Wal-Mart and Ammo
On Sunday, I made the mistake of picking up some ammo at Wal-Mart on the way to the range. The ammo is in a glass cabinet behind the cash register, so I had to rely on the clerk to pick it out for me, so I asked for a large box of .38 range ammo, a smaller box of .357 ammo for the same gun, and a small box of .22 ammo. The clerk grabbed three boxes of ammo that looked right from a distance (and two of them were right), rang them up along with the other items I had in the shopping cart, and sent me on my merry way.
About an hour later, at the range, I pulled out the .357 ammo, only to find that the clerk had given me a box of .357 Sig ammo, which is even shorter than .38. So I set that box aside, and stopped by another Wal-Mart to return it. I was told that ammo sales were generally final, which I said I understood but this case was different since the product I had been given was not in fact the one I had requested to buy. The clerk called a manager to see if they could make an exception, and the manager said yes, but only at the actual store where the ammo was purchased. So I left the store, and called the original store twice from the road, only to get transferred by an operator to nowhere both times.
The next day, Monday, I showed up at the original store with the .357 Sig ammo and my receipt in hand, looking to return it and get either my money back, store credit, or a box of the .357 ammo I thought I had purchased originally. I was told by the clerk and the acting manager that all ammo sales are final, period. Apparently, Wal-Mart managers subscribe to the Ron Paul theory of assholes, which is that if you act like an asshole most of the time, you’re an asshole, but if you consistently act like the same kind of asshole all of the time, you’re principled. I politely explained again that whatever the hell reason that “screw you, pay us” policy may have in general, it does not make sense where the “sale” was in fact a screw-up on their part rather than mine. His response? “Sorry, Charlie,” only he wasn’t really sorry, and my name isn’t really Charlie.
Enjoy your ill-gotten $23.97, Wal-Mart. It’s the last $23.97 you’re getting from me.
UPDATE (9/11): Apparently some people don’t know when to leave bad enough alone. Another assistant manager from the same store just called to harangue me about the complaint I had filed with the corporate office online. At first he acted concerned, asking me to tell him what had happened, etc., so I did. Then he responded by reiterating the “screw you, pay us” policy. He also briefly attempted to blame it on OSHA, claiming that OSHA wouldn’t even let Wal-Mart take back their ammo if they wanted to. I said I seriously doubted that, but knew for a fact that OSHA doesn’t prohibit any company from refunding a customer’s money if they make a mistake. To which he responded that they weren’t required to by law. I said that just because you have a legal right to act like a jerk doesn’t mean you should act like a jerk, and in any event, I’m not a big fan of doing business with jerks. Then he got huffy and told me he didn’t appreciate me being called a jerk just because he hires incompetent clerks who sell me something I didn’t buy and refuses to give me my money back afterward.
UPDATE: 9/13: Compare and contrast.
September 11th, 2008 at 12:23 am
I no one bought anything from SlaveMart,
they would go broke and dissapper. I try to convince my wife to buy elsewhere and pay more if you have too.
September 11th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Screw a blogger and the world hears about it.
September 11th, 2008 at 5:57 am
That’s a bit odd cause they’ll take back virtually everything else in the store.
In fact, every year the day after Christmas my brother loads up all the gifts he got that he doesn’t want and tries to exchange them at Walmart (sans receipts). If they stock it, they’ll take it.
So what’s piqued my interest is: why is ammo treated differently from video games?
September 11th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Dunno, but they have the same screw-you policy for firearms.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:38 am
[...] Apparently, even if they mess up, all sales are final. [...]
