Walmart Doesn't Want 7-Year-Old's Birthday Money
The parents of a seven-year-old took him to Walmart this weekend to spend his saved birthday and allowance money on a pretty awesome looking swimming pool & slide combo. They'd checked online first to make sure the item was in stock—and Walmart said it was, at three different locations in fact.
A couple of hours and two Walmarts later, they found themselves at Toys R Us.
If the problem was just that Walmart's "approximate" store inventory system sucks, it wouldn't be that much of a story. But what really ruined the family's experience was that at the Walmarts, it took either a small army or a 51-minute-wait to find out that the item wasn't there.
By contrast, Toys R Us managed to save the birthday shopping trip with a smile:
On our happy way, we surfed the Internet on the phone found the item also in stock at Toys R Us and frantically called them. We were immediately transferred to a bubbly manager whom raced, not waddled, to the shelves to check if the product was in stock. It was! Even though they had four in stock an associate dragged the fifty pound box to the front counter and attached a HOLD note to it. Do you know how valuable it was not to drag three children through a toy store trying to locate the seasonal department? Or wait? Priceless.
We drove halfway across Cleveland with a tired toddler and one devastated customer to pick up the item. Parked our minivan next to another minivan in a different color and stepped inside Toys R Us. The skies parted and the angels sang.
Three point two minutes later: One very satisfied customer making his first big purchase with his savings, a purchase he will always remember. Not taking place in Walmart. Heh.
"You won't find me at Walmart" [Classy Chaos] (Thanks to David!)
(Photo: Unkle_Cheese)
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Comments:
At least he's learned early on to just stay away from Walmart.
The kid is a brilliant negotiator. Wonder what tactic he'll use to keep his sister out of the pool?
Stores inventory systems are worthless. They don't take into account items that may have been stolen, misplaced, incorrectly sold, etc. That still isn't an excuse for the poor service the OP received at the store.
I read the link to the story and noticed the kid bought a pool made by Bonzai. The greater disappointment will be after the pool is blown up and it looks nothing like the picture on the box.
@YouDidWhatNow?: Less evil? Money and possessions are amoral. I'm glad to see that at a site like Consumerist people are still judging others on *where* they spend there money. You're playing right into the marketers hands.
@dragonfire81: and let me add my last CS experience in Wal-Mart, while it had good outcome, was far more aggravating than it should have been.
1. We asked for a manager, one showed up and we explained the situation and the resolution we wanted. He said he'd have to go check on something and would let us know.
FIFTEEN minutes pass and we eventually tell the lady at the CS counter we are still waiting on the manager to return.
Five minutes after that a different manager, this one female, shows up. So we have to explain the situation again. She says she'll take care of it and disappears.
TEN minutes later a THIRD manager comes up to us, apparently referred over to us by the second manager. We have to give our whole story AGAIN. My mother in law was at least smart enough to tell him that she wanted him to remain with us until this matter was solved.
Our issue was a simple product exchange. It took us FORTY FIVE minutes to get it done. Completely unacceptable.
@FatLynn: If saving money means dealing with the crap this family had to endure I'd rather pay a little more.
Then again, I buy most of my stuff online, which means I pay less AND avoid the aggravation that comes with shopping at a store whose employees feel they do not get paid enough to deal with whatever situation they find themselves in.
I swear to you, Consumerist, "I don't get paid enough to deal with this" is the catchphrase of the Wal-Mart employee.
@ncpeters: Actually this is a double whammy for walfart, which has advertised and promoted repeatedly it's "revolutionary" scanning systems in the industry. To whatever degree, if it's in the hands of underpaid apathetic morons, no dice! Screw your birthday - go away kid, yer botherin' us!
@FatLynn: Sometimes it's worth paying more to actually get service. Oh, what am I saying, I'm always willing to pay more to get better service. Which is why I choose not to shop at Walmart to begin with.
I used to work at Wal-Mart and would do the exact things the associate at Toys R Us did for this family. It all depends on who answers the phone and whether they are willing to check.
As much as I hate Wal-Mart, I don't think the problem is with them. Many chains have the same problems, including Toys R Us.
whom raced, not waddled
*crosses fingers (This will not be a fat bashing thread.)*
Anyway, I'm impressed with the kid's hustle.
But Wal-mart could have kept them as customers if they'd at least been able to tell them in a reasonable amount of time that they were out of the product. They wouldn't trust the web site again but they might still consider shopping there.
Inventory systems are sometimes almost pointless to rely on. Unless it says there are 4 or more in stock, I wouldn't take it seriously.
That said, and I know we're talking about Wal-Mart here, you can actually ask an associate to call the nearby stores and have them do all the work of tracking one down for you. I work in retail and get asked to do this all the time. Sure, it's a hassle for us to do, but it's our job to help.
Though, judging by your experience with them, I'm not sure they would be able to operate a phone. Finding small things might be difficult, but a pool? How does it take any longer than 5 minutes to find out whether one is in stock or not?
