Usacomplaints.com » Miscellaneous » Complaint / Review: Walmart.com - Walmart - Very clever scam. #596377

Complaint / Review
Walmart.com - Walmart
Very clever scam

Only at Wal-Mart! All too often consumers, including myself, are victim of a rather clever and unique scam at Wal Mart that takes place at the cash register.

Very simple scam: the consumer pays for items after they are scanned and put into several plastic shopping bags hung on a multi-pronged carousel. Often the consumer doesn't check and one or two of the last plastic bags containing paid-for merchandise are left at the rear of the carousel and... Accidentally-on-purpose get left behind because the consumer didn't see or didn't know to check. The consumer MUST go back to the store with receipt in hand to claim what got left behind, an exercise that is frustrating (long lines at the service counter, long wait to see if the items were discovered and long wait for the employee to check a black log book).

A night-manager at Wal-Mart's 83rd Avenue and Union Hills super-store in Peoria, Arizona admitted that this carousel system is designed so that some merchandise wouldn't get spotted and therefore is left behind. At another Wal-Mart location the customer "service" desk showed me a log-book of these left-behind items. It was full of literally thousands of notations with description of the product that were "forgotten" by the consumers. Who wins? The consumer? Never!

I have been victimized six times by this scam, and when I asked just what happens to the moneys a customer pays, but then doesn't somehow get his merchandise. The employee refused to answer the question. I heard one estimate from another employee-friend, however, that each Wal-Mart unit pockets between 5000 and 10000 dollars monthly from this. The explanations are that Wal-Mart simply re-stocks the unclaimed items back on the shelves and these items are therefore potentially sold TWICE, or maybe three times or more depending on chance. Only Wal-Mart can profit from this system.

Does Wal-Mart donate that undeserved money to charity? Or does it add the the Company's net profits?

Do any other retailers use such a carousel system? Wal Mart cannot claim it's not intentional because employees, ex - and current, explain that it is absolutely intentional. If they have such thick log books on this problem at each Wal-Mart store, then obviously management at every level is aware this is a "problem" at best, but what have they done to correct this? I contend they've done "nothing" - it's too lucrative for the Company to change anything... Especially if the allegations are true that this is fully intentional and Wal Mart claims so many thousands a month per retail unit. Only Wal-Mart can account for just how much income they make from this.

On another note: I purchased some "fresh" salmon at a Wal-Mart store; it was stinking rotten when I opened the package, so I froze it before returning it the next day (to prevent smells in my refrigerator). I returned it the next day, but the following day I went back to the store for another reason and observed that another customer was returning the EXACT (!!!) same package I had returned 2 days before. Obviously, instead of doing the right thing, they simply put new cellophane wrap on my package and put it back on the shelf.

Why can't a retailer giant as Wal-Mart with such world-wide potential of being one of America's greatest ambassadors fix such "problems". Americans blame the Chinese for alleged lousy business practices in their food exports, but Wal Mart is a great counter-argument for the Chinese to point their finger at.

Shame!


Offender: Walmart.com - Walmart

Country: USA   State: Arizona   City: Glendale
Site:

Category: Miscellaneous

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