PCMag's article says,

In a statement on its website dated July 14, Wal-Mart says the "program provides an opportunity for us to understand more about what our customers need and expect in home installation and technology services, within a specific market."

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, describes the program as a small pilot.

"There are no plans at this time to expand the service outside of Dallas other than to 15 select stores," Wal-Mart states.

When we hear the words "Walmart" and "computer repair" together, it's difficult to be optimistic. We just hope that they excel in all aspects of technical support and not just porn-recovery.

Wal-Mart Computer Repairs - Solution Stations vs Geek Squads [TrendHunter]
Wal-Mart Using Dell to Provide 'Solution Stations' [PCMag]

He consumed 1 teaspoon measured in a medicine cup which in its concentrated state contained 20 times the prescribed dose (100mg) and within hours, his organs began to fail and had to be placed on a ventilator.

The KSLTV article says,

Laurie Scott said, "This shouldn't have happened. It was needless. It was senseless and it's changed lives forever, not just Jessie, but there are other people who love him and his future."

Laurie trusted what she gave her son, what had been filled, was correct.

"I always ask questions. I've always medicated him his whole life. I'm the caregiver and it makes it extremely difficult," she said.

After 16 days in ICU, Jessie moved to intermediate care for another four days, then to HealthSouth for intensive therapy.

Wal-Mart Corporation issued the following statement to KSL News: "This is a very sad situation. Our thoughts are with this young man and his family."

There was a dramatic turn of events this weekend. For the first time, Jessie spoke, though the words are limited and intermittent. We will continue following his story in the weeks and months to come.

What makes this even more infuriating is that pharmacists receive extensive specialized training to prevent these exact types of situations. We are supposed to be able to trust that the medication the pharmacy prepares won't kill us, or worse. We are, however, shocked that Walmart seems to actually be acknowledging the error—they usually deny everything until the point of absurdity. Our thoughts are with the Scott family, we hope that Jessie gets better soon.

Teen in coma after wrong dose of medication [KSLTV] (Thanks to Seth!)

Hey, it’s Ashlee again. You can add to that story that the insurance company for Wal-mart has just called me to say they are not doing anything about it because I took it to a mechanic first, instead of going to Wal-mart… because this process “tampered with evidence.” Don’t you think any normal person would take a sick vehicle to the closest mechanic to try and get help?

Also, Wal-mart sent an older gentleman with a ponytail, and an unprofessional demeanor to the GMC dealership (where the car is supposed to be getting fixed) to assess the damage. He said he found no oil anywhere, no problems, and the engine ran great when he turned the car on. So I called the manager at the GMC dealership who immediately went out to look at the car himself…. He found “oil everywhere” and he heard severe “rod-knocking” when the engine was running, which he says is a sign of a serious engine problem. He seemed appalled at this, too—just as much as I was! Wal-mart killed my car, then denied it, and now I am hiring a lawyer. I have plenty of picture evidence, and plenty of witness accounts. And as for the condescending insurance rep that snickered at me over the phone when we asked for my date of birth, this is not the last time you will hear from this little 22 year old.

They won't pay because you decided to take your damaged Saturn to a non-Walmart mechanic? That is typical insurance company bullshit. What do you think would have happened if you had taken it to a Walmart mechanic? They would have denied everything and blamed it on something else—it's simply a catch-22. It sounds like you are handling the situation correctly so far. Make sure you gather and record every bit of information you can, doing so will provide your lawyer with the proper ammunition to fight your case. Hang in there, Ashlee and keep us updated.

PREVIOUSLY: Walmart's Botched Oil Change Destroys Your Engine

I needed an oil change. After all, I had driven across the country from Georgia to Colorado. Walmart seemed to be an obvious choice, be it that I was unfamiliar with the area, and a familiar name would just be easy and reliable—or so I thought.

Last Saturday I made a decision I would soon regret... I got my oil changed by "oil technicians" and Wally-World. Driving no more than a mile or two each day after that I noticed no problem and was relieved to have the oil changed and taken care of for the time being. Thursday afternoon Courtney and I were excited to be let out of work early, so we packed up the vehicle and hit the road toward Denver for the holiday weekend. No more than 30 minutes into the trip Courtney heard a strange noise and made me listen for it. It didn't sound normal so we pulled over as soon as the road permitted. Having just gotten the oil changed it was my first thought to check the dipstick. Empty. Nothing. A glance under the car lent a horrifying view of a filthy bottom covered in leaking oil and a smoking drive-train closer to the rear.

My next thought was to get On-Star. Push the button. Nothing. Empty rings into oblivion, then the automated operator informs me that she is unable to connect to On-Star. A lone biker-man stopped, and confirmed what we had already gathered... which was that we were pretty much out of luck. Then another car stopped, leant us a few drops of oil that was left in a bottle he had in his trunk. They advised us to coast back down the mountain and try to get back to Paonia, where we had come from. We made it back, barely. Coasted into the only mechanic in town. Bob the mechanic then informed me that the oil cap was put back on improperly when the oil was changed, causing the o-ring seal to bust and the oil to simultaneously leak out, leaving the engine to run metal on metal and in turn ruin my engine. $4000 was his initial estimate, and that was just a courtesy as he is not actually equipped to replace entire ENGINES!

Keep in mind that I own a 2006 Saturn Vue, which only has 54,000 on it. No prior mechanical problems to speak of, until Walmart's "technicians" got their hands on it. Currently trying to work with Walmart and their insurance company to see if they will pay for the replacement of my engine, parts & labor, the cost a rental car (since the GMC dealership told me it would take about 2 weeks for repair)... and I want quarts of oil for LIFE! Final estimate from GMC was $5,875!

