A Black Friday happy ending!

First off let me say that this thread was NOT created with intent to argue with anyone, and as such I will not respond to any negative argument, statement, or person.

The purpose of this post is to bring closure to the situation that I went through with Wal-Mart and to show people that if they simply stand up to indecency that they will get what is rightfully theirs.




The short story:

Wal-Mart refused to honor a deal that they had on television that stated that they would price match any coupon of any rival store. The advertisement did not specify anything about the other store having said item in stock (I have since saved the advertisement on my PVR and reviewed it to make sure). At the store they stated that the other store must have the item in stock in order to honor the coupon, and they refused to show any written policy to that effect ( was only a verbal policy)

After emailing them (Was going to send a letter to corporate), they called me back to resolve the issue.

Today I received a call from Wal-Mart upper management, and after asking me to finger out the guilty party (manager), they were extremely apologetic. The lady told me that it was NOT in Wal-Mart's policy to not honor a coupon from another store and she confirmed that there was indeed no written regulation either on the site or on their advertisement on television.

She has told me that $40 will be refunded to my Credit Card and in addition that a Wall-Mart gift card (of unknown amount) will be mailed to me for all of the trouble that I went through.

I was satisfied with the response, and the matter has been resolved.

I guess the moral of the story is, don't let a big corporation push you around.... They put up ads and don't specify the rules and regulations and then try to intimidate you or otherwise tell you that you are wrong then simply write to upper management and you probably will get what was entitled to you. Also it won't hurt to search about how to file a small claims case on google (its different for different states).

Way to stick up to Walmart. Always makes me happy when a single person defeats a large corporation, even if it's a small thing.

that is the policy at best buy however. has to be in stock

Walmart is strange enough to toss a million dollars at a ten cent issue. The really silly part is. They try and get away with the tens cents in the first place. Though if they get away with enough ten cent issues. They make a crap load of money.

I work in a service based field and an unfortunate part of the business is that we sometimes accept responsibility for things that aren't our fault and do whatever is needed to fix the problem. I don't really understand or agree with that but it's the nature of the beast.

Most recently a customer dropped off a piece of equipment for repair, we repaired what we could to get the equipment functional again and wrote up an order for the other items that were needed. When the customer came to pickup the equipment she was very adamant that the existing damage was caused by us when the reality is that it was dropped off with that damage already inflicted. She made a huge deal about it and we ended up not only repairing the specific damage, we repaired all damage to it free of charge just to make her go away.

Sometimes it's just easier to appease the customer rather than get into a ****ing contest.

Lian Li said:

Most recently a customer dropped off a piece of equipment for repair, we repaired what we could to get the equipment functional again and wrote up an order for the other items that were needed. When the customer came to pickup the equipment she was very adamant that the existing damage was caused by us when the reality is that it was dropped off with that damage already inflicted. She made a huge deal about it and we ended up not only repairing the specific damage, we repaired all damage to it free of charge just to make her go away.

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Completely different issue than price matching. Though what you mention is very real is actually quite common unfortunately. I bet just about person here who has worked retail can pony up a customer story who claimed it was not their fault. So it must be the companies responsibility to fix it. Yes, to keep the peace and get rid of the loud customer. Just shut them up and get them out the door.

I hear at least an hour every workday from my wife. Of dumb/rude customers trying to pull a fast one. Not everyone is trying to pull a fast one though.

Enablingwolf said:

Completely different issue than price matching. Though what you mention is very real is actually quite common unfortunately. I bet just about person here who has worked retail can pony up a customer story who claimed it was not their fault. So it must be the companies responsibility to fix it. Yes, to keep the peace and get rid of the loud customer. Just shut them up and get them out the door.

I hear at least an hour every workday from my wife. Of dumb/rude customers trying to pull a fast one. Not everyone is trying to pull a fast one though.

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I once worked at a computer repair place, I would sit in the back and do repairs, backups , password recovery.... all sorts of stuff. The owner of the store was absolutely ridiculous and corrupt to the core.

One time, a customer brought in a laptop to have its ram upgraded, I stuck some ram in, screwed it up, then handed it over to the owner who DROPPED IT and broke it (crack down the side of the thing). When the customer came in he claimed that the laptop was like this from the beginning, and there was a loud argument at which point the owner actually hit the customer out of rage. Maybe be hard to believe but I saw it happen.

This guy charged 200 dollars for "hard drive recovery" that involved sticking a hard drive into a working system and copying the files over to a cd. He charged 500% over the normal cost for old hardware (gfx cards) and would tell the customer it was the latest thing.

Needless to say I didn't work for him very long. Its not always the customer's fault, sometimes the management is just.... insane.

blackjackel said:

When the customer came in he claimed that the laptop was like this from the beginning, and there was a loud argument at which point the owner actually hit the customer out of rage.

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How is that guy NOT in jail??

AngryArtichoke said:

How is that guy NOT in jail??

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the owner is sly like a fox and dishonest, wouldn't surprise me if he got all his employees to testify that the customer hit him first.


Oh, I just remembered this one time where he received a call from a local newspaper and i heard him argue that he wasn't going to pay the advertising fees because he didn't get increased business... then I heard him negotiating a lower fee.... the guy was unbelievable.

Anyways, im kinda going off topic here, Ill try not to do that again

good for you! I had some similar experiences with rebate house. Some will send you a $10 check for a $15 rebate, some claim I forget to attach UPC and refuse to pay out while I got copies of original submission showing UPC clearly attached etc. I think these corporate practices are quite common simply because most consumers don't pursue their rights.