September 11th, 2008 at 8:44 am
IF you paid with a credit card, do a charge back.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:49 am
It is not a store policy, but a federal guide line. I ran into the same issue at a Scheels when I bought some 3″ shells for a 2 3/4″ chamber. I explained my error and they said they did not have to take back the box, due to a federal statute, but they did anyway after inspecting it for completeness.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Absolutely. Call your credit card company and have the charges rescinded.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:28 am
The reason they won’t take back ammo is that there is a liability associated with handling something so “dangerous” after it has been out of their store. If they take it back and resell it, and a gun explodes, they will be sued for not knowing the ammo was “bad” – whether it is the ammo’s fault or not. If they take the ammo back and don’t resell it, they have to dispose of it in a way that none of their employees can snag it, use it illegally, and again present a liability to the store. In either case, the liability cost exceeds both “customer goodwill” and “customer loss” costs. And there are likely freaks out there who would think it very amusing to double-charge a round or three in a box and then return it, just to make the point that “guns and ammo are bad” and should not be sold.
In many states, underwear can’t be returned once sold (for reasons too icky to go into further) and that policy is enforced by law. I doubt ammo has the same legal restrictions on returns to retailers, but liability concerns win out. So I think it is more that liability sucks, more than “you suck, and Wally World hates you.”
September 11th, 2008 at 9:32 am
The inner child in me says:
(at clerk’s counter)
1. open box
2. turn box over
3. leave.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Using an improperly handled video game disc won’t cause your console to disassemble itself.
Ammo, on the other hand, can blow up your firearm.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:35 am
And over at SayUncle, a commenter points out that there is apparently a federal statute relieving retailers of an obligation to accept returns on ammo.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Paratrooper & Robb: I actually did use a credit card in this transaction, and Chase ended up rectifying the matter not by processing a dispute, but by crediting my account at their own expense. So in the end, I did OK, being left with a free box of ammo I can’t use (or can I?), while an innocent third party was left holding the bag instead of me.
Paul & Mikee: if Scheels can accept ammo returns without violating federal law, so can Wal-Mart. I’m not terribly impressed with the argument that Wal-Mart is only acting like unreasonable jerks because federal law says they can.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:45 am
I ran into similar problems twice.
Once at Dicks, I bought a case of 20 gauge ammo. There was a huge pile, and the sign said it was Remington Gun Club 12 Gauge. I didn’t look at the box, left the store and noticed it when I was putting it in my car. It was all of 3 minutes later, but they wouldn’t take it back. The best they would do is offer me a STEEEP discount (an additional 30% on a case of the 12 gauge). i was happy with that.
Even better though, is when Hornady came out with the Leverevolution ammo for lever actions, I order a half dozen boxes from Midway USA on the internet. Or at least I thought I did. They actually charged me for and sent out regular Hornady 170 grain 30-30 ammo. When it arrived I called them up. They were very apologetic, told me to keep the ammo they sent (because it was illegal for them to take it back) and then sent me the 6 boxes I ordered (and didn’t even charge me the addition premium for the leverevolution ammo).
I have no doubt as to the validity of Wal Mart’s claim that they can’t take back the ammo. That makes perfect sense to me. What strikes me as odd is that they didn’t just give you a box of the ammo you actually wanted.
September 11th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
You need to bond with a gun store, X. I did, and I got wonderful advice over twenty-plus years, along with a little mockery for my ignorance. For example, I wanted a pocket pistol so I bought a Colt Mustang in .380. The next day I went back wondering whether I could exchange it for a Beretta. The owner told me, “I did try to talk you out of it. You wouldn’t listen”. He exchanged it. He then suggested a box of ball. I had already bought a box of the hollowpoints. I asked, “The Beretta won’t feed the hollowpoints?” He said, “No ["moron" implied], the hollowpints cost three times as much as the ball. Why waste them at the range?”
September 11th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
The obvious solution to this problem is to buy a gun in .357 Sig :)
September 11th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Not at Wal-Mart, though, or they might give me something else and refuse to take it back. That’s right, the asshole-policy applies to firearms, too, ‘cuz apparently firearms, like ammo, can blow up your firearms, too.
