Walmart is not in my good books right now. A couple of months ago, I decided to order online a travel cribbage game that was posted at a supposed online only low price of $8.97. When I went to the cart though, there was an added $5.00 handling fee. So the real price was $13.97. Some would call this, at best, a deceptive practice. The next day, I decided to go to an actual Walmart store. Guess what, the price at the store was the exact same price as the online only low price. Some would call this, at best, a deceptive practice.
The other day, I checked Walmart online for some “coin” batteries for my car fob. A two-pack was priced at $5.84. Again, when I went to the cart, there was an additional $5.00 handling fee. I decided to go somewhere else in person to buy the batteries.
Yesterday I was on my way to visit a friend in the hospital, and decided along the way to quickly purchase a few food items. One of the items, which I usually got somewhere else, was well-priced, so I picked up the item. Walmart has long since switched to self-checkout. To encourage you to do this, they only had one cashier checkout open, which is pretty standard in business these days. As I was self-checking, the item I picked up that I thought was a good deal was not the price posted on the sign by the product, but, a little bit higher priced. Now, the difference was only around a $1.30, so I just made the purchase. However, because it was a self-checkout and very busy, I really had no recourse on this item unless I wanted to hang around for ten to fifteen minutes, which I didn’t. If this was through a cashier checkout, it would have been addressed immediately.
Finally, I have been trying to unsubscribe to Walmart sales e-mails, not because I was mad at them, but, I have been unsubscribing to prune the number of selling emails I was receiving from businesses in general. The Walmart emails did not stop initially. It took a few “un-subscribes” to get them to finally stop. As well, I came to realize Walmart sends out emails through other, different email address, so, I had to unsubscribe from those multiple times.
These practices by Walmart are not unique; they have become the norm in business in general in many cases, and that’s the point. Purchasing products, whether online or in-store, is often not what is presented, so it is still “buyer beware.” Yet, in the beckoning less regulated world, we are supposed to trust companies and their commitment to business integrity. I have some doubt.
Finally, this is not about asking for a consumer boycott of Walmart. Walmart is usually a reputable business to purchase items from, often at very attractive prices, so don’t stop shopping there. I won’t. I’m pretty sure the food item price snafu was unintentional. I was talking more about resolution of the price discrepancy.
The point is this…in today’s multi-faceted selling environment, the adage “buyer beware” is more true than ever before. And, in this environment, it makes trusting businesses harder, not easier. Someday I’ll talk about online commerce and the word “free.”
The World According to Glissando 