The bad retail experience thread

Sorry if one of these has been posted, but I haven't seen one. Would love to hear some of the crazy stories you guys have dealt with. It can be any retailer, but reading some of the stories people experience in public has always been amusing to me. I'll start.

So a little over a week ago I got a 55" Sony Bravia 3DTV from a local discount store, it had been a return. Sony doesn't include glasses with their 3D's anymore, but the guy threw in the transmitter I needed, so I went to buy a pair of glasses that night. Best Buy was sold out, and the other electronics shops were all sold out too. I remembered the new PS3 3D display from Sony, so called up Gamestop in the mall to ask if they had any. One extra pair, they held them for me.

Needless to say, 70 bucks was steep, but they worked fine. Says on the package 'universal' so they didn't give me any trouble. I see on Sunday that Best Buy has them for 49.99, which was a little aggravating...regardless, I picked up a pair at Best Buy and returned the sealed ones to Gamestop with the receipt. The guy who returned them told me he was glad I didn't open them because they ONLY worked with that 24" display. I said well I have a Sony 3D tv, and I knew those would work with mine too. With about 6-7 people behind me, he points up to their display and says, 'It will ONLY WORK WITH THAT TV. Because when two people are playing, they can sit by each other. Player 1 looks through their glasses and gets their character on the screen, player 2 can look at it and see their screen, that way they can play on the same tv without split screen.' I just stood there and looked at him.

He proceeded to tell me my PUR rewards card was out and asked if I wanted to renew.

For the record, they're just active shutter glasses. Nothing at all special about them compared to normal active shutter glasses.

Anyone else got any exciting stories? Surely with black friday just happening...

That's hardly a bad experience. He was wrong about an issue.

[quote name='Scorch']That's hardly a bad experience. He was wrong about an issue.[/QUOTE]

Doesn't have to be a truly "bad" experience. I have plenty of them, that was just the story I wanted to open with.

Yeah, that's nowhere in the vicinity of a "bad experience."

Try mine, just yesterday, getting tires on my Jeep at Sears:

We get to Sears at about 9:45am, and wait for the sales reps to finish whatever conversation they are having. After about 10 minutes, I talk to the guy, tell him what tires, and also throw in an oil change, since the Jeep was a bit overdue.

Typically (having worked at a Sears Auto Center a few years back) the sales people are supposed to go out to the parking lot and get the information of the vehicle themselves, and pull it in to the shop. Not this guy. It was cold and rainy, and in the second missed opportunity for customer satisfaction, asks me to bring the Jeep into the shop myself.

I pull the Jeep into the shop and park it in an open bay, and the guy is nowhere to be seen. I notice him on the other side of the shop, BS'ing with one of the techs. I literally stood there for 5 minutes, waiting for him to remember he has a customer.

He gets the information, and we go back in and he types of the work order. He said it was going to be about 2 hours (for two tires and an oil change, which is astronomical, considering they weren't even busy). I reluctantly said "fine," signed the work order, and my fiance and I went to wander around the mall.

25 minutes later, he calls my phone and says he doesn't have the key. He forgot to ask me for it, and I forgot to give it to him. Both our faults, no penalty. An hour after that phone call, he calls again and tells me they can't locate the tires I ordered. I asked him what other tires they have and he goes down the list, and I tell him to just put on ____ tires.

Another hour goes by and I get yet another call, saying that four wheel studs got cross-threaded when the tech rotated the old tires to the back, and will need replaced, at MY EXPENSE, which will be an additional $150. At this point, I am ing livid. I tell him no. I go back to Sears and he has a tech come out and explain that they are going to try to rethread the studs, and I agreed to that. And was told it will be yet another hour. At this point, it is about 12:30 (2.5 hours in), so we decide to walk across the street and get some lunch.

After almost an hour at the restaurant, we go back to Sears and ask the status, and the woman who is now at the counter has no idea. She goes back to the shop and she says that they are just now starting the oil change, and it will be another 45 ing minutes. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am very calm and mellow, and very rarely lose my cool in public, but I ing went ballistic.

At this point, she gets the manager and it was obvious that even he was getting pretty pissed over the situation, asking both sales people how in the hell the situation got this far out of control. He went out to the shop and got shit straightened out eventually. At about 2:30pm, he finally pulled the Jeep around out front and apologized profusely.

I didn't even bother looking over the Jeep, since we had to hurry and pick up our daughter from school. Four and a half god damn hours wasted, on getting two tires and an oil change. And they didn't offer me anything to make up for the frustration.

Now THAT is a bad retail experience.

[quote name='sp00ge']Yeah, that's nowhere in the vicinity of a "bad experience."

Try mine, just yesterday, getting tires on my Jeep at Sears:

We get to Sears at about 9:45am, and wait for the sales reps to finish whatever conversation they are having. After about 10 minutes, I talk to the guy, tell him what tires, and also throw in an oil change, since the Jeep was a bit overdue.

Typically (having worked at a Sears Auto Center a few years back) the sales people are supposed to go out to the parking lot and get the information of the vehicle themselves, and pull it in to the shop. Not this guy. It was cold and rainy, and in the second missed opportunity for customer satisfaction, asks me to bring the Jeep into the shop myself.

I pull the Jeep into the shop and park it in an open bay, and the guy is nowhere to be seen. I notice him on the other side of the shop, BS'ing with one of the techs. I literally stood there for 5 minutes, waiting for him to remember he has a customer.

He gets the information, and we go back in and he types of the work order. He said it was going to be about 2 hours (for two tires and an oil change, which is astronomical, considering they weren't even busy). I reluctantly said "fine," signed the work order, and my fiance and I went to wander around the mall.

25 minutes later, he calls my phone and says he doesn't have the key. He forgot to ask me for it, and I forgot to give it to him. Both our faults, no penalty. An hour after that phone call, he calls again and tells me they can't locate the tires I ordered. I asked him what other tires they have and he goes down the list, and I tell him to just put on ____ tires.

Another hour goes by and I get yet another call, saying that four wheel studs got cross-threaded when the tech rotated the old tires to the back, and will need replaced, at MY EXPENSE, which will be an additional $150. At this point, I am ing livid. I tell him no. I go back to Sears and he has a tech come out and explain that they are going to try to rethread the studs, and I agreed to that. And was told it will be yet another hour. At this point, it is about 12:30 (2.5 hours in), so we decide to walk across the street and get some lunch.

