Me against the Giant

[beej]

I am taking on the Walmart Corporation!

I went to Walmart after a particularly bad turn of events. I had to carry a bad battery for a good ways to walmart to get a replacement for my son's jeep at 10pm. I found one the same size. went to buy it. All of the checkout lanes were closed. But there were 5 employees standing there watching the self checkout lanes. that's frustrating but it got a lot worse. when after having a guy help me ring up the battery, I asked him how to remove the core charge and he said, we can't! you have to come back when the automotive desk is open to get your core charge.

The core charge is $12. I told him that with the price of gas, it would cost me $12 to come back. So let's just take if off now. He refused. I asked why it had to be done at the automotive desk and he said because that way cashiers don't have to carry it. I pointed out that there are carts everywhere to push it, which is in fact what I was doing. but that I would gladly bring it back to automotive for them if they would give me my $12. They refused. I told him  that it's the state law that they have to give me my core charge if I present my old battery at the purchase and explained that I had carried this thing a fairly good distance for that reason. Still refused and he didn't know what to say about that state law. He said, he was following orders of his manager. Which I can sympathize with but it still made me mad.

Monday, I tried calling the store manager, but there are gate keepers. One of the gate keepers told me that she doesn't care what Missouri law says, "Walmart is bigger than Missouri!" I said, "Listen, I don't even care about getting my money back. I'm trying to get you to change your policy for the next guy who carries a battery from a car that won't start to your store. And you are opening yourself up for a class action lawsuit. she told me to call a lawyer then and hung up on me. I wish I could have talked to the manager himself. I think he would have been better at conversation, at least.

So, now, I've contacted Walmart Corporate, and the Missouri AG. Going to see where that goes. and trying to think of the next steps if that goes no where. Tell me if I'm reading this law wrong.

260.262.  Retailers of lead-acid batteries, duties — notice to purchaser, contents. — A person selling lead-acid batteries at retail or offering lead-acid batteries for retail sale in the state shall:

  (1)  Accept, at the point of transfer, in a quantity at least equal to the number of new lead-acid batteries purchased, used lead-acid batteries from customers, if offered by customers;

  (2)  Post written notice which must be at least four inches by six inches in size and must contain the universal recycling symbol and the following language:

  (a)  It is illegal to discard a motor vehicle battery or other lead-acid battery;

  (b)  Recycle your used batteries; and

  (c)  State law requires us to accept used motor vehicle batteries, or other lead-acid batteries for recycling, in exchange for new batteries purchased; and

  (3)  Manage used lead-acid batteries in a manner consistent with the requirements of the state hazardous waste law;

[rob@fain]

Good luck, Wally world can be hard to deal with.

You can take the battery core to your Local Auto Zone and get $10 dollar store credit. It doesn't matter if you bought the battery there or not.

[RobertELee]

Fuck Walmart

[mkd]

If they can go out of their way to make customers lives difficult, then it is incumbent on us to return the favor.
Personally I would have left both batteries in the middle of the self checkout isle, making sure there weren't any nearby carts.
I refuse to use self check out, as I've been provided no training yet carry all the liability

[Smit]

Good luck.

[beej]

If they can go out of their way to make customers lives difficult, then it is incumbent on us to return the favor.
Personally I would have left both batteries in the middle of the self checkout isle, making sure there weren't any nearby carts.
I refuse to use self check out, as I've been provided no training yet carry all the liability

I would have done that too, But I still needed a battery to get the jeep home.

[DUM1]

go get em Beej! good luck with that I can't stand Walmart for many reasons but have had to patronage them in an emergency a couple times and always have been disappointed in so many ways. I get your frustration.  What ever happened to the customer is always right ?

[Jeff]

So, now, I've contacted Walmart Corporate, and the Missouri AG

That's about all you can do, aside from contacting a lawyer.
Maybe contact your state rep also?

[CNCAppsJames]

WalMart Retail employees...  definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel there.

[neurosis]

If they can go out of their way to make customers lives difficult, then it is incumbent on us to return the favor.
Personally I would have left both batteries in the middle of the self checkout isle, making sure there weren't any nearby carts.
I refuse to use self check out, as I've been provided no training yet carry all the liability

We have a Safeway close to my house that only has self checkout certain times of the day. If I have more than a couple of items, I have the person watching the lanes do the checkout for me.  I've only had them refuse one time and I just left the cart of groceries and walked out.

[Incogneeto]

You should just do what everyone here does.

Find something cheaper and scan it.

Then just walk out......HTH!!

2 birds one stone.

You'll get to the front office and be able to report to the police at the same time.

[mowens]

My wife refuses to go to Wal Mart unless she finds a close parking spot. Then she figures it's a sign from God.

[Jim at Gentex]

My wife's sis and her husband went to battle with Walmart years ago and they concluded that Walmart at the corporate level doesn't give a shit about a single customer or vendor.

They owned an ice business, and their local Walmart was one of their customers.
The dispute involved a single $3 bag of ice that was damaged by a Walmart employee who placed a bottle of Pepsi in the ice cooler and forgot about it, and the bottle ruptured and ruined one bag of ice.

Walmart categorically refused to take responsibility for the actions of their employee, even though the damage was only $3.
It wasn't even an issue of the money, but more of a business principle concerning how a big corporation like Walmart was treating a small Mom & Pop local vendor.

My sis-in-law spoke to the store manager who turned out to be an arrogant unprofessional jerk who used foul language during the phone call, so she decided to contact the Walmart corporate office in Batesville Arkansas.

She called the Walmart corporate customer service number and received a recording telling her to leave her name and number and they would follow up.

The next day, her husband received A COLLECT CALL at the icehouse from a Batesville Arkansas number, which was the return call from Walmart. 

He grudgingly accepted the charges for the call, then he went round and round with a few different reps until he was finally able to speak to someone from their legal department.
They basically told him if he wanted to file a case in small claims court, which would cost him far more in the longrun than it was worth, he could do that.

He decided to just drop it and simply not do business with Walmart ever again.
This was back in the 90's and afaik neither my sis-in-law or her husband has never set foot in a Walmart store since.

[ghuns]

I wish you luck on your quest.

And for what it's worth, Costco is the best place to buy batteries. Interstate brand and waaaaaaaaaaay cheaper than anywhere else.

[Newbeeee™]

BigUP Beej!
Go get the man!!!!