The Consumer Complaints Blog

I wouldn’t be reaching out to you in the event that Fairmont hotel hadn’t charged us $56 for Kraft Dinner and a personal pizza. Now I fully expect to be charged something crazy at these chains, but to serve Kraft Dinner and then delete my customer complains off their Facebook page is uncalled for. You would expect to be paying for something that would resemble homemade or at least not highly processed. I tend to order off the children’s menu when looking for portion control, but if anything our children should be able to get the same quality of meals as adults and it is disappointing that corners are cut when it deals so closely with their health. As a parent I would be very concerned that their health is second to profit margins.

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.

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.

When were companies given the right to no longer send statements or bills? I have tried contacting the Consumers Bureau about this, but to the best of my knowledge, no one works there. There’s an answering machine and no one responds to messages.

My complaints:

For years I have given permission for companies to pay bills by direct payment from my bank account or on a credit card with no problems. Lately, companies have decided to save money by never sending a bill or statement. Some say they will e-mail one. It seldom happens. When you contact them, they tell you they don’t have your e-mail address and somehow they never have it, no matter how many times you give it to them. Upon request for a paper bill, they promise but don’t deliver. The problem? You have no proof of payment, no knowledge when problems arise and payment isn’t made, and when you cancel a service they continue to take your money.

1. Rolly’s Transfer – a moving and storage company in Winnipeg. I removed my items from storage, direct billing on my credit card ceased for 2 months, then started again. I contacted the company; they said they’d look into it. I never heard from them again. Visa fought this battle for me.

2. Telus – Just stopped sending bills, then cancelled my cell phone service. When I contacted them, I owed them a large sum of money because my credit card number had changed. With no bills I had no way of contacting them so I waited for them to contact me. It took 3 months. As it was, I had a problem even when I phoned the number in their message on my cell phone. They can’t find the appropriate department themselves. They said they didn’t send bills by e-mail because they didn’t have my address ( not that they ever requested it or even told me they were stopping paper bills.) I have yet to receive an e-bill.

3. U Weight Loss – I used their finance company which offered interest free loans if you signed a paper authorizing them to take the payment directly from your bank account. I have never received a loan statement even though I have repeatedly requested one. I refuse to deal with this company as a result.

4. AAA Alarms – My alarm monitoring company sold their monitoring service to AAA Alarms. I have never received a statement or bill. When I recently married, my husband had a monitoring contract with AAA which he could not be released from even if he sold the house. They did agree to move it to my house. However, they have given us 2 months of run around and red tape. Every time we comply with their wishes, a new rule is brought out. The final one was that I had to prove I had no monitoring contract. Interesting, with absolutely no paper work from AAA. I contacted the servicing company which had the original contract and was told they were not happy with what their parent company had done and were having no end of problems with AAA. They said they would contact AAA on my behalf for the proof and relay the proof to me. AAA never responded to their written requests. Then I began the red tape process of just cancelling my service. I have yet to receive confirmation of cancellation or final billing information. I contacted the Consumer’s Bureau to determine my rights and advice; left a message and have never had a response. Does this place really exist or is it a government front to placate us?

5. Shaw – A direct payment didn’t go through. I didn’t notice. No bills, no contact until service was cancelled. I went down to Shaw in person to straighten out the mess and pay my bill. They had switched to e-bills and mine didn’t go through. They were very nice and said they would send me a paper bill. That was 6 months ago. I have received one paper bill.

Is anyone else having similar problems?

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 need help to resolve a problem I am having with UPS and Fed EX.
In March my friend and I sent 18 bottles of wine home from Italy. Before I go any further I admit right now that we had no idea that it was so difficult to send wine to Canada never having tried something like this before. We were told in Italy that it was done all of the time and that they could ship the wine for us-and so we did. The wine cost approximately 20 euros/bottle. It cost about 100.00 Euros to ship. We thought at we were getting a very good deal. Unfortunately we were so wrong.

