Last year, I worked for Walmart.com as an inbound frontline agent, and was promoted to a resolutions agent several months later...so I know my stuff. This is my advice to the person with the issues with walmart.com.

I used to work for one of the walmart.com call centers a few months ago and have heard stories like this way too many times, especially with the Nintendo Wii bundles. That is part of the reason that they have removed the number from their website and require customers to send in emails now, that a good bit of the agents that are in the US instead of the Philippines barely read...which explains the reply you received. That experience is why I don't even shop at walmart now.

In Walmart.com world, the charge "supposedly" does not clear until the order ships. Until then, it is placed as a hold on your account. If the item has not shipped by the date promised, it can be marked as "lost in transit", even though it really isn't lost, it can be placed in this category according to walmart.com policies told to us agents. Some company documents specify a time period of a week after the estimated arrival date to be considered lost in transit. Because of the price, a supervisor will have to mark the customers account so that they can be refunded. After this happens, the funds will take around a week to be credited (even though a supervisor will tell you 2-3 business days).

Another way to get refunded is to have your credit card/bank card issuer to contact walmart.com and verify that the order is technically "lost in transit". This will verify to the bank that this item is not going to be shipped. By doing this, the bank can then lift the hold. Walmart.com agents can also contact your bank to have the hold removed.

These are the only two ways that I know of that walmart.com will be able to refund the money. Mind you, I did work there until late last year, so some policies may have changed. I hope that you will be able to resolve this soon. I know how hard it is dealing with walmart.com.

Sincerely,
A former Walmart.com Call Center Resolutions Agent

Update - 06/27/08: The Unicorn says Wal-Mart called her today and offered to cancel the order!

Update - 06/26/08: The Unicorn posted a slight correction after we published this story: "hey, just to clarify — after Chris (I think) responded to my email re: the Terms of Service issue, I doublechecked my bank account & the funds haven't actually been withdrawn yet." However, she notes that since she can't cancel the order, those funds remain unavailable.

Here's her full story:

So, the Monday before last (6/16), my husband & I came to the unfortunate realization that the 80GB Playstation 3 we'd been saving up to buy was only available through a limited-edition bundle, & that the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundles were basically unavailable in any store near us. After contacting every Game Stop, Circuit City, Best Buy, Target, etc. in the Chicagoland region, we reluctantly expanded our search to the Walmart website, & after checking back several times, all of a sudden an "add to cart" option appeared next to the listing for the MGS4 PS3 bundle. And rationalizing that patronizing Walmart was worth it in order to get a rare piece of game equipment, we placed an order for the system, which the site said would arrive between Friday 6/20 & Tuesday 6/24. After the order was placed, it showed up as "processing" in Walmart's order tracking system, & I was told I'd receive a second email whenever the system shipped. I figured that was good news, but I was a little worried, because the MGS4 bundle showed up as "out of stock" immediately after the order was placed, & it seemed like a crazy coincidence that I would've gotten the last one.

Here's the thing: don't ever buy anything from Walmart, ever. I knew this, & ignored it, & now I'm paying the price.

Coincidentally, that same Monday night, my husband & I rented a movie from Blockbuster, & in the course of some chitchat the clerk randomly told us that they were the only Chicago store to have the MGS4 bundle in stock. (This was the one in Uptown, for any fellow Chicagoans, although I don't know if they'd have any more.) Since the order from Walmart hadn't shipped yet, we decided a PS3 in-hand was better than the promise of one from a retailer we hated, we took the Blockbuster clerk up on his offer & went home with our new toy.

Our plan was to cancel the Walmart.com order, but as it turns out, it's not possible to cancel online orders once they're placed. Fair enough; we figured we'd just sell the second system at cost on eBay or Craigslist whenever it arrived, or else return it to the store & eat the shipping charges.

...Except, the order is still listed as "processing" in Walmart's order tracking system. It hasn't shipped, & it certainly hasn't arrived by this past Tuesday like it was supposed to. But Walmart was certainly happy to take $550.00 out of my debit account as soon as the order was put through back on the 16th! I've emailed them through their website three times now, explaining that I need the funds freed from my account so that I can patronize a brick-&-mortar store that has the systems in stock. (I figured it would needlessly complicate things to say I already bought another system; the only reason that was even an option is that we're currently flush with wedding-present money, & usually having $550.00 missing from my checking account would automatically preclude any other purchases of similar magnitude.) My last response from Walmart came on June 21st, & it was just a scripted message explaining that they can't cancel online orders in progress because their distributors usually ship things so quickly that it's impossible blah blah blah — clearly not the case here, when the order in question has been languishing unshipped for over a week & Walmart still doesn't have the item in stock. All of this makes me really glad that I actually bought a real-live PS3 when I had the chance, but given that I don't know if Walmart's even going to be getting any additional MGS4 bundles, I'm starting to get worried this order will be stuck in "processing" for the rest of time.

