Wal Mart
Shift lever broken at oil change, refused reimbursement of $105

I just found this site and am relating an experience which occurred approx. 3 1/2 years ago. I took my 1990 Ford Taurus to Wal Mart for an oil change. I had never had any trouble with the transmission at all. After all, I drove the car in.

When returning to pick up my car, the oil change tech showed me that the car wouldn't go into gear or anywhere else. All the shift lever would do is move up and down freely. None of us had any idea what was wrong so we managed to manually shift it into drive under the hood after starting the car. I had planned a trip out of town but drove home instead to find the problem. Somehow the employee had managed to yank the shift lever down and broke the cast metal mechanism.

There's no chance it was damaged before since being a cast part it either works or it doesn't. I had the car repaired on short notice by an individual. The cost was around $34 for the part and $75 labor.

The next day I took a receipt for the part to Wal Mart but had no receipt the labor I'd paid. I was told to call the home office. I went round and round trying to get reimbursed for them breaking my car and could get nowhere. I was told by their customer service dept. that I'd have to have a certified mechanic perform the repairs, provide his name and certification, and a receipt.

Well, the car was already repaired and at a much lower labor amount than a dealer would've charged. The bottom line is that Wal Mart muscled their way out of paying a meager $105.00 or so. They refused to do anything even though it was apparent I drove in to their store in a perfectly good vehicle and it left damaged.

I did forget to mention that the only reason I left with the car instead of making them repair it there was that I was told that a cable that makes the shifter work had broken. That could be attributed to normal wear and tear so it would have been MY responsibility, which I would accept.

Wal Mart could not accept THEIR responsibility!

Company: Wal Mart
Country: USA
State: Mississippi
City: Tupelo
Address: 2270 West Main St
Phone: 6628444011

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