Every now and then, I use this blog to post a rant about customer service or tech issues. Since I’ve just spent a good 30 minutes on a chat with Walmart, I thought it might be good to relate my experience here, so apologies in advance for the rant. I hope it might help someone else in a similar situation.
First a little history. Even though I usually try to avoid them, I ordered a $60 item from Walmart because they had a good price. So did one other store, but I would have had to pay shipping and I happened to have Walmart+ so shipping was free. There’s a long story for why I had that, but to keep it short, it involved ordering something else a while ago and accepting a free trial of Walmart+ to get it on time — isn’t that how they get you?
Back to Christmas shopping. I grabbed this Black Friday deal for the free shipping and 1-day delivery (not that I needed it that soon), but the next day instead of delivering it, Walmart cancelled my order, saying it was out of stock at my store and had been scheduled for delivery from the store, even though that wasn’t what I originally chose for a shipping option. Walmart+ should have given me free 2-day shipping
Disappointed, I checked again online and found that the other store no longer had the same deal, but I could order again from Walmart, who seemed to have stock even though they cancelled my order. After searching for anyone else who had the same item at that price and coming up empty, I decided to try ordering again in hopes they would ship from their warehouse if the store didn’t have it in stock. My second order went through, and they showed there were 9 items in stock.
A day later, my order status again changed from shipping to delivery from store, but this time it got stuck on “Assigning a driver” and eventually by evening, the status changed to Delayed, which is where it was stuck this morning. So I decided to try chatting with Customer Support, which was a bust.
To get to Customer Support, I had to view my Purchas History, then View Details on the order that was delayed. On the Details screen there was a link to chat with Customer Support. Initially, I got their AI bot in chat, and it obviously couldn’t handle an issue like mine. After trying it with a few questions and getting nowhere, I decided to try an old trick from automated phone customer service lines. I typed “Representative” in the chat window, and that sent me to an actual person: Isiah.
He or she tried to be helpful, but we didn’t really get anywhere. I did get a little information after half an hour waiting for him to try to find a solution. It does appear that the item exists and is waiting to be delivered. They are trying to find someone to deliver it to my house. I offered to pick it up at my local store or to have it shipped, but they weren’t able to change delivery. That does make me suspect that the item isn’t in my town but is in the next town over, which is about at 20-minute drive for me. Not something I want to do unless it’s the last resort.
Apparently, there is no stock in the warehouse, but there is stock in a local store, so that’s why delivery keeps changing from 1-day shipping to delivery from store. I’d be happy if I got the item within a few days. Standard ground shipping would work for me, but they won’t do that. And they apparently can’t let me pick it up. So I’m stuck in limbo.
Isiah told me that if the item doesn’t arrive by 8pm tonight, I could contact them again and cancel the order. I said I didn’t want to cancel it, but would demand that I get it at the original price. Right now, Walmart lists it for $33 more than I paid. I would consider it bait and switch if I have to pay that much more for an item they canceled twice even though they had it in stock but can’t figure out how to get it to me.
My main takeaway is that I’ve been right to avoid Walmart like the plague all these years, and I’ll try to return to that policy and not be tempted by free shipping offers.
The other takeaway is that you can get to customer service, but often it isn’t easy. Even the chat feature was hard to find, and then I had to deal with a bot before I could type “Representative” to get to an actual person. Next time, if I have to go through all of that again, I’ll ask to speak with a manager, and I might choose the option to have them call me instead of doing it by chat. At least then I’ll be able to express my frustration verbablly and not be held hostage in chat while they put me on hold.
Update: Walmart did come through. My item was delivered this afternoon. Maybe it would have turned out this way even if I hadn’t called customer support, but I have to believe that the squeeky wheel gets the grease and that calling did make this order more or a priority. Of course, none of this would have been a concern if they hadn’t cancelled my initial order and then raised the price after my second order so that I was looking at a steep price increase if it got cancelled again.
Kendall Dunkelberg 