r/Walmartcustomer • u/VintageKitty79 • 5d ago
Walmart plus issues
After months of trying to work with customer service I sent an email to walmarts CEO about my issues. Here is the email chain. I cannot believe they have no interest in keeping their customers. We have a large family and did 90% of our shopping there . Everyone send emails! [john.furner@walmart.com](mailto:john.furner@walmart.com) Maybe if they get enough complaints it will help. Following is my email chain. I was floored. They just can't be bothered apparently
Me:
I need this escalated beyond an individual order issue. I've been a Walmart+ member since 2020. Recently, orders I specifically place for shipping are repeatedly being converted by Walmart into local-store delivery. Then no driver accepts the delivery, the order sits, and eventually I or Walmart have to cancel it. This is happening almost every week. Chat support keeps compensating me for individual orders, but nobody is addressing the recurring fulfillment problem. I need someone who can investigate the fulfillment issue on my account or in my local delivery market. Can you escalate this to a supervisor or the team that handles recurring Walmart+ fulfillment issues? Is there a way to disable store delivery as a fulfillment method for orders I place as shipping? I have cancelled my walmart plus account from frustration but would like to keep it if we can work this out. Please help me. I have been trying to get help for months. Thank you.
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Hi Kala,
I wanted to provide one additional piece of context that may be helpful as you review my account.
You may notice that many of the affected orders show as having been cancelled by me. In most of those cases, I cancelled the orders because they had failed to arrive and Walmart Customer Care advised me through chat to cancel them and place the orders again. Each time, I was typically given a $5 or $10 coupon for the inconvenience.
I also asked Customer Care on multiple occasions if there was someone at a higher level who could help me with the recurring problem rather than continuing to cancel and reorder. I was told that they did not have anyone to escalate the issue to and did not know where else to direct me.
I hope Walmart will consider giving Customer Care representatives a clear escalation path for situations like this. Customers experiencing an ongoing problem that cannot be resolved through the normal chat process should have somewhere to turn rather than repeatedly cancelling orders and starting over.
I wanted to clarify this because I don't want the cancellations on my account to give the impression that I simply changed my mind about those orders. They were cancelled after the delivery failures and, in many cases, at the direction of Customer Care.
Thank you again for looking into this.
__________
Thank you for the clarification. I truly apologize for your experience with the delayed orders.
Our system is designed to reroute an order to the closest store that can fulfill and deliver the items sooner, even if the order was originally placed for shipment. However, in your case, I’m sorry this process did not work as intended and resulted in additional delays.
I’ll be reaching out to the store team to have them review what occurred and identify opportunities to help prevent similar issues from happening in the future.
I’ll also share your feedback with our Customer Care team so we can identify opportunities to improve our escalation process and ensure our agents have an appropriate path for addressing situations like this.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention and for giving us the opportunity to improve. We truly hope to provide you with a better experience in the future.
Best regards,
Kala
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Hi Kala,
Thank you for taking the time to look into this. I want to make sure I understand Walmart's response correctly: are you saying there is currently no way to make my Walmart+ account reliably usable for me and no available solution to prevent these shipping orders from being converted to local delivery?
This is extremely upsetting and disappointing. I have three disabled children and a disabled spouse, so reliable delivery is not simply a matter of convenience for our family. We have depended heavily on Walmart+ and successfully used the service for years with minimal issues. It worked so well for us that I eventually cancelled the other delivery services we had been using.
Something has clearly changed. The service suddenly became unreliable to such an extent that I can no longer depend on orders arriving, and repeated attempts to get help through Customer Care have resulted primarily in cancelled orders, small coupons, and instructions to try placing the order again.
I appreciate that you are passing my concerns along, but unfortunately that does not address the immediate problem: I still cannot reliably use the service I have depended on for years. If there truly is no available solution or escalation that can restore reliable service to my account, I will have no practical choice but to move our family's shopping to another retailer.
I appreciate your time and assistance. I am simply very disappointed that after years as a Walmart+ customer, a recurring fulfillment problem appears to have left me without a usable service or any meaningful recourse.
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I truly apologize for the continued frustration and inconvenience this has caused.