After almost an hour at the restaurant, we go back to Sears and ask the status, and the woman who is now at the counter has no idea. She goes back to the shop and she says that they are just now starting the oil change, and it will be another 45 ing minutes. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am very calm and mellow, and very rarely lose my cool in public, but I ing went ballistic.

At this point, she gets the manager and it was obvious that even he was getting pretty pissed over the situation, asking both sales people how in the hell the situation got this far out of control. He went out to the shop and got shit straightened out eventually. At about 2:30pm, he finally pulled the Jeep around out front and apologized profusely.

I didn't even bother looking over the Jeep, since we had to hurry and pick up our daughter from school. Four and a half god damn hours wasted, on getting two tires and an oil change. And they didn't offer me anything to make up for the frustration.

Now THAT is a bad retail experience.[/QUOTE]
Holy shit. I'd likely have refused to pay (at least initially) since it took so long.

[quote name='sp00ge']Yeah, that's nowhere in the vicinity of a "bad experience."

Try mine, just yesterday, getting tires on my Jeep at Sears:

We get to Sears at about 9:45am, and wait for the sales reps to finish whatever conversation they are having. After about 10 minutes, I talk to the guy, tell him what tires, and also throw in an oil change, since the Jeep was a bit overdue.

Typically (having worked at a Sears Auto Center a few years back) the sales people are supposed to go out to the parking lot and get the information of the vehicle themselves, and pull it in to the shop. Not this guy. It was cold and rainy, and in the second missed opportunity for customer satisfaction, asks me to bring the Jeep into the shop myself.

I pull the Jeep into the shop and park it in an open bay, and the guy is nowhere to be seen. I notice him on the other side of the shop, BS'ing with one of the techs. I literally stood there for 5 minutes, waiting for him to remember he has a customer.

He gets the information, and we go back in and he types of the work order. He said it was going to be about 2 hours (for two tires and an oil change, which is astronomical, considering they weren't even busy). I reluctantly said "fine," signed the work order, and my fiance and I went to wander around the mall.

25 minutes later, he calls my phone and says he doesn't have the key. He forgot to ask me for it, and I forgot to give it to him. Both our faults, no penalty. An hour after that phone call, he calls again and tells me they can't locate the tires I ordered. I asked him what other tires they have and he goes down the list, and I tell him to just put on ____ tires.

Another hour goes by and I get yet another call, saying that four wheel studs got cross-threaded when the tech rotated the old tires to the back, and will need replaced, at MY EXPENSE, which will be an additional $150. At this point, I am ing livid. I tell him no. I go back to Sears and he has a tech come out and explain that they are going to try to rethread the studs, and I agreed to that. And was told it will be yet another hour. At this point, it is about 12:30 (2.5 hours in), so we decide to walk across the street and get some lunch.

After almost an hour at the restaurant, we go back to Sears and ask the status, and the woman who is now at the counter has no idea. She goes back to the shop and she says that they are just now starting the oil change, and it will be another 45 ing minutes. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am very calm and mellow, and very rarely lose my cool in public, but I ing went ballistic.

At this point, she gets the manager and it was obvious that even he was getting pretty pissed over the situation, asking both sales people how in the hell the situation got this far out of control. He went out to the shop and got shit straightened out eventually. At about 2:30pm, he finally pulled the Jeep around out front and apologized profusely.

I didn't even bother looking over the Jeep, since we had to hurry and pick up our daughter from school. Four and a half god damn hours wasted, on getting two tires and an oil change. And they didn't offer me anything to make up for the frustration.

Now THAT is a bad retail experience.[/QUOTE]

Exactly. And this is the kinda stuff I wanted

I wasn't even pissed about mine, but I figured instead of just having a GS griping thread I'd expand it and whatnot. Man, I'd have been pissed.

That is insane. Are you going to contact corporate about that, or just move on (and presumably never shop at Sears again)?

Just goes to show again why you shouldn't go to a big chain autocenter.

Sears is absolute garbage lol. I learned that lesson very early in life. Much wiser now nobody touches my Z but my mechanic. Sucks not everyone has somebody they can trust, though.

[quote name='sp00ge']Now THAT is a bad retail experience.[/QUOTE]

After working at a dealership for as long as I have, it's nice to hear these guys are still making it easy for us.

Sorry about all the wasted time. Yuck. What awful service.

[quote name='sp00ge']Try mine, just yesterday, getting tires on my Jeep at Sears[/QUOTE]

It always goes downhill after the S word. You should be glad your tires didn't fall off while driving home.

Didn't Sears Auto Service in general get sued for something years and years ago? I think it was for over charging customers for work they didn't need or never did?

EDIT:
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/061799/bus_061799089.shtml

CHICAGO (AP) Sears, Roebuck and Co. faces another lawsuit contending its automotive business defrauded customers, the latest in a series of high-profile blemishes for the nation's second-largest retailer.
But analysts said Wednesday they're hard-pressed to find a dishonest side of Sears and suggested that many of its problems predate a revival and revamping of the Sears corporate culture nearly six years ago.
A suit filed Tuesday in Madison County, Ill., contends Sears collected as much as $400 million from 1989 to 1994 for tire-balancing services it never performed, and then tried to cover up the fraud.
The filing Tuesday is nearly identical to a case filed in Florida in 1991, but it is one of a series of black marks on the company's reputation in recent years. Sears has paid over $100 million to settle charges it used illegal tactics to collect debt from bankrupt customers and sold old batteries as new.
However, analyst Kurt Barnard said, ''there really doesn't appear to be a pattern or anything along those lines.''
''It's a very big retailer, so people from all walks are finding it a potentially fruitful target in something that kind of feeds upon itself as there is more press about supposed wrongdoings,'' said Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Marketing Report.
The Illinois complaint resembles one filed in federal court in Florida in 1991 that was thrown out but reinstated by an appeals court last year. The court said notices that Sears sent in 1992 about reimbursement for ''unnecessary and/or improper repairs'' were too vague for customers to understand.
Both lawsuits accuse Sears of charging 7 million to 30 million customers $12.50 per tire for unperformed balancing services through 1994, when Sears discontinued its AccuBalance service.
Analysts who follow the company noted that most of the complaints against Sears are alleged to have happened before the tenure of chairman and chief executive officer Arthur C. Martinez, who is credited with revitalizing the company after taking over in 1995. He has been with Hoffman Estates-based Sears since late 1992.
Several of the cases appeared to involve Sears' failure to properly interpret the rules rather than malicious intent, the analysts said.
In the debt-collection scandal, for instance, several other retailers, including Federated Department Stores, also admitted improperly seeking so-called debt reaffirmation agreements. Bankrupt customers contended they were pressured into signing such agreements dating back to 1992.
In the battery-selling case, it was Sears' main battery supplier, Exide, that had been returning old batteries to the retailer and marking them as new. Sears has since severed all ties to the Florida-based company.
And in the child labor case, Labor Secretary Alexis Herman admitted Sears cooperated immediately when it learned managers at stores had trouble interpreting complicated rules on when and what jobs teens should be given.
Sears also settled charges that its auto repair shops did shoddy or unnecessary work between 1990 and 1992. It subsequently converted its auto service shops into parts dealers.
''I think it's a tough competitive environment, but I don't think they're doing anything bad,'' said analyst Michael Exstein at Credit Suisse First Boston. ''On the fundamental side of the business, they're always working to improve their execution and performance.''
And at the end of the day, Barnard noted, ''The thing that counts essentially are if consumers vote for Sears. And they do with their dollars because it's a first-rate, excellently run retail operation.''

