Big problem at Walmart - anybody have legal experience?

[Extremity]

I was at my girlfriend's townhome for the past few days. She wanted to run to Walmart to grab something and I gave her my debit card and asked if she could pick up a PS3 game for me that I already had at home, just so I had something to play there. She grabbed it, no problems.

When I left I had not played the game yet so I wanted to swing by the Walmart near her house to return it before I got home, since the one by my house is out of the way. Now, before I go any further, I work at Gamestop. I'm not worried about returns or anything because if all else fails I can just do it there, no problem.

I got to the store and walked up to a register to return (CS was closed, it was like 4am) and the cashier refused as the plastic was SLIGHTLY broken near where the box opens - about a one inch opening, definitely not enough to have taken the game out or anything, and there was still a plastic seal on the box itself under the wrap. I explained that it was purchased only a few hours ago, never played, and that I had received it like that, and she said she couldn't do it and called the night Customer Service Manager over.

He gave me the same story and I asked him to show me how I could possibly get the game out of that case. He glared at me for literally ten seconds - just stood there staring at me like he was trying to intimidate me, the way you would expect somebody to stare you down in a bar before a fight or something. He fiddled with it, ripped it EVEN MORE, and then when he couldn't get the same out told me he still would not take it back. I told him that I didn't even have a PS3 (lie, oops!) and that not only was it clearly not used but he just ripped it more. This is when it started getting really unprofessional. He asked, VERY obviously sarcastically, why I would buy the game and laughed at me, and I explained that my girlfriend purchased it. He then told me "he didn't have time for this" and that it "wasn't going to happen". I explained that it was fine, I will just take it to my local Walmart where there would not be a problem. He then started asking why I was "fronting him" like he was a 16 year old punk - keep in mind this guy was at LEAST 50 years old.

At this point I was fed up and I asked who the District Manager was and if it was Adrian, the DM for my local Walmart. He immediately blew up, yelling about me "fronting him" and saying that I was threatening him and he and the "young ladies next to us" (45 year old fat employees) did not need to listen to my attitude and that they don't even HAVE a DM and that he's not going to put up with me threatening him and mentioned how I was "fronting him", whatever that means, at least 5 more times. I told him how I was literally confused and could not believe how absolutely unprofessional he was, that I would not expect this from a cashier let alone the CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER. I asked why he kept saying I was "fronting him" and what that even meant, and why he was acting like this was some playground fight. I stated that even though I'm in my mid twenties I am still a customer and he has no right to treat me like this, and that as a customer I have every right to ask him who is DM is, and that if it had been for a compliment I'm sure he would have let me know. When a customer asks who the DM is you do not withhold that information - you can give a name, even if they don't want their number given out, or supply the corporate number.

He kept yelling in my face and then finally went "oh, that's unprofessional? how about you get out of my store. GET OUT OF MY STORE. GET OUT OF THE STORE, NOW. GET OUT." At this point I just started laughing, put the game in my bag, said I would be happy to leave and that in the 10 years I've randomly gone to Walmart I have never experienced anything remotely close to being as ridiculous as he was being (and I have dealt with some weird ****). I had my iPhone headphones in and as I walked away I clicked the button and said "Call Adrian", the DM for my local store, to see if he happened to be awake, and partially because I wanted him to know that I was not going to let this slide.

The best part - A few seconds later, when he assumed I could not hear him because I was far away and had headphones in (which were off), I heard him call me a "faggot".

I've never dealt with such an unprofessional and ridiculous situation. We all know that Walmart does not provide the pinnacle of customer service but this is absurd, even for them. What do I do? I plan on calling their hotline as soon as it is open at 7am, but I feel like I should do something more. A MANAGER not only acting the way he did but calling a customer a "faggot" should be a MASSIVE deal, I'm not sure if I should call a lawyer or whatever else. I'm extremely pissed, and the worst part is that it was over something INCREDIBLY simple. I returned the game no problem at my local store an hour later, even WITH the extra tears he had put into the case.

Just in case the forum censors what I said - he called me a "F4GG0T". Just put that there so it won't censor, you should get what the word is from that.

Any input? I am sitting here at 6:15am waiting for 7am to hit just so I can call, completely exhausted. I am seething right now. What do I do?

 

[nlj515]

Definitely call the hotline.

Also might want to call the store and see if you can talk to another manager there.

 

[Kazza]

Definitely go for the hotline and another manager. Just remember to be cool, calm and collected and that the person you speak to didn't cause the problem so be cool with them.

As for a lawyer, I think that's taking it a bit far. Don't like giving lawyers money - they hated almost as much as politicians in Aus

Also, write down EVERYTHING that happened, including your phone calls.