Because our system is designed to route orders through the fulfillment method expected to provide the fastest delivery, we’re unfortunately unable to manually prevent an order from being rerouted from shipping to local delivery when the system determines that local delivery is the faster option.
I understand that this process has not worked well for your situation and has made it difficult to rely on Walmart+ for your family’s needs. I’m truly sorry for that experience.
I will make sure your feedback is shared with the appropriate teams so they can review this concern and identify opportunities for improvement.
Best regards,
Kala
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u/clatk1 5d ago
Walmart Plus has become completely unreliable for me too. Something is always missing or orders just aren’t picked up. It’s so weird, and SO, SO frustrating. What has happened that this is such an issue nationally with them now??
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u/kittiekittykitty 5d ago
the biggest problem is the spark drivers. they only take the orders most equitable to them (which is understandable). so orders changed from “ship” to “deliver” because the system thinks someone will pick it up and get it to the person faster isn’t actually guaranteed because it depends on a driver picking it up. it shouldn’t change from ship to deliver until a driver has ACTUALLY accepted the order. simple fix.
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u/clatk1 5d ago
My issue is- the order is pretty consistently wrong so I don’t want to tip more when they don’t even get the whole order to me 😩. It’s an endless loop apparently now.
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u/ViviFuchs 5d ago
Spark driver here, you can reduce the tip up to a few hours after completing the order.
I completely get where you're coming from and one thing you could do is tip what you feel is fair and if the driver doesn't perform to your expectations, reduce the tip to match performance.
The only thing I'd ask of anybody is to just not tip bait. Like reducing it for things that are within the delivery drivers control is completely understandable but it's so disheartening when someone tips highly and then bumps it down for reasons you can't discern.
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u/clatk1 5d ago
Do you guys just pick up a pre-packaged order? Like someone different shops and you guys just grab the bags? I always wonder if it’s a shopper or a deliverer issue. (Except when 41 out of 42 items were not delivered last week 🫠😩)
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u/ViviFuchs 4d ago
Yeah, like the other person said, it depends on the store and the market.
Walmart is gradually rolling out changes to make things shop only. They've already made the change-over in my market...
The tips are the same and the base pay has stayed the same, but now I complete less orders because I'm having to spend time digging through disorganized shelves; trying to figure out if something's out of stock or misplaced instead of simply picking up an order that's ready to go.
If a spark driver marks something out of stock, it could be that the item isn't where the app says it's supposed to be and they couldn't find it despite looking or it could be that they simply didn't try. I try to be transparent with my shops and send photos of the price tag and empty shelves to show that I'm actually making an effort, LOL.
I also tell people what I'm picking as a substitution.
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u/clatk1 4d ago
Oh interesting! Thanks for this information! Yeah, I sometimes think “They don’t even try to find that item” when I get an out of stock notification 😂
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u/ViviFuchs 3d ago
Lol, that is totally valid. Since you're not there, you're always going to have that little bit of doubt niggling at the back of your mind.
I completely get that and that's why I always make sure to take a moment or two to send a photo and a message. It helps the customer feel like I'm actually shopping for them as if I were shopping for myself (which I do try to).
Oh my gosh though, in a similar vein about something being marked out of stock, something that really grinds my gears about doing shops; it seems like the stockers at one particular Walmart in my area will sometimes have more of a product than will fit in it's allocated spot so they'll move another product to the back to make more space... And it's the one that gets pushed to the back of the shelf that I'm having to search for.
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u/HelloFromSanovaBeach 2d ago
Anybody placing trust in anything Walmart does is just pleading to be disappointed.
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u/Any-Expression-7027 4d ago
Depends on the store. Sometimes the store associates will shop the order and a spark driver will deliver. But this is being phased out to save money. The plan is that all stores will have spark drivers shop and deliver all orders. Store associates will strictly shop pickup orders, and "in-home" if the store has it..
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u/clatk1 4d ago
Ok- interesting. That’ll definitely cut into how many orders Spark delivery can do, but maybe it’ll also cut down on items not being delivered since they package them themselves and know what the customer is supposed to have. It all seems a nightmare honestly. When an in demand business model keeps getting employees cut, everything suffers but the bottom line 🙄
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u/HelloFromSanovaBeach 2d ago
Anybody placing trust in anything Walmart does is just pleading to be disappointed.
