Click

My nephew's birthday is coming up and he wants a Lego. Being Amazon Prime members, I ordered it on Amazon. I was told to "order soon" because there was only 1 left in stock. A couple days later we received an email that they actually had none left in stock so the order was canceled.

My sister told me she'd seen it at her Walmart so perhaps my Walmart (or the Walmart near my hotel in Michigan) might have it too. I went to their website and yes, they said it was in stock in Michigan. I ordered it online for an "in-store pickup," paid for it online, and was told that my order was received and, although most orders are processed within minutes of receipt, I should wait until I get an email saying my order is ready before I come to pick it up. It "could" take up to 4 hours. Well, that seemed excessive, but I still had about that much time left at work, so no problem, it should be ready by the time I'm on my way back to the hotel.

4 hours later, it's time to leave work and....still no email. So by now I'm pretty annoyed. I decided, fine, if they're too busy to get 1 item off the shelf, I can do that myself. So I did. Went to the store. Found the Lego. Went to the customer service desk. Explained my situation. Got a blank stare. Explained again. Long pause....blank stare....she went to ask a manager. Turns out there is a "special counter" for Walmart.com orders in the back of the store. Fine. I arrive at an empty service desk and after a couple minutes, Ricky appears. He's about 20 and I suppose no matter what age, probably not super enthusiastic to be working at Walmart anyway, so staring at the floor he mumbles something. And our interaction continues like this:

Me (showing him the Lego I've grabbed off the shelf): I ordered this hours ago for in-store pickup and paid for it online, but never got an email that it was ready, so I just came to get it off the shelf myself.

Ricky: Last name?

Me: McKinney

Ricky (types in my name): Your order isn't ready yet.

Me: ......Yeah, I know. That's why I came here and grabbed it off the shelf myself.

Ricky silently walks away staring at the floor. WTF.

He comes back a few minutes later with a hand-held scanner gun (a Telxon gun according to my husband, the retail expert). He scans the Lego.

Ricky: Hmmm. That's weird. It's not in the system.

Ricky (clicks a button on the screen a few times): Yeah, it's not in the system.

Me (blank stare)

Ricky (click. click. click.): Umm, let me call a manager (click. click. click.). I don't know what to do. (click. click. click.) It's not in the system (click. click. click.).

The manager shows up.

Ricky (click. click. click.): She's trying to purchase this, but it's not in the system.

Manager (confused look)

I explained the whole story. The manager looked up my account, which was easy, because I was apparently the ONLY person who'd made an online order that day. And yet....4-1/2 hours later, no one had even begun trying to process my order yet?? Well they did disclaim that "most" orders were processed within minutes, not "all" orders.

Manager: It says the order isn't ready yet.

Ricky (click. click. click.)

Me: .....Right. That's why I grabbed it off the shelf myself since I placed the order like 4-1/2 hours ago and didn't hear anything back yet.

Manager to Ricky (click. click. click.): Oh, well you have to "bin it" before you can complete the order.

From what I gather, that means that if things had gone according to plan, an employee hours earlier would have gotten the Lego off the shelf and put it in one of many bins to keep there until I came to pick it up. So they would assign whatever bin number they put it in to my order so they'd know where to retrieve it from when I showed up to get it.

Ricky (click. click. click.): Oh. Okay. (click. click. click.)

Manager leaves.

Ricky (click. click. click.): Wait (click. click. click.). How can I bin it if it's not in the system? (click. click. click.)

Ricky (click. click. click.): I'm trying to select it (click. click. click.), but it won't let me select it (click. click. click.), cause it's not in the system (click. click. click.).

Ricky (violent click. violent click. violent click): It's not in the system (violent click. violent click. violent click). So I can't select it. (violent click. violent click).

He takes out a pen and tries to use it like a stylus, first with the ball point retracted, then with it out, then retracted again (violent click. violent click. violent click).

Ricky (violent click. violent click. violent click): It's not in the system (violent click. violent click. violent click). I can't bin it if it's not in the system (violent click. violent click. violent click).

Me: Maybe I can just cancel my online order and then just ring it up like normal (because I'm guessing that if the first 742 clicks didn't work, it's probably not going to work the 743rd time.....).

Ricky (violent click. violent click. violent click): But you've already paid for it (violent click. violent click. violent click).

Me: But canceling the order should refund my money.

Ricky (violent click. violent click. violent click): I don't think so (violent click. violent click. violent click). Let me call the manager again (violent click. violent click. violent click).

At least 10 minutes go by (violent click. violent click. violent click) and the manager hasn't come back yet (violent click. violent click. violent click). I click the "Cancel Order" button on my phone. I get a message that depending on the current status of my order, it may or may not be able to cancel it at this point. I should receive an email shortly to let me know whether or not the cancellation went through (Inbox refresh, refresh, refresh).

Finally the manager shows up. He shows no sign that he's surprised and/or embarrassed and/or apologetic that I'm STILL waiting for this to be resolved.

Ricky (violent click. violent click. violent click): How can I bin it if it's not in the system? (violent click. violent click. violent click)

Manager: I'll be right back.

Ricky (violent click. violent click. violent click)

Me (refresh, refresh, refresh)

Manager: I've canceled your online order. We can just ring it up for you here. You'll be receiving an email shortly that it's been canceled and your money refunded.

Me (refresh, refresh, refresh): Thanks.

We complete the transaction and I spend the entire walk out of the store and into the parking lot refreshing.

It's now 3 days later and I still haven't seen that email.

I did check my bank statement and, a little to my surprise, was indeed only charged once. Needless to say though, I don't recommend Walmart.com