BOOOOOOO Walmart for sure this time!! Don't get your oil changed there, go to a REAL mechanic! Just do not shop there, period.

We would like to see Walmart take responsibility for the botched job. Our thinking is that if they can't even do the retail store thing right, what chance to they have on a car with hundreds of moving parts? You would have actually been better off if Walmart didn't change your oil at all and just lied about it.

Wal-mart Automotive Center = DEATH & DESTRUCTION! [Ashlee's Blog]

Man bitten by snake in garden center [AP] (Thanks to Lee!)

Time to get serious, folks. In this round we'll take a look at the 5 most popular Consumerist stories for each company*:

Countrywide

Countrywide Invents Evidence In Foreclosure Hearing 38,583 views

Countrywide CEO Accidentally Emails Homeowner, Calls His Plea For Help "Disgusting" 19,631 views

Congress To Subprime CEOs: How Come You Got Paid Millions To Wreck The Economy? Hm? 9,306 views

Countrywide Home Loans Has Over 15,000 Repossessed Properties For Sale 8,895 views

Countrywide Is About To Foreclose On Ed McMahon 7,542 views

Wal-Mart:

Walmart "Junior" Panties Suggest That Your Genitals Are Better Than Credit Cards134,786 views

Walmart Nazi Tshirt Watch: Week 62 111,664 views

Detained And Harassed At Walmart For Not Showing A Receipt101,075 views

Walmart Tries To Steal Shopper's Baby 91,364 views

Woman Receives Severe Chemical Burns From Flip Flops, Walmart Tells Her To Complain To Manufacturer 80,547 views

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america.

( polls)

The article says,

Dakota County Judge Robert King Jr. on Monday ordered Wal-Mart to pay $6.5 million in compensatory damages, but Wal-Mart could end up paying more than $2 billion after a jury in October considers civil penalties and punitive damages.

The judge said Wal-Mart should have known the employees were working off the clock while at computer-based training terminals and "willfully allowed" it to continue. The company also failed to provide employees with rest breaks more than 1.5 million times and shortened employees' breaks more than 44,000 times, according to the order.

Wal-Mart was also found in violation of statutes relating to making and keeping employee time records and failing to let employees have any time for a meal break. While the plaintiffs won't receive compensatory damages for those violations, Wal-Mart is subject to a $1,000 civil penalty for each incident.

The ruling, which was given to the parties Monday evening, comes after judgments against Wal-Mart in Pennsylvania and California found similar violations.

In Pennsylvania, workers won a $78.5 million judgment in 2006 for working off the clock and through rest breaks. A $172 million verdict against Wal-Mart in 2005 found the company illegally denied lunch breaks in California. Wal-Mart is appealing those rulings.

May justice be fair and swift.

Minn. judge rules against Wal-Mart on work breaks [AP] (Thanks to Erik!)
(Photo: chasingfun)

• 
  
• Sears Repairman Buys A Calendar, Looks At It
• Record High Personal Savings Rate Imperils Credit Card Industry Profits
• Person With Consumer Protection Background To Run CPSC
• Best Buy Geek Squad Replaces Your Current Porn With New, Better Porn
• Company Responds To Website's Fact-Checking Inquiry With Speed And Accuracy
• Do American Airlines' New Complimentary Hot Fudge Sundaes Come With Too Many Sprinkles?
• Wal-Mart Receipt Checker Shrugs Shoulders, Says, Yeah, We Know It's Total Bullshit Anyway
• CSRS Complain About Hold Times To Speak With Busy Customers
• Newspaper Wire Service Quotes Consumer News Blog By Name
• Finally Accepting Reality, Microsoft Debuts "Refurbished XBOX 360 Of The Month Club"
• Sprint To Pay Canceling Customers $50 "Sorry We Disappointed You" Refund
• "Help! I Signed Up For FiOS And Verizon Sent Me Too Many Free LCD TVs!"
• Payday Lenders Close Due To Lack Of Interest

(Photo: El Grande Mono )

“I hate it,” said Lisa DeHoff, a cafe owner shopping in a Sam’s Club here.

“It spills everywhere,” said Amy Wise, a homemaker.

“It’s very hard for kids to pour,” said Lee Morris, who was shopping for her grandchildren.

Sam's Club is offering milk pouring lessons complete with free cookies, in an effort to help acclimate consumers to the milk jug of the future:“

Just tilt it slowly and pour slowly,” Ms. Tilton said to passing customers as she talked about the jugs’ environmental benefits and cost savings. Instead of picking up the jug, as most people tend to do, she kept it on a table and gently tipped it toward a cup.

Mike Compston, who owns a dairy in Yerington, Nev., described the pouring technique in a telephone interview as a “rock-and-pour instead of a lift-and-tip.”

Demonstrations are but one of several ways Sam’s Club is advocating the containers. Signs in the aisle laud their cost savings and “better fridge fit.”

Has anyone tried these new square jugs? Were you able to pour it? Or were you crying over... um, your inability not to spill milk?

Solution, or Mess? A Milk Jug for a Green Earth [NYT]
(Photo: David Maxwell/New York Times)

Here's what some of you had to say about these two companies:

Wal-Mart:
"They undercut the bottom lines of companies so much that the company barely gets a profit - but if the company says "No, I can't afford to switch all my manufacturing to 5 gallon jars of pickles", Walmart says they won't carry any of that brand's products.

Period."

