The Consumer Complaints Blog

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.

We recently purchased a retractable awning from this business. While the product is good, the service is definitely not. The owner of the business came and did a consultation for us where we described what we wanted from the awning and what it was supposed to do. That included where it was to be mounted in order to accomplish the result we were after. That would be above the patio light so as not to block it off. The awning was ordered based on the consultation but when it was installed, it was painfully obvious that it was too small to do what we wanted it to do. Granted, the measurements on the order were exactly what we got but the consultation we received grossly missed the mark.
When we determined that the only way to get this $1,700.00 mess close to fixed was to move the awning below the patio light which would require me to purchase and install a new light, we were told by the owner that he wasn’t running a charity and it would cost $150.00 or it wasn’t getting moved.

So remember, when John says “Excellence in service is my business – you have my word on it”…..don’t believe him!! There are other businesses out there that I’m sure will live up to that statement.

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.

I purchased several Kenmore appliances from Sears about 4 years ago. One refrigerator $700 another 3 door refrigerator $1800 and a front load washer $600. All three appliances broke down within 4 years. I was able to fix the $700 refrigerator which was due to a drain pan which is located above the condenser which was never properly glued down causing it to crack and slip out of place causing leaking. The $1800 one I am working on but if it is the computer, which I suspect, it will be garbage. The frame which holds the drum in place on the washer rotted away and I contacted Sears because the drum has a lifetime warranty; however, they refuse to send me a drum unless I paid $129.99 for them to install it. They also advised that I would have to pay for additional parts which would have to be replaced and they could not tell me how much that would cost. The washer therefore is also garbage. These appliances are very shabbily made and Sears is very difficult to deal with. I would advise anyone considering purchasing any Kenmore appliances from Sears to do so at their own peril.

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.

I purchased an item called “hi-temp 1800 mold release and lubricant” at Delphi Glass online. The product did not work as described and actually ruined 2 molds and a kiln shelf I used it on even though I followed the instructions carefully. I returned the product and was requesting to exchange it for something else. They decided to charge me a 25% restocking fee and refused to let me do an exchange. The manager there, Chris told me they sold thousands of them and don’t have a problem. I went to their website and found that the reviews on this product indicated that 43% of their clients had negative reviews and had problems with this product. I believe this company rather makes money on charging their customers with 25% restocking fee rather than listening to their customers legitimate complaints.

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.

I’m so mad at being ripped off by ScienceLab.com… that I created a website for the purpose of venting. http://sciencelab-msds.com

If you have purchased materials recently from sciencelab.com (owned by Rob and Stacey Tyler of Humble, TX), and they have not arrived, chances are, they never will. I recommend that you do not delay contacting your credit card company to reverse the charges. Do not hesitate, even if that means forgoing a chemical that you could not order from another source. You will not get that chemical from sciencelab.com, you might as well keep your hard-earned money.

Sciencelab.com follows routinely and systematically the fraud script below, learn to recognize it.
(1) You place an order online.
(2) Your credit card is charged immediately.
(3) After a variable amount of time passes, you will be told that some items are back ordered without listing specifics. This lack of specifics is your first clue that something is very wrong.
(4) You won’t hear from them for months – they are waiting for the credit card charge back period to expire, beyond this time you will NOT be able to reverse the charges.
(5) If you ask which items are back ordered, you *may* receive a response.

Typically, items that they charge a lot for are back ordered. You may
receive some cheap stuff. Chances are, these products are used glassware, visibly degraded chemicals of dubious identity, or not what you ordered at all.
(6 ) You will never, ever be refunded the difference, and if they sent you a PARTIAL order, legally, it changes everything; you pretty much have no recourse, for all intents and purposes.
(7) They don’t answer phone calls. Their robot answering system and full
message mailboxes mean that it is impossible for you to reach anyone. If you fill a voice mailbox with room to leave a message, they will never call you back, even if you leave multiple, polite messages.
(8) Same with emails. They are ignored.
(9) They were supposedly back ordered for 4 months on DMSO… it’s like the grocery store being out of eggs for 4 months. That is really fishy.
(10) They have robbed you of your money and legal recourses.
(11) If you make enough noise on the internet, they may get in touch with you, but bear in mind that the measures you need to take to draw their attention are EXTREME and very TIME CONSUMING. They will continue stalling and give you tales of woe. It is the fault of Hurricane Ike, the fault of the owners getting cancer (if even true, it might be occupational, I do not trust these clowns handling chemicals safely even for themselves), the fault of a bad office manager, the fault of the buyer raising “red flags,” the fault that they reserve the right to not send you stuff but keep the money, the fault that nasty irate customers bother their children (do not do that folks, not cool), the fault that they mailed a check to the wrong address, or the check got lost, the fault of an office maternity leave, the fault that since Feb 1 they are working on things, and things are better, and they are improving… anything but give you your money back and sweet talk of imaginary cheques being in the mail when any business would refund you the same way you paid, like credit card. Except that credit card transfers do not get lost in the mail, and that would deprive them of an opportunity to stall.

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.