Lian Li said:

I work in a service based field and an unfortunate part of the business is that we sometimes accept responsibility for things that aren't our fault and do whatever is needed to fix the problem. I don't really understand or agree with that but it's the nature of the beast.

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What about the things that are "your" fault that you *don't* accept responsibility for?

...those are the ones that wind up in court.

I can't be the only one who was unsure but was possibly expecting something different from the thread title.

I'm amazed that you went to Wal-Mart on Black Friday. I always leave there ****ed off when I go on a regular day! I can't imagine what the experience would be like on BF.

Way to advocate, though. Good on them for honoring the deal, too. I can only imagine what it was like going through the Bentonville, AR customer service levels.

cursor said:

I'm amazed that you went to Wal-Mart on Black Friday. I always leave there ****ed off when I go on a regular day! I can't imagine what the experience would be like on BF.

Way to advocate, though. Good on them for honoring the deal, too. I can only imagine what it was like going through the Bentonville, AR customer service levels.

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I went to Walmart on BF, I only needed 6 things to finish my list (3 child Hoodies and 3 pairs of kids slippers), took me all most an hour to push my way around all the people in clothing. Then I'm standing in line for 20+ minutes with carts in front of me and behind me stuffed full of stuff and all I had was these few items, lol. Almost wasn't worth it, but I saved $30 just on that stuff so.....

Glad to hear you got something out of Wal-Mart, can't tell you how many times I've been in there and they either won't honor an ad because they can't verify the model is the EXACT same. One time they even had stuff out on the floor that was suppose to be for the BF sale, but this was at the beginning of November, and they wouldn't sale it to me cause it shouldn't have been out on the floor in the first place. After having 2 different managers called and making a scene they finally agreed to sell it to me.

I shop there cause they are usually the cheapest place in town, but around this time of the year, you can't make a quick trip to that store.

defiant79 said:

I went to Walmart on BF, I only needed 6 things to finish my list (3 child Hoodies and 3 pairs of kids slippers), took me all most an hour to push my way around all the people in clothing. Then I'm standing in line for 20+ minutes with carts in front of me and behind me stuffed full of stuff and all I had was these few items, lol. Almost wasn't worth it, but I saved $30 just on that stuff so.....

Glad to hear you got something out of Wal-Mart, can't tell you how many times I've been in there and they either won't honor an ad because they can't verify the model is the EXACT same. One time they even had stuff out on the floor that was suppose to be for the BF sale, but this was at the beginning of November, and they wouldn't sale it to me cause it shouldn't have been out on the floor in the first place. After having 2 different managers called and making a scene they finally agreed to sell it to me.

I shop there cause they are usually the cheapest place in town, but around this time of the year, you can't make a quick trip to that store.

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Only suckers go to Wallmart from BF forward. It's rare I go there at all. They just happened to have the cheapest price for pet carriers on earth (I got one for my cat for 15 bucks... a medium).

All my BF shopping I do in Target... it's a DREAM LAND. Short lines... courteous sales people. A whole army of them running around helping you find what you need... BRINGING it to you. And I have NEVER witnessed an item that was advertised not being in stock.

i know this is off topic but i work for kroger and have been working nights for a little while and i can say that if a customer does not want to go through self checkout i open a register or if they get mad and make a scene about an item that was priced wrong i give it to them for free, just so they dont yell, get mad or make a scene and way to get something from walmart!!!!

rainless said:

Only suckers go to Wallmart from BF forward. It's rare I go there at all. They just happened to have the cheapest price for pet carriers on earth (I got one for my cat for 15 bucks... a medium).

All my BF shopping I do in Target... it's a DREAM LAND. Short lines... courteous sales people. A whole army of them running around helping you find what you need... BRINGING it to you. And I have NEVER witnessed an item that was advertised not being in stock.

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I wish I had that option. I'd have to drive almost 40 minutes to go elsewhere. The only other stores in town are Krogers, Community Market, and a couple of Dollar Generals, but they are usually higher than walmart and making a trip to different stores will take just as long as going to walmart so.....

while i don't completely agree with how or why the original matter occured, i'm glad corporate took your side to help you out.

i've had to write a few letters to corporate headquarters. sometimes, it can be very powerful. sometimes, they just don't care:
1. applebees. they messed up my carside-to-go order. my wife called them saying that i was on my way back to pick up what they forgot. they left me waiting outside for atleast 15 minutes and ignored me inside for another 20. got a $25 GC for that one.
2. statefarm. got locked out of my house but could have gotten into it with the garage door opener that was locked in my car. tried to use emergency roadside service to have them come pop my lock. they ended up denying my "claim" for the service since my keys weren't in the car. i had to pay for a tow truck to come open my car. after a complaint to corporate, i got refunded the $80ish for the unlock.
3. bestbuy. i had a laptop (under best buy's warranty) that continued to break. they missed lots of ECDs for return to me and every time it came to the store, they never called to tell me. to claim the no-lemon policy on best buy's warranty, it needs to require four repairs with three of them requiring parts. this fourth time happened just after the warranty period ended. they fixed it as a redo to a previous service but would not let me claim no-lemon. i argued via phone customer service that they should extend the warranty period due to all the time that i was not in posession of it (at least 2 months) or replace the computer. they told me you're SOL. i wrote a 2.5 page letter to corporate and they brushed me off too. no happy ending to that story.

Since this is really a vendor discussion, I moved it to, uh, Vendor Discussion.