Today I had to go to WalMart to shop for some last minute grocery items my Mom needed for the BBQ tonight. I also needed to buy an umbrella. It was not a good experience. First of all there was no place to park. Apparently everyone from every neighboring town in the county shops there at 5:30 p.m. on a Friday. I grabbed my cart and went down every aisle and was disappointed at everything I saw.

I didn't realize this before, but there is such a thing as WalMart being expensive. WalMart comes into town and drives out all the competitors with low prices, they then raise their prices. This WalMart was so expensive and with no Pick N Save or Osco in sight they could charge $4.50 for a gallon of milk. The grocery selection offered nothing special and their produce was old and depressing.

I normally don't shop at Walmart. I bought a simple umbrella for what I thought was $3.00. I came home and put away the groceries and looked over the receipt. My umbrella rang up as 6.88 even though the preprinted tags on the thing clearly said 3 dollars. Because WalMart made the error I was ticked, but having nothing better to do I decided to return to the store to get my $3.88 cent refund because I refuse to be walked on by a corporation that earns billions by scamming consumers such as myself.

When I walked into the customer service center I was pleased to read many of the signs posted around saying that if a price rings up as the wrong price they'll give you the item for free or give you a 3 dollar discount on your purchase, whichever is less. This seems fair as most stores across the country have a similar policy, albeit WalMart's is a bit on the meager side.

After I was credited my 3.88 I pointed to the sign displaying the 3 dollar customer satisfaction guarantee. Several clerks fumbled to try and figure it out.

clerk A: "I don't think we do that anymore?"
clerk B: "There are signs all over the store saying we do"
clerk C: "Yeah, we stopped doing that now"
clerk A: "hmmm, maybe we should take down the signs"
ya think!

I got my refund and left. I find this very disturbing for consumers. WalMart is a huge corporation that makes billions but cannot guarantee customer satisfaction anymore. By doing this WalMart is saying that "yeah, our prices are inaccurate but we don't care unless you return to the store at a later time and tell us so." WalMart will continue to scam customers by marking items as a certain price but charging them a higher one upon check out. Most people will never know that they are being scammed unless they look over every item on their receipt and verify the price. And now if they do find that they are being scammed they will not be reimbursed for the inconvenience of having to return to the store, wait in line, and get their refund.