cutebuns

I actually worked in Paper and Chemicals, so sold toilet paper and toilet bowl cleaner. especially some weekends for lunch breaks etc I could have up to 7 depts, and the customer service desk loved to see me as I knew most of the one side of the store so they would ask me to help them for price checks and other things, and they knew that I would do it with a smile on my face, I was even only part time but did everything under the sun. I even did over nights to do some of the dept managers job, as well as did over time to unload trucks when they were short staffed and down to 2 unloaders for the night.

Sure there is a quality difference but not everyone can also afford the prices of the small stored, i wold be able to do maybe two quilts a year if that if I had to shop there, so I have to make a choice, and mine are all utility and to be used, I don't plan on showing any of my work or sell much of anything, some of the problem is that it is a must have and walmart with the cheaper prices give them the opportunity of having more,

the small stores have to be twice as smart to survive (and yes even then it is hard for some of them to survive) and even then there are other posts that complain of just as bad service,

garysgal

I know all the negatives concerning Walmart, but I have bought tons of fabric there and won't apoligize for it. I don't work, raised 3 kids, and Walmart afforded me the ability to sew and quilt.
One of my old quilt teachers said it was ok to buy fabric from Walmart for quilting but to hold it up to the light and if you could see the threads, don't buy it. If you couldn't see the threads then it was tightly woven and ok to use for quilting. I am hoping she is right!

Riversong

If we take something back we have to stop at customer service. I have never had a problem returning anything.Still have our fabrics here for awhile,still have good customer service,and will be sad when it goes. The manager trid to keep it for us but he doesn't really have much voice.You should have gotten a refund...next time go to the manager.

kingt6

I bought some paper towels the other day and wiped something up and they fell apart! They wouldn't give me a refund either. Come on it's cheap fabric for a reason.

janRN

I actually had a good experience at Walmart. I needed a new cell phone-just a cheap pay-as-you-go kind-no bells or whistles. I asked the young lady (OMG they are so young in Electronics) if there was a way I could transfer the info from my old phone to the new one or would I have to re-enter the stuff. She took my old phone, did her magic (I have NO clue!!) and 10 minutes later all the info was transferred. I didn't ask her to do this. She was really sweet and didn't treat me like an old coot who didn't know anything. When I got home I called Walmart, asked for a manager and told her I wanted to compliment the employee in Electronics. Her response: are you sure you called the right store? We never get compliments!! She was very appreciative that I called and said she'd pass it on to upper management.
Don't get me started on the Not there anymore fabric dept--never had anyone to cut fabric anyhow!!

Maire

a few years ago we were out of state for a sporting event. I had googled a couple of quilts stores that I wanted to see but the only time I had free there was a fierce storm so I couldn't drive in an unknown area. But there was a Walmart across the street from our motel, so I went there to get raingear & sweatshirts for us. While there I went to the fabric dept & found some great deals for fabrics I could use for charity projects. When I checked out, tired & rainsoaked I took the bags for the raingear & sweatshirt, and a bag of fabric, which I left in the car.
When we returned home 2 days later I realized I had left 2 bags of fabric in the store. Thinking it was forever lost I did call the store just in case, they had it in customer service & mailed it to me at their expense, I was very impressed!
Of course only an addicted sewer would shop for fabric while tired, rainsoaked & a major storm & flooding outside!

Tiffany

Now that is wonderful! Sometimes people (and stores) can surprise us. Kudos to this WalMart!

GailG

We had a great fabric department -- associates were experienced sew-ers, very willing to help. Unfortunately that department has been closed.