Click to expand...

A few weeks ago, Walmart had all their Halloween items for 75% off. Except a lot of the items were either scanning at 50% off or worse, full price. It was clearly Halloween items like candy in Halloween packaging so it wasn't that a customer left the item there by accident. Customers were grabbing the items 3 - 5 items at a time and I bet that most of them weren't watching the register when the items were being rung up and they likely ended up paying full price for them. I sent a complaint to Walmart about it, 3 weeks later and they haven't responded and never will.

[quote name='YoshiFan1']A few weeks ago, Walmart had all their Halloween items for 75% off. Except a lot of the items were either scanning at 50% off or worse, full price. It was clearly Halloween items like candy in Halloween packaging so it wasn't that a customer left the item there by accident. Customers were grabbing the items 3 - 5 items at a time and I bet that most of them weren't watching the register when the items were being rung up and they likely ended up paying full price for them. I sent a complaint to Walmart about it, 3 weeks later and they haven't responded and never will.[/QUOTE]
They did that with Easter candy around here earlier this year. Most of the stuff was ringing up the correct percentage off, but they also had stuff from Lindt in bags with clear Easter markings to them and those were ringing up MSRP.

But whaddya expect from MSRP-Mart, where their idea of clearance is dropping a game to $59.96 from $59.99.

I can't say I have had an extreme disaster myself where the company went back on me, I try to avoid those if at all possible. I just bought tires at Sam's club and it was a great experience with no problems at all, very easy and quick, and I know NOTHING about cars whatsoever.

But here are some things I have seen while out shopping:

Woman arguing in Sears loudly about appliances, I will never buy one there after witnessing that, I am sure the whole store could hear.

Crazy lady in Sam's club who insisted loudly to the other customers for no particular reason that all children should be placed in military school. Also yelling at her kids much louder than I have seen any other parent yell, ever. Her kids were doing nothing wrong that I could see. I am sure at least half the store could hear on this one. I really feel sorry for those kids.

Woman in Toys R Us many years ago almost beating up associates because she needed 1 game for xbox, 1 for PS2 and 1 for Gamecube and she did not want to buy all 3 systems just so her kid could get everything on his wishlist. As if employees are supposed to provided a Mario game for the PS2.

Most recently, and this is the finale, burn victim in the grocery store, not doing anything wrong, but if I looked like that I would not leave the house, moreover I would be much too sick to leave. I won't even go into details on this one because its very gruesome. I am never going near a bonfire again.

Something tells me walmart and other stores do this on purpose, because they know people will buy the items anyways with the candy and holiday seasonal items. Why should they change the prices if people are going to be too lazy to do the math and not notice they are being ripped off? People buy everything here and just swipe a card, 99% of people never even notice they are being overcharged for stuff.

Oh yeah, I wrote Tim Hortons an email complaint about a cashier in a store that was clearly trying to take change from my grandmother and keep it for herself, and they sent me in response to that a survey!!!! Nothing else, just a survey. Overall I wouldn't call this a huge disaster though.

[quote name='SaraAB']I can't say I have had an extreme disaster myself where the company went back on me, I try to avoid those if at all possible. I just bought tires at Sam's club and it was a great experience with no problems at all, very easy and quick, and I know NOTHING about cars whatsoever.

But here are some things I have seen while out shopping:

Woman arguing in Sears loudly about appliances, I will never buy one there after witnessing that, I am sure the whole store could hear.

Crazy lady in Sam's club who insisted loudly to the other customers for no particular reason that all children should be placed in military school. Also yelling at her kids much louder than I have seen any other parent yell, ever. Her kids were doing nothing wrong that I could see. I am sure at least half the store could hear on this one. I really feel sorry for those kids.

Woman in Toys R Us many years ago almost beating up associates because she needed 1 game for xbox, 1 for PS2 and 1 for Gamecube and she did not want to buy all 3 systems just so her kid could get everything on his wishlist. As if employees are supposed to provided a Mario game for the PS2.

Most recently, and this is the finale, burn victim in the grocery store, not doing anything wrong, but if I looked like that I would not leave the house, moreover I would be much too sick to leave. I won't even go into details on this one because its very gruesome. I am never going near a bonfire again.

Something tells me walmart and other stores do this on purpose, because they know people will buy the items anyways with the candy and holiday seasonal items. Why should they change the prices if people are going to be too lazy to do the math and not notice they are being ripped off? People buy everything here and just swipe a card, 99% of people never even notice they are being overcharged for stuff.

Oh yeah, I wrote Tim Hortons an email complaint about a cashier in a store that was clearly trying to take change from my grandmother and keep it for herself, and they sent me in response to that a survey!!!! Nothing else, just a survey. Overall I wouldn't call this a huge disaster though.[/QUOTE]
Wow. I've heard of(and witnessed) people letting their lil darlings run around stores causing all manners of havoc and doing absolutely nothing about it, but never heard of someone yelling at their kids that loud in a store before when they appear to be doing nothing wrong.

Oh and I had never heard of Tim Horton's until my boss and I stopped for a coffee and doughnut on the way home from an auto auction up near Syracuse, NY area. I think it's the Canadian equivalent of Dunkin' Donuts.

