**UPDATE** My Walmart Plus Failed

UPDATE:

I recently saw a Reddit post that mentioned the absolute genius of Sony. "The founder of Sony hired an outspoken critic of their products so they could make better products. 20 years later, he became the president of Sony."

Walmart, are you listening? You don't have to hire me. I give my criticism out for free.

Walmart has a membership plan, similar to Amazon Prime. I gave it a try and... boy, what a complete nightmare.

So why get a Walmart Plus membership?

First of all, what made me want the membership was the fact that there was no-minimum free shipping and free local delivery with purchases totaling over $35. About the same for most grocery store plans. Hyvee's Plus plan purchase minimum is lower at $24.99 but the item prices are higher and the store doesn't have the product variety that Walmart does - naturally because, who does besides Amazon? The other thing is that Walmart is a budget-friendly one-stop kind of place to shop. I know there are haters galore but I am a Walmart customer due to finances and my lifestyle limitations.

So.

General Pros and Cons

The no-minimum free shipping of items went well when I used it but I hated taking advantage. I did make some small orders but started trying to be more organized so that I was not ordering one single thing at a time. Besides, even though you can find almost anything for shipping, the product prices get crazy and vary greatly. I'm not paying $30 for a variety bag of potato chip snacks to be shipped when I can get them delivered or in-store for $10.

Now grocery delivery is my jam, as the kids say (said?). I am on such a crazy diet for my sarcoidosis and have such small food storage space that I usually order once every 2 to 3 weeks. Grocery delivery is a convenience for many people but for me, it is a necessity. I don't drive and I live in a tiny town where neighborhood shopping prices are driven by wealthy tourists. I truly rely on grocery delivery from big box stores.

(Side note: recently, I learned that Walmart Plus members can get Paramount Plus also. Well, that is its own nightmare story so I will save it for later.)

The Plus membership taxes my budget because, at $12/95/month plus tax, it is more than a discounted Prime membership. But again, I depend on the delivery services.

So, what went wrong?

I am going to let pictures tell most of the story. Thankfully, I am in the habit of taking screenshots because of cognitive issues. I had to go through the screenshots of the phone app and Twitter messages just to sort out for myself what the hell happened. My Twitter messages shown are in reaction to what's going on with the ordering app and the Walmart site chat reps.

Here goes:

This was the beginning. The first problem order & it was a doozy. It never did arrive & cust svc were as stumped as I about what happened. As you can see, I was actually worried that the delivery driver might have been in an accident.

Keep in mind, I had so many problems with this order that I dang near had to whiteboard the screenshots to sort them out. This one problem was to do with the water I ordered. The shopper removed it from my order as being an "unavailable" item. Funny enough, I was able to go in and add the water to a new cart. Never did get the water or figure out what was up with the unavailability. 

The same order is still a problem the next day. The app shows that the order is still being delivered. The tracking info (I think it showed the driver being 17 minutes away) had not changed overnight.

This phone text is showing nonsense info about an order that a chat rep canceled for me. They canceled it because they thought the app might be glitchy... The word "glitch" got used a lot by the reps and myself.

By the way, this text came in on August 3rd for an order that was made, screwed up, and canceled on the 2nd.

And I realized that part of this crazy, lost, glitchy order included items that were to be shipped rather than driver-delivered. At this point, my brain hurts and, because of my sarc, I'm actually taking handwritten notes to keep track of this mess.

Then I get an app message saying that my order - yeah, that crazy, canceled, lost order - is... delivered.  I have no idea what is going on. I have nothing delivered. A chat rep assured me that the order has been canceled (I was worried about credit card charges) and to go ahead and just start a new order.

 The magic water that keeps appearing and disappearing from stock is still a problem but the chat rep refunded my bad order. I'm still fairly happy at this point, I decide to hang with Walmart for the time being. (That happy feeling won't last.)

 

This is all annoying but I'm still game. I even thanked the chat rep and said that I'd once worked cust svc so "I get it". 

The bossy side of me though can't help but offer some long-winded advice to Walmart. It goes on for several Twitter messages. I won't bore you with it, but I go on for a bit. But back to the nightmare...

