Wal-Mart Story I Forgot

Now, I don't regularly go to the only Wal-Mart that's closer than 40 minutes driving time from our house because first, we have plenty of Targets that are much closer, and second, that freaking place is like the third world. I fully expect to see a nomad ululating to the goat he's dragging beside him for company/food every time I walk in there. Anyway, the only reason I have to go is that I found this gift card with $20 on it that I've had in my wallet for over two years. Yes, that's how much I hate going to this Wal-Mart. The card's been in my wallet for so long that a small chunk of the magnetic strip is missing, but the account number is clearly readable so I figure that whoever rings up my purchase will simply enter the number manually without an issue.

So, I'm at the store and I've found a Rush DVD that I'd like to buy. Since I don't have anything else to buy, I decide to go the electronics checkout instead of the eternally long lines at the front of store registers. I hand the cashier the gift card and the DVD. He swipes the gift card. It doesn't go through. He swipes again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. AGAIN. Nothing. He looks at the card and then... TRIES AGAIN to swipe the card. Of course, nothing. At this point, I'm thoroughly entertained so I decide to keep quiet about the whole "Why don't you try entering the number manually?" thing and watch as the fun unfurls. He grabs a paper towel and wipes off the strip and then, guess what, tries AGAIN to swipe the card. *sigh*

This is where it gets really funny. He turns to his coworker who has been staring off into space for the last 5 minutes and says, "This card won't swipe." She replies, "Did you swipe it?" Huh?!!? After another couple of minutes of Napoleon Dynamite and the female version of his brother Kip trying to figure out what's going on, Kip decides it's time to call a manager. So, they ring up the manager and in less than 30 seconds these two guys come up to the register to help. So now there's four people at the register trying to figure out what to do. Guy number one decides to try to swipe the card one more time, because you know, 12th time's a charm. When it doesn't work (surprise!) he mentions keying in a number manually. The only problem is that not one out of the four people at the register know exactly which number is the right one, and of course, I'm not going to tell them! Why spoil it?

So now, they all take turns guessing which of the numbers on the back of the card is the correct one. As they're trying, the manager who was called stops over. Apparently, the two guys just happened to be nearby and decided to, well, let's just call it help for brevity's sake. Of course right as they figure out which number is the right one, the manager quickly explains the solution to the problem in about 15 seconds. So five employees and almost 15 minutes later I had the DVD purchased with legal tender and hopefully it will be another couple of years before I go in there again.

Seared

In March, we purchased a new dishwasher based on Consumer Reports' recommendations and following that moment, my opinion of Sears and their service has rapidly degraded. Their first mark was for sending incompetent contractors to perform the installation. Ironically, the name of the contractors' company was Quality First. The duo installed the dishwasher well enough and they even tested it for me to demonstrate that it was operational. Not five minutes after they left, however, we discovered that they had neglected to reconnect the power to the garbage disposal. That was strike one for Quality First. Amy called the contractors and reported the error and they insisted that there was no way that they could send someone to fix the mistake for at least seven days. Amy accepted their ridiculous policy, but that was strike two.

The second pair of dunderheads that Quality First sent to fix the mistakes of the first pair arrived as expected and fixed the problem in record time. However, despite the fact that the garbage disposal was now operational, the dishwasher completely stopped working in the middle of the first load of dishes that we tried to wash. The contractors had already departed, of course. This time, Amy called Sears and registered a complaint about Quality First while simultaneously demanding that a repairman come to the house as soon as possible.

The third serviceman to arrive was an actual employee of Sears. It didn’t take him long to find the problem. You may have wondered why I said that the second pair of incompetents from Quality First made their “repair” in record time. It seems that in their rush to attain the land speed record for dishwasher repair they had so lightly twisted the main power wires together as they reassembled the machine that the wires had actually disconnected due to the vibrations of the dishwasher itself. Strike three for Quality First Last. I will never let those idiots in my house again. Of course, we registered our complaints through the proper channels and Sears, in recompense, refunded our installation cost in full and returned about $50 of the cost of the unit.

Following this unfortunate imbroglio, all was fine until recently when the dishwasher began stopping in the middle of its cycle yet again. This was a different problem, however, as electricity continued to flow through the veins of the beast. Thankfully, we were still fully covered under the dishwasher’s warranty. So, we called Sears yet again to have a repairman sent to the house. He determined that it the electronics of the thing had failed, but he did not have the part to fix it that day. So, he ordered the part and had it shipped to the house. That was about three weeks ago.

We finally received the part last week and Sears had its friendly computerized secretary call to remind us that we had a repair scheduled for this past Saturday and could we please call them back to confirm that, yes indeed, we still wanted to have our dishwasher fixed. Sigh. So, Amy called the number that the very friendly machine had left us and confirmed (with a human being) that our repair was still scheduled for this past Saturday between eight and 12am.

Saturday morning we awoke early as we usually do and Amy went out to run some errands while I stayed home and waited for the repairman. She left the house around 8:30am and when she returned at 11:30am, the repairman had still not arrived. Not waiting another second, she called Sears who informed us that they had no record of her confirming the appointment and that we would have to wait another two weeks to for service. We may actually be able to get the dishwasher fixed sooner, but I don’t know what the outcome of that conversation was because I had to leave the room.

Obviously, we’ve registered another complaint with Sears, but really it makes no difference now. They’ve done enough damage to their reputation in one transaction to last me the rest of my life. We won’t be buying any of our major appliances through Sears in the future. I sincerely hope that anyone reading this doesn’t have the same problems with the company’s service that we have. If you do decide purchase an appliance of some sort through Sears, especially if it requires professional installation, I can only wish you luck of a better variety.