[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']They did that with Easter candy around here earlier this year. Most of the stuff was ringing up the correct percentage off, but they also had stuff from Lindt in bags with clear Easter markings to them and those were ringing up MSRP.

But whaddya expect from MSRP-Mart, where their idea of clearance is dropping a game to $59.96 from $59.99.[/QUOTE]

You could always be like this troll that's sued one of the local Walmarts 5 times over frivolous things. The most recent thing was a 2-cent price difference between the shelf price and what she was charged, and she won.

More details here:

http://www.wpxi.com/news/29340757/detail.html

[quote name='sp00ge']You could always be like this troll that's sued one of the local Walmarts 5 times over frivolous things. The most recent thing was a 2-cent price difference between the shelf price and what she was charged, and she won.

More details here:

http://www.wpxi.com/news/29340757/detail.html[/QUOTE]
I was reading about her last night a lil bit. That's just.....:shock:. But then again some people are just sue happy. That's not me, for sure. I've both slipped n fell on an icy parking lot in a casino that should've been cleaned/salted hours earlier AND had my car spun around 180* in a car accident that totalled it and neither time did I sue. Of course, now I'm paying for it with various aches n pains.

But yeah, some folks look for the smallest issue to sue other people/companies over.

Speaking of sears....

Earlier this year, went to sears to get Left 4 Dead 2 & 1600 points card. As anyone knows, point cards do not get taxed, well someone obviously didn't tell sears that.

When I asked the cashier, he just shrugged it off and finished the transaction. Not satisfied, I went to jewelry department, asking for a manager. The lady behind the counter, a manager, didn't believe me either, she called a 2nd lady over, another manager, who believed that point cards are taxed but refunded the difference off the game price.

In the end, I would up returning the game later on. I should have just walked away in the first place.

Kmart lost all my business when some bitchy manager accused me of theft for trying to use a Kmart brand coupon

[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Wow. I've heard of(and witnessed) people letting their lil darlings run around stores causing all manners of havoc and doing absolutely nothing about it, but never heard of someone yelling at their kids that loud in a store before when they appear to be doing nothing wrong.

Oh and I had never heard of Tim Horton's until my boss and I stopped for a coffee and doughnut on the way home from an auto auction up near Syracuse, NY area. I think it's the Canadian equivalent of Dunkin' Donuts.[/QUOTE]

Yeah I usually don't feel sorry for these types of situations, because usually the kid is doing something visibly wrong and its just the parents trying to discipline but this was not the case. Even when disciplining, parents don't usually yell that loud in the middle of a store. She was also ordering her kids around and telling them to move faster, then to slow down, to turn left and to turn right, there was clearly something wrong with this lady. I guess she really takes the fact that she thinks all kids should go to military school seriously, and for the record yes she really did say that to the food service worker/person in front of her in line, etc whoever she was talking to, and it was loud. She should not be allowed to have kids if she is going to treat them like that, IMO. I am surprised the store workers didn't call child services because she was in the food line and I am sure the workers caught everything. It was in Sam's club so I am sure they have security cameras that caught everything. I will probably never be able to forget this happened, its just so out of line from normal shopping experiences.

Last week when I was in Sam's I had to witness a 14 year old girl balling next me to about how she couldn't find Mr. Right, again this is odd too, I was eating and there weren't any other seats left since I couldn't stand it any longer I had to get up and start walking around with my food. I think I need to stay away from Sam's there are some really crazy people that shop there in this area.

[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']They did that with Easter candy around here earlier this year. Most of the stuff was ringing up the correct percentage off, but they also had stuff from Lindt in bags with clear Easter markings to them and those were ringing up MSRP.

But whaddya expect from MSRP-Mart, where their idea of clearance is dropping a game to $59.96 from $59.99.[/QUOTE]

That sounds about right, my local Walmart never has any kind of clearance deals on games. I know I posted about it before but they still have NBA Live 2002 for XBox, MSRP is $49.99, they are selling it for $51.96.

The other thing I forgot to mention was the Halloween items were in a special display with the 75% off signs at the front of the store so it wasn't stuff in the regular aisle.

[quote name='SaraAB']

Something tells me walmart and other stores do this on purpose, because they know people will buy the items anyways with the candy and holiday seasonal items. Why should they change the prices if people are going to be too lazy to do the math and not notice they are being ripped off? People buy everything here and just swipe a card, 99% of people never even notice they are being overcharged for stuff.

[/QUOTE]

I believe it, just like I think Walmart might be pocketing sales tax on coupon items too because people don't know the laws. In PA, you pay tax on the after coupon price for an item. Target, Toys R Us, CVS, Costco and other stores all follow that. Like when Costco had a manufacturers instant $50 rebate on those Tony Hawk games a few years ago and people in other states paid tax on the full amount of the game, I only paid tax on the $9.97 after rebate price. Walmart charges sales tax on the pre coupon price. I argued with the manager once and told me I was wrong.

I really try to avoid Walmart but sometimes it can't be helped since they are open 24 hours and they put a supermarket nearby out of business that was a much better store to shop at.

I try to avoid Walmart too but the only items I really shop there are for grocery items. I pretty much avoid the rest of the store.

Walmart does clearance, but its very rare, and its done by department with each department getting a specific amount they can discount all the items in the department. So lets say electronics got allocated 3k for clearance, that means they have to spread the discount amongst all the department's items. I have gotten good deals there though, but none in the past 3-4 years that I can recall. There was the time they marked down Video now players to $3 which I snagged and the GBC games for $10 each for any title that I also jumped on. Our walmart also used to do extra 50% off clearance toys after the holidays, but again I haven't seen that in years. Now days the shoppers just snatch anything with a clearance tag regardless and usually once things are marked down they do not drop further at Walmart.

I also find some Walmart's have more clearance, usually older stores, however the merchandise might be in dubious condition. I have gone through walmarts with huge clearance aisles but everything was in beat to crap condition and the prices were not good at all.

[quote name='YoshiFan1']That sounds about right, my local Walmart never has any kind of clearance deals on games. I know I posted about it before but they still have NBA Live 2002 for XBox, MSRP is $49.99, they are selling it for $51.96.

The other thing I forgot to mention was the Halloween items were in a special display with the 75% off signs at the front of the store so it wasn't stuff in the regular aisle.[/QUOTE]
That's exactly how the clearance section is at the newest WM here. It's off toward the garden section end of the store and while quite a bit IS clearly marked the seasonal stuff like candy and such usually requires you to scan it to determine the prices.