This probably only happened because nobody shops at Toys R Us, so the customer service guys are probably so damned bored that they rejoice when someone calls and asks them to do something!
Morale of the story:
Check the website, verify inventory then CALL the store to locate the item. If you can, pre-pay for the item so it is waiting for you in customer pick-up. Otherwise, see if they can place a hold for you and bring it up to the front.
If they can't physically locate the item, call another store.
This could have happened at any store. ANY store.
@ncpeters: It depends on the company. Once a week Target gets every item in the store scanned and the inventory is updated to reflect any theft or misplaced items etc. Its a fairly accurate system but at the same time any decent store would check to see if they have an item even if the computer says they do.
@Scoobatz: serioiusly. I've seen "actual pool" pictures and those things are a huge disappointment. In fact,didn't I see that HERE?
@ncpeters: If only Wal-Mart stores would check receipts, they wouldn't have problems with theft, and their inventory system would be up-to-date!
Not to jump on wal-marts defense here, but I've not had a bad wal-mart customer service experience that I can remember. Everytime I've had to ask for help at a wal-mart, the person I ask has always been very courteous and seemed very genuinely interested in helping.
I have however had plenty of overall bad wal-mart experiences and those usually involve the people shopping at wal-mart. I swear you can plop a wal-mart down in the nicest of communities and still attract the type of person that goes home to a house with 2+ non-working vehicles scattered across the yard. I'm sorry, but when your butt is wider than the shopping cart, and you insist on stopping in the middle of the isle for no apparent reason, I reserve the right to be irritated with you.
The problem is with Wal Mart. If they paid decent wages to hire or motivate people they wouldn't have that problem.
So it looks like the kid got an even better birthday present - the knowledge to never shop at Wal-Mart
It's only a Wal-Mart associates catch-phrase? I'm far from a Wal-Mart sympathizer, but it's been my experience that poor customer service can be had at any location for numerous reasons. Wal-Mart fell down several times. Perhaps the degree of their failure wasn't as recognized as it should have been and taken care of after the first foul up.
I understand Wal-Mart does a fair amount of "evil" - a lot of retailers do. What I don't understand is why there is such a strong stance against Wal-Mart here.
Are we surprised? Are we being surprised by this? "OHMOMMY" writes as if she is shocked by something the rest of us have known for at least A DECADE: WalMart is suck.
My personal last straw with WalMart was when I purchased a pack of disposable razors for about $3. The inventory loss device on the razors had not been deactivated properly after purchase. As I tried to walk out the door, it set off alarms. OK, it happens. At a place like Target or Barnes and Noble, they either just wave you through, because they JUST SAW YOU PAY FOR IT, or they stop and check your receipt right quick, right?
Well, at WalMart, a flock of managers and security guards descends upon you, to search not only your shopping bag and receipt, but make you dump out your purse, submit to a battery of questions, fill out and sign a form, all at the front of the store for everyone to see. I have never set foot in a WalMart since.
@StephenHecteyes: It could happen at any store, but it did happen at Walmart. I too have been a victim of their terrible inventory management, and I have no sympathy for them being called out on it.
@JLHilton:
A "flock" of managers? OK, sure. I've seen it happen before - where like a greeter and another associate come up and they ask for the receipt. I comply, because I hate that beeping sound and if all I have to do is pull out the one item I bought that had an anti-theft label and have them finally deactivate I'll gladly do it.
Now if they needed to strip search me or interrogate me, it would be another story.
@fjc6:
I'm not even hinting at a "oh poor Wal-Mart" response in my comment. I think while the stores should be responsible for a fairly accurate inventory system that is accessible online, it is also the responsibility of the informed consumer to do their due diligence to make sure the information they are using is accurate.
A: this was way more an "associate goes above and beyond" story than a Wal Mart Sux story. There are good and bad employees at any chain. I've hustled my ass off at Kmart and slacked at Target. It's not the name of the store it's the micro-culture of the employees.
B: Inventory systems are only as good as the people who use them. Again, good associates know how and to what degree their systems are inaccurate. I used to be able to guess that if a store had 3 in the computer, 1 was stolen, 1 was lost in the warehouse and 1 was the display. I never told anyone another store had something unless it said 10+. Less than that I'd call the store and verify and if it was a larger ticket item and the customer said they definitely wanted it, put a hold on it.
It's the company's mistake to allow customers into their inventory system unless it's bulletproof, which it can never be just because of how stores are run.
@cerebus201: I agree. I used to work at Walmart in the Toy Dept. and would have done the same as the Toys R Us store. If we didn't have in stock, we would have called the closest alternate stores to have them verify on-hand stock in person, rather than trusting the computer completely.
it took either a small army or a 51-minute-wait to find out that the item wasn't there.
Makes sense to me. Among about 95% of Walmart employees I've encountered, I've gotten the impression that they want to be anywhere else than in a Walmart, working.
Those are just the upbeat Walmart employees.