Seriously, though, does anyone know if the caliber can be used in a regular .357? I know .38 ammo can; I do that all the time. The .357 Sig looks like it would fit, and I presume it doesn’t make a bigger explosion than ordinary .357 ammo does, but I’m not keen to be the first guinea pig to test that theory. If all else fails I’ll just give it away to some stranger at the range.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
The .357 sig has a rimless cartridge case for use in semi-auto pistols plus I believe it has a larger base– roughly 40 caliber– and is necked down to take a .355 bullet. I’m no expert, but I wouldn’t attempt to use it in a .357 revolver.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
No, you can’t use it. 357 sig is bottlenecked and has a 40 caliber diameter below the neck. It’s also a really hot round (dunno if it is more or less than 357 magnum, but it’s a moot point due to dimensions.
If you have a 40 caliber or 9mm firearm, you may be able to get a barrel that would let you use the 357 sig rounds.
September 11th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
You need to bond with a gun store, X.
I’ll second that. Alternatively, a gun-show booth is almost certainly going to be manned by someone who won’t assume all .357 ammo is the same.
I’d sooner buy a head of lettuce at an electronics store than a firearm or ammo at a place that doesn’t specialize in firearms and/or ammo.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
The .357 is a hot .38 with a longer cartridge so that it would not chamber in and blow up the older pistols. The Sig .357 looks like an entirely different animal to me. It looks to headspace on the neck and I doubt your .357’s chamber has that shape. Best case scenario, the firing pin will not reach the primer; worst case, you’ll set off a mini-grenade.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Given that the collective IQ of all clerks at any particular Wal-Mart store barely totals into three digits, and that there’s always a large herd at the return desk, why would one not closely inspect anything purchased at a Wal-Mart prior to paying for it?
September 12th, 2008 at 7:43 am
Just think how much anguish could have been avoided if the junior assistant floor supervisor had put on his thinking cap and given you your money back while letting you keep the ammo. That way he:
A) Satisfies the spirit and letter of the “No Returned Ammo” CYA policy, and
B) Doesn’t piss of a customer and get trashed all over the intarw3bz.
Doesn’t speak well for the cognitive abilities of mister floor supervisor, does it?
September 12th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Going by my own experience buying ammunition at Wal-Mart, I’m guessing that the clerk laid the boxes on the counter in full view of you while ringing it up, right?
Were you not aware of their policy in ammo returns before buying the ammo? Don’t you think that a certain amount of responsibility lies with the purchaser to make sure that the items laid on the counter are, in fact, the items he wants?
I’m not a big fan of Wal-Mart and I’ll probably get piled on by the usual gunblogging snarkmeisters but you do have a certain amount of culpability, here.
September 12th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Wrong. The boxes were in idiot clerk’s full view from beginning to end, but they never made it to the counter, nor were they ever in my full view, until after the “final” transaction had been completed.
No, I was not aware of the “all sales are final, even if we lied and gave you a different product than the one you were told you were purchasing” rule. Had I been, I’d have stopped shopping at Wal-Mart a long time ago, whether for guns or for anything else.
If they actually had been laid on the counter and I had been given a reasonable opportunity to inspect them, sure. But even then, the primary responsiblity is on the sales clerk to give the customer the product he asked for, not something else. To argue otherwise makes about as much sense as making the not at fault driver pay all the costs of an auto accident, on the theory that he could have driven more defensively, chosen a different route, etc. All true, but hello???!!!!
In your imaginary world, where facts are what you randomly guessed rather than what actually happened, I suppose so. In the real world, my only “culpability” lies in the fact that I was dumb enough to shop at Wal-Mart. I won’t be repeating that mistake in the future.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I had the same issue with WalMart, when a friend bought me two hundred rounds of ammo for Christmas. I was very excited until I too saw that it was 357 Sig instead of Magnum.
I guess I’m a retard too for trying to take it back. And sure, I could tamper with any number of gas powered items at Walmart, including lawnmowers and portable generators, but they’ll take those back. Or pressurized items like spraypaint, CO2 tanks, etc . . .
But exchange ammo that their clerk screwed up on? For a more expensive ammo? Bah, are you crazy?
Wal-mart sucks. I’m sorry you had to deal with this, too, and out of your own pocket, even if the credit card company did fix it.
