I was watching Monday Night Football and Walmart was advertising “have it by December 23rd if you order line, you can pick it up for FREE at the store” (wow what a bonus).  Well, I tried that twice a few weeks ago and it almost didn’t work out TWICE– in the same week!  It was like the old Seinfeld episode of the car rental place that can take a reservation, they just don’t know how to KEEP a reservation.  I wanted to get a 32″ TV with Roku (looking to cut the cable soon).  The Shelton store had it in stock.  I ordered it and waited like the online instructions said when to come pick it up.  Well guess what?  They cancelled the order and said they would reimburse me my money within 7-10 days.  I got refunded the next day.  I met with the store manager, err, assistant store manager (this store has no store manager).  He said he will try to locate one for me and call me the next day.  Well, I expected more from the manager Glenn on the TV show Superstore.  I was right, no phone call.

Three days later I check the Walmart website low and behold they say Shelton has them in stock.  I ordered again, called Glenn err the assistant manager and he said he would ensure one would be set aside for me.  My schedule wouldn’t allow me to run right down but a few hours later I still got there within a couple of hours even though the ordering status said it wasn’t processed yet.

When I got there I thought for sure online orders would be at the front of the store but no, it was at the far back wall at layaway’s.  The women said they hadn’t had a chance to get to the order because they are short staffed.  I had Glenn err the assistant manager paged.  Had I not gone down there it would have been sold out from under me again. To make a long story short, if it weren’t for the great customer service reps Carmen and Ann that went above and beyond to retrieve the item and work online system for my order to be fulfilled.  That was not easy task, they computer kept balking but the wouldn’t give up!

So don’t rely on the Walmart commercial that you will have it in time.  Corporate will not know of the short comings of their system until after New Year’s.  But they do know how to take an order online, they just don’t know how to keep and fulfill the order!