The Consumer Complaints Blog

Fighting the trained monkey in modern society.

June 15, 2010

Walmart

Filed under: Retail — Editor @ 11:02 am


To
President and CEO David Cheesewright
Wal-Mart Canada Corp. 1940 Argentia Rd. Mississauga,
Ontario L5N 1P9. Fax: 905-821-6393
AND
Michael T. Duke, President and Chief Executive Officer,
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
And
H. Lee Scott, Jr., Chairman of the Executive Committee of
the Board of Directors of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc
And
S. Robson Walton, Chairman of the Board of Directors

Corporate Mailing Address, Walmart Home Office
702 Southwest 8th Street. Bentonville, AR 72716. USA
+1-479-2734053 (Fax)

[delivered via fax and postal-mail and email to the ONLY emails provided through your websites and web presences]

Dear Sir,

1) We are writing to express our shock and disappointment at the demonstrated attitude of your staff at Wal-Mart #3037, located at 665 Upper James Street, Hamilton, Ontario L9C 2Z5, near Fennell and Upper James in the Hamilton Mountain Plaza.

2) What is the Wal-Mart PRACTICAL AND TANGIBLE refund policy?

What is the PRACTICAL AND TANGIBLE customer service standard, and attitude and professional accountability of staff who wear a logo on their uniform: “Our people make a difference”?

3) We were shopping on 04June2010 for an audio recording device in the “Electronics” section, and requested the female employee for assistance.

3) She had her name-tag turned “reverse side up” [and later refused to provide her name too] She was NOT wearing any blue-colored Wal-mart apron/ uniform.

Description-wise, she was young, Caucasian-white, wearing a pink-top, approximately shoulder-long blond-haired, female, whose possible name [we are told by another employee] was “Amy”.

4) She heard us and chose to continue ignoring us standing there for over 10 minutes, while she was busy chatting with friends about her PERSONAL weekend-party plans, a matter that most certainly has NOTHING to do with “work”.

Thereafter, while we were still explaining what we were looking for, she began interrupting and NOT even answering the question that was
being asked of her.

5) We politely requested her to stop interrupting and listen to the question before answering.

She walked away angrily YELLING at us: “FUCK OFF” and “Get the hell out of MY store NOW!”.

This AMY was consistent in her obnoxious manner, rude tone and tenor of voice.

In response to our polite requests for it, she refused to provide her name, and also refused to get a supervisor or store-manager for us.

6) We asked another store employee for the store-manager.

After waiting for over 15 minutes, along came a young, Caucasian-white, clean-shaven, male, wearing an ear-ring, and a name-tag that stated, “Tony, assistant manager”.

7) While we were voicing our complaint to him, he began interrupting us, acting as a defence-attorney for this “Amy”, and refused to hear our complaint.

Thereafter, he started arguing needlessly, yelling at us in front of all customers.

He also refused to provide us the contact information for the head-office.

He stated that he is the person “in-charge”. Later another employee told us that he was NOT the person in-charge at that time.

8)Furthermore, he FALSELY and INCORRECTLY informed us that once purchased, we CANNOT return any electronics item, for ANY reason whatsoever.

9) We went to the “Customer Service” desk, and found a female [once again, displaying NO name-tag whatsoever, who told us that her name was Kristen]. Description-wise, she was a young, Caucasian-white female.

We asked her the “return policy” for an electronics item, such as an audio-recorder device. She pointed to the posted notice [which we also later saw on the back of a Wal-Mart receipt, that clearly stated: “14 days with receipt on computers ….”, “30 days with receipt on .. Dvd players/ recorders, home audio systems ….”.

9) Why did this “assistant manager Tony” FALSELY AND INCORRECTLY inform us otherwise?

Evidently, either he does NOT know it or he CHOSE to purposely misinform us. In either case, how did he even get the job of an assistant manager? Is he fit to be an assistant manager for Wal-Mart?

10) On 04June2010, we called the store manager Donna Cardinal at her publicly-posted phone number [in the store] of (905)389-6333, extension 312.

She has NO voice-mail. We spoke to a Ms. Brenda at extension 311, and left a complaint message for Ms. Cardinal, requesting her to call back.

We got NO return-call-back from Ms. Cardinal.

11) On 04June2010, we left a detailed complaint voice-mail message for the district manger Mr. Ted Wynhofen at his publicly-posted phone number [in the store] of (519) 759-5218 requesting him to call back.