I believe it, just like I think Walmart might be pocketing sales tax on coupon items too because people don't know the laws. In PA, you pay tax on the after coupon price for an item. Target, Toys R Us, CVS, Costco and other stores all follow that. Like when Costco had a manufacturers instant $50 rebate on those Tony Hawk games a few years ago and people in other states paid tax on the full amount of the game, I only paid tax on the $9.97 after rebate price. Walmart charges sales tax on the pre coupon price. I argued with the manager once and told me I was wrong.

I really try to avoid Walmart but sometimes it can't be helped since they are open 24 hours and they put a supermarket nearby out of business that was a much better store to shop at.

Click to expand...

That's like around here. They had a temporary WM just down the road here while the new supercenter about 4-5 miles away was built about 10-11 years ago. Apparently that wasn't enough blanket coverage for the chain, as they then bought out the old shopping center that temp store was located in and built ANOTHER supercenter in that location.

Another five or so miles from this newest supercenter is yet another recently opened supercenter and as you already guessed it another five miles from there is ANOTHER one.

This area went from having ZERO WalMart stores about 15-20 years ago to having almost a half dozen in 20 miles.#

[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']That's exactly how the clearance section is at the newest WM here. It's off toward the garden section end of the store and while quite a bit IS clearly marked the seasonal stuff like candy and such usually requires you to scan it to determine the prices.

That's like around here. They had a temporary WM just down the road here while the new supercenter about 4-5 miles away was built about 10-11 years ago. Apparently that wasn't enough blanket coverage for the chain, as they then bought out the old shopping center that temp store was located in and built ANOTHER supercenter in that location.

Another five or so miles from this newest supercenter is yet another recently opened supercenter and as you already guessed it another five miles from there is ANOTHER one.

This area went from having ZERO WalMart stores about 15-20 years ago to having almost a half dozen in 20 miles.#[/QUOTE]
I've only lived in my area for 3 years, but there's 3 Walmart Supercenters over a 4 exit span (exit 15, 10, and 7). On top of that, a Sam's will be opening at exit 10 sometime next year (only the outer walls appear to be up right now).

Despite the coverage area, all these Walmart's are ALWAYS busy.

[quote name='sp00ge']Yeah, that's nowhere in the vicinity of a "bad experience."

Try mine, just yesterday, getting tires on my Jeep at Sears[/quote]

You should consider getting that type work done at a dealer.

I had the four tires I purchased from Sears installed at my Honda reap; mounted and balanced, alignment AND free future rotations for $110...and a free car wash

Prices for this kind of work is usually comparable...but better with respect to service imo.

[quote name='mr_bungle']Exactly. And this is the kinda stuff I wanted [/QUOTE]

lol...
This is like porn for you?

If my car is salvaged, can I still go to a dealer?

[quote name='Muthafodder']You should consider getting that type work done at a dealer.

I had the four tires I purchased from Sears installed at my Honda reap; mounted and balanced, alignment AND free future rotations for $110...and a free car wash

Prices for this kind of work is usually comparable...but better with respect to service imo.
[/QUOTE]


Well, I had already dreaded the idea of taking it to Sears. The only reason I went with that is because, like an idiot, I waited till the last day of the month the get my state inspection. The problem with that is a miscalculation in pending deposits from my Amazon account, leaving me with very little money until the deposits hit (which did the following day ). So I had to rely on the old Sears Credit card, since that's the only retailer card I have.

After this, I'm done with the local chain auto places. And the two local Jeep dealers aren't much better.

[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']That's exactly how the clearance section is at the newest WM here. It's off toward the garden section end of the store and while quite a bit IS clearly marked the seasonal stuff like candy and such usually requires you to scan it to determine the prices.

That's like around here. They had a temporary WM just down the road here while the new supercenter about 4-5 miles away was built about 10-11 years ago. Apparently that wasn't enough blanket coverage for the chain, as they then bought out the old shopping center that temp store was located in and built ANOTHER supercenter in that location.

Another five or so miles from this newest supercenter is yet another recently opened supercenter and as you already guessed it another five miles from there is ANOTHER one.

This area went from having ZERO WalMart stores about 15-20 years ago to having almost a half dozen in 20 miles.#[/QUOTE]

Same thing in my area. The first WM around here opened up when I was 7 years old... 16 years later and now there are four within about 15 miles of my house, and 6 within 30 miles... Throw (at least) two Sam's on top of that, and they've got most of my area monopolized. Thankfully, there are two Target's within that same 15 miles as well as your normal grocery stores such as Publix & Kroger. WM is probably the only store that I try to avoid more than Gamestop. :lol:

I had a fun experience the night of the Arkham City launch at Wally World-

Wally was selling AC bundled with AA so I figured what the hell and drove the 4 miles to get it. I told the nice lady at the electronics counter what I was there for and she went to find a supervisor to better answer my question. The supervisor then started in on the nice lady about how "I'm busy and I will get to that when I get to it!" I -and few others who had formed a line behind me for the same game- was pretty shocked at this. Not being one to tolerate such cock-dickery, I said to the supervisor, in my best Sparta voice, "You must really hate your obviously difficult job if you won't walk 10ft to open a box". After she gave me a go to hell look, she opened the box and let the nice lady get me, and the 10 other people there, our video games.

This wasn't necessarily a bad experience for me- I found it funny- but that poor old nice lady who has to put up with that supervisor bitch has my sympathy. Do your job or quit; don't get angry with others just because you hate your own situation in life. /endrant

[quote name='UrAllVirgins']If my car is salvaged, can I still go to a dealer?[/QUOTE]

Not sure if serious...but yes.

[quote name='sp00ge']Yeah, that's nowhere in the vicinity of a "bad experience."

Try mine, just yesterday, getting tires on my Jeep at Sears:

We get to Sears at about 9:45am, and wait for the sales reps to finish whatever conversation they are having. After about 10 minutes, I talk to the guy, tell him what tires, and also throw in an oil change, since the Jeep was a bit overdue.

Typically (having worked at a Sears Auto Center a few years back) the sales people are supposed to go out to the parking lot and get the information of the vehicle themselves, and pull it in to the shop. Not this guy. It was cold and rainy, and in the second missed opportunity for customer satisfaction, asks me to bring the Jeep into the shop myself.

I pull the Jeep into the shop and park it in an open bay, and the guy is nowhere to be seen. I notice him on the other side of the shop, BS'ing with one of the techs. I literally stood there for 5 minutes, waiting for him to remember he has a customer.