@JGKojak: Not true. I used to work for Barnes & Noble, which treats its employees pretty well (for a retail establishment), and we definitely had employees who were too lazy or obnoxious to provide good customer service. The rule for all B&N stores is that you had better have the book IN YOUR HAND before you tell the customer you have it in stock, and we would still have employees who would just look at the number supposedly in inventory and tell customers we had it, or who would pretend to look for it and then say they couldn't find it. I'm with cerebus201 - some employees will find motivation to do a good job simply in the fact that they *have* a job, even if they're only making minimum wage, and some won't even do it for federal contractor salaries (and I've worked both ends of the spectrum, so I know whereof I speak).
@Diet-Orange-Soda: I doubt a kid would feel the same way. Most kids I know treat a penny the way I would treat a $20.00.
I wouldn't shop at Walmart if everything there was free for the day.
It says on the Wal-Mart website that the inventory levels are approximate.
I have had the same issue as the OP at Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, Micro Center, and Wal-Mart. These inventory counts are polled from a database at fixed intervals, so the item may show up as available, but the last one was sold hours or days ago. It would be impractical from a technical standpoint to have the website request this from the main database every time a customer looked at the item.
@StephenHecteyes: I would be weary about pre-paying for something like this until I can physically see the actual item.
What's the over/under on the number of "That's why you shouldn't shop at Walmart" comments?
@JGKojak: sorry buddy, decent wage for a job that requires almost no skill (unpacking boxes) is minimum wage. I dont need help finding products in stores 99% of the time, and I dont want to pay more becasue you do.
I like walmart, the employees dont try to sell me things, they have most of the stuff I need, their prices are reasonable, in the few cases I have had to ask for something, employees either know the answer or say they dont know (thats a huge thing for me, I hate people who say 'no' when the answer is 'I dont know'). Hell when I was moving, their staff was exceptionally helpful when I went in to ask for boxes. They were unpacking a lot of big items as I came in and the boxes were perfect, they only had 2 available, and i was fine with that, but the guy offered 3 more and he unpacked them immediately for me.
@pb5000: Agreed. Every bad experience I have ever had at walmart is caused by the customers there, not the staff.
My mother called from south of Fayetteville as I was leaving work in Raleigh to say she was going to see me soon - (more than an hour away). I stopped at Walmart for bread and skim milk and spent FORTY FRACKING MINUTES IN LINE FOR A REGISTER. My mother was in the driveway when I got home.
I will be driving past Walmart to pay more for merchandise somewhere else from now on.
@Scoobatz: I believe that we have the same (or very similar) pool at home for our kids. Actually, it is pretty cool. The one disappontment that I have with the pool is that it is so large, that it is not the type of thing that you would set up in the morning and take down at night, so it will usually stay up for several days before it is time to replace the water. The bad part is that there is a safety net below the slide that does not allow you to scrub the bottom of the pool to remove the "slime" that will inevitably develop with repeated use.
@DeeJayQueue: exactly, I worked at CompUSA for a couple of years, unless that system said 10+ I would go and physically check to make sure the item was there, and if the customer wanted it, Id put it on hold for them for 24 hours.
The reason these systems are innacurate are usually caused byt he following:
1. Customers grabbing an item, then decidint they dont want it then putting it back in the wrong place instead of just giving it to an employee when they go to the register, or putting it back where they got it.
2. Recieviing erros for small items (computer shows 100 of a small item, like CD cases, or bags of some sort) warehouse probabaly scanned the box twice as it came in, or was expecting 2 cases adn only 1 came but they didnt notice.
3. Items burried in the warehouse. Not all staff have access to items burried in a warehouse, and sometimes they are just inaccessable at the time. So the inventroy is right, but the product is not available.
4. Theft (this actually only accounts for a small percentage of the errors)
5. Employees looking up the wrong product. When a customer calls and says "I want that pool...the one with the slide...you know what im talking about" then they get pissed when you in fact dont know what they are tlaking about. I dealt with this every day, id get "I want that intel computer...by HP" and they have no clue what the model # or any other specifics about it. Try to explin that there are 20+ models that meet that description and you get yelled at. So employees take their best guess and are wrong sometimes.
@WinduSucks: YO! Where you spend your money DOES count! If you give your money to companies that DO NOT GIVE A SHIT FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE (like Walmart) you'll continue to get shit service.
Clear enough for you?
Would it have done any good if they had called the store(s) first? Is the in-house inventory system different than the web-version? Does anyone here think a wal-mart associate would have physically checked inventory?
The thing is, Wal-Mart does have a state-of-the-art procurement system, probably among the best on the planet. On this, even people that can't stand them agree. So they have the information, and probably to a multi-regressional, microscopically granular level. It's used daily to optimize how to flay an extra layer of skin from their customers, squeeze a supplier one rung closer to bankruptcy or to target one more independent retailer for death.
They simply choose not to make this system available for the benefit of their customers.
> It's pretty much encapsulates Wal-Mart, in a nutshell.
The sad part is that he probably had to pay more at Toys R Us than at Walmart.