"Wal-Mart: Squeeze your vendors, not your customers. "

"The truth was that Wal-Mart paid Logitech to use Logitech's Chinese production centers so that they could make items which looked very similar to the normal product lines, but which had components in them which were solely the responsibility of Wal-Mart (ie, not purchased, inventoried, or in any way guaranteed or the responsibility of Logitech). Wal-Mart just paid a certain amount per unit to put their crap into a shiny Logitech box and have the Logitech logo shown on it."

"I bought a GE Skillet from them a while back and it was a piece of shit. To find out why, I checked the box and it said something like "made for Wal-Mart" and ever since then, when I do venture into Wal-Mart I always check for that label."

American Airlines:
"AA just released a statement saying they will be charging $15 per checked bag and cutting flights."

"I just heard on the radio on the way to work that American Airlines is now going to staff people at TSA checkpoints to police people bringing too many carry-on bags."

"I voted for AA, because at least Microsoft pretends to care about where I want to go today!"

"They stranded me in an airport for 10 hours with no food vouchers, no hotel offer, and no way to escape (I didn't have a license or old enough to rent a car)."

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america.

We're also glad this was resolved in the customer's favor, which will probably annoy many of you who disagreed with or attacked Cliff in the original post. Here's why: Best Buy only honors price matches on in-stock items at competiting stores. Although it's quite possible that Wal-Mart was already out of stock by the time Cliff made it to the register, the manager never gave this as the reason for the denial, according to Cliff's story. The first time anyone at Best Buy brought up the in-stock condition was when a CSR said it to Cliff the next day over the phone. Since the manager made a distinction between the bundled PS3 and "any other PlayStation" but never mentioned stock being an issue, it's far more likely that he denied the gift card to Cliff for some other reason—confusion over the memo, perhaps, or a desire to protect his store sales on the day the Metal Gear Solid bundle was released.

According to Cliff, Best Buy reiterated its in-stock rule but indicated they would make an exception of sorts:

I received a call from someone at Best Buy this morning who had been made aware of the situation by Lisa Smith (Vice President Customer Care). She explained what she understood of the situation and pointed out that the company policy regarding price matches is that the item must be in stock at a competitors store.

However because of the situation and that I was a valued customer, they are going to send out a $100 gift card. I'm hoping to see it in the next 2-3 weeks!

I can't count how many times a day I refresh The Consumerist, but I'm certainly glad I've been reading it. If it weren't for your tips like escalation and knowing about the executive email carpet bomb, I would've walked away from a corporate authorized price match. Thanks for everything and keep up the amazing work!

We think they should have just left it at "because of the situation," because no matter who you are as a customer, in this case the store manager made a mistake.

Enjoy your gift card, Cliff!

RELATED
"Best Buy Ignores Internal Memo, Doesn't Honor $100 Gift Card Promo On Metal Gear Solid Bundle"

Here's what some of you had to say about these two companies:

Wal-Mart:
"I knew they pushed manufacturers to lesser quality items for their stores, but I was not expecting this to trickle down to frozen pizza. I know they have committed greater evils, but man, screwing with a DiGiorno should be punishable by death."

"I bought a GE Skillet from them a while back and it was a piece of shit. To find out why, I checked the box and it said something like "made for Wal-Mart" and ever since then, when I do venture into Wal-Mart I always check for that label."

Wellpoint:
"Personal information that may have included Social Security numbers and pharmacy or medical data for about 128,000 WellPoint Inc. customers in several states was exposed online over the past year, the health insurer said Tuesday."

"$2600 root canal - they covered about $435. filling? $16. right, like any licensed dentist is going to do a filling for $16."

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america.

Hi Cliff, My name is Lisa Smith and I am responsible for Customer Care at Best Buy. I want to apologize to you for what happened in our Pasadena store on Thursday; I completely understand why that was a perplexing a frustrating situation. You had “done your homework” and chosen to give us your business and we disappointed you. I certainly appreciate the efforts you made and also appreciate you taking the time to let us know what happened. Someone from my team will be in touch with you on Monday in effort to make things right. Best Regards, Lisa Smith

Hey Cliff! Let us know what happens.

I was at the Germantown Wal*Mart to buy four bags of sugar because earlier in the day I had been at Butler’s Orchard picking 10 pounds of strawberries to turn into delicious jam. And to make delicious jam, you need lots of sugar. I grabbed four bags and headed to the checkout, where I also decided I could use some refreshment. I grabbed a Mountain Dew from the cooler, but the cashier had already processed my card for the four bags of sugar. He apologized and rang up another transaction for the Mt. Dew. At that point, he crumpled up my receipt for the four bags of sugar and handed me the receipt for the Mountain Dew. I headed for the exit, and was greeted by Wal*Mart security who wanted to check my receipt. I produced the receipt for the Mountain Dew and explained that the cashier had tossed the other receipt for the sugar. I would repeat this explanation 6 more times before this affair ended.

At this point, I attempted to leave, but was told I could not. I immediately asked if I was being detained. I was told “no” but that I wasn’t allowed to leave unless I walked back to the cashier to get a receipt. I said that I was “happy to let the security guard talk to the cashier, but that I was heading home with my sugar.” I attempted to leave again, and the door was blocked. I asked again if I was being detained, and was told “yes.” I asked on what grounds, and the security guard said “Because you stole.”

I informed the guard I had done no such thing, that the sugar was my property, and I was leaving with it. This time I pushed passed him and left the store, with him following me demanding I stop. As I left, he grabbed my bags, ripping them open. As he followed me he attempted to grab my bags, and grab the items inside of my bags. At one point, he told me that he should “kick my ass.” As I reached the end of sidewalk outside the store and headed towards my car in the parking lot, another employee came running and blocked my path. Soon afterwards a manager arrived. I again asked if I was being detained. I was informed by the manager that I was. I again asked for what reason, and was told by the original security guard that it was for stealing. I once again informed them that I hadn’t stolen anything and that I was leaving.

