Shawn is a Sam’s Club member and on a recent shopping trip to buy a Wii he thought he’d snagged the very last one, but when the cashier tried to ring the item up something went wrong. Turns out that Sam’s Club was “saving” that Wii for a “Grand Re-Opening” party and refused to sell it to Shawn and his girlfriend.

My girlfriend and I decided that since we have extra pay cheques this month, we were going to purchase a Nintendo Wii for ourselves. Like everyone else who seems to be searching for a Nintendo Wii, we became giddy when we think we’ve finally found one.

Last Saturday I found myself picking up a few items at Sam’s Club (335 Fanshawe Park Road W. London, ON Canada) with my girlfriend. I wandered over to the cage where they keep the electronics and asked the woman working if they have any in stock. Surprise! They have one last one left. Speaking to the girl in the cage, she tells me she can hold it for 30mins at most while we finish shopping. I skipped like a little girl to find my girlfriend and explained we have 30mins to purchase said Wii. Within 10mins we’re at the cage to make our purchase…..only not.

At first, the item won’t scan. The woman, who was friendly and very helpful throughout what will become an ordeal, tried to scan it several times. No dice. The woman attempted customer service but made no head way and continued to scan it. Something must have sparked in her head because she checks to make sure she can even sell it, which according to the book she can. Next she calls her manager, she explains the situation up until that moment, and apparently they have 100 in stock, but can’t sell them until Thursday for their grand re-opening! The woman helping even asked her manager why they would have one in the cage and 99 hidden in the back. Not being happy with the answers, no fault of the woman helping me, I asked her to have her manager come over so I talk to her personally. Guess what? She’s too busy to talk to me about something so trivial on a Saturday morning. I was told if I wanted my Wii so bad, I could come to the store the following Thursday morning at 7am and wait in line to perhaps get one. It’s not like I have to work full time in order to pay for items or anything.

Not losing my cool, I thanked the woman attempting to help us, as she spent a fair amount of time trying to help us as much as possible, which was greatly appreciated (I wish I had her name to thank her, but alas, I was pretty angry at this point) and walked over to customer service to get a district managers phone number. Of course, they “don’t have a district manger”, but was offered head office’s phone number.

I’ve now made three phone calls to head office, once after hours (left a voice mail), twice during business hours (again, voice mail….does anyone actually work there?). I’ve yet to have any of the phone calls returned some two weeks later.

I’ve often sang the praise of Sam’s Club, even purchasing memberships for 3 other members within my family (my parents, my brother/sister in law, her parents), but this just isn’t right. I just want to know why they have items for sale but refuse to sell them, why a manager won’t speak to me regarding an issue within the store and why head office refuses to return phone calls. Considering we have to purchase a membership for the privilege to shop, I would think I at least deserve an explanation.

So Ben and gang, aside from cancelling the membership (which we use often having two kitties and our tummies to fill), what can be done to get their attention? Please help!

Aside from posting your complaint on the internet, which you have now done, you could give Walmart’s upper management a shout. Here’s some Walmart contact information. We understand that they’re holding some Wiis for their little party, but if it was out on the floor that was their mistake and they should have tried to compensate you for the inconvenience. Maybe you should switch to another warehouse store?

(Photo: Jason_Percival )

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