He gets the information, and we go back in and he types of the work order. He said it was going to be about 2 hours (for two tires and an oil change, which is astronomical, considering they weren't even busy). I reluctantly said "fine," signed the work order, and my fiance and I went to wander around the mall.

25 minutes later, he calls my phone and says he doesn't have the key. He forgot to ask me for it, and I forgot to give it to him. Both our faults, no penalty. An hour after that phone call, he calls again and tells me they can't locate the tires I ordered. I asked him what other tires they have and he goes down the list, and I tell him to just put on ____ tires.

Another hour goes by and I get yet another call, saying that four wheel studs got cross-threaded when the tech rotated the old tires to the back, and will need replaced, at MY EXPENSE, which will be an additional $150. At this point, I am ing livid. I tell him no. I go back to Sears and he has a tech come out and explain that they are going to try to rethread the studs, and I agreed to that. And was told it will be yet another hour. At this point, it is about 12:30 (2.5 hours in), so we decide to walk across the street and get some lunch.

After almost an hour at the restaurant, we go back to Sears and ask the status, and the woman who is now at the counter has no idea. She goes back to the shop and she says that they are just now starting the oil change, and it will be another 45 ing minutes. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am very calm and mellow, and very rarely lose my cool in public, but I ing went ballistic.

At this point, she gets the manager and it was obvious that even he was getting pretty pissed over the situation, asking both sales people how in the hell the situation got this far out of control. He went out to the shop and got shit straightened out eventually. At about 2:30pm, he finally pulled the Jeep around out front and apologized profusely.

I didn't even bother looking over the Jeep, since we had to hurry and pick up our daughter from school. Four and a half god damn hours wasted, on getting two tires and an oil change. And they didn't offer me anything to make up for the frustration.

Now THAT is a bad retail experience.[/QUOTE]

I'd go back and question why they were going to charge you 150$ for 20$ worth of wheel studs.

[quote name='chatgirl4']Speaking of sears....

Earlier this year, went to sears to get Left 4 Dead 2 & 1600 points card. As anyone knows, point cards do not get taxed, well someone obviously didn't tell sears that. [/QUOTE]

Depends on the state and sometimes the city/county. Georgia? No tax on these cards. Most of Alabama? Taxed.

[quote name='chatgirl4']Kmart lost all my business when some bitchy manager accused me of theft for trying to use a Kmart brand coupon [/QUOTE]

Let me guess on what coupon you are talking about...

http://consumerist.com/2010/03/kmar...on-internet-then-forgets-internet-exists.html

[quote name='Mixer236']Same thing in my area. The first WM around here opened up when I was 7 years old... 16 years later and now there are four within about 15 miles of my house, and 6 within 30 miles... Throw (at least) two Sam's on top of that, and they've got most of my area monopolized. Thankfully, there are two Target's within that same 15 miles as well as your normal grocery stores such as Publix & Kroger. WM is probably the only store that I try to avoid more than Gamestop. :lol:[/QUOTE]

Same thing here too, now they want to open more walmarts, the cities try to fight it but the Walmart's eventually get opened. Some walmart's are only a few miles from one another. They are also abandoning the smaller, junky stores and building huge new supercenters. All of the walmarts here are busy all the time, they could probably open 5 more walmarts here and they would all still be very busy. The only good thing about this is that it creates more jobs because in this area any created job is a help.

[quote name='chiwii']That is insane. Are you going to contact corporate about that, or just move on (and presumably never shop at Sears again)?[/QUOTE]

I actually just finished doing their online feedback survey, completely (but honestly) blasting this store. I also requested that someone from Customer Service contact me because of this issue.

I'm not expecting them to do much, but maybe they'll bust a few heads in that store.

[quote name='sp00ge']I actually just finished doing their online feedback survey, completely (but honestly) blasting this store. I also requested that someone from Customer Service contact me because of this issue.

I'm not expecting them to do much, but maybe they'll bust a few heads in that store.[/QUOTE]
You'd be surprised how much attention those feedback surveys garner. That was one of the reasons the local GS DM listed for my perma-ban, since I had 'given his stores negative reviews as retaliation', which might've been at least partially correct.

Besides that, I had a bad experience with a further off Sears a while ago, where 3-4 employees were standing around watching some news conference on ESPN while I was walking around electronics looking for help. One guy was actually doing his job and helping customers. I made sure to give him high marks on the survey but also fully explain how so many employees were watching tv.

I received a phone call from the general manager of the store a day or two later asking what could be done to remedy the situation. I told him that I just wished that more of the employees were actively helping customers or otherwise working.

When I went back a week or two later on a Sunday the GM was standing over those same lazy employees watching them work. So don't be disheartened and think that nothing will come of the online surveys.

I was at the "problem best buy" in my area and I had to deal with the head of customer service who is always an asshole to me. I wasn't in his line, but he changed registers to "help" me.
I'm not going to get into the deets, but I made a friend with the dude in line next to me who was also having trouble with the same customer service manager. He said "That guy is the worst! He is always a pain in the ass. He never does anything to help." I responded with "Ya He's a dick. Every time I come to this store he tries to make my life miserable. The only reason I shop at this store is because it was the only one in the area with my stuff in stock."

We agreed to both contact customer service about this store/individual, since there is power in numbers.

[quote name='MrNEWZ']Depends on the state and sometimes the city/county. Georgia? No tax on these cards. Most of Alabama? Taxed.[/QUOTE]

I have boughten dozens of MS/Sony/Apple cards, none of them got taxed, of course not from sears. But the one time I do buy from sears, bam taxed.

[quote name='Demolition Man']Let me guess on what coupon you are talking about...

http://consumerist.com/2010/03/kmar...on-internet-then-forgets-internet-exists.html[/QUOTE]

That was probably the one, regardless she didn't have to cop an attitude.

