Wal-Mart[0] vs. Beffie[1]: Wrong price experience

[beffie]

Okay, so this story actually has an okay ending... But good graciousness, the time/effort/rudeness to get there!!!

The story's roots go back to the early Spring when my son worked very hard to earn the money to buy a GameCube, it's hard to earn $150 when you are only 7 years old! So now I work real hard to find games at good prices to go with it. We have learnt that if we wait the stores will lower the prices on video games, or sometimes they will be on sale or clearance and you get to save quite a bit of money (DS had a hard time grasping this fact, but he was okay with this when I explained that this would mean we would have more money to buy more games! LOL )... I personally can't see the logic in paying over $20 for video games... Which has a strong bearing on what happened today...

I went to our new (March 2003) Salem Super Wal-Mart this morning. They started taking Christmas Lay-A-Ways as of September 1st; and I like putting Christmas presents for my son on L-A-W because that way he can't find them by snooping around the house (he's only 8 years old, so I expect him to try to find them LOL). So I'm at W-M, go back to check out the video games...

They have a few GameCube games for only $19.82 each, I'm thinking; "This is cool!" Then I notice that they have the Sonic Battle Adventures 2 game marked $19.82 on the shelf! Wow! Great price! Have to get that one definately! So I went up to the Electronics register to get someone to take the games I wanted out of the locked cabinets. The girl takes the four games I asked for out of the locked cabinet, and I ask for them to be sent to Lay-A-Way.

When I get to L-A-W and the lady there rings up my L-A-W, after she had totaled it and taken my downpayment, she gives me the L-A-W slip to sign... The first video game listed is $29.94! So I point this out to her before I signed the L-A-W slip. It turns out to be the Sonic Battle Adventures 2 game. She actually takes the game and goes to the Electronics department to see if the shelf price is actually listed as $19.82. When she comes back she tells me that; Yes the shelf tag said $19.82, BUT that was not the correct tag for this game, and that the price IS $29.94... BUT since it rang up wrong they can give me $3 price adjustment since the wrong tag on the shelf was their fault. She insists that this is the only thing that can be done... So being more then a little upset about it, I say; "Fine! Whatever." Then when she adjusts the price of the game DOWN $3 it says that I have to pay an ADDITIONAL $2.42 towards the downpayment amount! Of course this is because she voided the game off the L-A-W and then added it back on to adjust the price...Instead of just going into the L-A-W and adjusting it... Which resulted in the computer saying that I needed to pay more...

When I left L-A-W I went back to Electronics, NOW there is NO PRICE TAG on the shelf for this game!!! Now I'm thinking; "OH! So someone made a mistake, and they think that I'm just going to go away quietly without getting my 'Good Deal' on this game?!?!? I DO NOT THINK SO!!!" So I go up to the Customer Service desk and ask to speak to the manager, of course the actual manager is not available so I got to speak with a CSM... She was not sure what to do, so she checks with Electronics about what IS the price? WAS there actually a price sticker ON THE SHELF stating that the game was $19.82??? And after Electronics confirmed this information, she tells me that she believes the policy is that I should have been given the $19.82 price since the shelf tag said $19.82 PLUS the $3 price adjustment since the item rang up a different price... BUT she is not completely positive about this, so if I can wait, she will check with "Joe" (the manager). When she comes back, I'm informed that "Rich" (the Assistant Manager) says that: Yes. I should be given the game at $19.82 PLUS the $3 off price adjustment for the item ringing up at a different price then marked on the shelf. So, I was very happy to hear this, because it is a great monetary savings for me.

The CSM had to walk back to L-A-W with me so that they could fix the price on my L-A-W, and along the way we were talking. I pointed out to her that I understand the numerous times that I've been told that "the item must have been put in the wrong place" , or that "someone must have switched the price tags"(mainly for clearance items). I told her how every time I am attempting to purchase an item and it rings up wrong I am told one or the other of these two excuses why ... BUT the game was in a LOCKED CABINET! They can't tell me these things about it! (There were multiple copies of the same game in that slot on the shelf, so they couldn't say that it was in the wrong slot). And she said that they recently had a problem where someone was purchasing an item on clearance that was outside, and that one of the zeros had came off the sign, so instead of saying $40.00 it said $4.00... And the management said that since that is what the "marked" price was, they had to give it to the customer for that price!!! And she said that for the last week the management has really been stressing the polies involved with the "wrong price" issue, because of this $40/$4 incident. You know how the stores tell the public abount the high amounts of money they lose evey year??? I bet that they do not point out that a lot of that is to blame on the price marking mistakes that are made by the store itself!!!

But this poor CSM had the girl from Electronics really being rude to her about the whole thing. Questioning everything she said. And the lady in L-A-W wasn't any more polite about it, with the CSM not me... I can not believe the way these people are! I mean this was a simple, someone left/marked the wrong price listed for this item on the shelf... And the girl from Electronics was acting very defensive, I don't know? Would she end up being held responsible for the mix up? And the lady in L-A-W wasn't being very nice about having to change the L-A-W not once but twice. She acted like it was a major inconvienance for her! When it was a time comsuming, stressful, and completely unfriendly inconvienance to ME!

So to sum up my story [No pun intended ] I saved an "additional" $13.12 off the "regular" price of $29.94 for this game. But the time on my initial L-A-W slip is 10:57am and the time on my "finally fixed" L-A-W slip is 11:43am!!! I can not believe that it took me nearly an hour for them to fix this!


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[beffie]

I was searching this forum about Wal-Mart and this thread really caught my attention:

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I'm seriously thinking about "contacting Wal-Mart corporate" about this incident, but I wonder if it really would be worth the added aggravation to me???

Any opinions?


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[Lori664]

Yes you should call. If you call the corporate office they will have the manager at the store call you. That was such a hassle for you and im sure they will offer an apology and gift certificate. Not sure how much they would give you as it varies. And trust me, it will be worth it because i have had a few experiences with walmart and I always feel better when ive gotten a gift certificate. My husband had a bad experience with some tires and he was never home to answer the phone so the manager at walmart gave up and I guess turned it over to the district manager to take care of it....anyways he wound up getting a $50.00 gift certificate for all his trouble. So maybe you might not want to answer the phone if you have caller id the first few times they call, and perhaps they would turn it over to district manager who might be more sympathetic.


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[3tbear]

beffie that was so inexcusable of Wal-mart to have you wait that long to fix the problem which was not even your fault, talk about incompetence.