I went to store #2903 at about 7:00pm on May 5. Location of Store: Wal Mart Chelmsford #2903 66-4 Parkhurst Road Chelmsford, MA 01821 Advertised in the store was a 40" diagonal Full HDTV (1920x1080 resolution) Phillips LCD television set. Product ID: 42PFL3704D/F The advertised price was $498.00/ This item was marked down significantly but was not marked "Sale" or "On Sale." I took photos of the store display. It appeared to be Wal Mart's newly lowered "everyday low price" for this item. This item was priced at $498.00, down from $628.00. An exactly similar model set available on Target.com is priced significantly higher than this in-store advertised television set at Wal Mart. Target's price is $599.99 (on May 5). I asked the salesperson to place place one into my cart. The salesperson reported to me that she needed to "check the back room." She disappeared, and a few minutes later re-appeared and informed me that none of this item existed in stock. She then directed me to other far more expensive televisions on display and suggested perhaps I would like to consider purchasing one of those instead. I asked to speak with a store manager - sensing an illegal bait-and-switch operation. A store Assistant Manager - who wore a name tag identifying her as Kaleena - appeared. She confirmed to me that the in-store advertised "bait" item was not in stock. I asked for a rain check so that I could come back and purchase the item once it was again in stock. Her response was: "I don't think we're selling that item any more." I asked for a rain check anyway. She claimed Wal Mart does not issue rain checks on televisions. When I persisted, and asked to speak with her manager, Kalenna offered to check stock at surrounding stores to see if they had the item in stock. I was happy to have her do that and allowed her to check her computer and to call other nearby locations on what appeared to me to be her personal cell-phone - records of which would be available by her cell service provider. Her handheld computer - she claimed - reported 4 of this item in stock at the nearby store in Methuen. However, she placed a cell phone call to that store and claimed that the Methuen store also had no stock in spite of what the computer showed for stock level in that store. At that time, I asked to purchase the display model for the advertised in-store price of $498.00. Kaleena refused to sell me the television for the advertised price. She claimed it was missing parts and would not be a "complete sale." I persisted and said that would be OK, that I'd take the television off the wall "as is." She again refused to sell me the floor model - for any price. I asked Kaleena to sell me a comparable item at the in-store advertised price. She said she would "see what she could do." She returned with a 42-inch plasma television from Samsung that had a display resolution of 720 pixels... Half that of the advertised television. It was substantially lower in value than the advertised item. I refused to accept that significantly lower-quality replacement. Kaleena then said said she would order one of the out-of-stock television sets - but she could not say when one might be delivered, or if one might be delivered as she was uncertain whether Wal Mart intended to continue selling that brand of television. I took down her information and left my information for her. I asked her once again for a Rain Check and she refused to give me one. These events occurred between 7:00 and 8:00pm on May 5.
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