Good luck and keep us posted.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[macem29]

one small piece of advice: never mess with a man's livelihood,
especially if he's crazy, that's just my opinion, but I'd let it go

 

[Extremity]

one small piece of advice: never mess with a man's livelihood,
especially if he's crazy, that's just my opinion, but I'd let it go

You would let go a customer service manager screaming in your face, acting like a 16 year old about you "Fronting him", and calling you a FAGGOT?

 

[macem29]

the company would have to listen, and take some sort of action,
while the man's behaviour is way out of line, there could be
any number of reasons contributing to that behaviour, or he
could just be a miserable SOB...ask yourself this: is your wanting
him fired a vindictive thing, because he publicly challenged you?
or do you think having him terminated is actually going to do
some good?

You asked for some opinions, so this is mine...there's a lot
of satisfaction in being the bigger man

 

[Extremity]

the company would have to listen, and take some sort of action,
while the man's behaviour is way out of line, there could be
any number of reasons contributing to that behaviour, or he
could just be a miserable SOB...ask yourself this: is your wanting
him fired a vindictive thing, because he publicly challenged you?
or do you think having him terminated is actually going to do
some good?

You asked for some opinions, so this is mine...there's a lot
of satisfaction in being the bigger man

I think that if I did that at my job I would be fired in an instant. I think I would be fired simply for saying "you fronting me?" to a customer. I think that if Walmart is even SLIGHTLY professional in regards to customer complaints this guy will be canned without question. I don't care about being "publically challenged", it was 4am, nobody was even there. If he had said "Look man, I understand that you can't get the game out, in fact I know you can't. If it was up to me I would return it but we have a policy that is very strictly enforced now and I can't make any exceptions. I'm sorry" then I would have been completely fine with it, because, like I said, I could just bring it to my store no problem. I went there for a quick stop on the way, the return was not a life or death thing. So yeah, I think that this guy deserves to be fired, I think that his behavior was completely unprofessional, gives the company a horrible image, and if they keep somebody as a MANAGER who calls customers "Faggots" then it shows the type of corporation they really are. I can't see how anybody would disagree that calling a customer a faggot should be instant termination.

 

[chaskell27]

I wouldn't let it go...but then again I would have a surprise waiting for him in the form of a S&W .40 if he tried to harm me or my family!! :thumbup:

You have every right to be treated with respect when you enter a store like that. He had no reason to flip out unless you really provoked him which it doesn't sound like you did. And you also have every right to voice your complaints to whoever will listen.

How did the call to the hotline go??

 

[macem29]

I guess we just ain't gonna agree on this, hope he doesn't
get liquored and beat his wife after he gets fired from a crap job

 

[chaskell27]

My thought is that treating a customer like that warrants termination. If this isn't grounds for termination in your eyes what would be? Where is your line? There is no reason to EVER treat another person like this when unprovoked not to mention a CUSTOMER. Whatever comes from this he will have brought on himself and will fully deserve. There has to be a line somewhere and in my opinion this is way beyond it.

I'm not bashing just stating opinions and having a healthy debate :thumbup:

 

[The Toecutter]

If this guy would treat a customer this way,I hate to think how he must be with employees !!

 

[chuckfz6ryder]

I've been in technical customer service positions for 20+ years. I've dealt with many upset customers, and sometimes you just can't make them happy, but I wouldn't ever treat anyone like that. I'd expect to hear about this from my company if I did. I would just do like that Jet Blue flight attendant did, grab 2 beers and go down the slide (or through the Wal-Mart front door). Don't worry about him beating his wife or anything, if he's like that, he's going to do that anyway.

 

[macem29]

cool, I love to debate :thumbup:

I agree wholeheartedly that there should be some sort of
consequence from this guy's poor treatment of you, but
trying to get him fired is not likely to do any good other than
maybe make you feel like you won, this is a nasty piece of
man-business, pride and other BS driving the conflict...if you
want revenge and victory, punch the guy's ticket, get him
canned, if you actually care about doing some good, take a
few minutes out of your busy schedule and go chat with
the guy again, and calmly, non-confrontationally, explain
that you're considering reporting his behaviour to the Co.
but you'd be willing to talk it out like a man with him first, it ain't easy to be the bigger man

 

[Extremity]

cool, I love to debate :thumbup:

