Lack of patience? Or just fed up.
Posted: October 10, 2012 Filed under: customer service, random | Tags: Wal-Mart, wrong prices 24 CommentsThis weekend I had the joy of shopping in Wal-Mart. Not a really unusual experience as this is where I end up most of the time. However, this time I was buying two movies (with my personal money) and had looked at the cost the day before so I knew how much they should be. Imagine my surprise to see one of them $5 cheaper! So I grab the movies and head to the counter along with the few other things we had stopped in to buy (charcoal mainly as they were running a sale). She rings everything up…and its $5 more than I expected. I politely question the movie that was marked as full price on the little price thing and she rings for a CSM. 5 minutes go by, a line is building up behind me and there is no CSM on the way. I just handed her the money as I *hate* when a line is building up behind me and stalked out of there. (Okay stalk is a harsh word as it wasn’t her fault and I recognized this but I stalked out in my mind.)
Could I have returned the movie? Yes but honestly, I went in there thinking it was full price. It was a pleasant surprise to see it marked $5 cheaper and I had the money anyways. It was more the fact that this is the 3rd time this has happened to me in the last 3 months. The first was my Brita Faucet Filter-the advanced models were under the tag for the basic model and were $10 cheaper because of this. I couldn’t find anything that said “advanced” or whatever on the tag and compared the other tag (with the basic models under that tag) to the cheaper one. Couldn’t find a difference and as all the models matched, we thought it was a special sale. It took 15 minutes for the CSM to answer that call and another 5 minutes for her to bring us the “correct” model. So I took the basic model as I didn’t really care about the differences and mainly just did not want to pay an extra $10. She even stated that everything was tagged incorrectly but she was fixing it now. If I hadn’t spent 20 minutes in the store waiting on a response, I might have argued it farther about the fact that the entire shelf was marked and I wanted it for the lesser price.
On the next trip, I found a bag of charcoal for $6.48 which was $2 less than it normally was. We bought two bags (we go through a lot of charcoal in the summer) and got out to the car before I looked at the receipt. It was rung up as $8.48 for both bags. We went back in and the lady was changing the signs to $8.48 and was mentioning to another worker that too many people had caught it and this was the last one. Remembering the fuss from the last time, I decided to take my $4 loss and go away.
Sadly, out of the four grocery stores in the town that I live in, Wal-Mart is the lowest priced and most convenient for us. And it’s only most convenient in the fact that it has everything we want in it so I don’t have to make multiple trips. And I do know that mistakes happen and things get mistagged/priced but I also know that when I was working retail I had to honor certain things. Entire shelf labeled as one price? Signs hung up wrong? Both of these things were to be honored if a customer brought it up and we could clearly see what they were talking about. (If I would have found only the advanced model I was holding under the cheaper tag and everything else was the basic model? I’d have assumed a customer put it in the wrong spot and picked up the basic to begin with. Same with the movie.) It doesn’t exactly matter as I’ll still be there shopping this next weekend but I will still be peeved about it.
bogofdebt 
I find this really weird because around here if something is mislabelled they have to sell it for you at that price. For example if a flyer reads a certain thing and the item rings up more expensive…they have to honour the cheaper price, I’m pretty sure it’s the law. I’ve definitely got into an argument or two about it, most of the time they don’t want to lower the price, but they always end up doing it.
I think I need to start standing up for my consumer rights. I’ll also look into the local laws.
Now you listen here! You vote for stores with your money. If Walmart is doing a crappy job, you need to stop shopping there. Of course, if you’re poor like my wife and me, you pretty much have to shop there, which leads me to your other option. Let the line build up. Get your confidence and gumption going, get that stubborness and feeling of justice going, and let that line build up while you wait for someone to come and agree that the product you’re buying is cheaper than what rang up. I used to work at Walmart and guess what? Pricing “accidents” like that are of course not always accidents. They get people to pick up the item, and then the person doesn’t want the hassle of waiting, and so they pay full price anyway. Next time you walk in there, you start puffing up your confidence right away, so when you do have to wait for a price check, you won’t be upset by the line forming. It’s Walmarts fault that the line is growing, not yours. And anyone can go to a different line whenever they want!
