Walmart.com Incredibly Poor Customer Service & Misleading Sales Tactics Sacramento California

On Wednesday March 11th I visited Walmart.com to check the price of an mp3 player I wanted to purchase for the weekend. The online price for it was $29.88 and it was in stock at my "local" store. There was another slightly less expensive model that I was more interested in but was not available at any nearby stores so I would have had to pay an extra $15 in shipping to get it on time so I decided to drive across town to get the first one.

When I arrived at the store my mother and I went to the electronics section and proceeded to look for some help finding the section with mp3 players. While we were looking I tried to get the attention of one associate as he just walked by me to join in a conversation with two other female associates who were just standing at the end of an isle holding a personal conversation. As my mother walked around the corner she interrupted them to ask about comparing some different mp3 players and about the online pricing and the woman, obviously upset that her conversation was interrupted, just dismissed her questions and said "just so you know our prices are $10 more then they say online" so I asked "can you just tell me where they are so I can see them, please" to which she responded "they're over there behind the register" so we went again to go look for them because they weren't right behind the register they where down the isle behind the register.

We looked at our options through the case and didn't see what we were looking for; at this time the man who had passed me by before approached us and asked if we needed help. I told him we were looking for a sansa clip with 1G memory and he told me that they were all out. I told him that I was just online and they said that they had them in stock and my mother pulled hers out of her purse and said "it looks like this" then the man said oh yeah I have a bunch of those in the back. so he left and came back with three.

When he rang it up the price came to $50 so I asked if I could speak to a manager to see why there was so much of a difference. he then said to me "I told you the price in the store is different than online" I told him that I understand that but I would still like to know why it is such a big difference because I could have ordered the other one I wanted online with overnight delivery and it would've been cheaper. at that point he agreed to call for a manager.

Within a timely manner a manager arrived and spoke with the associate and then came to speak with me. from the start of our conversation her tone was very rude and she treated me like some kind of irate customer who was just trying to start problems instead of a calm customer who had a legitimate question. she said that the store has to pay for shipping and other costs involved with getting the merchandise to the store and that the store was not responsible for anything on the website. I asked her if it would be more appropriate for me to direct my concerns to the website instead of them and she said "yes." I then asked her for her name (Lafina) because she had no kind of identification on. she may not have even been a manager because as a manager myself I know how a manager should carry herself and treat customers especially in front of employees.

Needless to say I left without purchasing any mp3 player and I am beyond disgusted with my experience and will not return.

Lc
Sacramento, California
U.S.A.