Poor Customer Service at El Paso, Texas, USA Wal-Marts

I do not know about your Walmart.  However, here in El Paso, Texas they are falling apart.

Because of my business schedule, it used to be a convenience to have a major department store open twenty-four hours a day.  However, Walmart has the poor habit of updating its computer system at several times of the day.  When these updates are being done, none of the cash registers work.

I have had to confront this nasty Walmart habit five times in my life.  I used to shop mostly at 7101 Gateway West Walmart location.  Another encounter with Walmart’s updating system was responsible for stopping my business with this location.

This morning I was at the Walmart I had chosen to replace the 7101 Gateway West location Walmart. Again, I was confronted with this updating system. I got what I needed.  I went to cashier.  After two minutes, a female approached the register and tried to log in to the Walmart system.  The Walmart system kept denying her log-on attempts.

Having experience the nuisance before, I already knew what was going on. The Walmart employee needed to call for assistance.  Five minutes latter, the person this employee was calling for over the PA system finally arrived.  This employee quietly told her the system was updating, that there was nothing she could do, and to tell the customer that about the system update and that it would take about 30 minutes.

The employee was reluctant to come back to register and tell me the bad news.  The employee that was summoned came over to me with a sarcastic laughter and tried to tell me about their updating system as she was laughing and talking.

I scolded both employees.  I do not like having my time wasted.  I do not like being laughed at by any one, much less Walmart employees.

I do not know how they can say they do not know when it is going to happen, when in my lifetime I have encountered this updating system on five separate Walmart visits.  I do not work for Walmart, but I can tell you that here in El Paso, Texas, USA their computer system updates around 4 am and 4 pm.

It seems to me that when this system is updating Walmart is not open for business. Walmart should adopt a policy of closing its doors during this update time. At the least, they should announce over their PA system that at that moment they are not able to take customers payments at the registers.

I find it hard to believe that in the age of computers Walmart cannot find away to conduct this system update and not inconvenience the customer.  Again, I do not like having my time wasted.  People laugh because something is funny.  Ever time I have had a cashier of Walmart tell me their system is down and they cannot ring up my purchases the Walmart employee has done it with the same foolish nervous laugh.  Some one at Walmart needs to explain what is so funny about wasting a customer’s time.

Walmart is alive because of the money customers spend at their stores.  I am not without options.  It is sort of a convenience to have a store open I can use because of my crazy business schedule.  However, I can very easily adjust my schedule to include another company’s stores.

Today, I spoke with two cashiers and three so-called managers.  They all had a look of annoyance at my comments.  They had a” to bad for you, nothing we can do” attitude.

Now, the standard customer service attitude in El Paso, Texas, USA has become “screw you customer”.  I am used to this attitude when I visit a fast-food restaurant, a gas station, or any other businesses that have federal minimum wage employees.

I do not expect anything different from Walmart employees.  People in El Paso, Texas, USA want more than the federal minimum wage and they want to work in healthy work environments.  Therefore, they refuse to work at Wal-Mart and other companies.

Many companies in El Paso, Texas, USA are left with employees that could not get a better job.  These employees tend to be very immature, rude, and disrespectful to the customer.

I have a list of businesses in this city I will not give my money to here in El Paso.  I can now add the Walmart at 5631 Dyer to this list.  This store I believe has less than a year in operation and it has already hit the poor level of customer service that is the El Paso, Texas,USA standard.

One of the things that used to bug me about the Walmart at Gateway West was all the racist looks I would get from the Walmart employees who are proud of their Mexican experience.  No, I am not a sensitive person.  I have made an art at reading human behavior.  However, I do not need my education in psychology to discern a look of disgust.

The other thing that bugs me at Walmart is having to walk around closed isles cluttered with merchandise that needs to be stocked.   I understand that at certain times merchandise is going to be on pallets and will be in the isle.  However, a business that has its front doors open to the public needs to find a way of stoking merchandise without being an convenience to the customer.

People always ask, “I wonder what happened to that store” when they hear of a major corporation failing or being close to failing.  Some offer that it is the economy and changing markets.

The reality is that it is poor customer service.  Poor customer service comes from the top, i.e. the CEO, and runs to the bottom, i.e. the janitor.  The poor attitude at the Walmarts I have visited here in El Paso, Texas I suspect has a lot to do with the unified anti-customer attitude of the employees (management and non-management).

Executives and managers should correct the poor attitudes of their employees.  The fact that Walmart employees have such poor customer service tells me that no one is setting any standards at Walmart.