AMEN TB. I hate wal mart, even though I am poor I never shop there and go to Kroger instead. It’s your money, you have to fight for it. No one else is going to!
You’re both right! I will be better about this 🙂
I’ll follow this advice next time! And yes, there will be a next time as this is the cheapest spot for us with everything we want.
I really hate Wal-mart. Whenever I shop there, stuff rings up wrong. 20 cents here and 45 cents there. I don’t want to waste more time going to customer service or holding up the line to get it fixed so I just pay it. I hate that place.
Same here. Normally I don’t mind the few cents difference, but it was when I started to hit whole dollar amounts that I started paying more attention.
I would never, ever accept that. You should either refuse the item at the register or immediately go up to customer service and demand a refund before you even leave the store. In Michigan, you are actually entitled to get 10x the amount of the difference in additional money (up to a max of $5) on top of the mistake. Regardless of whether you are ‘holding up the line’, it’s important to let them know that they are making a mistake. Otherwise they’re just going to keep on doing it, and that’s not really fair to the customers that might not check their receipts as diligently.
I think next time I’ll go right to customer service after the fact. And I’ll look up local Kansas laws to see what is said about that. I will start stanind up for my consumer rights. I worked in retail and had to honor stuff like that so why shouldn’t I make them?
I hate Wal-Mart as well, but it’s the cheapest place in town so we go there. What I hate is each checker doing what they want and never being consistent. Thankfully we’ve found one checker there we really like and he’ll match anything and not give us any grief if we say something was priced differently. That makes the experience a little more palatable.
We haven’t found a awesome checker yet and we’ve been going for two and a half years. But we’ve just started being consistent with days and time so I’ll have to start looking. Thanks for the tip.
I try not to go to Wal-Mart. Every time I go there, I get really bad feelings and I wonder why I went in the first place. Some things are cheaper there, but I find I can get better deals or just as good at other places. But if it was the only store, I would go there more often too.
Sadly it’s not the only store but it’s the best priced and I’ve comparisoned shopped at each store in town. So yeah, I have to go there.
UGH I hate this story — I bet they make MILLIONS on “accidents” like this. It may very well be just five dollars, but it’s five dollars that belongs to you, not the evil big box store.
That’s true! I am going to get better about this. I’m on a budget darn it and that $5 can really help. Okay maybe not but it could if I had no money right?
The cashiers at Wal-Mart can change the price of a product. They have done it for me when I have mentioned the price is incorrect.
That’s what I thought but I don’t know if I managed to get 2 new cashiers because they stated that they couldn’t do it and had to wait for the CSM. Okay, the brita cashier said she’d do it if it was only a few dollars but the $10 was out of her say so. Maybe there is a cut off?
I would have waited for them to get the right price. I also try to watch the price thingy as they ring it up because incorrect prices are unfortunately a normal part of grocery shopping these days… of course I never say anything when it is less than I expect.
I’ve not had that issue but I’m waiting now! And I’m much more watchful but that’s not going to help if I don’t do something about it.
Depending on where you live, you can get the item for free if it rings up incorrectly. Look into it because if it happens often you can save quite a bit 🙂
Also, I would have waited, but that’s because I have lots of free time on my hands. No judgement 🙂
I think if it was just me, I’d have waited but after the 20 minute fiasco, my fiance really didn’t want to wait. And we should have pushed the issue on that. Next time, I wait and go to Customer Service desk! (hopefully there will be no next time..)
You should check this out. It’s the Item Free Scanner Policy. I remember learning about it I think on that couponing TLC show http://www.retailcouncil.org/advocacy/national/issues/cp/scanner_accuracy02_eng.asp
Thanks for the tip. Checking it out right now!