siss

cutebuns thank your for sharing your experience. i also work for wal-mart, in my 15 th year. 12 of them in fabrics. i have done most of the jobs you described. i love my job. you said it much better than i could. yes the customer is always right. but there has to be a but. please everyone walk a mile in our shoes. we have very little say in the quality of the fabric, or the service coverage of the store. i try to give the best customer service i can. sorry i can not cut keys, mix paint and cut fabric all at the same time. when waiting on customers i do not answer the phone or paiges. i give you my undivided attention. i take customers and calls in order. please don't answer your cell phone when i am waiting on you. don't ring my bell and when i get to the counter you are still figuring out how much you want. yes if you need my help to figure it out that is fine. please don't let your children destroy the place and tell them that is my job, that is what we get paid to do. and shopping by phone, sometimes i am from one side of the store to the other. if you must call please ask all the questions you want to know at one time (price, size, how many we have, colors) etc., so we don't have to walk miles. also it would be very helpful if you have the measurements for your window, quilt top or what ever you are making. as you know everyone sews differently. the question of how much fabric do i need to make (???) but i don't want tooo much always makes me smile, well at least on the outside. sorry for the long post. believe it or not i really do like my job.
one more thing the term wally world sends chills up my spine, we do have a name wal-mart.

aliaslaceygreen

I have been in customer service (retail) 20 years.

On Wednesday, September 12, 2001, my daughter (then a high school student, who worked part time at Joann's with me, where I was an assistant manager) and I opened the doors to Joann's in Staten Island, and dealt with the aftermath of the day before.

I had no choice but to go in, as the store was open, and some of the other workers couldn't get to work because all the bridges were closed. She should have been at school, but it had been canceled. I couldn't leave her home alone.

My daughter had stood and watched the towers fall from her classroom window. Not TV. Real life, real time. (as I did, down the street from her)

While at work, she received a phone call from one of her best friends, saying that the man who drove her home from school Monday(the father of another friend, since kindergarten) had not returned home yet, that though he was supposed to have gotten off work early Tuesday morning. (firefighter) He apparently had stayed late at the firehouse and ended up racing the rig to the towers.

Now, everyone was HYPER aware, hyper attenuated to each other; customers and workers alike, walked in a daze, questioned each other about being "OK?" (In NY, OK meant no one in your IMMEDIATE family perished. Cousins, sisters in law, friends died? you were "ok" )

My daughter at one point was apparently slightly 'harsh' to a customer, (who for some reason, seemed oblivious to the pain in the air) and she chewed out my daughter, and then me. I tried to apologize, and told the woman she had had some bad news, and the woman's response was "well, then she shouldn't BE here!"

"No, none of us should be here, ma'am," was all I wanted to say. None of us should be hunting through the store, scrounging up the last bits of yellow ribbon, blue ribbon, black ribbon, patriotic ribbon, anything that we, in our absolute lack of power can try to control by tying ribbons to our lapels, by getting up again in the morning, ignoring the smell in the air, the gray of the sky....

I had to simply ask my 17 year old to go look for something in the stock room, get her off the floor, not be able to comfort her,....

For all I know, that customer was not "OK" and just hadn't been able to lay her fury out somewhere else. Somewhere more productive, so she took my daughter to task.

It took until the end of October before they were able to plan a funeral for Mike Fiore.

There is always another side to every interaction. I do agree that the benefit of the doubt as relates to PERSONAL interaction needs to be accommodated.

The corporate mentality to the customer complaint?? That WE screwed up, we need to do what makes the customer happy. The corporate mentality, UP UNTIL the customer complaint? Cut hours, make do with less, sell the cheap garbage, hire low and don't provide hours and time for real training.

In all honesty? The customer is RARELY right. (If you don't believe me, you probably have never worked retail)

But we must treat you as if you are. With a smile. And patience. And know when to turn you over to someone else, someone who is neutral, who has not had to listen to you slap down for the past ten minutes your paternity, your integrity and your intelligence.

I do treat you and your concerns with a smile. (biting my tongue? perhaps) I do what I can to fix the error. I accept blame on behalf of the person who F'd up.

But still, the customer feels the rules are not for them.

To the woman with the cancer scare, I hope it was just that.
To everyone else. There is a reason I don't shop in Walmart.
I posted a blog before Christmas, "Christmas without Wally". I received some seriously cranky, nasty responses, and I was really rather tame in my explanation.

Totally taking this to it's tangential end, there is a reason the products at WM are the quality they are. There is a reason that other companies who want to produce higher quality products keep closing.

Remember, purchasing things for a song, we are destroying slowly our economy. No matter how many people work AT WM, the number of jobs lost BY WM....(ok soap box being yanked out from under me....

:thumbup:

to the OP.... I hope you were able to resolve this to your satisfaction.