Wal-Mart--Always Poor Customer Service. Always!

I have a million more important things that I need to blog about, such as Jacey's birthday, Brooklyn's first day of pre-school, soccer games, etc., but I just could not resist posting a rant about Wal-Mart's sub-par customer service. I have come to expect that when I go to Wal-Mart I am going to get a better deal on my groceries and such, but that I should not go there if I am in a big hurry (10 customers in line for every cashier) or have any questions about where to find something ("Huh? We carry that?"). I often get a rude response or at best a blank stare from the robots who work there if I request even the slightest thing. Today was no exception.

As the cashier checked out my groceries today, I noticed that she scanned a large can of banana chips that I had bought for food storage twice. I asked her about it, and she said,"Well you did get two cans of banana chips, right?" Yes, that was true, but the problem was that the other can had already been bagged so I was convinced that she had also scanned that one earlier. I said "Oh, so you must have not scanned the other one earlier then?", to which I got the "Hmm mmm." Okalee dokalee. I was in a hurry to get Brooklyn from preschool and knew that if this lady messed up I was not going to have time to go to Customer Service to get my money back, because at Wal-Mart you do not get to see your receipt to check such things until after you have already paid and the cashier cannot do anything to fix it. I think that may be part of their strategy for making their huge profits. I can't tell you how many times they have wrung up something for the wrong price and I have not had the time or the guts to go stand in line to get my 50 cents back. But at $5.99 a can, I was not going to let this one go!

After she finished checking my things, I uncomfortably asked "Um, before I pay would you mind just checking the receipt to make sure that you only scanned those bananas twice?" Sigh. Hiss. How dare you ask me to do that!!! The cashier curtly pushed the magic button on her register to print out the receipt so I could see it. Mind you I only bought 17 items, so they weren't hard to find. She took her pen and checked them off "Here's one here. Here's one there. And, uh. . .oh there's another one there." No apologies, or "I was wrong", just an angry yanking of one of those cans out of my bag to void the entry. As I paid I said "Thank you for checking on that for me" to which she replied, if you can believe it, a robotic "You're welcome." I felt redeemed, validated, but also somewhat perplexed at how Wal-Mart keeps these awesome employees when so many people are looking for jobs right now. And maybe a little more perplexed at why, despite the numerous times I have had these kind of encounters there, I will still go back again and again.