[quote name='chatgirl4']I have boughten dozens of MS/Sony/Apple cards, none of them got taxed, of course not from sears. But the one time I do buy from sears, bam taxed.[/QUOTE]

"have bought"

I just got done shooting a nasty-gram to walmart.com for not wanting to sell me Eureka Season 1 and 2 for 10 a pop. go figure that the price changes and 'due to a lack of product availability.' gets dropped on me.
fool me once...

after working at toys r us for two weeks, i have come to conclusion that working retails can suck. is the customer always right? depending on the situation. then again, some employees are horrible probably because they had a bad day or something, but i try my best not to get that in the way when im working with customers.

yesterday, i had a customer (lets call him "man 1" complain to me that hes been waiting in line a while and hes dissatisfied. was it my fault? not completely. the whole electronics was understaffed imo. if you knew toys r us, the whole register line was backed up in electronics and i couldnt really help customers get their game because there were only two people working (including myself and i just started so that doesnt really help) so i had to leave for a second to help a customer get their game because she was angry that shes been waiting for a game thats locked up. and "man 1" was waiting in the register line and came up to me saying he was mad because he was waiting forever. so yeah, two people working a long register line in a busy department = angry customers. but its completely out of my reach. but you know there are two point of views: the customer will think s/he is entitled to everything and the employee will think whatever. in my case, i just thought we were understaffed in that area.

Toys R Us is completely understaffed no matter when you go. Over here they only have 4-5 registers per store, and on regular non-holiday days usually only one is staffed. Its a little better now that they have a register station in the electronics and they took down the wall that boxed off electronics from the rest of the store, so at least you can fit more people in the department. Before they used to just have an electronics counter that was never staffed. But its still pretty bad.

I know that pretty much every retail store does not have what you want when you want it here simply because the deals just get cleaned out too quickly. If I want a deal at TRU then I am gonna have to get up and be at the store at opening in order to get it and hope they have enough to cover the people that are waiting outside. Basically if I want to score a deal its online only or bust for me, for pretty much every store, thank god for Newegg and Amazon.

There is also almost no parking at our TRU here, since they converted almost all the spaces to "expectant mother only" parking since they have now combined with Babies R Us. I am not lazy at all and I don't mind walking but if you want to park by TRU now you have to walk very far or just steal one of these specially reserved spaces. Our TRU is set up so that there are only 2 rows of spaces in front of the entrance, then there is driving space, then farther away from that there are more parking spaces that are really for other stores in the plaza. Now most of the 2 rows are for expectant mothers only, so you can't park there, there are maybe 5 spaces reserved for regular customers. The conversion to Babies R Us also means twice as much merchandise in the same building, and almost no room to push a cart. If there are more than 20-25 people in the store, it becomes unbearable very fast because of this.

TRU is almost always overpriced, unless its a rare instance.

When it comes down to it I would rather be in Walmart than in TRU if I need something and it absolutely has to come from a retail store. Their prices on toys are also more reasonable than TRU. Even though Walmart really sucks, as previously described here at least they have wide enough aisles to push a cart and they have the register staff and enough registers to get checked out in a reasonable amount of time. Walmart has also never upsold me at the register, for anything, so I have to at least give them that much. Between batteries, warranties and donations, TRU has at least 3 upsells per trip.

I can't imagine working at TRU, it must be the worst with all the soccer moms coming in with completely unreasonable demands, not to mention the awful lines resulting from not having enough registers. Again I would rather work at Walmart, while you do have that crowd to an extent, I don't think its nearly as bad as TRU. Heck I would probably rather work in Gamestop than work in TRU.... and that is not saying much. Overall the best retail job would be a grocery store, since there is nothing in the store you have to upsell warranties on, you just ring groceries, you might have to upsell a donation, but that is about it and that is much easier than the other jobs.

[quote name='david12795']after working at toys r us for two weeks, i have come to conclusion that working retails can suck. is the customer always right? depending on the situation. then again, some employees are horrible probably because they had a bad day or something, but i try my best not to get that in the way when im working with customers.

yesterday, i had a customer (lets call him "man 1" complain to me that hes been waiting in line a while and hes dissatisfied. was it my fault? not completely. the whole electronics was understaffed imo. if you knew toys r us, the whole register line was backed up in electronics and i couldnt really help customers get their game because there were only two people working (including myself and i just started so that doesnt really help) so i had to leave for a second to help a customer get their game because she was angry that shes been waiting for a game thats locked up. and "man 1" was waiting in the register line and came up to me saying he was mad because he was waiting forever. so yeah, two people working a long register line in a busy department = angry customers. but its completely out of my reach. but you know there are two point of views: the customer will think s/he is entitled to everything and the employee will think whatever. in my case, i just thought we were understaffed in that area.[/QUOTE]
This is why I refuse to work retail ever again. I worked at 2-3 different retail chains in my lifetime and after seeing how customers act sometimes to the employees it's a wonder more employees don't go off on some of these ignorant/rude pricks.

People will be waiting in line for less than 5 minutes and it's "intolerable". Many of them will ask to speak to a manager after 10 minutes has passed if they have not fully been checked out and you haven't bowed/curtsied to them as they are superior to you(or so they think). God help ya if they're in line for longer than 20 minutes or they're demanding reparations for the unbearable transgression that has befallen them.

Yeah. I'm still a retail customer but 90% of the time I'm polite n understand that these folks are being underpaid and overworked.

I have a few stores I've had issues at:

1. Target: some lazy heifer cashier was bagging my items in my reusable bags, the one that gives you $.05 off. I bought a dog bow which she didn't put in my third bag so she opted not to honor the extra $.05 when I asked her for the third bag credit, she snapped her neck in a circle and copped a bitchy attitude and said, "why it ain't in the bag? How I'm posed to give ya' a credit if it ain't in the bag?!" I told her it wasn't in the bag because she hadn't done her job by putting in the bag. She smacked her lips and did so. The part that bugged me is when I paid and moved forward she starts making comments about "them crazy customers," to the next customer in line. A manager was walking by and I grabbed her to telle her about the incident she apologized, reprimanded the cashier and gave me a $3 off voucher. I normally don't condone an associate being reprimanded in public but in this case I enjoyed witnessing it.

2. Gamestop! this was just recently. I ordered a game from their website and received something completely different. After a week of calling them daily and being hung up on due to high call volumes i decided to email them but didn't get a response. A week later I finally got a hold of a rep who said she would call the store near me so I can exchange or return the wrong product for a refund. After being on hold for about 10 minutes she comes back and tells me that they've okay'd the return. I ask who she spoke to and she gave me the store manager's name.

