grrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

[JB Lars]

Wal-Mart left a message on my voice mail last night. The Halo XBOX I had on layaway has been "lost". They're looking for one at other stores, but they haven't found one yet, as they're sold out everywhere. The girl on the phone said they'd be happy to give me a regular XBOX and a $20 gift card for the price of my bundle. Yeah, I'm sure they'd be happy to do that. Too bad for them that that's completely unacceptable. :angry:

I'll let y'all know what transpires.

[Jibbajaba]

Lost my ass. Either the sold it or one of the employees bought it. Dude, dont shop at Wal-Mart.

[Jasoco]

I'm with Jibba here, consoles don't get "Lost" I agree. Someone bought it. They wrongfully sold it to someone else even though you specifically had it put aside for yourself. Now, I don't know the policies of Lay-Away (Since Kmart doesn't have it anymore, probably a good thing as a newbie would most definitely accidentally sell something his first week. Probably me of course.) but is there a time limit? How long are they allowed to keep stuff? I trust since they actually called you, it was still within the "Time limit" if there is one.

Basically, it was downright unprofessional. Take your business elsewhere. Preferably not Wally-World.

[charitycasegreg]

bastards... :o

[zektor]

Hmm, Walmart has been a great source for me with the Gamecube games, so I really cannot say anything bad of them yet. Then again, I have been ordering through the website...not buying in the actual stores. The website doesn't say it is out of stock:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2432453&cat=2636&type=51&dept=2636&path=0%3A2636%3A78142%3A77342

Maybe you should tell them that!

[JB Lars]

Well, it's obvious it hadn't really been lost, hence my use of quotation marks in the OP. Either someone took it out the back door, or arranged to buy it. Either way, there's a scumbag or two working at Wal-Mart, and I sure as hell won't be penalized for it. I went in last night to try to get to the bottom of this, bringing with me from the electronics dept. an original recipe 'box and a 12-month Live kit. The people at layaway apologized profusely and said they were still trying to get me one from another store. I should be getting a call today, but I told them that should another Halo bundle not be found, I was getting the things I brought up for the price of that bundle.

Did that all make sense? LOL

[gamergary]

It always sucks when you know you have something but then it is ripped away from you by some event. I've had this happen to me with games before. Just shop around and you will find another Halo Xbox.

[-hellvin-]

Someone bought it. After seeing these things come in at best buy anyone who sees one, even if it's in topstock hawks the damn thing and buys it. Especially employees heh.

[Aussie2B]

Reminds me of the time I bought an NES on eBay (my first purchase ever on eBay, actually), and I get an email telling me they sold it in their store. :/ I had to wait a month or two until they got another in and then had it shipped to me. To make matters worse, they promised me some extra games in the package to make up for the problem, and then when I opened the package up... nothing but what I bought in the auction. >( People can definitely be assholes sometimes.

[goatdan]

Oddly enough...

The Halo Xbox bundle is pretty common around the Milwaukee area yet. I ran out and bought the last one I could find at Circuit City about two weeks after they came out. I had been wanting to snag an Xbox, but not a black one as I find them to be a lot uglier.

Anywho, when I picked it up, I figured it was the last one in the city, as the local Target had just sold out and all of the Gamestops and Best Buys were out.

Since then, I've seen a ton of them at the same Circuit City I bought mine at, at two Best Buy stores, at two Targets and at two GameStops. If they can't find one, I can probably snag you one for the cost of the system and shipping :)

[spoon]

I used to woek at Wal-Mart. In every store I worked at, sometimes I would go to other stores and help them set up for inventory, all electronic items are locked up in a seperate section away from the normal lay-away bins. These seperate bins cannot be accessed without a manager's keys. This means one of two things happened with your x-box:

1. An employe wanted your x-box.

2. Somebody returned a defective Halo X-Box. Found out there were no more available at that Wal-mart. Made a big scene and refused to take a black one, wait for another one to come in, go to a different store, or take a refund. They MUST have their green X-Box. An employe decided to give them yours from lay-away, as it was probably the last one left, and hoped, or checked another stores inventory, that another store would have one.

3. It also means that more than likely a manager had to approve of this. Although the seperate section could have been open at the time and another employe just decided to make a quick grab of your x-box.