At this point, the manager informed me that Wal*Mart policy did not allow me to leave the store without showing a receipt. I said that I had paid for my merchandise, that it was in fact a store employee that had thrown away my receipt, and that I was not compelled to prove that items that I legally owned belonged to anyone but me. Again I inquired whether I was being detained, and was told my only options were to go back in the store to talk to the cashier or have the police called. I informed the manager that she was welcome to call the police, because I had done nothing wrong. At tht point, she radioed for someone to call the police. Once again, I started to walk to my car as the two security guards again attempted to block my path in the parking lot.

At this point, and off duty police officer came to the scene (he appeared to be heading into Wal*Mart to shop, not the one called by the manager), showed his badge, and asked for an explanation. Everyone was calmed by this, and tensions visibly eased on the faces of the Wal*Mart employees. I explained my side, and Wal*Mart employees explained their side. After the explanations, I asked the police officer if I was being detained, and he said yes. I asked on what grounds, and he said “suspicion of theft.” The officer told me I could give them “their merchandise back” and leave at that point or I could go inside and talk to the cashier. I indicated that since he was detaining me, I was willing to go back into the store and speak with the cashier, but that the merchandise belonged to me. At this point, one of the bags of sugar fell from my ripped bags and split open on the pavement. It was an accident, but I could tell no one believed me when I said so.

On the way into the store, the officer informed me that it was his day off, he had important things to do, and he didn’t want to take me to jail. But I had one last chance to give them their merchandise back and just leave, because if I wasn’t telling the truth, he would personally drive me to the station. I agreed wholeheartedly with him, and told him so. I’m fairly certain he thought I had actually stolen the sugar at this point. He then asked what I needed so much sugar for anyway. At the time, I was literally covered with strawberry juice. It had stained my shorts and shirt red, and I thought it was fairly believable that I was going to make strawberry jam. He still seemed skeptical, asking where I had been picking strawberries, and only seemed to believe me after I was able to name Butler’s Orchard. He then asked if I had ID, what my name was, and how old I was. Upon telling him this, he said “You better not be lying to me,” so perhaps I was too quick to think he didn’t assume I was guilty.

Of course, upon re-entering the store and speaking with the cashier, he informed everyone that I had paid for the sugar and the receipt was found in his trash can. His story differed slightly in that he told them he had given me the receipt but I had thrown it into his trash can. That was impossible based on where his trash can was from the checkout counter, but it didn’t matter. The original security guard was cordial, shook my hand, and apologized. The Wal*Mart manager and police officer lectured about how next time if I just cooperated and gave up my rights at the beginning, it would have been much easier on everyone. Trust me, Wal*Mart, there won’t be a next time.

If you defend Wal-Mart for this treatment of an average customer, you are a slave. There are other ways to prevent shoplifting. How about the security guard follows the suspected shoplifter to his car to take down his license plate while radioing someone in the store to confirm whether or not his story is legit? Besides that, Ben had four bags of sugar in Wal-Mart branded plastic bags—the likelihood that he was shoplifting them was low, and the value of the sugar to the store was virtually nonexistent compared to other merchandise that was and is probably being stolen from Wal-Marts all over America this weekend. No matter how belligerent a customer is in this situation, the guard, manager, and officer should remember that if the customer is innocent, he has a right to be belligerent and offended that he's being harrassed to such a degree—especially over something as trivial as four bags of sugar.

Update: Ben wrote back to us, "To their credit, they did replace the bag of sugar."

"Detained by Montgomery County Police For Buying Sugar" [Metblogs] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)
(Photo: kaibara87)

Update: Best Buy's VP of Executive Customer Care has emailed Cliff saying someone will follow up with him on Monday. What will happen? We hope Cliff lets us know...

Update 2: Best Buy has contacted Cliff! Find out what they said.

When he called customer service to complain, he was told that the bundle was pulled from the offer because Wal-Mart was out of stock, and they only match stocked merchandise. However, Cliff was 7th in line to buy the bundle the day it went on sale, and he was given the out-of-stock reason the next day by a distant CSR, not the store manager. The store manager never mentioned it as a reason to refuse the sale in the first place.

Here's Cliff's story. It's a long one, but we figured you'd want all the details unedited:

This is in regards to my recent experience at the Best Buy store in Pasadena, CA (Store 125).

On Thursday, June 12th, I went to the Best Buy in Pasadena, CA with the intent to purchase the Metal Gear Solid Playstation 3 Bundle and a 40" Samsung LCD TV. I arrived about an hour and 45 minutes before store opening and found myself 7th in line to purchase the Metal Gear Solid Playstation 3 Bundle.

At 10:00 am, a gentleman in a white button shirt, black slack, and walkie talkie came out and proceeded to give everyone in line instruction on how they would be handling the distribution of the Metal Gear Solid Playstation 3 Bundle. I was pleased to see that they were handing out numbered tickets and letting people in groups of 5 to enter, as not to create a rush for the systems.

Upon checkout I presented the Sales Associate with an ad I had found online from Wal-Mart. This ad (see attached) states that, "You'll get a $100 Wal-Mart Gift Card when you buy any Blu-ray player." From what I understand from websites such as slickdeals.net, Best Buy corporate had sent out a memo stating that they would honor the price match.

