I am a former service manager for Wal-mart's Tire and Lube Express (only worked there for 3 weeks). I see a lot of posts about Wal-mart TLE and the level of service that they give to customers. I would like to clue all the consumers in on their bussiness practices.
First off, to all those people out there who have gotten a raw deal from Wal-Mart, you are certainly justified in how u feel. I'll explain to you why i was only employed there for 3 weeks. One re-accuring theme i see is that customers recieved horrible service and apon returning and complaining, they were given the run-around. Well im going to be honest with you, they promote that type of behavior from their managers.
Managers are not only trained to BS you, they also teach the managers to look for any and every reason why its not Wal-mart's fault.in the time i spent running the shop, the department manager always instructed me to do the right thing and do good by the customer. Which i respected, because that's what i thought i was supposed to do anyways lol.
Unfortunately, things never went the way they were "supposed" to go. The shop itself was extreamly under-staffed. Thier policy states that they are supposed to have no less then ten (10) service techs employed to run the shop. We only had seven (7). It also states that under no circomstances, is there to be less than two (2) techs in the shop at all times (can't tell you how many times that rule was broken). My first week into this job, i noticed alot of things out of place. Things like: highly unsafe work enviorment, techs that didnt know how to use the tools and equipment, lack of communication, sexual harrassment twards the female cashiers, etc. I'll also give you a few examples of the amount of "CRAP" that Wal-Mart is more than happy to dish out to the customers.
I'll start off with some iggnorence. One of the service techs (who i petitioned for termination many times and nothing was ever done about it), pulled a car into the shop, took an hour and forty-five minutes to do a basic oil change (just change the oil and replace the oil filter) drained the transmission fluid completely out and then put four and a half quarts of oil in the engine. Apon his completion of the services, he pulled the car out of the shop and parked it. I saw the man that owned the vehicle at the register paying for his oil change. He looked alittle irritated, so i asked the technition what had taken him so long. He replied, "It was kind of difficult for me to get the filter off because of that new oil system they use on cars now". I replied in disbelief "What new oil system?". He says "Ya know, the one there using now that has that red oil".
At this time i became horrified and i asked him, "Dude!!! You didnt drain the transmission did you?". He stated "Naw, it's that new oil they're using in the newer cars". Knowing that was a load of Crap, i ran out the door to stop the man from driving away. Unfortunately i was too late, so i knew the only thing i could do was wait. Around fifteen to twenty minutes later, i saw the man once again standing inside the store talking to the dept. Manager. Then the Dept. Manager walked out to the shop to find out what was going on and told me to deal with it.
The man took me out to the end of the parking lot, where i saw his car sitting with a giant puddle of oil flowing out from under it. When i saw the oil, i automaticaly knew what happened. Since the oil wasn't drained and an extra 4.5 quarts were added, i knew the rear main seal was blown. I returned to the store and pulled the dept. Manager in his office and explained what happened and what it was going to take to fix it. After the explaination, he muttered "Is it our fault?". As angry with the situation as i was, i replied "Well hell yes it's our fault, Doofus out there drained the tranny and added more oil and it exploded the rear main seal!". Then he replied, "you gotta be shitting me... Are you serious?". Then he proceded to tell me to just go back to what i was doing and he would take care of it.
To make a long story short, Wal-mart weasled their way out of replacing this man's $1300 engine by saying the high milage on his car resulted in this malfunction. It was a 2005 with 6000 original miles on it lol. Still Wal-Mart got away, scott free. Also, the report i filed on it was mysteriously lost somewhere because no one ever found my statement, explaining that it was our fault. Unfortunately, the technition that serviced that vehicle is still employed and still a service tech at that Wal-Mart.
Ok, one more for the consumers to ponder on lol. The second week i was there, one of the technitions approached me about a problem he was having getting the lugnuts loose on a van. I went to help him with the vehicle and after trying to loosen them myself, found out that the last time it had tire work done that someone over-torqued the lugnuts. I imediately checked to see if we (we, meaning our TLE) had worked on it last. Not to my suprise, we were lol. I also saw that the tech working on it now also did the tire work last time aswell lol (DOH!). Now because i was the service manager, i politely explained to the owner of the vehicle that there were two option from this point. I explained to her that we could either go ahead and break the lugs loose and replace the studs if damaged, at no extra cost, aswell as give her the entire service for free or we could give the vehicle to her for her to take it elsewhere for the service. The only reason why i mentioned taking it to another tire shop is because i knew this lady had already been waiting almost three hours for her van.
She called her husband and explained what was going on, then she approached me and told be to go ahead and do what i had to do. I once again appolligized to the lady and let her know that all we had to do is wait for the studs to be delivered and then we would be "good to go". I walked inside to the counter where out parts books were, and proceded to look up the studs to order them. The dept. Manager walked out of his office and asked what i was doing, i let him know that i was ordering studs for the lady's van. He imediately grabbed the parts book and told me "We dont do that type of work here!". So i replied laughing "Yes we do, you told me to do it the other day on that dude's truck" (same situation the week before but a different vehicle). Once again i was told to return to the shop and he would deal with it. So, like the monkey that i was, i returned to the shop and awaited the outcome.
Alittle while later, i was in the pit changing oil (PIT = the inground system they have for changing oil at Wal-Mart). All of a sudden i heard this lady storm out into the shop and scream my name. She was quite pissed off, telling me that i lied to her and that im an asshole. Remembering the events that took place the week before, i partially saw this coming lol. I started appollogizing my ass off to her and explainging to her that i was more then happy to make it right with her but it wasn't my call. I politely explained to her that i was dismissed from this deal when i presented it to my boss. Her attitude drasticly changed and she thanked me for being so understanding with her (once again, doing what i thought i was supposed to do). She went back inside to have a pow-wow with the store manager. After taking more than forty-five minutes to respond, the store manager finally showed up to see what was amiss.
I was present during the conversation and the whole time, the store manager was talking down to her and telling her she was just out looking to get something for free. After about ten minutes of arguing the asked the store manager "what is wrong with you, i just want my van taken careof". She was in tears the whole time she was talking. The store manager then looked over at the dept. Manager and asked "what can we do to fix this?". The dept. Manager said "Nothing! We dont do this type of service, she'll have to go somewhere else". The store manager turned to the lady and said "Ma'am, i'd like you to take your vehicle and vacate the primisiss". A few choice words we said on her part and she stormed out yelling something about her lawyer. The week after all this went down and there were other problems aswell, i quit my job because i refuse to take any part in those type of bussiness practices.
I DO NOT write this for the purpose of slander or any other negitive reasons. I am simply writing this because i feel that it is my responsibilty as a consumer to share this knowledge with other consumers. This is a descriptive writing for the purpose of making others aware of some of the polotics in the Wal-Mart stores. I cant say that it is all of the stores and i also cant say that it is just the one i worked at. Plese be aware that Wal-Mart only cares about things that make money.in the bussiness world, that is expected. Just be watchful to the atmosphere of the bussiness. You always have the right and ability to question the company. If you are uncertain about anything, always ask and collect as much info as possible about it. An informed decision as always ALWAYS better then a shot in the dark. Keeping a constant eye on those who are in charge, is the only way to keep them in check. Remember those who are in charge are human just like the rest of us and it is a fact that "Those with power, crave more power". If us, as a society, stand by and do nothing to govern the powers that be. Then when we become slaves to there will (it's almost that way now) it will be our own faults. America is a mighty nation and we "THE PEOPLE" not "the companies", make this a mighty nation.
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