Either way, it is shitty and I hate how Wal-Mart always kisses every customers ass like they are roayalty. Hope you get a Halo xbox bundle though.

[JB Lars]

Well, I talked to a different manager on the phone yesterday. I repeated my demands should a replacement for my bundle not be found (regular 'box + Live kit), and told him this wasn't negotiable. He said, "That's right, it's not", and said I'd get a regular 'box, Halo, and a $25 gift card for the inconvenience. That may be monetarily equal to what I ordered, but it's not the same value to me, y'know? So I'm torn between being a complete bastard of a customer, holding my breath and stamping my feet until I get my way, or just taking my deposit and leaving with my dignity. I can always drive up to Milwaukee to get one and have a sandwich with goatdan. :)

At this point, there's a few days left on the layaway, and I'm going to give them that long to find me a replacement. I'd sooner just get what I paid for and sidestep all the drama.

[Richter]

cant tell them to order one of their website (or get one shipped from the website's warehouse) and give it to you?

[captain nintendo]

That really sucks :angry:

I would take all the money back that you deposited and go elsewhere and buy one. Of course those asses should still give you something for the trouble. :bad-words:

[spoon]

Forgot to mention

You can have one shipped off the website to your store. It used to be free of charge. Also, call home office/customer service and bitch. They will send you a gift certificate, and, the store should give you one too if you bitch.

[goatdan]

I don't think that you're being a bad customer by demanding what you paid for.

If I bought a new car and was told to come pick it up in a couple days, and when I went to pick it up it wasn't the same car but was the same "value" as the other car, I wouldn't want it either. Even if they threw in a free oil change and car wash or something, as WalMart is apparently trying to do with you -- you get the same basic stuff and a gift certificate for a little more so they figure you should be happy, but if you wanted to buy the Halo box (as I did) a regular one just wouldn't work.

I will check around town over the next couple days and make sure that the Halo Xboxes haven't all walked off within the last week, just in case :)

[marshalldylan1]

Everyone that works at wal-mart is old. I bet they didn't know what they were doing, and sold it without thinking.

[geelw]

if you've kept records of all your conversations and such with the sorry staff at wal-fart, send and e-mail and write a paper letter to the customer services departments of wal-mart and microsoft and wait a week or two. it may sound stupid, but sometimes if you go above where you're "supposed to" as a customer, things turn out for the better.

simply and calmly state that you paid for and were promised a certain item, it wasn't available when you went to claim it and any sort of substitution other than the same item is unacceptable. if it's your first xbox purchase, feel free to mention your disappointment at not being able to get the console you wanted (or you can say it was a gift for someone else if you want to stretch things a bit), and maybe mention buying another competitor's console instead. sometimes it takes a LOT of effort to get your way (even though it's wal-fart's fault entirely), but the payoff is more than usually worth it...

keep us posted and good luck!

[Predatorxs]

Sons of Bitches... All of them!!... Go in there and demand customer satisfaction, THE ONLY SATISFACTION!! There is ahhhhhh!! :whip:

I hope it all works out for you!.. Let us know what happen's?

..XS ( Customer Satisfaction it's great, but not better than the sexual kind :-P )

[Captain Wrong]

Here's the thing, they don't care. They don't have to. Yes, it sucks, but they're big enough that they just don't have to give a damn about customer service.

It sucks. I'd say cut your losses and not do business with them in the future. And mutter about how bad Wal-Mart sucks any time you pass one. That always makes me feel better.

[geelw]

Here's the thing, they don't care. They don't have to. Yes, it sucks, but they're big enough that they just don't have to give a damn about customer service.

It sucks. I'd say cut your losses and not do business with them in the future. And mutter about how bad Wal-Mart sucks any time you pass one. That always makes me feel better.

the problem with that line of thought is that hell, not enough people GET mad enough to expend the effort to go and MAKE "them" care, partly because we think "they" won't listen. having been someone who's a bit nosy as to how all of that customer service stuff works, i find that getting the attention of someone in a high enough position in a creative fashion can change things... IF enough of us lowly consumers care enough about getting what we want.

:hmm: of course, this excludes ebay, which is staffed and populated by money grabbing asses who don't care about people who use their service, but that'll merely take a nation of millions speaking out before they get motivated enough to change, LOL