The Sales Associate reviewed the ad and stated that they could not price match the Playstation 3. I made mention of the corporate memo and asked for a supervisor. One was called over who also reviewed the ad, again she stated that they were not honoring the ad because it had expired. I explained to her that it was a new ad again made mention of the memo. She proceeded to radio her manager to find out details on it. It was at this point that I saw the gentleman who was handing out the numbered tickets responding to her questions. I now assumed him to be the store manager.

The store manager stated to me that they were not honoring the Wal-Mart ad. Once again I mentioned the memo, and he said to me, "You can buy any other Playstation and you can get the gift card, but not on that one." I pointed out that it was for any Blu-ray player and he just repeated himself. In frustration I gave up but went ahead and purchased it since I had already waited so long.

I decided to try Wal-Mart but unfortunately by the time I had gotten there they were already out of them. Despite all of this I returned to the Pasadena store and purchased a 40" Samsung LCD TV.

Imagine my frustration when I returned home to later find that people were successful in getting Best Buy to honor the price match, one that had already been authorized by corporate. I had just spent a total of $1,904.35 at a Best Buy store that denied me a price match that was authorized by corporate.

Today I called customer service to resolve the issue, but found that they were equally unhelpful. I first spoke to Cicero and was suddenly disconnected after explaining my situation. As a side note, I don't really understand what the purpose of asking for my phone number is if the CSR doesn't call back when you're cut off.

I called again and waited on hold to speak with Vanessa, who confirmed to me that corporate had issued a memo, but a possible reason I was denied was because Wal-Mart was sold out of the system. I later spoke to her supervisor, Daniel, who explained the same. His only reasoning was that Wal-Mart had sold out, however this was not the explaination I received from the Pasadena store manager.

I am extremely frustrated and disappointed with this whole situation. I chose to go to Best Buy over Wal-Mart and Circuit City because it my first choice when buying electronics. I expected Best Buy to honor the Wal-Mart ad as instructed by corporate, however I was first told that the Metal Gear Solid Playstation 3 was excluded from the offer. I was later told that it was because Wal-Mart had sold out, and it was against policy to price match unless it is in stock. This is the most frustrating part of it all because had the store manager explained that to me from the beginning I might have accepted it. They never offered to check the other stores stock, and when they did it was already a day later.

I find it unacceptable that Best Buy would send out a memo and allow a store and customer service to ignore it. The success people have had in price matching further adds to my frustration. While I do not have "Reward Zone Program Premier Silver" status, I wonder how you would feel had a "Premier Silver" member been treated this way.

It sounds like the Best Buy manager was protecting his numbers on the bundle, and that Best Buy is trying to close off the conversation by using the out-of-stock argument after the fact.

Wal-Mart:

"I am voting for walmart because of their low wages, the dead eyes in many of its employees (I know..... I used to be one long ago),and their tendancy to drive their manufacturers out of business/into bankruptcy by demanding lower & lower costs."

"To me Wal-Mart is the epitome of everything that is bad in our country right now. Outsourcing of jobs to China. Low quality dangerous goods. Putting mom and pop stores out of business and making the entire country look like a homogenized genericana wasteland."

"in a battle of evil, it's always Wal-Mart. Always."

"Wal-Mart's biggest crime? They stole the smiley face. Give us back Mr. Smiley Face!"

"I knew they pushed manufacturers to lesser quality items for their stores, but I was not expecting this to trickle down to frozen pizza. I know they have committed greater evils, but man, screwing with a DiGiorno should be punishable by death."

"walmart knowingly uses its size against its manuafacterers. When walmart says they will sell a manufacturer's product the manufacturer first gets a decent deal from walmart, but has to retool & buy more manufacturing facilities in order to meet walmart's demand. THEN once the manufacturer is in debt & dependant upon walmart.... walmart puts the squeeze on.... demanding lower costs. And this happens every time the contract is negotiated and eventually the manufacturer goes under."

"Walmart is actively evil. Eviscerating middle class family stores? Evil. Workers rights violations, shoddy pay, dangerous products made for the poor, ironically made by the poor of the third world. Evil. They make a profit off of screwing people over."

"They drive smaller stores out of business so people have to drive to their instead of walking to the smaller ones. "

"I will say that it's usually the terrible store managers that ruin the experience for both the employees, and the customers end up getting the brunt of it. As a former supervisor, I'd probably still be there part-time if it weren't for the constant belittling that my coworkers and I went through."

" Not shopping there isn't always easy. In some areas, pre-existing businesses crumble in Wal-Mart's wake, and those who don't may drive their prices up, or resort to selling crap as well.

I'm not sure that Wal-Mart hasn't "allowed" instances of identity theft and fraud. Given the number of stores they have, and the amount of business that they do, I don't think it's implausible. Maybe we just haven't heard about it yet.

Wal-Mart DOES cost taxpayers. As of 2004, they had received at least 650 million (and that's a generous, low end estimate. I've seen figures as high as 1 billion) dollars in government subsidies — free/low-cost land, job training funds, sales tax rebates, tax credits, infrastructure assistance. This doesn't include the Wal-Mart employees who have qualified for -and taken- food stamps (or other forms of public assistance), or those who have enrolled themselves/their kids in health programs run by the states. How much unemployment has been paid out to those who have lost jobs in their communities when Wal-Marts rolled in?

I'm sure Wal-Mart has done some a great amount of good in some of the communities they've entered, but many of their actions have been/are worthy of contempt. "

"I bought a GE Skillet from them a while back and it was a piece of shit. To find out why, I checked the box and it said something like "made for Wal-Mart" and ever since then, when I do venture into Wal-Mart I always check for that label.

