Crazy News - Strange Stuff - Rants and Raves

Today was the final straw for a fiasco that has been dragging on for over nine months.  On December 26, 2007 I went into my local Walmart store to get two tires.  After the installation the technician was pulling the car out of the service bay and crashed into the side of a post with the front bumper.  There was deep yellow colored scratches on the right-side of the bumper.  Everyone apologized profusely and I was told they would take care of it.  The assistant store manager came and took pictures with a digital camera and took down my contact information and said someone would call me in the next couple of days.

Eight days passed so I decided to stop in and find out what was going on,  at this time I was dealing with the automotive manager, Dinesh.  He told me it would be a few more days but by the end of the week someone from head office would contact me.  Another week went by and I came in to ask what was going on, he said I had to go get an estimate and they would submit that for payment.  I returned a couple of days later with an estimate and he said it was too high and I needed to submit a second one anyway.  

I went and got a second estimate and brought that in a few days later.  He then told me the estimates were too high and that if I tried to trick them, I would be found out and they would not pay.  I got quite angry at the accusation and stated that he is the one that told me to get the estimates and I did just that, I said, “I don’t care who fixes the car, for all I care Walmart can send it out themselves to whomever they want”.

A couple more weeks go by and I am not contacted, I stop in again and ask what is going on, Dinesh goes to his office and comes back 10 minutes later saying he talked to the insurance company and they would contact me so an adjuster can come out and have a look. A couple more weeks go by and no contact, I go into the store and ask to speak with Joel Breton the store manager.  He talks to Dinesh and apologizes and says it will be taken care of ASAP.

A couple more weeks go by and still nothing….I go back to talk to Joel and he says that I need to call the insurance company to set up an appointment with the adjuster.  I call, the adjuster he gave me the number for is on vacation, I leave a message and never receive a call back.  I leave an second then a third message and still no return call.

I must admit I did get busy just prior to this Summer with a new job so I have not done anything since, but today I had a vacation day so I stopped in to talk to Joel to give him one last chance to rectify this mess before I published my story to the web.  First I got the run-around from a few service people that said he was in a meeting and would be available later.  Then I asked the customer service manager to ask his to come out and see me.  She grudgingly did so and I waited for about ten minutes at the front of the store and he didn’t show.  I then asked the CS manager to have him come into the McDonalds to talk to me so I could sit down and have a drink.  I wanted another 15 minutes and he didn’t show.

I know I am just a small fish and obviously insignificant to a big company like Walmart but to be treated this way has been very upsetting.  All together I have wasted a ton of time and energy on something that could have been settled in just a few moments.  I am greatly disappointed in Walmart and in Joel Breton.  At this point I have pretty much written off getting any fair treatment from Walmart but I will update this post if the impossible occurs.

Have you seen those annoying infomercials about how you can lose 45 pounds in 25 days with the newest and greatest weight loss miracle elixir?

Have you ever wondered how they get away with making those claims?  They always show a few folks that have done it - “I have lost 21 pounds and 3 inches in just 17 days with this amazing weight loss, fat burning stuff!”  Is it real?

It is!  Sort of!

Here is the secret, the people they get to do the before and after are paid a big chunk of change (and sign NDA’s) to gain the 21 or 30 or 19 pounds first, then they lose it.  So the creators of these miracle products can actually show video proof of the progression of weight loss over the stated period.  What they don’t tell you is that a couple of months before they lost all the weight they were looking just like they were in the after pictures.  Do you follow?  And see where the scam is?  These people were thin, muscular, fit people who were paid x amount of dollars to gain weight in a short period of time by not exercising and eating a very high fat diet and drinking tons of liquids to retain water.  Then they start taking the miracle product and go back to their regular lifestyle and lo-and-behold they drop the weight very quickly and have these beautiful toned bodies which were just sitting under a thin layer of fat and water retention.

So next time you see one of the commercials on the tube, look closely at the people and you might just notice the tell-tale signs of this scam.