With that first bad order all taken care of, I foolishly think things will be better. I place another order. 

This order was made early in the morning to be delivered between 5 & 6 in the evening on the 6th. That did not happen. On the 7th, I got in touch with Walmart. Again. 

 BTW - that whole "We'd like to look into it"? That must be a copy/paste script because they use it every time. Until later, when they stop the fondness for "looking into it"...

They "look into it" and things are fixed. Then they made the mistake of inviting any more concerns - or maybe I made the mistake of taking them up on it.

One of the perks of a Plus membership is a Paramount Plus membership. Of course, I was having problems with mine. Of course.

I won't go into it all but I wasn't able to sign into Paramount. Not on any browser. Not after clearing cookies and cache and waving a magic wand over the computer. But, bless their hearts, they really wanted to help me with it. At this point though, I have Walmart fatigue & I decline.

See how they are almost begging to help with the Paramount issue? That urge to help will fade fast when we get back to problems with the Walmart ordering system...

I can do without Paramount but... Another order and another Walmart screwup. My new order is going to be delayed. Of course. Because a delay usually signals a biggre problem, I get proactive in alerting Walmart:

Late doesn't bother me. Getting another weird system glitch is what worries me.

Am I a pest for being concerned at this point?

Nope, I am not a pest. I am apparently psychic. This order is also turning out to be a problem. The order is late and the browser is not updating and neither is the app on my phone. I try cancelling to avoid another hours long delivery failure nightmare.

As usual, the chat agent is amazing and is able to get the order cancelled. However, even the agent is curious about the "glitch". He is very sorry and encouraged me to try placing the order all over again. I decide I will try that.

When I mention that I am going to try again but am wondering if it will work this time, Walmart pulls their old copy/paste "reach out" message... They want me to provide them with past order info. As if they cannot scroll back through all these messages.

I give them the problem order numbers. I provide them with a maddening screenshot of a particuarly weird that happened. An order shows on the app as both delivered and cancelled. It's like magic.

At this point, I am done. Walmart is mysteriously not responding to the provided info - info that they requested. 

They just ghost me. So I let them know that I am cancelling the order and cancelling my Plus membership.

Here is how bad that "glitching" of their system is. The chat rep now goes into "forwarding" the problem to a "team". I'm just over it at this point.

 

There are more screenshots but, at this point, I have a headache. I made sure that I canceled my membership and made sure that all charges were refunded back to the original payment method. Then I immediately went back and resumed my InstaCart membership. That's only $10 per month. Sure, I will have to InstaCart shop between Hyvee, Aldi's, Target, and the other stores but at least I won't have to work an unpaid part-time job of fixing Walmart delivery problems.

One funny thing to mention is that, before their Plus program, Walmart was one of the InstaCart shops. I guess they think they can do a better job with Plus. Good luck with that.

When I canceled my Plus membership, I still had 20 days left to use it. I tried doing a couple of shipping orders but, because of the crazy pricing, Amazon was cheaper. And more reliable.

So, as I mentioned to Walmart in the Twitter messages, I wrote a blog post about this epic failure. I will send them a link but they haven't been responding to me for a while. Their problem is in not listening to customers. One of the suggestions I made to them was to have someone take a look at how InstaCart works from a customer POV. I doubt they did that.

Peace

--Free

P.S.: I'm too weary to look it up, but I did tweet out that Walmart failed me. They did the "reach out" thing & I reminded them that they were ignoring me. So they... ignored me. You have to laugh.

My Rant on the Twitterverse

I haven't been over there in ages, so when I finally signed into my Twitter, I was irritated by the dreck I've been following.

Just spent too much free time Un-following the (put them all in quote marks): experts, life coaches, church planters, DJs, blog-or-book-or-club-or-casino promoters. I am beginning to think that some invisible internet fairy has been adding who I Follow.

Does anyone tweet just to share a joke, some wisdom or personal anything?

Don't get me wrong when I say this, but I am most annoyed with the Christians. I love Jesus, yes, I do, but I don't use my social media as a platform to promote my ministry. How about just living what you teach? How about talking about what you teach along with sharing other tweets?