Actually, come to think of it, the last thing I bought after that skillet was a small grill, otherwise I haven't bothered with Wal-Mart for any appliances."

"Has Wal-Mart given any money to the gay and lesbian cause here lately? I hear they are running out of rainbow posters."

Citibank:

"Best Buy lost (stole) my mothers laptop that was left @ the Geek Squad. It was a lemon junker so we disputed the charge with the credit card company (Citibank) when Best Buy refused to do anything about it. Long story short. We actually LOST that dispute. Couldn't believe it. We had a clear cut case with a police report even. 100% legit FRAUD on Best Buy's part. Citibank said they were "unable to secure a credit from Best Buy's bank" therefore there was nothing they could do. We would have to sue Best Buy in court. Nice dispute handling Citibank. Two months later we get an advertisment with our Citibank statement with special offers from Best Buy in it. NO WONDER they couldn't do anything for us. Bastards."

"

Once I was locked out of my online Citi account after entering my password correctly (seriously-no caps lock, I pecked each letter to get it right). I called because I had a payment due that day, and I was asked what my reminder word was. I said, "It should be [x]."
"Sorry that's not right."
"OK, then it's it's [x] with an Z at the end."

From this point on, he chose to completely ignore my second answer.

"When you submitted this you picked a pet's name."
"No, that's just the subject I picked. I never use my pets' names."
"But you picked that."
"That's not the word I used. How stupid would it be to use a word so easily guessed?"
"Well look, it says a pet name. What are your pet names?"
"Tima, Janeane, and Raz."
"None of those are the answer."
"I just SAID it's not one of those. Look, if it's not [x] it's [x] with an Z at the end. I already said that."
"Neither of those is right. I won't discuss this any further."

At this point he got a lovely explosion in his ear about his inadequate level of intelligence and various other lovlies I shouldn't repeat. I hung up and immediately called the same number, getting a woman this time. I explained my situation, that I'd already spoken with a Mongoloid, and was hoping she could help. She asked my word, and I said, "It's either [x] or [x] with an O at the end."
"OK, wait about five minutes, and your account will be working again."

That guy's only one of various CSRs who have been relatively useless. "

"citibank's lending practices seem to be similar to payday/title loan shops"

"Citibank held my savings account funds hostage for almost 3 months. It was an epic saga. Then again, my parents met while they both worked at Citibank. Can I vote against the place that allowed my parents to meet, and therefore allowed me to be born? What a dilemma."

"

Citibank (I prefer to call them "ShittyBank") had a legit promotion going for a "free ipod" where you HAD to apply online for a checking account.

Did that, filled out everything they requested, then waited. And waited. And Waited. about a couple three weeks, with calls in to them to check on it. Then the idiots decide that you need to bring ID to a local branch because anyone could be anyone online - (OK, that's true, but if I have to go into the bank anyway what's the point of applying online, eh?). So I go to my local branch, show IDs and such to the manager and have them contact their seemingly incompetent online banking division to (hopefully) move things along. Also opened up a savings account while I was there to get interest on the minimum required balance for the promo. The checking account needed to come from the online monkeys because they initiated it.

So I took my savings account info home, and waited and waited and waited.... more screwing around over the phones with their online people and wasted calls to the manager of a couple local ShittyBank branches just to open a checking account(!). About a month-and-a-half in I had my checking account and ipod on the way, and couldn't wait for the 366th day when I could cancel that account and never have to deal with these idiots again.

If that's the caliber of intelligence floating around our financial centers then I'll go with the opinion that it was stupidity and not *all* corruption that led bankers to believe houses would never stop increasing in value and that poor people would suddenly become rich under Republican policies. I'm going mattress shopping soon, as the S&L's were killed off by the Reaganite deregulated greed + corruption and Banks seem to be headed in the same direction now. Lay off the Koolade, dummies. "

"its contribution to the subprime mortgage crisis is inexcusable."

"Way back when I was a young thing in college, I came home one day to a very nervous roommate who had taken a screaming, angry call from a Citi rep (I had a student credit card). Said rep refused to believe my roommate's telling her that I was in class and therefore unavailable, and berated the roommate at length, telling her "you'd better make sure she calls me back".

Mystified, because I was paid up, I called back. Turned out there was some minor discrepancy in their records regarding my address and they wanted to call me to confirm it was correct."

"Sure, let's sell you a mortgage you can't afford, then package it for speculators. The US Government will bail us out when it all comes crashing down. We're a bank, so we deserve huge fees for basic customer service, but when it comes to actual banking, we forgot how to do it right. Our bad."

"I voted Citibank because they had my student loans while I was an undergrad. In my senior year, they refused to process my in-school deferment and one of their reps told me that if I had continued taking out new Citibank loans they would have acted differently.

Despite my efforts to get them to acknowledge that I was in school, fulltime, and filed my paperwork by registered mail, they still refused to defer my payments and as such, I ran into default. It took a year of garnished wages before the DOE finally helped me move my loans over to Sallie Mae.

I hate Citibank and I know that I have cost them at least $100K in business by insuring that none of my friends or family ever open or use Citi accounts for anything. No one has a Sears, Home Depot, or other company card that is handled by this horrible company and I will continue to dissuade everyone from using them.

And no...there is nothing Citi can do short of erasing my loan debt to them completely, before I ever forgive them.

Congrats Citi...you made a lifelong enemy out of me and I will tell everyone I know what you did to me and I hope I can deny you $1 million or more in business by spreading the word."