I also don’t know where the readers come in accusing you of not looking at the product carefully enough. At my local WM, all te ammo is underneath a counter, facing away from the customers, and locked behind doors. I sure as hell cannot see what I am buying, and I’ve never made a purchase of ammunition there where the clerk lined it all up for me to look at. Hell, at my store, they carry all the ammo up to the front of the store before even letting me have the bag. I have to pay for everything and then don’t get to see it until I walk out of the store.
I don’t hate WM as a company, but I do my best to avoid them at all costs anyway, and this is one of the main reasons.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
There are things you can do to a firearm that’d make it unsafe to shoot again.
For instance, shooting the wrong ammo in one.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Is North Carolina a “not suitable for the purpose intended” state?
September 12th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Justin: there are things you can do to almost anything to make it unsafe to use again. Neither firearms nor ammo are unique in that regard. More importantly, though, it’s one thing to have a general no-return policy, and another not to make an exception where the product you are given is not the product you purchased.
NK: I don’t know, but it’s academic since I got my money back from the credit card company, anyway.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
I don’t know what part of NC you are from, but I’ve bought ammo from the Greensboro Walmart (west), the Thomasville Walmart, the Lexington Walmart, The Winston Salem Walmart, the Burlington Walmart, and over the SC border at the Fort Mill Walmart.
Ive bought at least two cases of 9mm, several cases of 12ga #7 1/2 shot, and countless brown box packs of federal .22lr. in the last 8 months.
Never once has anyone at the counter given me a problem when I asked to inspect the ammo I was buying, and yes i have asked several times. See, my premise on entering Walmart is that the smartest employee is the manager who might have completed high school. Everyone else is dumber than that.
Therefore it is up to me to verify that every item I buy is exactly what I want.
Walmart is known for having the best prices in the area for ammo… They are as equally well known for having the dumbest employees in the area.
Let the buyer beware.
Oh, and I’ve always assumed that ammo sales were final once I left a store regardless of the store I was in. I guess that all the signs that are all over the ammo shelves at Gander Mtn, Bass Pro Shops, Walmart and Dicks were my first clue.
September 12th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
So what does it say about the IQ of lawyer who accepted, bought, and paid for a box of ammunition clearly labeled .357 Sig? I sure don’t want you going over my legal papers looking for errors.
Buck up, accept YOUR mistake, and chalk it up to experience. After all, shysters like John Edwards and others would buy a box of ammo, misreload it, return it to the store with the intention of creating a hazard, then when the misreloaded ammunition blew off someone’s hand, apply to represent the victim of their malfeasance as they went after Wal-Mart’s deep pockets.
.357 Sig is a .40 S&W rimmless round necked down to accept the smaller bullet. Don’t see the need for it myself, as the 9mm puts out the same size pellet with a lot less sturm and drang. The .45 has about the same recoil and makes a larger hole at the other end.
September 12th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Bite me. I wasn’t hired to pore over this guy’s work looking for errors. If you had bothered to read the thread before commenting, you’d know that nothing “clearly labeled” was within my view at any time during the transaction.
I have accepted MY mistake, which was doing business with these jerks. I won’t be repeating that mistake, trust me.
That’s the lamest excuse in the book, but since you obviously haven’t been reading the thread thus far, I’m not going to bother explaining why since you obviously aren’t going to read that, either.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
you have the ammo…
now get an H&K P2000SK or a sig 239 in 357 sig….
you will forget all about your pain of dealing with these idiots as soon as you start cranking rounds downrange…
i very much reccomend the cartridge as a CCP round , very powerful and controlable in either package…
seriously , the idiot may have done you a favor…
if you want more info , email me…
September 13th, 2008 at 4:42 am
As others have said, hell its the perfect time to get a .357 Sig. 115 grain gold dot @ 1600 fps from a 4.5″ barrel isn’t anything at sneeze at, nor is 125 grains @ 1500+, or 147 @ 1300. Becoming something of a flavor of the month for lotsa PD’s.