We got NO return-call-back from Mr, Wynhofen either.

12) On 10June2010, we called (800)328-0402 and spoke to a Ms. Faiza, after waiting for over 15 minutes in queue [for the “next available operator/ representative”].

It was extremely difficult to understand Ms. Faiza’s thick accent. Furthermore, she was repeatedly interrupting while we attempted to give her the complaint. When we politely requested her to stop interrupting, she became verbally abusive. We asked to be connected to a supervisor.

She disconnected the call and hung up on us.

She certainly demonstrated a very difficult manner with us.

13) It is very likely that we are a small sampling of the entire customer population that shops at your store. Chances are that if this transpired with us, it may very well have occurred with other customers too. And several customers may well CHOOSE to shop elsewhere [including at better customer-service competitors, and NOT provide you this opportunity to address the problem and thus improve your operations.

As you may also be aware, the best advertisement any business carries is by word of mouth [irrespective of the amount of dollars you may spend on costly advertising].

Guess what we have to tell people that we know about Wal-Mart?

14) We are indeed shocked and disappointed at the poor quality and bad attitude of your staff.

You staff were Verbally-abusive and refused to listen and misinformed public.

15) Now refer to http://www.sse.gov.on.ca/mcs/en/Pages/Your_Consumer_Rights.aspx for “basic rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2002”. As stated therein: “

You are entitled to a cooling off period.
Let’s say you make a purchase or sign a contract in your home and then change your mind. If the deal is worth more than $50, you have the right to cancel within 10 days. It’s best to cancel by registered mail or fax to get your money back.

Remedies must be timely.
When you take advantage of your 10-day cooling off period and notify the company (preferably in writing) that you have changed your mind, the company has 15 days to return your money. The business has the right to take back the goods provided under the agreement by either picking them up or paying for the cost of sending them back.

Anyone who violates the Consumer Protection Act, 2002 will have to pay.
Individuals violating certain sections of the act are liable to a fine of up to $50,000 or imprisonment of up to two years less one day. A corporation can be fined up to $250,000.”

16) Now, refer to the following websites. It evidences the MULTIPLE complaints against your store. Do you think you should do something about this matter?

(list of sites and other complaints follow)


Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

20 Responses to “Walmart”

  1. Sarah Says:

    I can just imagine that ole Sam Walton is turning over in his grave with the direction his company has taken since he sold out. At the La Crosse, WI, store all the Great Value Seasoned Fries have holes in the bags. The store manager claimed the holes in the bag were necessary so the fries could breath thus preventing ice build-up. I purposely purchased a bag of these GV Fries to send to the home office in Bentonville, AR. The home office responded that the holes in the bag are necessary to prevent the bag from exploding during transport. What a crock of bologna! Needless to say, my Walmart shopping days have ended with the response from the home office.

  2. Doug MacBean Says:

    Upon visiting the Walmart web site, to lodge a complaint, I realized there is no possible way, to send them an email. Nothing, na-da. It seems they have figured out, how to deal with complainers….
    :O

  3. Doug MacBean Says:

    Undeliverable e-mail, to Walmart…(they don’t do e-mail)

    Upon purchasing two photo print books, yesterday, at your Stoney Creek store, I discovered my prints were much smaller than your advertised web size.
    Your ad stipulates the public can get photo prints at 4×6” in a self-contained hard cover album for 10.00.
    After paying for my books, I discovered my photos had a maximum size, no larger than 3 inches by 4 inches. That is not the inferred size of 4 inches by 6 inches, which is substantial, in the world of photography.
    When companies advertise photo prints, they stipulate the size as 4 x 6”, and that is what the public expects and gets. This may be a minor marketing glitch for Walmart, but I am not impressed, at all.

    store code: 3096

  4. Melissa Says:

    Received rude service at Norwalk CT Walmart. Store # 2954. 3/6/11
    I was there to return a merchandise on a rainy Sunday evening, so the store was not busy at all. Waited for my turn while another customer was being helped. When it was my turn, the employee (Norma) doing returns just completely ignored me and started to walk around the checkout area and talking to other employees. Completely ignored me. When she came back I asked her what is going on and she rudely told me that I was not standing at the right spot and just refused to serve me. I was not informed I was supposed to be in that spot while i was waiting for my turn and the sign that says “the line starts here” was on the bulletin board on the wall and not visible at all unless you are reading all the posted info on he wall. I know she saw me because she looked at me. She could have asked me politely to wait on that spot or say she”s closed and apologized for ignoring me instead of having an attitude on top of it all when I spoke to her about it when she came back. Like I said the store was not busy. There was only another customer there at the return desk aside from myself. I tried sending an email to the Walmart/feedback website and realized I could not. It kept cutting me off after a few hundred words. I tried a few times and was not successful. I know Walmart has low prices but it’s not worth going there to get all this treatment. There are other stores out there.