Yeah, so, the church-planting groups are going to hate me for deleting them, but... Them and the folks who want to tell me how to "align my spirit" or "pray effectively" (as if they have a secret guide for that).

So, yeah. Twitterverse, tweetnation, I'm hunting for people who tweet for tweet-sake.

Peace
--Free

Spring Cleaning My Life

I have so much useless crap floating around in my life (heh heh). This morning, I was trying to clean out my email folders. I have something like 3 million notices from Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus...

Here is the sad truth: I hardly ever even use Twitter anymore. That's because I'm kind of a social network floozy. I'm all over the new guy until the next one comes along. I use to rape Twitter at least 5 times a day, then I got into Facebook - which violated me before I could really fall in love with it. Pinterest... meh. I only got into Pinterest for its looks. It was so hot and sultry. Made me sweat a little just to look at all the cool stuff it had to offer. That wore off when I realized I couldn't find any one special thing about it to keep the magic going.

Right now, I am in a serious relationship with Google Plus. I mean, we are talking, I don't know - marriage, maybe? It's pretty intense. Like with all hot-burning romances, I keep waiting for things to smolder down and just burn out. But, so far...

But back to my spring cleaning.

Are you one of those organized people who decides immediately whether you are going to save, store or delete an email? If so, I hate you.

I have three email addresses for myself  (I might have forgotten a couple) and one or two for my blogs. I'm such a neurotic pack-rat that when I have an especially important email, I forward a copy to all my addresses. That might sound really crazy, but when I fell ill, I could only remember the password to one email... And, let me tell you, even though I can't remember which email I needed to see at 3:20 in the morning, at the time, it was vital.

Yeah, so. About every two, two and a half years, I have to do an email enema. It's time.

This is Monday. I have dedicated this week to getting the important things in my life uncluttered: my closet, my kitchen jumble drawer, my YouTube playlists and my email. Never mind that this is a 3- or 4-day job and I usually get distracted after 45 minutes. The important thing is, I am going to give it a try. (My bill drawer and the storage closet are going to have to wait their turn!)

Peace
--Free

Almost Over Facebook

Why?
Truly, I really am just about over Facebook. There's really only two reasons that I can blame of Facebook itself:

1- Too many changes, no stability.
2 - The whole privacy issue thing

Everything else that bothers me about Facebook is my own fault. For one thing, I have let my "friend" list get way out of control. One of the reasons I participate in social networks is to, well, network. I'm not talking anything fancy, but I like the exchange of ideas and information. I get that from Twitter, but there's that whole 140-character limit thing...

Twitter
The best thing about Twitter is the constant interaction. You can always find someone who shares your interests. There's very little dead weight and if there is, you can easily pare down your list. I currently "follow" 1431 people (or groups) on Twitter and I have 1737 following me. Here's how that breaks down:

Tweeters I interact with on regular basis (such as group meets, Bible study, She Speaks,  Vocal Point, etc) 100-200 (sometimes more, depending on attendance or a Twitter "party").

Interact with 1-on-1 on regular basis (Twitter stream and  DMs) 100 - 150
Interact with via DM and email on constant basis 20-25
Interact with on semi-regular basis (outside Twitter stream) 10-15
No interaction or rarely on Twitter stream 30-45

Another big Twitter plus: I can put out a prayer request and immediately have at least 20 to 30 folks respond.

Facebook
I know I'm not the only one having fits over all the changes on Facebook. The privacy and issues of instability is Facebook's fault. It's my own fault that I don't enjoy the interaction (or lack of). For one thing, I let my "friends" list get out of control. On Twitter, I pick people based on interests and ideas and common intellect. On Facebook, I picked family, friends, acquaintances, fellow gamers... I pretty much approved anyone who sent a request. As of today, I have 202 "friends" and here's how that list breaks down:

People I know personally, am related to 81
People I know, but haven't seen for years (but we interact) 7
Ditto (but we don't interact) 41
People who are rarely or never even ON facebook 72
People I only know online, but communicate with regularly 5
People who actually talk about something other than what they ate or where they checked in at 9
People I have no idea who they are at all 11
People I only have on my list because of the games 12

There's a lot of dead weight. Out of 202 "friends," I get very little or no interaction. Unlike Twitter, I'm networking with people who are not in my life area: I don't party, curse or talk about a lot of the things I dis before I committed to Christ. Most of my posts or "shares" are news stories (because that's a big interest) or of Christian and social interests. Don't get me wrong - I love my friends and family, but most of them are not the most conservative of folks...

