Well, as you may recall my vacation got off to a rough start with all kinds of confusion around tours and the rental car. Well that little dark cloud was just waiting for me to get back from vacation to start in again.
I stayed over at my sister’s because the plane came in so late so Sunday morning we backed my car out of her garage to let her park her car and oops! My car had a flat tire. Yup, flat as a pancake!
My nephew is very handy. It was so nice to have someone around that is calm and controlled and knew what he was doing. He came over with his patch kit but wasn’t able to rescue the tire. We tossed the deceased in the back of their mini van and George’s wife Kelly drove me up to Walmart. That was the only place in the vicinity that was open on Sunday for tires.
Judging by their attitude they knew they were the only game in town. They weren’t rude exactly but they certainly didn’t give you the feeling that they wanted to help. We even explained that I was from out-of-town and looking at a 3 hour plus drive to get home. They didn’t care. They said it would be at least an hour maybe longer before they would get to my tire. All I wanted was the old tire off and the new one on the rim …a 10 minute job at most.
They were not to be swayed so we asked them if they could call us when it was done. They took down Kelly’s cell phone and back to my sister’s we went. And there we sat. Granted it was a nice time to catch up with everyone. My other nephew, John, George’s brother was there so it was like a “mini” family reunion. The time went pretty quickly with all the visiting and catching up but I suddenly realized that it had been over 2 hours and we still hadn’t gotten a call so we called them.
Walmart :”Oh yeah ( Very nonchalant). You tire’s right here.”
Us: “Is it ready?”
Walmart: “Sure”
Us: ” We’ll be right down”
We got there and the tire was “right there”. It was leaning next to the desk. I paid the bill and the employee said “Thanks” and turned away. I said “You mean you aren’t going to put it in the car for me?”
He gave me a look and a heavy sigh ands said he “supposed he could”.
I asked him why they didn’t call as agreed. His answer was that they paged us in the store. I responded that we weren’t in the store and that they were made aware of that when we dropped the tire off. He just shrugged and said there was a shift change so how would they know?
OMG!? Is this customer service? I fumed all the way back to my sister’s. There George put the new tire on the car and I was finally on my way. Any thoughts I had of making stops on my way home like the Saratoga Battlefield had to be canceled. Thanks Walmart.
First thing Monday, I called the manager of that store and let him have it. His response? “Oh I haven’t had any complaints recently.” Oh Boy..no complaints recently. Does that mean you had complaints before?
Good luck Walmart customers in the Queensbury Store! They are not customer friendly there! My sister said she won’t set foot in that store and I can see why!
But at least I am finally back in Massachusetts and home. I’m ready to start some local exploring until my “next great adventure.”