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: Capital One vs ATT, Sallie Mae vs eBay/Paypal, TransUnion vs Diebold, Best Buy vs CompUSA, DeBeers vs Verizon, Exxon vs United Airlines, Sony vs Ticketmaster, Comcast vs The American Arbitration Association

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.

Best Buy told the Chicago Tribune that they were "extremely disappointed" by the fine because they'd made a good faith effort to pull all analog-only tuners off the sales floor last October. As for some of the other companies, "Wal-Mart did not immediately comment, while a message to Sears was not returned." That's probably because Sears' phone has been disconnected for failure to pay its bill.

"Sears, Wal-Mart, others fined for analog TV labeling" [Chicago Tribune] (Thanks to Tim!)
(Photo: Getty)

Horwitz describes how, in the hours before Katrina struck, Wal-Mart's CEO laid out a ground plan of autonomy to store managers to do what they felt was best—in effect, giving them permission to take fairly radical actions that in other circumstances would have been considered criminal:

Another element of Wal-Mart's successful response was the great degree of discretion that the company gave to district and store managers. Store managers have sufficient authority to make decisions based on local information and immediate needs. As the storm approached, CEO Lee Scott provided a guiding edict to his senior staff and told them to pass it down to regional, district, and store managers: "A lot of you are going to have to make decisions above your level. Make the best decision that you can with the information that's available to you at the time, and, above all, do the right thing."
 
In several cases, store managers allowed either emergency personnel or local residents to take store supplies as needed. They did not feel the need to get pre-approval from supervisors to do so. A Kenner, Louisiana employee used a forklift to knock open a warehouse door to get water for a local retirement home. In Marrero, Louisiana employees allowed local police officers to use the store as a headquarters and a sleeping place as many had lost their homes.
 
In Waveland, Mississippi assistant manager Jessica Lewis, who was unable to reach her superiors to get permission, decided to run a bulldozer through her store to collect basics that were not water-damaged, which she then piled in the parking lot and gave away to residents. She also broke into the store's locked pharmacy to supply critical drugs to a local hospital.

To the extent that Wal-Mart (and market capitalism more generally) have both encouraged people to deal with each other on the basis of voluntary exchange rather than force and have raised the standard of living so greatly, especially of the poor, they have made the world a more peaceful place. And in the long run, their contributions to peace are probably far greater and longer-lasting than the politicians and social missionaries who normally get the Prize.

Thanks for linking to my study on Wal-Mart and Katrina. I've been reading the comments section and rather than post myself, I thought I'd email you with three clarifications/corrections that you can either add yourself or tack to the end of the entry or just ignore. :)
 
1. I do NOT work for Wal-Mart. I sometimes shop there though. I'm a college professor at the opposite end of the country from the Gulf Coast and equally far from Bentonville. [He's a professor of economics at St. Lawrence University in New York.]
 
2. The wikipedia entry on Austrian economics is pretty good explanation of what the school of thought is about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_School
 
3. The 1112am commenter about what an Austrian economist supposedly said about 20-30% unemployment etc, is simply false. Nor does Austrian economics say everything should be "left to corporations."

 
In the commentary on last quarters scores, ACSI says they've started including Nordstrom again because of its increasing market share, and back before it dropped off the survey in 2001, it held the top spot frequently, so no surprise there.

They also suggest that Dollar General, "which typically serves neighborhoods that may be too small to attract Wal-Mart," may be scoring high because of its wide variety of items in such small retail spaces.

Sears and Kmart are pretty much exactly where we'd expect them after their plunging customer service last year.

One thing we're not sure about is how the various recall disasters last year affected scores—clearly Dollar General emerged unscathed, despite its healthy dose of lead-tainted toys, Halloween pails, and holiday decorations.

"Q4 2007 and Historical ACSI Scores" [ACSI]
"Customer Satisfaction Falls Again; Retail, Financial Services Down; Wal-mart, Home Depot at All-Time Lows" [ACSI]

RELATED
"How are ACSI data collected?" [ACSI]

(Thanks to Shaula!)

The television station NBC5i in Fort Worth, Texas, got some first-person accounts of the screw-up.

Shopper Mary Garcia said she eventually got her card to work.

"The first time she scanned it, it didn't beep, and I thought, 'Hopefully, whoever gave this to me did really put money in there,'" she said.

Misty Kiesendahl, another Wal-Mart customer, said no one at the store told shoppers there was a problem with the cards."They weren't saying anything," she said. "There was no one there to help us. We went through the self-checkout line, and no one came to help us."Kiesendahl said her card worked after four or five tries.

In a statement, Wal-Mart said once it discovered the problem, it investigated and found that a "third-party verifier's systems had an inadvertent processing error." The retailer said the error caused delays in gift card verifications."We are working with the supplier to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and we apologize for the inconvenience to our customers."

RELATED
"Computer Glitch Affects Use Of Wal-Mart Gift Cards" [NBC5i]
"Wal-Mart finds gift card error" [BusinessWeek]

Okay, seriously: is there some sort of Adbusters-financed shadow organization that's sneaking intentionally bad sign makers into our discount superstore workforce? Or do we need to start searching for an emoticon that represents "Idiocracy"? Huh huh?

(Thanks to Josh!)

Business Week notes that her claim of suffering retaliation is going to be hard to prove conclusively, since she wasn't openly harassed and since she did end up finding another job at Wal-Mart. Lowry acknowledges that she faces an uphill battle: ""Wal-Mart has been very careful about the way it's handled me—there's been no loss of wages and I haven't been demoted. Still, I think that I did the right thing and they did me wrong by disclosing my identity."