  5. joinny Says:

    i went to a appointment,and yes i was early i hade to go to a court appointment .Iask if i could get in a few miniutes early,it was o.k. so i spent 2hrs in the store to wait for a call,it never came so i went back to the optical tepartmenent and got on aditude.I garantee i never will do buisness with a wallmart store again and i will tell any law man dont go there. This penticton stores sucks.Jonny!!!

  6. anonymous Says:

    You can contact the ethics department of Wal-mart Canada at 1-800-963-8442 or by e-mail at [email protected].

    You can obtain information for other countries as well in the ethical contact listings on their corporate web-site.

    The best strategy is to avoid shopping at Wal-mart if you have any choice.

  7. Zac Says:

    Well I guest wall mart staff cannot do better , this is their level and this is what they have as social skills ,,, Rudeness ,,,
    I went to wall mart at Square one – Electronics Section. And like every one else here I was ignored,one of the guys ( Chinese) was too busy in a conversation with another employee , and when I asked him a question about some product he was toooo tired to answer me and sooo slow… This is WALL MART ,

  8. Catherine Says:

    Wal mart has been in my area for approx 16 years. it is a very busy store due to it’s proximity of transit, students and households. The washrooms are filthy, the staff are not attentive and rude. The neighbourhood is quite diversive…all classes. I have 2 stories to speak of….firstly, Over the 10 years this store has been here…the line ups are crazy…out of 24 cashes only 4 open often….I happened to go in to buy items one day last fall mid afternoon….there were suits and name badges everywhere..it was clear the suits had come in to do an audit…every department had a manager walking beside a man in a suit (clearly a home office individual)…guess what…every single cash was open that day!! If you have the staff to open all cashes when the big bosses are there than why do you not have them on a regular basis?

  9. John Says:

    Dryden selling dates from Iran! With all the places that sell dates why buy from a country that is under current leadership

  10. Chelsa Says:

    Decided for christmas i woyld print up a bunch of pictures and make a photo book for gifts. I purchased them online and when i picked them up i checked the prints. I was missing one. Today, almost three months later i got a call from an igmorant lady at the NIAGARA FALLS PHOTO lab telling me that i neglected to pick up my photos so they are going to charge me double? no no, they neglected to pack them with my stuff nd give them to me, and they have already been paid for. what a crock of crap. so done with walmart. this incident was the last time i deal with tht companies headache

  11. Tracy Manley Says:

    I am sick of the false advertising that is done. I was on the computer and 3 times now it has come up that I am a winner of a $1000 dollar gift card for Wal-mart. I followed the instructions and when I got to the last part it expected me to buy two things in order to get the gift card. Now for people like me we could really use that. And when it says you have won, we should have to buy something in order to recieve it, that we can’t afford. I think that is hurtful and unethical. We love Wal-mart and now I don’t know if I can give you my service after that. I think it is fair that I get something out of all this shit.

  12. James Mendez Says:

    I was at the Walmart store in Oakville to replace a battery for a seiko watch. I was there on Feb 22, 2012 at 1:15pm. There was no associate at the jewelery section. Page through walk by associate at 1:25pm. No respond. Page again through another walk by associate at 1:30pm. Still no response. Manager saw me at the jewellery store long enogh and page again.
    At 1:40pm, associate came by, looked at my watch and asked me where I got the watch from. I said, not from this store. And she said she cannot fix it but she did not even open the watch. I told here I waited twenty minutes to hear this from her?
    Bad Custumer Service. It would have been a different scenerio I was to purchase a watch….