A few hours later I went to the store and asked for the SM, who apparently went home. I was helped by some pimply faced pre-pubescent teen, think the pimply faced teen from the Simpsons that has all the odd jobs, except with glasses. He said he couldn't accept the game because it was different from the packing slip. I asked if he could get a hold of gamestop because they had called, he played dumb and said he didn't have nor did he know gamestop's number. I asked him to call his SM instead which he also said he did not know or have access to. I then asked him for the DM's number which he also said he didn't have access to. By now, I'm annoyed that this SOB just doesn't want to help me, so I call his bluff. I pointed to the book that has their numbers on it and he looked like he was going to crap his pants. He went to the back to call someone.

A few minutes later he came back saying, "yeah dude I spoke to my SM and he acknowledged that he spoke to GS this morning but he didn't authoriza a return. I can't give you the DM's number, but we'll take yours and have him call you when he's free."
Me: "that's okay, I'll just find it elsewhere."
GS Clerk: :lol: yeah...Good luck."

He copped an attitude when I returned Super Mario 3D Land since he took my preorder. A few minutes later I called the GS down the street and got the DM's number through them. I explained what happened and he apologized. He said he would get in touch with GS CS to get to the bottom of the issue. He assured he would call me back the next day. The next day rolls around and he didn't call. I called and left him a VM but no dice. I called the store back and spoke to the SM who was cool. He said he could only offer me store credit which I declined. The way GS Had ignored me made me feel like not shopping there again.

I called GS CS one more time and was given a return label, I was assured once they tracked the package back in UPS' hands my refund would be issued. I grabbed a box, clipped up my GS PUR cards and put it in that box along with the wrong title (like they did to me :lol I received my refund last week and they received their package. I'm still waiting for a bunch of guys wearing all black and gas masks to crash in through my windows to get their real game back.

As for the GS store, I rounded up all of my September, October & November receipts and filled out the surveys with all negatives. :lol: I'm through with GS for good though.

[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']

Yeah. 90% of the time I'm polite n understand that these folks are being underpaid and overworked.[/QUOTE]

So what's the other 10 percent? Harassing Gamestop? Lmao just kidding



But yeah I just think some customers hate retail and some employees hate it is because customers feel they aren't getting "service" and the employees get very tired and over worked. But if both sides showed some patience and understanding, then retail wouldn't be as bad. But thats just my ideal thought.

And that expeirice I just described was yesterday. God that shift was horrible. Worse than black Friday IMO. Least my store managed that one well.

I have worked retail, but from what I can gather its much, much worse than it used to be. I will not name names here but I can tell you that a certain type of customer is MUCH MUCH more rude than any other customers here, and that this group of rude customers has increased in my area exponentially since a few years ago. You couldn't pay me enough to have to ring these people out at a checkout all day long. Everyone here hates these people, and my facebook news feed is full of whining about them, its just insane. I have witnessed many a cashier go home crying because of things some of these people say to them.

Not to mention that now retail is not just about ringing register, you have to upsell and do suggestive selling, no matter what job you work at. When I worked retail you had to ask about a warranty, but you were only supposed to ask once and it didn't matter if you sold any or not, you still had a job. Moreover, we didn't have that many warranty items in the store, so that mainly amounted to asking customers a few times a day if that. Now the amount of upsells that you can push affect your job and how many hours you get to work, if you are not selling enough because the customers don't want to buy them, then you could possibly even lose your job. Some stores like Sears have a warranty check programmed into their computer for every single electronics item for example. Not to mention now you are asked to sell warranties, batteries, donations, perhaps extra stuff with purchases depending and magazine subscriptions at the register. This is a lot of extra work for a cashier, on top of managing the register and dealing with rude customers.

The job of a cashier or retail worker is easily worth twice or 3 times as much as they get paid, especially since the cashier usually has to take heat for the entire corporation and the policies that are set by the corporation that the cashier has absolutely nothing to do with, not to mention the additional work of suggestive selling that I mentioned above. I am never mean to retail cashiers, I just don't have to heart to be mean after what they are going through, especially in my area. I was previously mean a few times, and those are times that I sincerely regret, so now I go out of my way to be nice to cashiers. I would LOVE to see a dirty jobs type of show where CEO's have to go out and work cashier for a couple weeks to get a taste of what these people have to deal with.

Most of the retail employees have their hands tied, they literately cannot give service, because corporate doesn't allow it, or the system or register will not allow it. I am sure many of them would love to give service if they were able to. There is literately no way for them to override this type of policy. This is where the problem stems from, corporate policy. But in all honesty most have their hands tied by corporate, the store manager, or the larger entity involved. Now some employees definitely make up policies on the fly, which is another problem, just to get customers to shut up, but I won't go into that for now, but this again likely stems from corporate, and employees who are trying to meet ridiculous sales goals just so they can keep their job.

yeah ive had experience with that where customers try to use a 20% off coupon but they didnt read the restrictions beforehand in which results in potentially me getting yelled at by them. i usually handle it by telling them i will scan it and see if the computer will take it. if not, then i am sorry. i usually try to say something about corporate likes to pull a fast one, trick consumers, etc. and the only thing i can do it scan it and see if they'll take it. other than that, its out of my reach i tell them. and they seem fine with that because i let them know i am on their side. though if you ask me personally, i would always check the coupons before i go before because i know how tricky coupons can get with restrictions. though i have been giving several overrides for promotions. i think its because either the price isnt updated or the computer doesnt want to honor the promotion. gets annoying if you have to call your manager over -__-

with the rise of unemployment today, many would be grateful for a job. even if its retail. though i would not want that as my career.

ive havent been offering any warranties for the last two shifts. mostly because they will say no and i dont want to make that awkward moment (thats just me) . and because i am a seasonal employee. so in less than a month, i will be outta here. i mean i could stay but im moving . would that make me the stereotypical employee who doesnt care?

Yeah I see nothing wrong with what you are doing, you are a seasonal employee, and I am sure you are saving the customers hassle by not asking them to buy warranties. I am sure the company expects this kind of stuff from seasonal employees Seasonal employees usually do much worse, like stealing from the store because they know they will be gone soon.. I like your take on the coupons, I don't think customers would get mad if you did that. Well I suppose the good thing about retail over here is well... warranties actually do sell! People are stupid here so they will buy a warranty when asked more times than not. Seen it enough while shopping, sure there are some people who are dead set on not buying a warranty but I have seen people buy warranties on $20 items, when the warranty was like $10. Or worse yet people who buy one-year from date of purchase warranties for the Nintendo Wii when the system itself comes with a one year warranty from Nintendo, and they have very good warranty service. Lazy people who don't read the box, lol! The people who are dead set on no warranties are actually few and far between.