Judas

First off... i never support wal-mart... never will.. i refuse to step foot into this place.. period..... everything i support this places trounces on....

that's it.. that's all... nothing more needs to be said about this place aside from this recent occurance.

(this isn't a one off senario, and this isn't only applying to this specific product.. that in one way or another applies to thousands sold)

I had an older man come in with a unique issue....

Language issue......

What had happened apparently, is that he went into wal-mart for a cheap computer.. picked up a netbook, and brought it home.... hit the power button and was presented NOT with the typical preload stuff, but with windows 7 starter and all of in a completely different language.

Now you'd typically think that well, this should be to hard to change, just go into the language settings and select English and apply and reboot... right? well.. no.. incorrect... it's not as easy as that.

On laptops and desktops and everything that's prebuilt and preloaded.... when you first fire it up as most will know, your presented with selecting a language.... and it's specifically STATES, that once a language is selected.. you CANNOT change it... period....

I orginally thought this was bogus.. there has to be a way to change it..... i've done numerous tricks i've read up via internet and other suggestions..... and while you can "somewhat" get SOME things to change over.. the basic fundlementals of the machine will always remain.... and sometimes even just reboot will reset back as well...

So essentially what you have is a huge annoyance and for an older man that was unfamilare with computers and just wanted something simple to start off with.... this was a terrible way to start... specially considering that, and i fully agree with this... he shouldn't HAVE to pay to get it fixed or reset.

Because frankly, you have to wipe and reinstall windows to change the language. And NO, doing a factory reset DOES NOT WORK, the change is permanent. (making the warning actually very much valid)

So wal-mart, sold an old man without a clue about computers a laptop that was basically already opened, with a language that cannot be changed that very few people here would ever have a hope in hell of understanding... shit i know my way around windows 7 starter and i was having issues navigating lol.... sent him packing and then ended up not realizing what was wrong with his netbook...

I find this disgusting... and i know for a fact this occurs frequently in one way or another at many big box stores.....

You have something in stock, something that no one really wants, you try your best to pawn it off on the first sucker you can manage to get to buy it.. and then laugh as you take his or her cash for a broken product... then you try everything in your power to deny the return.. blame the customer.. and keep the money ESSENTIALLY STEALING from your customer..... and being as big as you are, say to yourself that it's alright, it's just one customer.... didn't need him anyways.... to big to fail, to many other suckers waiting in line to feel an impact. Half the world could boycott you and wouldn't really effect you all that much.

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Dyre Straits

Judas, you don't address whether or not this "old man" attempted to even return the laptop to Wal-mart for a refund and/or exchange. Wal-mart, at least here in the USA, has a very exceptional return/refund policy. See here:

Walmartstores.com: Return Policy

This return policy has, during the holidays, even been extended and expanded. If you take note, most any purchase from mid-November up to and including Christmas, won't even have the limited return period start until the day AFTER Christmas.

So, I would have directed him to take the laptop and his receipt to the Customer Service center and plainly show them the problem. If that laptop had been returned previously, it CAN be returned AGAIN.

I'm not a big fan of Wal-mart. But, I don't like seeing "bad press" due to lack of proper action on the part the customer...which seems to be the situation here.

Good luck!

P.S. If Target were open in our area 24/7, I'd be doing much more business with them than with Wal-mart. But, due to my working schedule, Wal-mart gets a visit from me about twice a week on average.

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Judas

when it comes to return policies...... the employees are instructed to at any cost if they can manage, to not allow a return unless legally they must agree..

in saskatchewan legally it's within 14 days....... anything after can be determined at the discretion of the business by suitable employees that can make that kind of decision.

And i know several people that have managed to scam the hell out of walmart while others have managed to get denied on legitimate returns.

either way, irreguardless of the man ends up being able to return the laptop doesn't excuse the fact that it was clearly known to be sold to him in this kind of condition... i don't care who or what your task is.... these kind of mistakes are all to common.

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Dyre Straits

That's really very strange. I've never had a refusal to return a product that is obviously not working the way it's supposed to work. And, in the case of an obviously pre-opened item, unless it's clearly marked, "As Is - No Returns" the vendor/retailer is obligated to accept it. That might involve a "Restocking Fee" in some cases.

But, I'm not trying to defend Wal-mart. I just know how my own dealings have been with them and I've been able to even return food items that had been opened and not up to par in the quality department.

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Judas

while dyre i don't have doubts about you being able to do that...... granted you probably looked threatning to the person having to deal with it.. or on the side good towards them.....

I know, i've worked with and learnt from several employees in many of these stores... and while some have clearly stated otherwise.. several if not more have stated the behind the scenes "rules" if they can get away with it... with the prospect of suckers buying and employees getting bonuses and promotions..

Scrum rises to the top generally..

Sure no surprise that some good ones get up there too... but it doesn't make up for the wealth of jackholes out there doing "their job" as they see it..

I've personally been in a big chain store and there have been employees that at the time... didn't realize i knew my shit very well, and they were betting everything they had on me not knowing jack shit. Calling them out of this scared the living crap out of them enough to completely disappear from the floor to hide in the staff only area for who knows how long after i basically spoke quite loudly about what he was doing, loud enough for most customers to hear in the vincinity, which what i had said, was enough for customers to thank me and leave or be dubious of the staff there suddenly.

I actaully was at futureshop one time when i caught a salemen working an area in which he had no clue about.. period... utterly not a clue.. and was trying to sell a customer something he did not need nor want, something that was extremely expensive compared to the actual component he needed/wanted..

Surfice it to say, the result ended up with him getting quite pissed of at me, i turning around and explaining, asking the questions, and suggesting the options that would be best suited, i made an additional sale for futureshop on top of that which resulted in while being cheaper then the one component that guy was trying to make him buy, probably made that customer MUCH happier.... unfortunately i couldn't stick around when the mad employee brought the futureshop manager and ask to me leave, only to be thwarted by 4 additional employees asking the manager to let me stay if i wished to help them with a few things.

On my way out of the store with 2 employee's one of which was the mad one and the other a friend of his likely + the manager.... which had asked me what/why i had done what i had done, a few of the other customers told me they wish i was working there.. and to be honest.. it isn't the first time, but ironically futureshop hireing policy doesn't like my moral standings or something due to always failing their application lol.

tiss sad.. but true

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