  13. Sean Bawden Says:

    I purchased a small microwave Danby DMW799W. It was purchased from the location above. I got it home and went to set it up and was appauled by how filthy dirty the microwave was inside and out! It had been repackaged and taped, upon looking inside you could not only smell but see stains inside of the microwave. This is completely unacceptable, who knows how long the food splatter has been in there. Regardless of the price $48.00 or $480.00 this is discusting. I could put it back in the box and return it but why should I have to go out of my way to return something that I bought brand new from Walmart?? Then called manager of Argle Mall in London Ontario. He called my wife a lier and refused to exchange the item.

  14. Sean Bawden Says:

    The person at the Argle location in London, Ontario his name is Mehdi..Totally rediculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  15. marie Says:

    i would suggest that people should be aware of the price that walmart goes to keeping abnoxious managers who have no respect for customers or their staff..as former walmart employee i have seen and heard almost everything..i would suggest that people not shop there till they start respecting the good workers they do have..bottom line is their stock brokers and every one else is expendable..

  16. Ottawa Says:

    Was on hold a total of 35 minutes JUST trying to find out if they sold a particular item. Then on hold another 18 min. 23 seconds to wait for a manager to help me and complain about rude and horribe service. I never did find out if they sold the item as nobody ever took my call. While I was on hold, I called Cnd Tire and two other competitive stores. 2 out of 3 had the product I was looking for. Cnd Tire even told me which isle I can find it in! Now THAT is customer service.

    Walmart = American
    Canadian Tire = CANADIAN

    Walmarts customer service is horrible! I will NEVER shop there again. No wonder they are worried about Target coming to Canada. Rude and incompetent staff! And of course…nowhere to send a complaint to Walmart! Walmart can kiss my Canadian ass!

  17. Dee Says:

    FIRST of ALL… maybe associates wouldn’t be they way they IF there wasn’t such PIGS and inconsiderate asses that shop there.. Customers act like they are shopping on Rodeo Dr… dropping things on the floor and not picking it up, knocking things over, leaving your garbage all over the store (you never seen a trash can before?) IT’S walmart PEOPLE.. You want respect.. SHOW RESPECT!!! I was sucha people person UNTIL I got into retail… man oh man do I hate people now. You yell or talk down to an associate you think they will be nice to you… hahahahah HELL NO!

  18. Hilda Holmes Says:

    went to buy micro plush blanket and cat food. when i got to cashier had my visa out.Cashier was going threw the blanket when i looked at her said looking for a rip.Beside make me feel like i was stealing i could be lied to.50+ and never has any other store made me feel this way. Did i feel welcome to shop hell no! last time

  19. James chapkis Says:

    I bought a Green dot Money card for my wifes’ birthday this past March 16th at around 5:30 am here in Las Vegas at a store located on fort Apache, Manages name is Ron Smoot. By the time I arrived home and gave the gift card to my wife it had already been drained with both Green dot and Walmart refusing to give a refund, telling me the card says no refunds. I will get over the loss of 80 dollars but walmart or Green dot or paypal will never see a dime of my money ever again. They both are very aware about the fraud taking place with the cards they are selling as it is posted all over the FBI’s website and elsewhere. They just don’t care in my opinion, Just too big to care.
    thank you for this forum, it is appreciated, now to find 500 more places to complain about walmart and green dot, avoid like the plague!!

  20. noreen Says:

    ON AUGUST 18,2014, I WENT TO WALMART CANADA LOCATED AT
    HWY 7 AND JANE STREET CONCORD ONTARIO CANADA, I WAS LOOKING FOR NEW ZEALAND LAMB ROAST, DID NOT SEE ANY SO I ASK THE LADY FROM WALMART CLOSEST TO ME, HER
    REPLY TO ME WAS I AM NOT IN THIS AREA AND IF ITS NOT
    THERE WE DONT HAVE ANY. SO I SAID OK FAIR ENOUGH AND ASKED COULD YOU PLEASE CALL FOR ME THE PERSON DESIGNATED FOR THIS AREA, HER REPLY TO ME WAS I DONT KNOW WHERE SHE IS AND IGNORED ME SO I SAID HOW DARE YOU ANSWER ME A CUSTOMER IN THIS MANNER, I WALKED AWAY
    TO MAKE IT SHORT THIS WAS MY DISSAPOINTED EXPERIENCE OF WALMART SALES PEOPLE- SAD CUSTOMERS SERVICE HAS STOOPED SO LOW IN THIS COUNTRY. THANKS FOR LISTENING

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