Wal-Mart Won’t Take My Money!

September 22, 2007 · Filed Under , · 8 Comments 

WalmartEmployees at the world’s largest retailer had to be cajoled into taking my money! Start storing up canned goods and gallons of drinking water in your basement, the world may be coming to an end. Let me give you some details, and my Wal-Mart haters, you may be a little disappointed as this story speaks more to changes in our society than with the big W.

As I mentioned earlier, my 5 year old son started Kindergarten and is doing great. My wife and I ask him every night what he wants in his lunch and the conversation always ends with him saying “peanut butter & jelly”. Every single night. Apparently he is a creature of habit. Although one day he did ask for ’strawberry’ jelly rather than his old stand-by ‘grape’. I almost fell off my chair. So my wife’s really good friend, who also has a Kindergartner, gave us the suggestion of buying one of these Hot/Cold Thermos Thingies that you can store soup, taquitos, whatever, and send them to school for lunch. Our son was really excited about it so we decided to pick one up. Our friend was going to buy one for her son and offered to pick one up for us at Wal-Mart. Excellent.

Thermos In Question

(SIDEBAR: Now this is the point in the story where I should mention that our friend, and her husband, not only have a Kindergartner but also 1 year old triplets and amazingly neither of them drool or walk funny. I think God only gives multiples to people that can handle it. They are very organized and you can tell they really have a handle on spreading the love equally to all their children. Truly remarkable people.)

OK, back to the story, so our friend is in Wal-Mart, with the triplets, picking up some other stuff along with the 2 Hot/Cold Thermos Thingies (from now on TT’s for short). She finds the TT’s and has a great idea of separating them in the cart so she can pay for them individually in case we don’t like it for some reason and want to return it. Very thoughtful. Well, she finally reaches checkout with the triplets, pays, goes out to her minivan, loads up the kids, empties the cart, says an ’Alleluia’ because she is done, and realizes she walked out of the store with the 2nd TT and completely forgot to pay for it. Now, if you have ever had triplets, you know that loading and unloading them should be considered an Olympic event, so she wisely decides she will just pay for it next time she has to shop at Wal-Mart.

So my wife catches wind of this and offers to take it back into Wal-Mart and pay for it. She figures it is the least she can do at this point. My wife enters Wal-Mart with our 2 girls and heads to ‘Customer Service’ with said TT and the conversation goes like this:

My Wife: My girlfriend accidentally walked out of the store a few days ago with this TT and forgot to pay for it.
Employee: {looking at my wife dumbfounded} O.K.
My Wife: So I want to pay for it.
Employee: {looking at my wife dumbfounded} Are you sure she did not pay for it, did she check her receipt?
My Wife: Yes, it was definitely not purchased.
Employee: Um…O.K. {starts to ring up the TT} says to another employee, “Wow, this lady forgot to pay for this and she actually came back to pay for it.”
Other Employee: {looking at my wife dumbfounded} She did what?
Wife: Well, I believe in Karma, so I am just trying to do the right thing.

My wife left the store feeling like a weirdo for wanting to come in and pay for it. She was just trying to do the right thing, and in doing so, set an example for her children. Instead of recognizing that, the Wal-Mart employee basically says “are you crazy?’, “why are you doing this? I am not blaming the employee, the underlying problem goes way beyond her. When did ‘doing the right thing’ become the exception rather than the rule in today’s society? As parents, we have opportunities every day to set a good role model for our children. Seize those opportunities and the next generation will be much better than our own. OK, I will jump off my soapbox now.

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Comments

8 Responses to “Wal-Mart Won’t Take My Money!”

  1. Tina on September 22nd, 2007 5:01 am

    The same thing happened to me at Wal-Mart last month when they only charged me for half of the poster board I purchased. I bought 8 sheets and the receipt only showed 4 being paid for. I didn’t notice the discrepancy until I got home. When I went back in to pay for the other 4, the lady spent about 5 minutes trying to talk me out of paying for it. She actually called me silly! I agree with you that the worst part is that doing the right thing seems like a totally foreign concept in today’s society.

  2. Kyle on September 22nd, 2007 7:16 am

    Tina, that is pretty amazing, I wonder if this attitude is more prevalent with big stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Kohls, etc? Where if you were over charged at a mom n’ pop hardware store they would have a different attitude towards you for being honest and might actually thank you for doing the right thing. What a concept.

  3. Lynnae @ Being Frugal on September 22nd, 2007 7:33 am

    I’m going to test this out at the NASCAR.com store this week. I made a return that got totally messed up. I thought it was taken care of late last week, and then a second credit showed up on my account this week. So now I have to call and have them reverse one of the credits.

    It’s sad that more people aren’t honest.

  4. Kyle on September 22nd, 2007 7:45 am

    Lynnae, let us know what they say to you, and I for one appreciate your honesty! Bravo to you!

  5. Hilda on September 22nd, 2007 8:30 pm

    I had a friend who would purposely ‘forget’ to pay for some of her stuff. She also brag about how she got some items for free. Needless to say, we’re no longer talking.

  6. Kyle on September 23rd, 2007 7:02 am

    Hilda, wow, yeah that would be a deal breaker for me as well.

  7. Mrs. Micah on September 23rd, 2007 7:53 am

    I guess they’re so used to shoplifters and such. Kudos to your wife and her friend.

    Strangely enough, my business is having a similar problem. We got an invoice in March which undercharged us for some items. We’re still trying to get a corrected invoice so that we can pay the proper amount!

  8. Mike on February 26th, 2008 5:30 pm

    That’s a very insightful story,
    And, the people who comment on this blog are really nice. It’s hard to find honest, straightforward people or people who are not afraid of hard work nowadays.

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