September 13th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Walmart is a tough one. They are cheap and general accept returns on everything I buy. Then again if Walmart were a country it would be the fourth biggest importer of Chinese goods on the planet, all by itself! My bottom line is Wally World is too far away from where I live and when it comes to ammunition online is still cheaper.
September 13th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
9-13-08
Similar experience at Wal-Mart.
I purchased two bulk boxes of Winchester .22LR from Wal-Mart. At the range, I opened one box only. Many of the shells misfired although a nice dent was put into the rim of the shell and I had many of them hang-up in my gun(s). The shells did not cycle through my semi-auto properly. I tried them through three different guns, Remington, Ruger and Ruger.
Wal-Mart would not give a refund or exchange. Even on the unopened box. I was told “Sorry Charlie” take it up with the manufacturer.
The manager said it wasn’t their fault it was “THE LAW”. She said it was a federal law that they couldn’t give a refund or exchange.
I made a casual statement to the clerk:
“I hope they like advertisment”.
NOW ARE YOU READY FOR THIS!
The manager can running over and accused me of making a threat to the clerk.
I said hold it, “are you accusing me of making a threat”?
I wanted this heard publicly in case she wanted to make an issue of my statement. Of course she didn’t give me a yes or no answer.
Many stores today are have the “screw-you-attitude”.
They want to take your money but, leave it up you to and the manufacturer to settle any problems. You are required to go to the time, trouble and expense to resolve the concern. THE GOVERNMENT STICKS THERE NOSE IN EVERYTHING ELSE. WHY CAN’T THEY PROTECT THE PUBLIC CONSUMER FROM THIS TYPE OF BULLSHIT!
September 13th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
[...] XLRQ: On Sunday, I made the mistake of picking up some ammo at Wal-Mart on the way to the range. The [...]
September 13th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
If you won’t inspect the fine print for yourself, why would I believe that you would do it for me? I don’t think they held you upside down to get your credit card out of your pocket, so you just hold on to your polymer until you are happy with the purchase. Especially for something that can be done wrong and end up with a safety issue.
A purchase is a cooperative exchange. The seller has to provide a product that the buyer wants. Buyer has to offer remuneration that the seller will accept. Be sure before you buy, or DON’T BUY. If you don’t think that a purchase is cooperative, I suggest further research.
September 13th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
You shouldn’t. As I make clear on my side bar, I am a lawyer, but I’m not your lawyer, and I’m not Wal-Mart’s, either. It’s not my job to clean up your messes or theirs. If you handed me a document filled to the brim with typos, I might point them out to you if I was feeling like being a nice guy, but given the unmitigated prick you’ve been thus far, I probably wouldn’t feel like being a nice guy. So instead I’d happily smile and hand you back your piece of crap document, and make every effort to keep from laughing out loud until you were out of earshot. No, that’s not what I did to Wal-Mart, this time. Yes, it is what I would do to Wal-Mart in the highly unlikely event that I ever did business with them again.
As for why I won’t read all the fine print for myself, it’s because unlike you I actually know something about the law. One of the things I know is that in some cases, you’re actually better off NOT reading the fine print. Though in this case, I did; I was fully aware of the general rule against returning ammo, just not of Wal-Mart’s hyper-literal, insanely unreasonable and probably illegal interpretation of that rule.
Apparently, you’re cool with buying stuff from stores whose policy is that the customer is never right and the retarded clerk always is. I’m not. Different strokes for different folks.
September 13th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
That’s odd. Wal-Mart likes to hide behind made up “It’s the law” arguments. But when you scream loud enough, or threaten to call the market manager, they’ll give the store away.
At least at the store I work at.
Oh, by the way, good call on not shopping there anymore. It’s less convenient sometimes, but if they were the last store on the planet, I’d just as soon die before I’d buy food or anything from there.
And I work for them.
September 15th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Idiot, check the fxxxing boxes BEFORE you leave the store. Just because YOU the purchaser are too stupid to confirm that you have been handed the proper item doesn’t mean that the rest of the Wally world community at large has to suffer. YOU fxxxed up, too bad, quite crying about it. It may not be a federal law, but rather a safety issue. What if you had actually reloaded the ammo? Unsafely? When WalMart sold it to someone else and the gun blew up, WalMart would be responsible, not you. Suck it up and admit YOU were wrong. Asshole..
