This was a long week at work. We were inundated with phone calls, many of them the full moon variety. One woman actually thought it would take a month to install her septic system. Perhaps she though I would be doing it myself. Alone. With a child's toy beach shovel.
Called the Wal*Mart Vision Center today to get a price on my contact lenses and order them. The price was very reasonable. It takes, however, two weeks, for the contacts to actually land at the Wal*Mart Vision Center. Yes, the glasses I ordered were half the price I would have paid at DOC, my old eye place, but the glasses also took two weeks to come in. Granted, someone somewhere had to make the glasses. Contacts, well, they are already manufactured somewhere and waiting two weeks is absurd and unnecessary. This is not a third world country, nor do I live in some remote outpost of the United States that FedEx or UPS doesn't service.
I told the Wal*Martian that I would not be ordering contacts from them and would be in to pick up a copy of my prescription later in the day.. NOTE: I was fairly polite other than the involuntary incredulous chuckle when I was told it would take two weeks to get contacts.
Went to Wal*Mart this evening and do you think they had my prescription ready and waiting? Do you think there was even anyone at the service counter in the Vision Center? That would be a big resounding NO. After waiting well over ten minutes and making friends with the other customers who were stacking up like cordwood behind me, finally, finally, a Wal*Martian appeared and guess what? She had no idea what I was talking about nor did they have my prescription ready.
I had to walk away at that point or my rage would have bubbled over into an ugly cauldron of sarcasm, as it is sometimes apt to do. But not after pointing out that I had called six hours ago and requested the very thing I had just asked for.
Sometimes I think I just like to go to Wal*Mart because I like to get all pissed off at incompetence.
*****
Why are people assclowns and mean? I will admit that I can have a sharp tongue and a patronizing pen, but you have to do something to me first for me to react in that way. I don't go around randomly acting badly. In fact, those that know me in real life think I am a pretty nice person and fairly funny, if a bit eccentric.
*****
Boss The Father is quite happy that I have the ability to write a really polite letter that is actually really snarky and points out what an idiot the recipient actually is. I wrote one today, as a matter of fact, to the boss of the perverted tree guy. Boss The Father read it over, chuckled a few times and said to me, "No one would look at you and think you had this much meanness inside." I took that as a compliment. I told him, "I'm not mean, I can just write that way."
Out of pure curiocity, Lisa, what do you think of Rite Aid? Which one do you go to?
Posted by: andy | August 27, 2005 at 06:46 PM
You know, I had never been to a Wal-Mart up until a month ago. What a crazy and evil place! I think you should do business somewhere else...They are an evil empire.
Posted by: nicole | August 27, 2005 at 11:42 PM
My Sister has had trouble getting her prescription before. One receptionist even told her that they couldn't give her her prescription, which is total crap. I get my contacts and glasses at Walmart too, and it took about 2 weeks as well. Makes you wonder if they even have contacts on site at all.
Posted by: dragonlady474 | August 28, 2005 at 02:26 AM
Here's the real evil of Walmart. Because they refuse to carry music that requires parental warnings, and because so many people do most or all of their shopping there, they have an undue influence on the listening habits of our society. I find that to be truly evil. There are a lot of people who say, "If they don't have it at Walmart, you don't need it," and MEAN it! Has anyone besides me noticed that, since they've gone to the ridiculous "super store" concept, they carry a smaller variety than they did before? Where they used to have maybe 4 different brands of wrenches, now there are two. They are limiting our choices. The only reason I ever go there is if I need fabric from their dollar table, or run out of bias tape in the middle of the night.
Posted by: vero | August 28, 2005 at 02:42 AM
I second that emotion, Vero. I try to go grocery shopping at Wally World but they don't have a lot of the regular brands I buy or the type I buy.
As far as their music selection, my ex worked for Handleman, which is the biggest music distributor in the world. They dropped Wal Mart as a customer because they wouldn't carry lots of popular music and then whined that people didn't buy music there. Go figure.
Good chance Martin will be working at Wal Mart in loss prevention.
The irony kills me.
Posted by: Lisa | August 28, 2005 at 02:52 AM
The music section sucks there. I tried to find a J.Geils Band cd there and all the cd's were all mixed up. There was no discernable order. I gave up and ordered it from a real music store.
Have you also noticed how grouchy the workers are? They either try and ignore you so they don't have to do any work OR they look at you like you're going to shoplift something. As if they had anything that would make me do that in the first place.
Posted by: dragonlady474 | August 28, 2005 at 03:01 AM
Their books are beyond pathetic, as well. Nothing but Christian philosophy and romances.
Posted by: vero | August 28, 2005 at 07:16 PM
If you want incompetence, WalMart is the place to go. Sorry...I'm not the biggest WalMart fan ;-)
Posted by: Chris | August 29, 2005 at 07:57 AM
When Ryan worked at Wal-mart he'd get his contacts there, They always had them in stock and he didn't have to have them ordered out, Although his were disposable and what-not... Hmmm...
I wish I were able to have some part of your "meanie" attitude... My friend Lee is like that, He is witty and sarcastic just enough that people are almost oblivious to his comments.
Oh and your friend who is going into the service... He'll be OK, He has an Angel of a friend thinkng of and caring for him, He's lucky he has you...!
Posted by: Lana | August 29, 2005 at 10:41 AM
My one and only experience at a Walmart store involved a shopping trip looking for a satellite radio receiver. I could not find a clerk in the audio department and located one in the automotive department. The clerk that I located told me that he worked in audio. I said; "you are my guy". Let's walk over to audio, as I have a question for you. When I posed the question his response was; "I don't got no clue". I bought my receiver at Radio Shack.Walmart pays starvation wages and they get what they pay for. If I was making six bucks an hour, my attitude wouldn't be the best either!
Posted by: Kathy | September 06, 2005 at 07:19 PM
Kathy, have you read Nickle and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich? Good insite into Wal Mart employees and the whole culture or minimum wage jobs.
Posted by: Lisa | September 06, 2005 at 07:27 PM