Walmart - Company Run By Morons for My Benefit

[asleepathewheel]

David-

Did you tell your girlfriend how you acquired the ipod?

[David Floyd]

Lor,

Did you respond to the part where Laz pointed out that Walmart's return policies prohibited return of items not bought at Walmart?

Yes, I did respond to that. The gist of the response was that the posted return policy does not necessarily mirror very common, everyday management decisions at any retail store I'm aware of.

Laz,

It certainly is silly, but as people are under no obligation to purchase anything there is no fraud. It doesn't change the fact that I was actually pointing out that your claim that Wal-Mart suffered no loss is undoubtedly false. The administrative costs of dealing with the return are the loss.

And my point is, they incurred the same loss administratively had I gone in and spent 30 minutes talking to an associate about buying a TV, yet didn't actually buy it. Also, those employees were being paid whether I was in the store or not.

Additionally, I have pointed out I paid an additional $50 for the new Ipod. While that doesn't translate to profitability, it does go into Walmart's revenue comp, which is something shareholders look at in determining stock value. By the way, revenue comps are one reason stores have an incentive to sell non-profitable merchandise.

So what? That's a common tactic used by fraudsters and money launderers. Do you think the fact that you handed over some money in connection with an upgrade made you return not fraudulent? Think again.

That isn't what made it not fraudulent - the fact that it wasn't fraudulent made it not fraudulent. There was no deception or intent to deceive on my part.

For their consumers, Floydie.

Not exactly. Those return policies are also in place to encourage new customers. Think about it - if you get a Christmas gift and have no clue where it was purchased, and one store will exchange it for you and another tells you to piss off, which store are you likely to give your future business to? That's the idea behind the whole concept of making returns quick and easy, and is exactly why Walmart chooses to make their's REALLY easy.

Try asking them. Try saying "Hey! I didn't buy this from you and it's well outside the return period, but I want you to exchange it anyway, sirrah!"

They probably would not exchange it, although I can imagine situations where they might. That aside, though, when I go in and say "Hey! This Ipod is broken, I don't have a receipt, and I want to exchange it!", and they do it with virtually no questions asked, and I say nothing untruthful or deceptive the entire time, then it's pretty hard to say that I defrauded them. That's the root of the matter, the rest of my posts are basically me trying to give you the reasons from a retail management perspective why Walmart does that and why it might make sense for them to do so.

Elok,

Hey guys! I just made a cool $75! All I had to do was put some oregano in little baggies and sell it to middle-school kids as pot--and the best part is, they couldn't tell the difference! Oh man, I am the ****, ain't I? I AM THE CHAMPION, MY FRIEEEEEND....I'LL KEEP ON FIGHTING TO THE END....

I think most people would find that funny. I would.

asleep,

Did you tell your girlfriend how you acquired the ipod?

Yep.

[Lorizael]

I like how, in DF's story, the manager has transformed from a stupid kid that could easily be taken advantage of into a competent professional who understands what's best for the bottom line of the store.

[DinoDoc]

How else would he be able to make himself look like less of a looser?

[Aabraxan]

There was no deception or intent to deceive on my part.

You're sure about that?

Let me start by saying that I screwed Walmart out of a brand new IPOD. Let me explain.

Last March, my girlfriend bought a 4 GB Nano from Circuit City. A couple months later (and this is before we were dating), it mysteriously stopped working. Possibly, that had to do with her carrying it around in her tennis bag with all of her gear for those couple of months, but I digress.

Anyway, she's had a broken Ipod ever since we've been dating (July-ish), and she has always said she needs to "take care of it". Finally, last week while she's at work, I take the Ipod into Circuit City with her receipt to see if they will do something for me. Unsurprisingly, they refuse to exchange an almost year old Ipod. Surprisingly, they did not have a way to charge me to repair the Ipod under Apple's warranty.

Well, Walmart is right next to Circuit City, and knowing what I know about Walmart, I figured I'd have a decent shot of getting a new one.

The statement that there was no deception and no intent to deceive simply does not fit with your opening post. Perhaps you didn't openly lie to the electronics manager, but you knew that you didn't buy the Ipod at Wal-Mart and you "figured [you'd] have a decent shot at getting a new one."

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by Lorizael
I like how, in DF's story, the manager has transformed from a stupid kid that could easily be taken advantage of into a competent professional who understands what's best for the bottom line of the store.

He'll soon be an omniscient champion of enlightened consumer values with the wisdom of Solomon if the lawyers on this board keep pointing out that Floyd's talking bollocks.

[Elok]

DF, that was funny to me when I heard about it happening in a MS near the house where I grew up. Thing is, I heard about it when I was in a (different) middle school myself. I suppose it's still vaguely amusing, but the thing is, it's not impressive. It hurts my estimation of the guy who did it just as much as the dumb kids who got suckered. You've got to be a serious bottom-feeder to scam children out of their paper-route money with fake drugs, and even more of a bottom-feeder to be proud of it.

It's like seeing someone step on a flaming bag of dog-doo that was put on his doorstep (I assume you've heard of that old trick?); while I might smile faintly, or even chuckle a little, I would never admit to having so little to do with my time that I would resort to juvenile pranks for amusement. Or if I did admit it, I would cast it in the light of "LOL man I'm a loser but I draw attention to it to try and seem loveable."

What I'm trying to convey here, and you're consistently missing, is SHAME. Everyone else involved in this incident will be able to move past it. Chris will sooner or later be fired and move on to another cruddy job, a sadder but wiser man. The customer service people will eventually just quit and go back to school or something so they can get jobs that don't cut decades off their life expectancy with stress. Even Wal-Mart and Apple have long since marked this off as acceptable loss, if they even noticed it at all. The real victim here is you, and the tragedy is that you may go on to repeat this act and gloat about it to us or some other online community of people who really and truly do not find it at all impressive (assuming you don't break the news to www.fourteenyearoldgluesniffer.net/forums/ ). It's not ethical, it's not clever, and learning that there's an actual human being who thinks otherwise is depressing. When I yell at you like this, I am trying to do you a favor, futile though it may be. Listen and learn, for God's sake.

[Kuciwalker]

Your link is broken