September 15th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I asked the clerk for the correct product, he gave me the incorrect one, which he misrepresented as the product I had asked for. Therefore it stands to reason that I must be the one who screwed up, not him. After all, his job isn’t to give customers the product they asked for, it’s just to take up space and hand them random crap every now and then. And that brilliant logic isn’t enough to carry the day, let’s prattle on about “what if” I had done something I didn’t do, and which would be irrelevant to the topic at hand anyway.
Between your brilliant reasoning, your customer-is-always-wrong attitude and the fact that you are screaming like a petulant child over the fact that I just insulted a large corporation no rational individual would have strong feelings about one way or the other, am I to conclude you work for … Wal-Mart????!!!! Because if you don’t, you should consider applying. You’d fit right in.
September 15th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
You’ve gotten some unjustified flak from other commenters, like #41, but I don’t understand why you didn’t verify the ammo was correct before paying.
On the other hand, I’ve never gotten ammo at Wal-Mart before where they didn’t put it on the counter so I can see it. Also, I don’t recall seeing them sell 9mm Makarov, so that kind of mistake is less likely to begin with.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
I probably should have told the guy to show me the ammo before paying. I’m not sure what that has to do with Wal-Mart, though.
September 16th, 2008 at 7:08 am
It has nothing to do with walmart. You should have pulled your head out and checked what the clerk had given you first, before you walked away. The no returns on ammo rule is to protect the store–be it wally world or any other, from idiots like you. Suck it up and admit you were an idiot, quit bitching about not being able to return the ammo–I’m sure that there was a sign posted that there were no returns on ammo–and get on with your life. Maybe next time you will pay attention. Quit trying to shift the blame. Grow up.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Eric, are you really as stupid as you are acting in this thread? Because if you are, I seriously have to wonder how you manage to turn your parents’ computer on every morning. “Grow up,” indeed.
September 28th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Geez, with this type of thinking, you’ve probably never bought a car. “Oh, crap, I thought the thing had a full-size spare. Oh well, they screwed up, better head on back to the dealership and get my money back.”
I agree – grow up. Don’t blame Wal-Mart because you didn’t check the boxes as soon as possible. How about ASKING to look at the boxes before buying?
And, anyways, it was, what, $22? You’ve probably dropped more at lunch on a Tuesday. I certaintly wouldn’t denounce an entire store for $22.
And you’re a LAWYER??? Man, how many jokes can start from this….
September 28th, 2008 at 9:50 am
I have a better idea: how about you grow up, along with every other knucklehead in this thread who thinks “grow up” is a substantive answer to anything. Lemme guess, you probably came over from Tam’s, didn’t you? Nothing against Tam herself, she’s great, but for one reason or another, half her commenters are retarded.
And yes, I do blame Wal-Mart because their clerk gave me the wrong item and told me it was the right item, and managers refused to make it right. If you like doing business with people who routinely fuck things up, and then try to blame their customers for failing to detect their fuck-ups, then by all means, shop at Wal-Mart to your heart’s content. I don’t, so I won’t. And if you don’t like that, and are too thin-skinned to put up with the fact that some of us don’t like bad customer service, then with all due respect, grow the fuck up.
October 4th, 2008 at 10:48 am
I agree with you on this one man, WM ripped you and you should have rights to return the product to them and get something back, the reason you don’t is lawyers wanting to sue. In vietnam the SF guys left high explosive replacement ammo in VC caches…makeing arms go boom. I can see WM’s point of view for not wanting to take anything that can get them sued back.
and who wouldn’t sue WM if they had a case like that…not saying you’d do anything like this- but people that are anti-gun have been known to show up at gun shows and load rifles and then pass them back to unsuspecting people checking weapons to buy them.
