Not Me, For Once

Being that I worked at various retail stores and know that all of them are only in it to take your money, I don’t adhere to the general consensus that “Wal-Mart is Evil.” Every retailer has a level of corruption to a certain extent; there’d be no way to survive in today’s volatile marketplace without some inkling of dishonesty.

That said, we shop at Wal-Mart. I also worked there for almost three years. And while we don’t go there regularly, we still manage to spend a pretty penny each time.

But the last few visits to our local store yielded customer service standards that can only be described as downright terrible. (Shocking, I know.) One instance saw Ann pretty much getting laughed at at the self-check lane after she was told they weren’t working and she’d have to move all of her items to a regular lane. The other time, while we were waiting for help at the Tire & Lube Express, a gaggle of employees and a manager strolled by and didn’t even acknowledge or help us.

Yep. And while my ultimate choice would have been to go to another store and forget about it, Ann decided to flame them with an e-mail to their Home Office in Bentonville, AR. (Yes, I’ve been there. No, it’s not exciting. But the Ozarks are beautiful.)

A week went by and she got no response. Then yesterday she got a call from the manager at our local store, wanting descriptions of the employees involved, times of our visits, etc. Evidently, her e-mail made the rounds at the Home Office and the manager was determined to make things right. Part of her apology included–get ready for this–a $100 gift card. So the next time we visit, we have to speak to her and claim our card, which we’ll probably take to the store which gave us better service.

This will come in handy real soon, as something that will be revealed in time is finally brought to light.

And for once, it wasn’t me doing the complaining and e-mailing. I never got anything like this out my complaint e-mails, and I’m the so-called writer in the house.

Looks like Ann has earned herself a permanent job!