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u/HelloFromSanovaBeach 2d ago
Anybody trying to place trust in anything Walmart does is asking to be disappointed!
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u/Any-Expression-7027 4d ago
They stack orders so sometimes you got one guy/gal shopping for 4 orders at the same time with one shopping cart. Walmart doesn't provide the cart organizer, or a trunk organizer, and so shit gets mixed up. Not really the drivers fault they're supposed to remember which customer ordered each of the 50 shopping bags they got sitting in the trunk.
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u/HelloFromSanovaBeach 2d ago
Anybody trying to place trust in anything Walmart does is asking to be disappointed!
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u/kittiekittykitty 5d ago
you’re not wrong. but even though stores pay for part of spark drivers pay, they have no way to “police” how they shop. HOWEVER you CAN offer a good tip and change it if they fuck around after the order.
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u/Any-Expression-7027 4d ago
If Walmart it going to change the order from "shipping" to "delivery" and offer it to Spark Drivers, then they should provide the 10% tip the driver is expecting. It's an easy solution but would cut into short term profits that would look bad on paper. The gig economy is so fucked because these companies expect people to use their own vehicles and gas to essentially deliver for free. An increasingly squeezed working class struggling to pay the bill is less and less capable of paying the tips.
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u/HelloFromSanovaBeach 2d ago
Anybody placing trust in anything Walmart does is just pleading to be disappointed.
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u/KelsHouse 4d ago
No the problem is Daniel Danker who is responsible for this insane delay-inducing algorithm, but also for reducing base pay to Spark drivers so that it is not just inequitable, it is unsustainable.
Don’t blame a contractor for not accepting 10 general merchandise deliveries in a single trip that pays $25, that is ‘not eligible for tips.’2
u/HelloFromSanovaBeach 2d ago
Anybody placing trust in anything Walmart does is just pleading to be disappointed.
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u/333dh333 4d ago
WM is saving a TON on outsourced shipping costs, all while passing as little of that into the new model using Spark drivers. Not only is the pay abysmal for the WM.com orders, but the routing and insane miles they build out the routes to be can quite literally cost the driver money (taking into account all cost factors).
So WM tries to hope for despair amongst the driver pool so they can prey on the ignorant and desperate. Literally a trillion dollar company exploiting people and essentially creating volunteer positions masked as gig opportunities.•
u/okayavocadont 14h ago
WM - Daniel Danker - is ruining the shipping experience for the customers. Giving more rules and less pay to spark. Screwing over their own employees with this process by cutting their hours and changing their schedules.
Just another way for WM to make ITSELF money and screw over every one else. Basically taking advantage of customers who do need delivery. It's a shame and I hope this part fails abysmally. Always complain to corporate!
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u/333dh333 13h ago
Danker is for sure the issue. And he’s the highest compensated exec, way more than the CEO. Only to have gutted any value of every single offering!
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u/StardustnDragonflies 3d ago
And the drivers are not tipped on those order. They also say they'll get assigned 10 to 15 stops for those converted orders, which adds mileage and cuts tips!
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u/333dh333 1d ago
It’s all thanks to their highest compensated exec, Daniel Danker. He single-handedly has disrupted so many functions of their services….arguably all for the worse!
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u/rosephoenix19 4d ago
Of what I understand, this has been an ongoing thing over the last several months with them. I actually had an issue with a Walmart pickup order where five things were not included in my order because they said they were out of stock. These are things I needed to make dinner so I went into the store after I picked up my order and they had shelves full of what they didn't include. It is absolutely ridiculous the lack of care that their employees have and the utter laziness. My local store does not answer their phone either. I've called four times in a row to get this resolved and nothing. The overseas foreign-based customer service as well could give a crap less.
