The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Tires

This morning, I had an e-mail from my sister saying that she got through a "holiday impatience" moment by thinking of my blog. In line at a store behind a woman who kept having to run back for more things, check prices, etc., she found herself annoyed at having to wait, but because the woman was apologetic, she decided to smile and be patient, in the spirit of the season.

I was not so patient yesterday and plan to write another letter akin to last year's to UPS about an awful, awful customer service experience. As I mentioned a few days ago, the tires on my car were getting really bad, and with the snowy season approaching, I knew I had to replace them. I priced a few places a couple of weeks ago and ultimately decided to join Sam's Club, for the sole reason of purchasing tires there, because I could get a much better tire for much less money. And then the trouble began...

Here's the story.

Saturday afternoon: I ordered the tires on Sam's Club's Web site. They said they'd ship them to my local Sam's Club, and when they arrived, I would receive an e-mail saying they were there.

Wednesday afternoon: I received an e-mail message stating, "your recent online order is ready for pickup at your local Sam's Club."

5:30 p.m. Thursday: I went to my local Sam's Club, and a slick tire department dude wearing a hat with sparkly silver lettering on it told me, "well, you know, we're real busy. We gotta do like three cars and then we gotta take a break, so you'll have to wait till at least seven till we can get to you." I bought a gigantic bag of candy and a stack of notebooks and left.

10 a.m. Friday: I entered Sam's Club just as it opened, went back to the tire department and the guy there (Slick Dude is apparently not on the morning shift) looked in their book and told me my tires haven't come in yet. I told him I'd received an e-mail two days before saying they had, and he said, "yeah, they just sort of send those out whenever they want. We're not supposed to tell people that, but they never really send them when your stuff actually comes in." He said they had already checked in all of their tire deliveries for that morning, so he knew they were definitely not there.

11 a.m.: I'd driven around for an hour, running other errands and mulling over the problem. I was angry that I'd wasted two trips to Sam's to get tires that weren't even in yet, angry that I had been notified that they were in. In fact, I was angry enough to call my husband and tell him he had to talk me down from going into Sam's Club, demanding to speak to the manager, and then demanding my money back for my membership. He talked me out of the membership thing but said I should definitely complain, in person. So I went back to Sam's, complained to customer service and was directed to call 1-800-Wal-Mart, as the problem had been a premature e-mail, which comes from the corporate office, not from the club. I went outside right away and called from my car.

11:30 a.m.: After a really long time on hold, the woman I spoke with (who had been on hold the whole time with the club) told me she couldn't get any answers either. She put in a request for me to get a phone call from the store manager within 24 hours.

11:57 a.m.: While I was in the gym, sweating off the stress from the past two hours, the tire department guy I'd spoken to earlier left me a message. My tires have just been checked in and are ready for me whenever I want to come get them, he said. Note that this is the same guy who told me earlier they'd checked everything in and my tires were definitely not there. Hmm.

12:45 p.m.: Immediately after receiving the message, I went to Sam's Club -- in my sweaty gym clothes -- for the third time that day. A guy I hadn't seen before helped me, saw in his book that my tires were in and went to the back to get them. When he returned, he took a look at all of the tires he'd brought up and said to me, "I think they sent the wrong ones." At this point, I was just waiting for any reason to fly off the handle, but I actually kept calm while he went to look again. Nope, nothing in the back. So he looked around the tire area, where the "in-stock" tires are kept and somehow found them. Obviously, my tires were not, in fact, a part of Friday's delivery, had not "just been checked in" and were probably sitting there the entire time I was getting the runaround.

2 p.m.: Four hours after entering Sam's Club the first time, I left with my new tires and a draft complaint letter to the manager. I did not, however, leave with an apology from anyone.

As this was my first purchase from Sam's Club (besides the candy and the notebooks of the day before), it really sours my view of the place. I don't think I'll be returning, but it depends on what the manager has to say after he receives the letter I'll be writing him today.