Once the wine arrived in Canada I received a phone call from Lynn Grant from UPS to send them copies of the receipts for the purchase and shipping charges. I was told that there were several steps before the wine could be released and that it would take approximately 30-40 days. I was told that they had to send the information on to the LCBO who would then determine a Canadian cost for the wine + taxes and then the shipment would go through customs and that they would assign customs fees. After that was done UPS would charge a brokerage fee and after all of the fees were paid that the shipment would be released and delivered by Fed Ex. for which there would be no charge.

It is now May 14. After having paid all of the fees requested by UPS I believed that my shipment would be released and that we would finally get the wine. However I received an ’emergency’ email from Lyn Grant asking me to call her. I was told that I would have to pay an additional 300.00 on top of the 561. 00 for 12 bottles and another 194.00 for the other 6 bottles which I had already paid to UPS. Having paid almost 800.00 is fees I expected that my wine shipment would be delivered.
Unfortunately this was not the case. As you can see from the attachments above I received an email from UPS asking me to contact them. I was told on the phone that Fed Ex wanted to now charge storage fees. According to Ms. Grant from UPS this has never happened in the past. She explained that they had an ‘ understanding’ with Fed Ex, that Fed Ex understood that the process to get wine through customs could take up to 40 days and that they had never been charged before. However, according to Ms. Grant, Fed Ex now wanted and additional 300.00 in storage fees and that my shipment would not be released by Fed Ex unless I paid the fees.

I could not believe this. I asked for the number for Fed EX. I called Fed Ex ( 613) 738-4501 and spoke to Roger. Roger explained that UPS was being dishonest. He said that Fed Ex always charged for storage. He said that they were told by UPS not to deliver the shipment as UPS did not want to pay the additional fee. He put me through to his manager Jason. Jason gave me the same information. He said that they always charged UPS storage fees for anything over 3 days. He explained that UPS didn’t always pay the fees. He said that they were willing to deliver the shipment but that UPS would not allow it because they would have to pay the storage fees. He explained that there was absolutely no reason why it should take 40 days to clear customs.

I called and spoke to Lynn Grant from UPS (613) 737-5935. She was very aggressive on the phone. I asked her to send me this new explanation in writing and that I would discuss this with my husband. She maintained that Fed EX was being honest. She maintains that UPS has never had to pay storage fees before. She explained that if they wanted UPS to pay storage fees then they should have filled them from the start and that they should have received a bill from Fed Ex. She maintains that they never got a bill from Fed EX. She explained that it was Fed Ex who would not deliver the shipment as they now wanted more money. Ms. Grant told me that she didn’t like being seen as a liar. That she would speak to her superiors and that they would sort this out. It should be noted that she did not send me this information in writing, and that she got back to me.

As you can imagine I was very upset by this turn of events. I told her that I had paid all of the extra fees her company working as the brokerage company had requested. I felt that I had met my end of the obligation and because of this that they should ask Fed Ex to release my shipment and that this new battle is between Fed Ex and UPS. She said it was Fed Ex who would not release the shipment, Fed EX said it was UPS.

For some reason Fed Ex delivered 6 bottles. I did not have to pay the storage fees. I thought that Ms. Grant at UPS had sorted out this problem. I was wrong. I received a note from Mr. Wagi from UPS today telling me that I had to pay a Fed Ex bill or Fed EX would not deliver the other 12 bottles of wine. It seems Ms. Grant is on holidays and Mr. Waji had taken over the file. I did not hear back from Ms. Grant. I have no idea if they tried to resolve this issue with Fed Ex or as the manager from Fed Ex explained-they were simply trying to download 1 of their costs onto the client. (Because of a delay (Ups did not process the 12 bottles at the same time) the other 12 were not delivered at the same time.) As you can see from the attached, that UPS is now telling me that I have to pay the storage fees on the 12 bottles or Fed Ex will not deliver.

I feel that I had an agreement with UPS. I paid in full the amounts I was told it would cost to have the shipments released and delivered to my home. I don’t believe that I should now have to pay additional charges because UPS made a mistake or is simply lying to me. I don’t believe I should be caught in the middle of this new battle between UPS and FED EX.

Please help me. I am getting totally different stories from both companies and UPS is refusing to allow Fed EX to deliver my shipment.

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.