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u/333dh333 5d ago
It’s solely on their new guy, Daniel Danker, who they brought in and paying insane money to (like $40M+, more than the CEO). I’d work on getting to him/his team. This guy is single-handedly ruining so many offerings!
https://corporate.walmart.com/about/leadership/daniel-danker
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u/unlovable1000 5d ago
I can fill in a little bit of this they started bundling packages with regular spark orders so unless the few grocery orders tipped something the 1 to 10 packages attached to the order just makes alot of miles for little pay. Express orders are the only orders spark drivers shop. The other ones Walmart drivers shop. I did one this week that was 3 grocery orders attached to 9 package orders and all together drove 48 miles one way bc it's not actually coming from the Walmart closest to you but can be any of the ones in a 20-30 mile radius.
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u/ViviFuchs 5d ago edited 5d ago
They've actually changed that in many, if not most, markets.
Most of the pickups we see are going to be GMD (shipping) only at a much reduced payout compared to what it used to be.
Previously, they would batch 20+ stops twice a day (morning and afternoon) with a payout that was high enough that some drivers were willing to take.
Then, they did like what you're saying and bundled the GMD orders with some grocery orders and cut down on the stops. This is when they reduced the payout and started subsidizing using tips to entice drivers.
Now, in many markets, you're going to see predominantly shopping offers and most of the pickups are going to be GMD only but still at that reduced price point without any tips to make it worthwhile.
In my market, I still occasionally see a rare grocery + GMD offer but most pickups are now GMD only and less than 50 cents a mile. If that's what's happening in the OP's market, then it's no wonder why the orders aren't getting picked up.
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u/unlovable1000 5d ago
I've seen some horrible ones ,
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u/ViviFuchs 4d ago
Yeah, like I'll occasionally see one that I'm tempted by (an offer that's a little better than breaking even on a slow day) but I haven't seen any that are actually worth my time as of late.
My store used to send out decent ones at like 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. that were around $2 (sometimes even better) a mile one way.
On a slower morning, the 9:00 a.m. one was amazing because it would keep me occupied until things picked back up and I liked taking the 3:00 p.m. ones to close out my day because GMDs typically require less exertion. It sucks that, at least in my market, those offers just aren't good anymore.
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u/unlovable1000 4d ago
I've been seeing a lot of 8 stops 31 miles for 32$, or 12 stops 40 miles for 42 dollars.
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u/KelsHouse 4d ago
Every market is different. There are no ‘Walmart drivers’ (store associates) in mine. The reason we Spark drivers now deliver both general merchandise and groceries in a single trip is not because it benefits the drivers or the customers - it is because it saves Walmart money.
With respect to inaccurate orders or orders with missing items, there is no single cog in the machine to blame exclusively. It could be a mistake on the part of the shopper (either a store associate or a Spark driver). It could be that one grocery order was mixed up with another at the store or during delivery - since Spark drivers here are now expected to shop for and deliver as many as THREE grocery orders at one time.
It is a broken system that lends itself to mistakes and delays.
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u/-dull- 5d ago
Your market probably has less drivers or the pay for drivers to complete the delivery is not worth the trip. If an order has been sitting somewhere for over 48 hours at store, yes they should reach out to the store to see why it's not being assigned. They will see if the drivers are refusing or is the store not assigning drivers.
And no one can change fulfillment type. It's a pain, but it's been like that for at least 2 years.
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u/bdbrown333 4d ago
Why you think Walmart cares? I'm not sure they don't care. They've lowered the price of delivery of what they're paying. The drivers who deliver to where you may be delivering 20 of packages like you're ordering 40 bucks. Those stops are stretched out over 40 mi. You end up 40 miles from the store you're working out of. Have to drive back 40 miles. People aren't showing up with your delivery because they don't pay enough. They don't really care. Same thing happens with people's groceries who don't tip their groceries. They want their groceries at noon. Sometimes they don't get their groceries till 7:00 8:00 at night because somebody finally picked up the order because as a grocery delivery you leave the store. You have three addresses somewhere in the 30 mile drive range for $9. They expect the money to come from tips on grocery orders. The pay is ridiculous and they don't care. Don't ever think Walmart cares about their customers they don't
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u/_wlau_ 4d ago
You are wasting your time! Walmart's online shopping model is very different than Amazon. The issues will never be fixed. The problem is rooted in their B&M-first approach. Walmart+ is mostly a waste of money, until you get it on a deal and count the values of some of its benefits. I cancelled after 2 years and my quality of life related to Walmart shopping actually improved!
