Last week I placed an order on Walmart.com
After 8 days it still is not here!
Last Thursday, November 7, we needed a few things, one of which was not available at our local Walmart Store. I decided to just order it from Walmart.com and have it delivered to the house.
When I placed my order online Walmart promised delivery the next day, Friday, November 8. I kind of figured it may not be here until Saturday, November 9, because Walmart deliveries generally run a little later than what they promise.
On November 8, I checked the Walmart app, and it said that my order was on the FedEx delivery truck and would be delivered by the end of the day. I was surprised and happy.
The end of November 8th came and went, but my order did not arrive. The FedEx tracking said “delivery exception” and the Walmart app said the delivery was delayed until Saturday, November 9. OK, that is what I expected anyway.
By the end of the day on Saturday, no delivery. I was disappointed, but what could I do?
This week
This order and the missed deliveries happened last week. This week, every day, the FedEx tracking said that the delivery was being rescheduled, but never gave a date for delivery. I just didn’t worry much about it. On Friday I decided I better give Walmart.com a call and see what was going on.
My call to Walmart.com
When I called Walmart to check on my order, I was sitting on the couch with Feyma, my wife. I had the call on speakerphone. As soon as Walmart answered, I knew I was speaking to a customer service agent in the Philippines. I lived there for 2 decades, and I can recognize the accent, even when they are doing their best to speak American English, which they have been trained to do.
It always makes me happy when I get a call center agent in the Philippines because I can usually get great service from them, especially if I let them know that I lived in their country for so long.
Mara was the agent I talked to
The agent told me that her name was Mara. Frankly, she seemed a bit scatter-brained. A lot of the things she was saying did not make much sense. She interrupted me constantly and did not seem to want to listen to me. Even when I gave her specific information, in a minute or two she went off the path and was talking about things as if I had not told her anything. It made no sense.
Are you in the Philippines?
I asked Mara if she was in the Philippines. She seemed offended by the question. She probably thought that I was going to be mad that she was not American. Frankly, I would have been happy to know she was in the Philippines, and I would have cut her a little more slack. Really, I was pleasant and nice to her through the entire call.
She said, “I won’t disclose my location to you.” As I said, though, I already knew she was in the Philippines. I replied to her in Bisaya (a Philippine language that I can speak).
She would not listen to me no matter what I said. Then I put Feyma on to talk to her. Feyma started speaking Tagalog to her, but she would have nothing to do with that.
Usually, when I explain to the agent that I had lived there, and speak a bit of their own language to the agent, they will do anything for me. It makes them so happy. Not this time, though.
“What happened to the delivery?”
I asked Mara what had happened. The Walmart app still said delivery by November 9, which was 6 days ago! Why had Walmart not notified me what was going on?
Mare checked and said that FedEx had damaged the box during delivery. OK, things like that happen, but why didn’t anybody tell me? Why had they not reshipped to items to me? Walmart had taken my money, but I still did not have my merchandise. If I had not called, it seemed they had no plans to send me the items I had ordered.
The end of the call
By the end of the call, Mara had the order straightened out, and it should be delivered to me by Monday or Tuesday next week. But, she just was not helpful. She was generally friendly, but not much help.
Frankly, I don’t blame Mara, it was obvious that she needs more training. She was probably a new agent at that call center.
Mara, if by chance you are reading this, which is doubtful, don’t be so nervous. Just try to be more helpful on future calls.
I hope I see my package next week!
Welcome to the USA….
I don’t really feel that it is something endemic to the USA. Look at Amazon, they do it right almost all the time. I feel it is the corporate culture at Walmart, they don’t seem to care as much as Amazon is about doing it correctly.
Of course there will be incidents when the identical things happens with them given the volume of transactions.
A few months ago I had the identical thing happen. Amazon continued to advance the delivery date but the item never showed up so I finally cancelled the order.
I found out later that the item was in the local Fedex warehouse but there was some un-name difugalty that kept postponing the delivery.
Bureaucracy is bureaucracy, no matter the organization.
Hope you got your item.
Roy
Hi Roy! Yeah, I finally got my item, sorry you didn’t get yours. I have had so many problems with FedEx. They used to be the best shipper, now I feel they are the words of the major shippers.
See my previous comment about how I feel about Walmart.
Recently I purchased my airline ticket to Cebu City for March. I could tell almost immediately the young lady, Nimfa, was a Filipina. I asked if she was working from IT Park in Cebu. She was and asked if I had been to Cebu before. We had a nice conversation and she was great at getting my tickets. Obviously very well trained.
I have noticed that my calls to Dell for work on my AlienWare also seem to be answered in Philippine call centers. Those guys are awesome!
Hi Tony – I have always experienced awesome service from the Philippine call centers until this time. LoL
Thats odd. I usually dont have a problem with Philippjnes call center agents identifying their location.
It was my first time to experience such a problem. I was pretty surprised.