Ah…it has been an interesting week for this consumer. Twice I’ve been wronged by two different companies: one a large business we all heard of and the other; a small non-profit that really should value their customers, but in my experience really doesn’t. I’m going to share my experiences here, so, hopefully, you can learn from them, or share your experiences and teach me a thing or two.

First up is a bad shopping online experience with the wonderful world of greedy and infamous Walmart.com. Ah…Wal-Mart….the name for me envisions crowded stores, impersonal store policies and cheaply made products.  I hate going to Wal-Mart. Hence, I shop with them online. Overall, I hate the store, but they have things I’d like to purchase, though, I hate buying from them. If I can avoid it, I do. Anyway, this time, I placed a rather large order of household items I needed. Well, I received my email confirmation of the order of when it was shipped out. A week later, I hadn’t received the order. The one good thing Walmart.com does is ship out quickly. However, that is also a fault. Stay with me. I was going to check online for statues of my order when I received an email that said that my order had been successfully returned. Another email followed that said my credit card had been credited for the items returned. Strange thing is that I never received the items to return them. Perplexed, I picked up the phone and called walmart.com. The Customer Service representative was shocked and apologetic, which I greatly appreciated, but did nothing to fix the problem.   The Customer Service representative was just as confused at first, but then, she noticed the reason: the shipment had been so badly damaged that FedEx had shipped it back to Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart received it and processed it as a customer return instead of the shipper returning a damaged shipment. As a result, I wasn’t notified that it had been sent back and given an option to have it reshipped. Instead, I had to spend forty minutes on the phone with the Customer Service representative and reorder everything again. And for all the inconvenience this caused me, do you know how this multi-million dollar store chain rewarded me? They gave me a $10.00 credit. Wow! Needless to say, I asked for more. It seems and I quote the supervisor that I asked to speak with for more than $10.00, I was told that corporate policy was $10.00 and no more. If the representative or she gave me more they would have been fired. Of course, I also filed a written complaint about the poor packaging for whatever good that will do, as it appears to be an ongoing problem.  Lovely company, huh? It just makes me all warm and fuzzy realizing how very much Wal-Mart values their customers. I’m going to write to corporate office for $25.00 credit, as this was not the first badly damaged box I received from them. I’ll let you know what happens, if I get a reply from them.

Just a few months ago, I received a large box from Wal-Mart that had a wet squished bottom. When I opened it, I immediately saw why. Amongst the vitamins, and food items, a bottle of liquid dish detergent had opened and spilled all over the items: covering everything in the box. The liquid detergent has not been wrapped separately and sealed in a plastic bag, as they had been done before. I immediately called Wal-Mart to discuss my dilemma. The Customer Service representative was shocked and apologetic, which I greatly appreciated, but did nothing to fix the problem. As a result, we had to spend time on the phone reordering every item. Of course, I also filed a written complaint about the poor packaging for whatever good that will do.

The other incident involved a non-profit seller of Endangered Species chocolate bars, which I often buy. You probably heard of them or at least saw the candy bars in the natural food section of your local supermarket. They’re natural, gluten-free and delicious, usually, that is. Over the weekend, I purchased my usual, a milk chocolate bar. When I bit into it, I wasn’t pleased at all. Instead of sweet tasting milk chocolate, it tasted of bitter dark chocolate, which I didn’t favor at all. Had I wanted a dark chocolate bar I would have purchased one. I called the company today and met a rather nasty unprofessional customer service representative named Natalia. I told her the situation and my displeasure with the taste of this chocolate. She was affronted. I gave the company the benefit of the doubt that perhaps the bar had been mislabeled or the bar had not been blended properly. She proceeded to tell me that the different chocolate bars were mixed on different days. But were they wrapped on different days too? After I informed her to lose the attitude, I asked for a refund. I didn’t want to ask for a refund from a non-profit, small company but times are tough and I had paid $3.00 for this one that was horrible tasting: I was not satisfied. From the “Enjoy by” date, I gave her; they can supposedly pull out samples and taste them. I am awaiting a phone call from them tomorrow to see what they learned. This ought to be good.

Tell me, my fellow consumers, what is going on with businesses and non-profits now days? In these hard times in which consumers are watching their expenses, you’d think they would value those that spend money for their product and/or services. As my experiences show, they don’t.

So, what has been your shopping mishap? How did you settle it? Were you pleased with your solution? Let’s hear it here when you can vent all you want. Just a reminder: no profanities please.

Have a great day. May all your shopping experiences be good ones.

Best Wishes,

SSilva