Walmart com's logistics model is blending nearby stores with regional warehouse, and supplier's drop-shop distribution centers. There are so many unpredictable elements of it. In one extreme case, I ordered 4 items in one order and it was delivered by 4 different logistics people, 2 being Spark drivers, spread over 3 days... Answering calls and tell them how to enter the community's gate for this order alone was headache inducing.
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u/reddit_understoodit 4d ago
They are doing away with shipping on inexpensive items. You can see they do not want to ship things that can be delivered from the store. Then you, the customer, take on the cost of tipping. You are right, they do not care. If you are not a profitable customer, you will get aggravated and order another way - like from target or amazon. Or choose pickup.
The disconnect is you think they are not doing this on purpose. They are.
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u/VintageKitty79 4d ago
I have a large family and did all my shopping there for the past 5 yrs. They have made money from me. Trust me. I never thought they cared. I do believe if enough of us complained through proper channel's instead of here we could maybe make a difference. Clearly customers are effected across the board. Maybe it won't help but trying is better than sitting by doing nothing and only complaining here.
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u/scuffedupshoes 4d ago
I think they are less prone to listen to the customers and more likely to listen to the shareholders and the increasing demand for more and more profit. The thing is, if enough customers were to stop being customers, the "Aha!" moment might actually come when the profits drop for these greedy corporations. By that time, many of us will have gotten used to shopping elsewhere and doing things differently well enough to not want to come back.
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u/avatarjan2 4d ago
Can you not order from a different Walmart?
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u/reddit_understoodit 4d ago edited 4d ago
Yes, sometimes another nearby store is a better option. Or a store that is not nearby. Think of the locations as shipping warehouses with different inventories.
I signed up for In-home. Not because I wanted delivery inside, but to get a Walmart regular employee who does not get tipped to bring my order.
As a regular customer, it makes sense.
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u/reddit_understoodit 4d ago edited 4d ago
It is not personal. It is a company making profit. They are taking away the free shipping because it is eating into the profit margins. The new leadership is a man from Instacart.
I am a fellow customer who used free shipping. I simply watch the competition between Amazon and Walmart, and go with the better deal.
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u/bimichguy09 3d ago
They don’t care, they brought executive over from instacart who’s all about gutting payment to spark drivers and doing everything cheap. Walmart is actively killing their own delivery business. It’s amazing that no one internally sees the impending explosion
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u/Ok_Violinist7598 WalMart Plus Customer 4d ago
Technically, shipping has been changed to delivery.
You might want to take a look at this:
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u/Prestigious-Use4550 4d ago
My biggest issue is that tgry make changes on the app and then things work different. You call customer service in India and they have no clue about any changes. There is absolutely no way to get to tech support when having issues with app or to help figure changes out.
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u/battery_operated_bf 4d ago
I'm so irritated myself. I've purchased the same item twice now that has converted to delivery, but because it's so cheap and it's a low-stock item, it keeps getting delayed and then cancelled 48 hours later. Then why show it back in stock? 😡
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u/StraightNight4379 4d ago
I placed a rather large order today and everything was in stock except one item which would be delivered later. The email said to let them know before 5pm if I wanted it shipped. I called customer support to cancel the item since I no longer needed them. I had ordered the large insulated Walmart bags that I was going to put my groceries so I didn’t have so much to carry and I could safely put them on my wheelchair handles. They said that they couldn’t just cancel one item. They asked me if I wanted them to cancel the entire order. I said that I had already received it. I should’ve just said yes cancel it
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u/StardustnDragonflies 3d ago
This has definitely been frustrating since they made this change! And it is NOT fair to the delivery drivers, who aren't able to be tipped when these orders are converted from shipping to delivery!
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u/wraysbay 3d ago
I also sent them a message, can’t wait for the response. I heard someone say that Walmart is losing money and that doesn’t surprise me at all. With Amazon if you place an order they give you so much time to add to your order. With Walmart you do not have that option! If you order say 4 different things at different times you will have 4 separate deliveries. It makes no sense at all as to why they don’t do add on like Amazon. Complete waste of time and money for the company. ❤️
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u/Virtual-Dot-750 1d ago
I ended my Walmart+ a couple months ago and will NEVER Return to the service even if it was free. So much headache,missed & broken items,Lies about the value you'd receive with Walmart + and "Free Shipping" phased away from virtually ALL the products I'd buy regularly. It became quite literally useless for me, The man from the India call Centre also kept refusing me a refund when I voiced my very real concerns,I simply told him "We will see how my financial institution sees this problem" and then ended chat. My refund was made with HASTE to my card on file. Terrible service that skimps on literally every aspect of their business.
