Grrr #2

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AKA: Christmas Card FIASCO!

Last week, I jumped on Sam's Club's website to order my Christmas cards. Got them all made....went to send them to print. My store says "Not Available". Perfect. I've seen that message before when they get a little backed up. So I waited a few hours, tried again. No. Called the store. "Our system went down yesterday. It won't be up again until at least Tuesday or Wednesday of next week (12/22)."

So, I decide to go with Wal-Mart, which I quit using once I started using Sam's Club about 3 years ago. But, my account's still there, so easy enough. Make my cards, send them to my store. I distinctly remember checking the location because we have a "north" and a "south" location in Logan. The north store was selected, because it was the only one I'd ever used for photos in the past, pre-Sam's Club.

I also signed up for text message alerts when my order was ready. The website said that due to volume, my order would not be ready until 4:00 the next day. Yet I received a text about an hour later to say that my order was ready. I thought maybe there was a mistake, so I called to verify. The clerk told me that for some reason, "the system sends out the text when the store receives the order, not when it's actually ready." This is a flaw that needs to be fixed in order to utilize the convenience of the texting system. A text when the store receives my order is useless!

Then, the next day I went to the store I had selected to pick up my order. Again, not Wal-Mart's fault, but the line was SO LOOONG. Will was charming the people behind us, so we chatted with them for a good 10 minutes or so while waiting.

The clerk looked and looked for my order and could not find it. I presented her with my order receipt and she searched online for it. She then showed me on my receipt that it was sent to another store 90 miles from my home.

I've never even been to that store.

When I told her I did not select that store, and have never even been there, she replied, "Sorry, sometimes our system just bounces orders to another random store." She was nice and all, but...

My thoughts:

• Obviously, this is a problem! I'm not sure how this could have been prevented, but the website "bouncing" orders to another store is not acceptable. So...here I am, December 22...with $40 worth of paid-for Christmas cards sitting in a store 90 miles from my house! Who knows, you may just get your card in January! Oh, and Sam's Club's website is still down....

• The texting thing totally bugs me. Wal-Mart is trying to be technologically savvy and make things more convenient for their patrons. But...should really just take the service option off the site until it works correctly.

• "Bouncing" my order to another random store? Well, they'll need to "bounce" it right back!

• I totally get that I am the one who waited until last week to consider getting my Christmas cards made...but still. When a business says they can do orders in an hour, or even a day during busy times, customers need to be able to plan on that.

• Mistakes totally happen. But...I don't feel like much was done to solve it. I emailed my situation to Wal-Mart's online customer service (I don't think I can handle a trip to the in-store customer service! Maybe my $40 really isn't worth it....) and got a pretty generic email back...addressed to "Kathie" and asking if my order was sent to my preferred store. Um...did you read my email?
  

I think I'm done ranting now...I hope..... Opinions?