The Switchover
 I have been looking around for something more expansive than Twitter and more substantial than Facebook. I've signed up for an invite to Diaspora (which might be a little over my head) and I very recently set up my Google+ profile.  My dream is to somehow have the best of Twitter, Facebook and my blog communities. It's going to be hard to leave Facebook, though. Problems and all, it's still the first place where I was able to have all the family "together."

Google+
The thing I like about Google+ (so far) is that I can set up "circles" of  friends. It seems much easier than the lists on Facebook. One of the first things I've done is designate circles to keep everyone in their own little realm. Now I have to figure out how to add the FB, Twitter and Blog folk I want to keep. Other than family, there are only about 7 people I'm taking from Facebook. Twitter is going to be more complicated.

The one downside I can think of is that I'm not sure how many people use Google services. I've used Google for around 5 or 6 years - for my blogs, mail and the many other services they've had - but I don't know a whole lot of people with even Gmail. Hmm... Gonna have to think on that.

So... I will hopefully be able to shut down my FB account sometime in the very near future. Pretty sure I will go through withdrawals. In that case, I'll just open another FB account and keep the friends' list on the quality-not-quantity side.

Peace
--Free

Twitter Shout Out!

By now, you all know that I'm on Twitter, and you know I love my twitter friends. The only thing I'm kind of bad about is the Follow Friday mentions. Usually, I'm late doing my list, or I forget and leave someone wonderful off... (I even had been putting up some tweeters over on my Tracks blog, but decided this blog is a better outlet for showing tweet-appreciation.)

Well, this post is for my fave tweeters. These are folks that I'll be following as long as I'm on Twitter. If you're on Twitter or decide to sign up, I can tell you that these are some people who are the coolest. And what do I like about them? Well, either we seem to have a lot in common (faith or interests), or we manage to converse respectfully without having a lot in common. For instance, one of my new faves is @dead2god. Odd, huh, that I would have this one on my list? Not really, because, despite the fact that I am Christian and he obviously is not, we are able to discuss news and such without hate. (And, yeah, I AM trying to win him over to Christ, but whether I do or not, I respect that he respects our communications.) Of course, @bustabitch is my web-sister! She knows how much I appreciate her!

Anyway, here is the list - which I will update often. You just never finish meeting new tweeters! And, by the way, if you want, you can find me @FreeBeing

@twhtan (this man is such a warrior for Christ! He is tireless in his efforts to win souls for the Lord)
@biblestudies
@crjournal
@VictoryMinistry
@faithwalkr
@FaithGuuuurl
@AnointedArts (I almost got to meet her in person when she visited here. We just missed it!)
@goatfox
@mistygirlph
@vovh
@Cortnee4Christ
@carmorg
@crjournal
@biblicaltruths
@ItsJulieChapman
@JimQuillen (He's one of my first faves & always lifts my day!)
@LilianChisca (One of my very first faves & the reason I stuck with Twitter. *waving*)
@Ask4Me
@adndotcom (Anchorage news...)
@BreakingNews (IMO - the best news source on Twitter)
@CRInstitute
@heartcures
@itsmrscooper (We are so silly when we tweet each other. She's very cool)
@BrokePimpStyles (Such a sweetheart. Always kind & always remembers people)
@wordoffaith
@superkingdom
@AlaskaArtist
@ErinPatrick
@JuanitaBerguson
@urbanperspectiv
@ryanfellman (Mellow, wise & kind!)
@heartfulart
@kimshahan
@Jillmz

Like I said, these are not my only faves & I will have to update this list, but if this sample gets you over to Twitter, then I'm happy :-)

Peace
--Free