Saturday, January 03, 2009

Macgyver's Vengence Against Wal-mart?

I've always had a personal disgust for Big Corporation, specifically Wal-mart. They'd wiggled their ways into our lives and we are all forced to succumb and bow our heads as we shuffle into fucking Wal-mart because it would be a financial stupor otherwise to go to 3-4 different places to conduct the same shopping experience because they stifle competition and harbor any chance local companies have to succeed without having to make their wares less competitive and more expensive.

What Wal-mart provides in low prices and having everything in one general store location they uttery lack in a plethora of other categories: customer service, item availability, satisfaction, accountability, genuine item authenticity, ethics, morals and, point blank, doing what is right.

So, why do I say all this? More importantly, what the hell does it have to do with Macgyver?

Answer: a lot.

I'm a big Macgyver fan, and I happened to have some gift card balance left and I needed one last season to complete my Macgyver DVD collection, so I ordered it on walmart.com. I went to pick it up at the local store late last evening and this morning I opened up the so-called 'newly' sealed DVD series of Macgyver.

What I found in the DVD case was, well... a bit of shock and awe for me. All 3 DVD cases were shattered with plastic bits all over and the most bizarre bit of it all is 4 of the 6 DVDs had finger prints on them! (Yes, I said finger prints)

I call Wal-mart customer service for walmart.com and they were certainly *not* helpful. I was told I could buy a new one again on their online shopping store and then on my own dime, return the DVD set to the store. Not an option for me considering I got shafted the first time buying from their online store.

I then, in turn, called the local Wal-mart store customer service, which started out really promising, offering me exactly what I wanted: My money back so I could go buy my beloved Macgyver season somewhere else in town. I made it clear that they let the customer service department know the arrangement so I'm not wasting my time driving into the store to get the run around.

When I got to my local Wal-mart store, it was a COMPLETELY different situation. Customer service pretended as if I had not called at all and told me I was stuck with only being able to exchange the item because I opened it. After stating that I've called already and getting confirmation I could get my money back because you didn't have that particular season in the store, I was then asked if I understood the quote/unquote "Federal Copyright Act".

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! So not only was I getting treated like an asshole, I was also getting accused of somehow making copies of this Macgyver DVD series and trying to return it to the store. That was the deal breaker and I let loose on the obese, naive and obviously clueless customer service rep who obviously could have given two shits about listening to my situation nor cared enough to get the information on my arrangement I made prior to driving in.

It's safe to assume that perhaps she didn't know about it, however, after getting quite pissed off at the fact that I was accused of DVD piracy, one of her co-workers said, "Hey, is that Macgyver Season 5?" The plump wonder I was dealing with, followed up sharply with, "Yes it is, Season 5 of Macgyver."

...now this is where I finally got justice in a sarcastic sort of way. The co-workers then says, "That's already been approved, so give him his full refund back already." What sweet victory is was.

What the fuck ever happened to the customer is always right? What ever happened to customer service being courteous and astute to customers? What ever happened to the commitment to customers? What ever happened to customer product satisfaction?

The day I am done buying diaper pull-ups. baby wipes and other family items that otherwise are expensive in other stores are over, so are my fucking days of buying anything else at Wal-mart.

2 comments:

Zeon said...

I disagree, Big D. Foremost, expecting fair compensation for an obviously faulty product isn't asking for too much. Secondly, the economy is failing because of the home buyers that had the financial foresight of that 43rd presidential baboon, not because of the shady return policies of a retail giant.

But if any of my points are true, it should be this: as a customer service rep. from Wal-mart, you're not exempt from acting in a civil manner towards the customers. Wearing a blue smock and standing on the bright side of a UPC scanner doesn't bestow you an honorary media law degree from Harvard. She should have just stuck to what she knows in her position: the 4-digit code for broccoli, and the S.O.P. for clean-ups on aisle 6.

That doesn't detract from the truth of the matter that, in fact, Dosch does get a bit sensitive when it comes to Macgyver and his golden mane :)

doschman said...

Ashamed of myself, Big D? No. Ashamed that you're a lame commenter and your meeble attempt at any form of humiliation really, well... sucks some dong.