Customer Service

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Rant ON!
Stopped at the Mart of Wallace in Rushville Saturday.
Father in law called us from N. Vernon, and said he was sick.
This is a guy who used to throw people out of windows, get thrown out of windows, Survived having his truck blown out from under him just north of Monte Cassini, and two or three weeks of being a POW...
Any hoo, tough guy.
When he calls and says he's sick, we saddle up.
By the time I got to Rushville, I had to whiz something terrible, and always like to stop in their Wallymart to look for ammo.
I've referred to it a few times in threads...
Stopped, took care of business, and went to the sporting goods counter.
And waited.
Having played this game before, (I know the #$@# number by now) I called the customer service desk and asked the nice lady to page me some help back.
She did, and I waited.
and waited.
Finally called her again, and chewed her a LITTLE bit, and she paged again. After about another 5 or 6 minutes, (did I mention I could HEAR associates in nearby aisles talking to each other as they were stocking shelves??) Some fella came down (a customer) and asked if anyone had shown up yet. I informed him I was about to use some colorful language. He walked up the aisle about a hundred feet to a fella stocking shelves, and asked if HE could help us. The fella said "Sure! Be right with ya!" and WENT BACK TO STOCKING SHELVES! After about two or three more minutes I couldn't take it anymore, and left.
On the way out of town I got my blood pressure down, and googled them, and called. The asst. manager answered, and I chewed on him, quite a bit. To his credit, he remained professional, (and no, with one exception, I didn't use colorful language.) and, upon learning that I'd be coming through that evening, offered to pass my grievance on to the evening manager, and told me to come back in, and they'd make it right.
Long story short, they did, to the tune of a small gift card, and a PROMISE to talk to the associates about how important to customer service it is to actually SERVE THE CUSTOMER, and about how that is, pretty much, the point of brick and mortar retail.
The evening manager just flat took responsibility, apologized, and did what he could to make it right. I was favorably impressed.
NOW.... what's gonna happen the next time I call the nice lady at the customer service desk and ask to have someone paged back to me for customer service??? Proof is in the pudding,, I guess...

RANT OFF!!

 

[slimplmbr]

Had a similar experience at that Wal-Mart sporting goods counter no more than 2 weeks ago. Bought some ammo used gift cards and debit card, had to type in the number mag stripr didnt work and it needed manager approval. 4 or 5 pages (lost count) and 25 mins later a manager showed up saying he never heard any pages except the last. After a little a$$ chewing got a decent gift card and the same ole BS about we will change that and so on. I will go in again and see what happens also, but if they are gonna make me wait so long I will gladly complain and take the gift cards

 

[Scutter01]

I hope "made it right" means "let you buy more than two boxes"...

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

two boxes of CBs and a box of the win 555 bulk .22s. Just what I originally intended to buy. Rushville had SOME ammo when everyone else was dry. Of course, THEY sprung for the two boxes of Federal 00 buck yesterday.... and a bag of dog food, on the gift card. Aggravating, but at least they did try.

 

[bwframe]

I don't strictly boycott Walmart. I do try to treat them like the devil, dealing with them very, very sparingly.

 

[MarlinMan68]

Good for you.The only good thing about buying ammo at Wallyworld is the price.

 

[alwalker84]

I called the Walmart on pendelton pike in indy and asked to speak with someone in sporting goods once. She transfered me...no one answered....came back to the lady at the service desk, she sent me back to the sporting goods line again...no one answered. So when it came back to her again, I asked her could she page someone....this hefer had the audacity to flat out tell me NO (with an attitude)...WTF!. I had a few words for her but my ignorant friend yelled an odsenity starting with and F in the phone, so I hung up.

Anyways...she was very rude...p'd me off...

 

[Griffeycom]

Have you ever heard the story of Sam Walton himself going into his stores while he was still alive and if he would be treated poorly (since people rarely recognized him) he would fire the associates on the spot.

True story or not, it's too bad customer service isn't held in higher regard these days! Since hearing that story I've always thought to myself that I would like to be known as a CEO or whatever to be able to do that with my company, big dream but whatever

 

[ArmyMP]

I used to work at walmart... I swear the sporting goods department managers know nothing... there was a meeting at my store and they spent 20 minutes refering to 7mm remington rounds as pistol ammunition..... Now thats a pistol i want.... sniper pistol to the rescue..... None of them at least of the managers in this area know anything about firearms....

 

[thompal]

NOW.... what's gonna happen the next time I call the nice lady at the customer service desk and ask to have someone paged back to me for customer service???

Same thing. They make $8/hour or so, work miserable hours, terrible benefits, if any, and get treated like dung by everyone: bosses and customers alike.

In other words, they don't care. It's not the worst job in the world, but it's not far off. You'd do them a favor by getting them fired. The next job they find would almost certainly be better.

 

[amboran]

I would suggest calling 1800WALMART whenever you have a problem-this way corporate headquarters finds out about these poorly staffed stores and maybe(well there's always hope) that things will improve. I fear they have cut back on help(especially in sporting goods) even more than the economy has slowed. I have too often believed this "recession" has been caused by poor management decisions of not enough help in the stores AND not enough product on the shelves. Several different stores (not just Wallyworld)don't want my money- 'cause they don't provide the products or service.
Most LGS have figured this out-to their credit-the more you have-the more you sell. Economics 101

 

[theweakerbrother]

I would expect nothing less from WalMart... it's a big box store, you aren't paying for customer service.

It doesn't meant it isn't as frustrating as heck when it occurs.

 

[lawrra]

I typically have to wait 10 minutes for someone to show up to the sporting goods counter in the Huntington Walmart. I've been tempted to pick up the phone and page someone myself.

 

[Hornett]

In Bedford, there is only ONE person in the w h o l e store that has the key to the ammo. I have come to believe that many of the associates standing around don't come to the counter because they don't have the key and can't help you anyway. I have had an associate come up, ask me what I want, then have to run off and try to find the Keymaster to get in to the ammo.
After all, ammo is very dangerous you know.

Makes me think of buying a box of 22's at the hardware store in my youth.