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.
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