Lowry says she should have cause for action because the company disclosed her identity, a potential form of retaliation. But that argument hasn't been tested yet, says Michael Kohn, general counsel at the National Whistleblower Center, a Washington (D.C.) group that reviews laws to ensure proper protection for whistleblowers.

RELATED
"Wal-Mart Whistleblower Finally Has New Job (At Wal-Mart), But Says Ordeal Was Harrowing"
(Photo: Getty)

Wal-Mart announced the recall after its own testing discovered high levels of lead, and it notified the CPSC of the results. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman replied, "We informed the supplier and the CPSC and we felt we had to let our customers know what we'd found." But Wal-Mart still won't provide more information on the recalled toys, leading to a strange battle of wills between the CPSC and the retailer. What gives, Wal-Mart? Afraid of losing your lead-toys competitive edge? The CPSC is legally bound to not disclose details now that the toys are being officially tested, but we're not sure what Wal-Mart's legal obligation is since it announced the recall on its own.

"US product watchdog agency: Wal-Mart toy recall lacked some consumer information" [International Herald Tribune]
(Photo: Getty)

After another customer alerted Smith to the potential shoplifter, she began checking receipts at the exit. When the suspect came out of the in-store McDonald's and headed for the exit, Smith intercepted her and pointed out that the receipt didn't match what was in the cart. The suspect ran out of the store, then had a change of heart and came back in:

Then the irate shopper rushed back into Wal-Mart, screaming at Smith and wielding a Mickey D's cup of soda, police said. They say she smashed the drink over Smith's shoulder and landed a hard hook to her cheek. Police said she slugged another associate in the eye, spit in the face of a loss-prevention employee and pummeled another manager who grabbed her shopping cart. No one was seriously injured.

Surely there's more to the story than what the article is reporting, but even if you have a no-touching-customers rule, shouldn't allowances be made for self defense?

"Woman fired after stopping robbery" [Times Herald-Record] (Thanks to Jean!)
(Photo: Getty)

Her boss was found innocent, but regardless of that, it seems odd to make the follow-up procedures for a trained whistleblower so punishing. "The past four months have been very hard and, in my opinion, unfair to an honest, 51-year-old woman who chose to do the right thing," she told BusinessWeek, who broke the story this summer and published a follow-up this week. In September, Lowry filed a complaint with OSHA, which forbids retaliation against whistleblowers under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

On October 1st, Wal-Mart informed Lowry that her new position is permanent, but coincidentally the woman she is now working under "was the attorney at Enron who was given the task of handling Sherron Watkins' request for reassignment to a new position after Watkins wrote a memo to then-CEO Ken Lay questioning the company's accounting."

On a positive note, it's likely that nobody at Wal-Mart HQ will ever ask Lowry to make photocopies for them. Good luck, Chalace Lowry! We're rooting for ya!

"Wal-Mart Whistleblower Lands a Job" [BusinessWeek]
(Photo: Getty)

BusinessWeek wonders whether this will trigger the standard Wal-Mart cost-cutting war that leads to lower prices for consumers, or whether Wal-Mart will try to be more competitive through offering superior customer service—an area it hasn't excelled at lately. As an example, they cite Wal-Mart's successful flat-panel TV push last Christmas, which was a disaster for Circuit City and CompUSA, but led to many returns from Wal-Mart customers who were left on their own when it came to installation.

"Broadband Across America: Through Wal-Mart, Hughes Brings High-Speed Internet to Rural Communities" [press release]
"Wal-Mart's Latest Sale: Broadband" [Business Week]
(Photo: Getty)

Despite that mysterious anecdote, all three stores Business Week sampled scored high on cleanliness. The big failure in all three, however, was customer service, which continues to nose-dive due to poor morale:

As the experience with the cashier in Uniondale illustrates, many of Wal-Mart's workers feel outright hostility toward the company, and, by extension, they often treat customers with indifference or worse. That puts Wal-Mart in a box. Without reasonable service, the company is forced to compete almost solely on price. That in turn squeezes margins and makes it difficult to pay employees the better wages and benefits that could boost morale. It's a vicious cycle that now appears to be working against Wal-Mart.

It's the only area of health care that hasn't risen sharply, says the New York Times, and it's at least in part because more consumers are turning to generic drugs, and because new generic versions of popular drugs are coming out. But there's also speculation that Wal-Mart's $4 generic drug program, which it launched last year, has helped. For one thing, it's prompted competitors like Target and Kmart to offer or expand their own discount programs. But it may have also helped drive market prices down. One Labor Department economist said he noticed a dramatic drop in generic drug prices after the $4 plan was launched.

Earlier this month, Wal-Mart announced that they'd offer their employees 2,400 $4 generic drugs, over 2,000 more than what they sell to the public. The Labor Department economist says the drop could be a one-time phenomenon unless the big discounters expand the number of drugs they offer. Nobody knows whether or not that will happen, but Wal-Mart has said that later this month "it may make an announcement regarding its generic drug program for consumers." In the meantime, look at our earlier post on how to find the cheapest drugs.

"Helped by Generics, Inflation of Drug Costs Slows" [New York Times]
(Photo: Getty)

We're not sure about the details of these details—do the $5/month premiums pay for largely pointless "limited benefit" plans? What deductibles are being eliminated, exactly?— but it's a step in the right direction.

There are still some valid criticisms. Wal-Mart Watch points out that low wages and long waiting periods (before qualifying for insurance) mean that for a large group of employees, these plans are still unaccessible, and that the new plan is better seen as more of an upgrade for current insurance hol