I agree wholeheartedly that there should be some sort of
consequence from this guy's poor treatment of you, but
trying to get him fired is not likely to do any good other than
maybe make you feel like you won, this is a nasty piece of
man-business, pride and other BS driving the conflict...if you
want revenge and victory, punch the guy's ticket, get him
canned, if you actually care about doing some good, take a
few minutes out of your busy schedule and go chat with
the guy again, and calmly, non-confrontationally, explain
that you're considering reporting his behaviour to the Co.
but you'd be willing to talk it out like a man with him first, it ain't easy to be the bigger man

Be the bigger man, what? If the guy had refused to discount a TV for me and I tried to get him fired then this would be me trying to one-up him. This guy called me a faggot. He is in a management position, and not only that, he is the CUSTOMER SERVICE manager. You're telling me that if you found out one of YOUR employees called a customer a faggot you would not fire them? Hell, if I WAS trying to just be a dick, I could most likely sue the **** out of the company for sexual harassment.

This isn't about trying to one up him, I don't give a **** about him, this is holding a company to the standards they advertise. There is a difference between "feeling like I won" and "expecting professionalism". I honestly don't understand how you can post acting like I am doing "nasty man business" or whatever, this is not a trivial issue, and I guarantee you that you could walk into any business within 50 miles of where you live and they would all say that an employee calling a customer a "faggot" is not only entirely unacceptable but will immediately lead to being fired.

In fact, it's the exact opposite of what you say. The OTHER guy was the one trying to play the role you're stating, taking his management position and using it to make himself feel like he was some big, important guy who can do whatever he wants and there are no consequences because he is the manager of a WALMART. The world doesn't work like this, there is "being the bigger man and letting it go" and then there's "letting somebody walk all over you".

 

[macem29]

I'm saying you both are involved in a piece of man business,
and there's no guarantee the guy will get terminated, in my
jurisdiction it takes more than one written warning before an
employer can do that, don't know about FLA...and I've been
trying to figure out how the world works a lot longer than
you and I bet you a bowl of soup there will be no good come
out of this if you try to get the guy fired

 

[chaskell27]

I may be wrong but I don't think he has explicitly said the he was trying to get him fired. I'm sure he wouldn't be too broken up about it if it were to happen but I think he is just filing his complaint with wal mart. Don't you think that WalMart would want to know of this incident? You stated that it takes more than one incident. First of all, every incident is different. Maybe if he was 30 mins late to work a few times. He called a customer a faggot for no apparent reason!! If I were wal mart I would at the very least demote him to a position where he does not interact with customers. Even if they don't fire him but give him another chance, this will at least be on record so that the next time he berates a customer they may not be so kind.

I wouldn't call up and demand he gets fired but I would have no qualms about making sure that the powers that be know of my experience and the extremely unproffesional behavior of their employee. They can do what they will about it from there but I think they would want to know.

 

[Tailgate]

Nice write-up. I would incorporate it and simply forward it, somehow, to corporate relations or somewhere. Incidentally, did you have the receipt? You didn't say. Does Walmart have some kind of special policy regarding these games? Probably not, I imagine especially if it's unopened! At any rate, yeah, I would complain about it. And, regarding the "faggot" remark, I might couch it something like: "...and as I walked away, I heard him talking to the cashier and refer to me as a 'faggot.' Although the manager may not have intended for me to hear it, I think it's further demonstrates lack of professionalism."
Yeah, Extremity, if nothing else, dispatch a copy of your post to Walmart coporate or the store manager! I can't imagine it getting him fired (unless he has prior, similar complaints fired) especially since you don't have corroborating evidence, such as a another shopper. Yeah, I say, definitely, get your two cents in. Only thing with these kinds of bad experiences, if you don't act (write/send) fast, they start fading away.

 

[macem29]

just trying to offer a differing point of view guys....

sorry if I've offended you Extremity, good luck with this

 

[VEGASRIDER]

Did you take a picture of the package "Before" the employee tampered with it even more?

At 4 A.M, you are really not going to go very far with anyone. If you don't like the answer you received from the MOD, you need to take it up with someone who can make the correct decision, and most importantly the authority to do something about it. And you're not going to find that person at 4 A.M. Trust me, I've been there and done that. Just get their name and come back the next day.

Name calling, raising your voice etc, will just be hearsay, unless you are taping the conversation, there is no proof.

People who are higher up on the food chain will have a better understanding and meaning of Customer Service.

 

[mxgolf]

I knew there was a reason I don't and have never been in a Wal-Mart (China Mart). They don't let them in the Portland metro area. The citizens alway get them to not be able to build in the area. You should not have been treated that way and that's all there is to it. He deserves to loose his job. I am inside sales and purchasing and there is no way I would still have my job if I said the stuff that guy said to you to my customers or vendors. Stick it too him!