Do you guys have any ideas as to how I can get them to refund the money they're holding hostage? I saw your list of executive numbers, but I don't know that any of those would necessarily be appropriate for an online purchase, & as much as I dislike Walmart, I'm hesitant to call up random people in their corporate office who probably have no recourse to help me with this issue.

We say it's time to go corporate. Don't worry about bothering them—it's why they get paid, to make things happen. In particular, they need to be made aware that they're not honoring their terms of service as listed on their website.

Update!: A former Wal-Mart call center employee has shared some tips on how to resolve outstanding orders like this one.

Terms and Conditions [Wal-Mart]
(Photo: Clean Wal-mart)

When Amazon works, it's a great example of what man and machine can do together to make shopping easier. When it doesn't work, you're stuck with a higher-priced camera from Wal-Mart and a second camera you thought was canceled shipped from Amazon, with a refund taking 3-5 days to go through.

My siblings and I decided to go in together and purchase my Mom a nice camera for Mother's Day. She's a nice lady, and is getting tired of the one she has, so it seemed like a good idea. The BAD idea was trying to purchase it (along with a few accessories) from Amazon. But, they had it for a great price, and with the free shipping it seemed like a no-brainer.

So I placed my order on 5/1...all seemed well on the Amazon front. I got a confirmation email after placing the order letting me know that it would be shipped on 5/6. It's never taken more than 3 days for an Amazon order to show up in the past, so I figured it would be fine. After a couple of days, I logged in to Amazon to check up on it, and that's when I should have gotten worried.

Instead of showing my orders, there was an error message letting me know that there was a problem with Amazon, but rest-assured, they're working on it and it should be fixed shortly. Right. It gave me the same message the next day, and the next, so on 5/6 I sent Amazon an email asking them to check the status of the order, as it was for Mother's Day and I needed it by then.

I received a reply email later that day from Naresh letting me know that he would need 1-2 business days to research and he'd get back to me.

After two days (5/8) and no response, I decided to call Amazon. I spoke to a male representative (and I'm pounding my head against the wall for not catching his name, but I didn't) who let me know that he couldn't find my order, either. I explained the situation (it's for my Mom, I need it asap, etc), and he let me know that I could place the order again if I needed it quickly. This wasn't to my liking, but I wasn't about to disappoint my Mom (nor face the scorn of my siblings), so I asked when it could be delivered. His answer? Monday. This was not the answer I was looking for, so I asked him to please cancel the order, and I would purchase it locally. He said he would put a note on my account for the order to be cancelled.

So I set off into a raging thunderstorm to the closest store that had the same model camera. Wal-Mart. This is a story for another day, but I ended up paying waaaay more thanks to Wal-Mart's absolutely ridiculous price-matching policy. So, I'm out some cash, a lot of time, and it ruined my hair. Thanks, Amazon!  

Then, today [Friday May 9], I decided (just for kicks) to check my Amazon account. Lo and behold, it's fixed! Apparently, my order should be shipped on 5/11 or 5/12. Wait, what??? I am not a happy camper at this point.

So, I just spent another 30 minutes on the phone with Christine H. Bottom line? Amazon can (will) not cancel the order, and I can expect to receive a 2nd camera in the near future.

While she did try to help me as much as she could (and she was very nice), it was obvious that Amazon's policies limited what (if any) help she could offer me. When I explained that my bank account does not runneth over (thanks to a hefty veterinarian bill) and that, if charged, I would be overdrawn, she said that she would give me an advance refund on the shipment. In 3-5 days, I'll see my money back in the bank (never mind that Amazon will CHARGE my account as soon as it ships). She did send me an email explaining the very involving process of getting an overdraft fee credited by Amazon, but at this point, I'm just going to suck it up and transfer some emergency (i.e. DON'T TOUCH) money into the account.

It's not exactly what I would normally qualify as an emergency, but if it will keep me from having to deal with Amazon again, it's worth it. 

Bottom line? Amazon is the Grinch who stole Mother's Day...Boo to you, Amazon! (And I still haven't heard back from Naresh.)

Amanda

Fine, it was a one-off problem, mistakes happen and all that. But why do customer service reps promise to return calls that they never return? This seems to happen across the industry, and it may be the easiest way to improve customer service.