WalMart Caught Cheating Customers

Be careful about returning gift items from Walmart. The biggest retailer in America has been caught on numerous occasions refunding customers the sale price on gift items that were purchased at full price. In an underhanded, " if they don't notice, don't tell them" kind of way, Walmart is becoming more and more like the big banks-- mining for profits.

 Whether cashiers have been instructed by management to look the other way, or it's simply a glitch in the system, shorting customers just doesn't bode well for this already unpopular giant.

In most people's minds this would be described as a dishonest business practice. Not alerting the customer (especially kids and the elderly) that they have more credit due them, is akin to not reporting a crime if it benefits you. To some of our current crop of profit worshipping "job creators" keeping the customer unaware of the "error" is good for the bottom line.

When confronted by reporters for CBS 13, Walmart said in a statement, " It is our practice to refund the original price paid to the customer when returning an item with a gift receipt. We will be communicating with our store associates to reinforce this practice."

As in practice makes perfect?

Sure you will-- 6 months later Walmart is still under refunding customers.

In spite of being caught red handed shorting customers on gift purchase refunds, and getting caught by the media, Walmart is still screwing over customers when they try to return a gift. This time it's the cash registers' fault.

A reporter for KATU in Portland recently did some gift shopping at Walmart, Target, and Fred Meyer stores to find out if Walmart is a bald faced liar.
When she went to return the items using gift receipts, the reporter had no problem getting the full amount back from everyone but Walmart. According to the reporter the cashier at the returns counter tried repeatedly to scan 10 gift receipts, and told the reporter that the gift receipts, "never work" and the "system always has trouble with them." Walmart has since disputed this claim.

Still practicing correct policy, are we Walmart?

When the clerk scanned the products bar codes instead of the receipts the sale price popped up for each item rather than the full price paid, so the clerk entered the difference manually and still came up short. Though the reporter paid $92.69. Walmart refunded only $79.21 pocketing for themselves a cool $13,48 of free money.

Imagine doing this thousands-millions? of times.

This has happened all over America. Walmart has been caught red-handed cheating customers from California, to Texas, to New Jersey. And their response has always been the same.

There appeared to be a scanning issue that required our associate to process the return differently. We take these matters seriously and apologize for any inconvenience... It's our expectation to refund the original purchase price when returning an item with a gift receipt... We are reviewing that process to look for ways to make it more efficient and reliable for our customers.

It seems pretty safe to say that this isn't just a little scanning issue but more of a "scamming issue" on behalf of Walmart. Even if you give them room on employee training errors, as being behind the unfortunate mistakes it just seems fishy that these sorts of screw ups, whether they be coming from a retail giant like Walmart of an investment bank-- are always in their favor.

If it were the other way around, how long do you think it would be allowed to continue?

Oh, no worries, Walmart. Your shortchanging customers millions of dollars is not an inconvenience. No big deal. You keep the money; you deserve it. We need to support our blessed Job Creator Gods' of Profit who are keeping America exceptional.

If there are a higher percentage of too low refunds vs. higher ones, they are purposely committing fraud.
If it was a simple computer glitch, you would expect, roughly, an equal number of too high and too low refund amounts. Which do you suspect it is?

If Bank of America accidentally began depositing your checking account fees back into your account each month rather than the reverse, do you really think they wouldn't catch on and fix it?

If Visa accidentally began paying you interest to use your card, how long do you think it would continue?

"We take these matters seriously and apologize for any inconvenience..."


Translation:

"We take these matters seriously when the media asks about it and we apologize for getting caught...this time."

Walmart Casualty

Lesson of this story is, don't shop at Walmart because that cheap plastic junk you think is cheap--really isn't.


And it ends up in the guts of sea creatures.


ickenittle