over. The person I originally talked to was helping somebody else. So somebody else helped me. I tell her what I want – exactly – and she goes to the back to get it. After two trips to the back, she comes out with two iPad minis – the 2 and the 3 (which Apple doesn’t even carry anymore on its website). She tells me the 3 is only $30 more.

I didn’t want the 3, I said. I like the $199 deal, which drew a look of total confusion.

So she attempted to up sale me, I rebuffed, and I got the confused look, a roll of the eyes and a total lack of interest.

So she rang it up and it comes up $269.

I said… um, it’s $199. The guy scanned it before and it showed $199. Now, I’m not sure if she did something or if the rescan got it, but it was eventually $199. Then I rebuffed the “added warranty” coverage and all that.

Needless to say, she didn’t seem thrilled to be helping anybody.

The end result was me walking out with the item I wanted for the price I intended on paying. But the whole experience to get it was maddening. I guess, in the end, it gives me a blog post I can schedule.

I just don’t understand sometimes.

As I said, I’m not one of those people who will boycott a place because of things like this, though I likely won’t be trying the online setup there anytime soon. I will always shop around and look for the best price (and if anybody else was even close to this iPad price that I had seen, I would have gone elsewhere), because it doesn’t make sense to pay an additional 50-75 bucks to “prove a point.”

It’s probably why the big-box stores can act like this at times. People will keep shopping there because the prices are usually what people are seeking.

In all reality, though, this doesn’t shock me. I did get a questionnaire to fill out about my “experience” and I was less than positive in my remarks, though the odds are it means nothing.

This whole situation has nothing to do with the product in question as I’m happy with it, but with the service. If you are going to work in a customer-based business, make sure you can fit the role well. We all have bad days. But when you deal with people on a regular basis, make sure you can be cheery and helpful; else you aren’t doing what you are hired to do.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Really?

‘Tis been a while since I’ve done a post of my “Really?” feature, so now is as good of a time as any, I imagine.

Let’s start in California.

I’m sure everybody knows what 911 is for. If there’s an emergency or something along those lines, dial 911 and get connected to the proper authorities, right? Simple enough.

Apparently, it’s for more than that to one fella.

This dude Jimmy was arrested because he placed more than 100 calls to 911 — in one month!

See, turns out the government is controlling his mind and body, via satellites or some crazy story like that!

Jimmy even keeps a notebook with all the calls he makes to 911!

How nuts is Jimmy? This is what he told CBS Sacramento:

“My brain, I can feel it starting. I’m blasted by the signals, every couple of minutes. I yell and I scream, ‘Stop it, I don’t need this,’ but they never listen.”

Does anyone else think it might be worth somebody throwing Jimmy into a padded room?

Though this was months ago, it makes one wonder if Jimmy kept it up. He told CBS Sacramento he’d keep it up if need be.

He’s probably been fine the last week or so, though. You have to figure with this government shutdown, the people monitoring Jimmy are currently out of work.

****

Look, if you want to go to a strip club, do it.

But leave the kids at home.

Turns out this dude in Florida needed his fix so bad, he decided to bring a friend and his kid — a 3-year old — along. But he was leaving his kid and friend in the truck. You know, to be responsible and make sure the kid is doing OK.

However, somebody who is thinking about going to a strip club when he is watching his kid — at 1 a.m. nonetheless — probably doesn’t have the greatest taste in friends.

See, it turns out the friend couldn’t resist the urge of nekked chicks on stage, either!

In he went.

Where did that leave our little 3-year old? In the truck, of course.

Apparently this little one was left alone for 30 minutes or so when an employee (maybe one of the strippers?) saw the kid alone in the car and called the cops.

Our hero, Jordan, tried to pin it on his friend. The cops didn’t buy it all and Jordan was cuffed and stuffed.

You can’t make this stuff up, folks.

But it gets a tad bit better. According to the Huffington Post story, which is linked above, this isn’t the first time this has happened in Florida. The report lists seven others — including a former NFL player, as well as an actual stripper — who left their kids unattended to visit (or work) in a strip club.

Yes, folks, this is ‘Merica.

****

I’m not against Walmart in any shape or form. I know a lot of people are, but I’m not. The company employs many people and offers things at a cheaper rate than many. Personal thoughts aside, this next one makes me shake my head.

A Virginia man went to the retail giant to cash a check, and he brought his three young daughters along.

No biggie, right?

Apparently not in Woodbridge, Virginia, according to a report by MyFoxDC.com.

See, Joseph is in an interracial marriage — for 10 years. His daughters are all age four or under, including 2-year-old twins. In the parking lot, he was on the phone while he made sure the daughters were buckled in. This is where it got a little crazy.

After picking up his wife, he headed home. An innocent day, right? Not so much.

When they got home, a cop was waiting. Turns out Walmart security called the police to make sure the kids were indeed Joseph’s.

Seriously. This is 2013, right?

The cop then looked at their IDs and asked the 4-year-old child to point out who her mother and father were.

As often noted in these posts — you can’t make this stuff up, folks.

Apparently a Walmart security guard thought it was odd, this guy and some interracial kids. We didn’t just warp back to the 50s and 60s, did we?

The wife then called Warmart, understandably so. After speaking with a manager, she was transferred to some security guy, who passed the buck off by saying a customer raised the flag.

The wife told MyFoxDC.com this piece to really think about:

“Well, the customer was concerned because they saw the children with your husband and he didn’t think that they fit. And I said, ‘What do you mean by they don’t fit?’ And I was trying to get her to say it. And she says, ‘Well, they just don’t match up.’”

They don’t match up? Sheesh.

Walmart said it was looking into the situation. The couple said they’ll never shop at Walmart again. Who can blame them?

Hopefully this incident is isolated, but you never can tell in this day and age.

****

This one is fantastic.

We live in a blue-ribbon society. As a sportswriter and a fan of sports, this drives me up a wall.

Let’s get real for a second — when it comes to sports, you win or you lose. Bottom line. I learned at a young age what both were like. But, playing on some bad teams in high school really made you learn what losing was like.

And how to do it right.

When we lost, we lost. My parents — or parents of my friends and teammates — didn’t go up in arms because we lost. They didn’t try and sugarcoat it. It was reality. It happens.

Not these days. See, with so many youth leagues and everything else, everybody seems to get trophies or ribbons.

You finished seventh? Here’s a ribbon. You were last? Here’s a participation trophy.

Blue-ribbon society. And it’s downright ridiculous. Many parents don’t think their kids can do wrong (believe me, many parents think their kids will be the next Michael Jordan, despite the fact they are the 15th kid off the bench, can’t dribble without falling over and haven’t made a basket in their entire life) and then leagues and such get spooked to try and make it so kids don’t have to fully deal with the reality of wins and losses.

Take, for example, this California youth football league.

This league fines — yes fines — teams if they win by more than 35 points.

I once did some freelance work and covered a Pop Warner football game where the one team won like 50-0 and held the opposing team to negative 25 (or something like that) of total yards. There were no issues there. Kids dealt with it as reality.

Not so in this league, apparently.

So it costs a team $200 if they win by this big margin. Not only that, the coaches on the team will be suspended from league activities for two weeks!

Now you have teams doing things different to avoid the fines, like not kicking extra points and field goals.

This is society today, folks.

I’m glad I didn’t get trophies for just being a participant. And I’m also happy I took my lumps as a kid. It made it so I appreciated winning much more and it has helped me realize winning and losing goes way beyond sports — it’s reality in every part of life.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!