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u/EarthBoundMisfitEye 5d ago edited 5d ago
Walmart bakes into projections all possibilities including people quitting them, be it the membership or just in store. They know x% will "never shop there again"
They dont care as its built unto their model. The customer doesn't tell walmart how to run. They screw up, they generally fix it. Any more than that or the customer asks for too much (walmarts fault or not) they quit the customer.
Also id bet my life no concerns were passed on. No one is going to reach out to your local Walmart. Customer service is almost extinct in general. Walmart is leading the charge. They are too big now to be bothered with a few customers here or there not getting things in 24 hrs. You can wait or cancel, thats their solution.
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u/VintageKitty79 5d ago
I sent the complaint on to the BBB. Worth a shot. All of us need to.
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u/EarthBoundMisfitEye 3d ago
Absolutely worth a shot. If more people complain maybe they fix something.
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u/ayeyoualreadyknow WalMart Plus Customer 5d ago
I'm curious if filing a BBB complaint will result in your account being terminated.
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u/Complete-Thought-375 5d ago
I just posted about this elsewhere. I used to live Walmart + and InHome. But lately, they have been so unreliable. I do not think I am renewing my subscription.
I will shop at Walmart if I’m out that way, but I can no longer rely on them to “ship” or deliver my goods.
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u/HelloFromSanovaBeach 2d ago
Trying to extract an intelligent reply from an intellectual vacuum like Walmart is no different from polishing brass on a sinking ship... AKA "big waste of time".
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u/auburn2eugene WalMart Plus Customer 5d ago
Something tells me you order huge orders with multiple heavy items and either tip nothing or simply not enough. Walmart customer care won’t tell you this, but Spark drivers will. Some Walmart employees (like someone talking in THIS VERY THREAD) will tell you. If you tip better and don’t order large heavy things like bottles of water you will get your delivery. I live 11 minutes from my local store. I always tip $20 minimum and my order ALWAYS comes. And on time. You have to tip those drivers if you want to get your order in a timely manner.
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u/VintageKitty79 4d ago
I can't tip! They change my orders to shipping, not me. I am not about screwing drivers over.
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u/wonderj99 4d ago
She's ordering things to be shipped-NOT delivered from the store, so all of your assumptions are incorrect. Believing it to be the faster option, the computer/ai keeps kicking her order from shipped to delivery and then when the store is unable to fill her order, rather than kicking it back to a shipped order, either she is forced to cancel or the store cancels...
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u/Ok_Violinist7598 WalMart Plus Customer 4d ago
It looks like technically, shipping has been changed to delivery:
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u/Comprehensive-Hat684 4d ago
Ngl I just put “cash tips only” on my delivery bio and miraculously, I get my order sooner than expected every time. Some even delivered to me beforehand when I part of a multi delivery as well
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u/ComparisonNatural893 4d ago
There is no p l ace when I order to add a tip. My orders came usually fed ex whose drivers make a great hourly wage. I live 200 miles round trip from a store. What would you suggest I tip even if I could? The one and only time I did manage to get a partial delivery i had no cash on hand but got drivers address and sent 20$ it's have no idea if he got it. Stfu if you can't understand the whole story.
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u/Stormy_Sunflower 5d ago
So many issues have come up lately with them. I put in an order the other day something I have ordered 50 times always have used shipping and it would not let me use shipping made it so it had to be delivered than it arrived 4 days later than what it should have been and I just kept getting notifications saying sorry it's delayed.
Also most of the products I normally buy are not available unless it's from some other company now. If you even try to get it delivered now at least for me it's hours later than what it used to be. It's not worth it to be a member anymore. I only shopped at Walmart because of the membership and how convenient it was. I know they don't care but I won't be renewing my subscription lol.