You can’t hang it all on WM -it’s a shitty policy, but they are the cheapest place to buy ammo that I know of since they buy it in bulk.
most people I know hate WM- but somehow it doesn’t stop them from going there and demanding cheap stuff from china…it’s pretty crappy- and this is the reason jobs are lost here in the USA- people buying cheap shit.
their ammo policy sucks…the walmart where I live used to let you pick up boxes of ammo and walk to any register…now it’s just in hunting you can buy it. they used to have rifles there- but were too stupid to keep the paper work straigt, they lost the right to sell rifles about the same time that cock bloomberg was sueing gun shops all over the east coast saying they are selling arms to gang members in NYC. timing is everything here…
as far as your 357 sig, cheaper then dirt has a free listing you can use to resell it, should you choose to. I don’t know about shipping it. I also know that if you use EBay and PayPal both organizations are so anti-gun they will close your accounts if you try and sell anything on there. it’s their rights to do so, but I’ve closed my accounts with them because of their anti-gun beliefs…
anyhow man, good luck.
~Fitzy in Pa.
November 17th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I’ve screwed up in the past: I’ve purchased the wrong thing. If it’s because I failed to check it, it’s my fault: I live with it.
When you fail to check, you lose. Sorry, but it’s the way it is.
As for the person calling Walmart "Slave-mart"–You’ve never worked there, obviously. You simply believe the rumors that they pay less than other jobs. When I started at my last job, I earned less than what WM started me at. Now, isn’t THAT interesting? I’ve received a dollar an hour raise in a year’s time, but the other place was giving .20 for a year. So, BITE ME, yourself. It’s fools like you who can’t think…
In summation: Your error, live with it. You fail to check, it’s your error. It doesn’t matter if the clerk screwed up or not — it’s your responsibility to check BEFORE you make the purchase!
November 17th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
It looks like you didn’t read the thread very carefully. If you had, you’d see that I did own up to my error, namely, doing business with a company whose attitude toward customer service is as piss-poor as yours. Since then, Wal-Mart has easily lost a lot more from me in profits than they would have if they had simply owned up to the error and given me my money back. That’s why 99.9% of all retail stores in America do the same, at least when just about any product except firearms is at issue.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:15 am
ALL stores require that you double check the ammo your buying…Cabelas and all the big retailers ASK you as its NON refundable…Just quit bitching,find someone with that gun and sell them the ammo.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I don’t understand why people are against Wal-mart. Calling them “Slavemart” etc. They have the cheapest prices anywhere on everything. I shop at Wal-mart for food. Every supermarket I’ve been shopping at the prices are ridiculous. I have no idea how these places stay in business. I would probably spend an extra 50-75 a month just on food and that is for one person. As far as I’m concerned I would gladly like an extra 600-900 in my pocket at the end of the year especially given the economic downturn.
If people do not like the way Wal-mart treats their employees then that is fine. However, keep this in mind. No one is forcing the employees to work at Wal-mart. If they feel they are not treated right they can go work at Target or some fast food joint. They are free to leave. Wal-mart is a business and frankly they know how to do business because they offer the cheapest prices anywhere.
I’ve bought a lot of ammo from Wal-mart over the last 4 years and never had a problem. Comparing all the huge online ammo suppliers you still cannot beat the prices at Wal-mart. I just picked up a couple of boxes of .223 ammo for my AR-15. $39.99. Tell me where you can get a box of 100 for 39.99 online? This is federal FMJ ammo btw. Not Wolf crap.
They have signs posted saying “All Ammo Sales Final”. So that means you need to check the ammo before you buy it. Make sure it is correct. I can understand the concerns of the person that wrote this blog. What that means is he/she needs to check the ammo next time before paying to make sure the clerk did not make a mistake. People make mistakes.
January 16th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
I work at Wal-Mart part time in the Sporting Goods department. I have a complete college education.
I have fun at my job getting to sell ammo and talk guns with customers. It’s the highlight of my day at work.
The only thing I have to ask is this –
What kind of a moron asks for a box of .357 ammo and gets pissed when he’s given a box of .357 ammo? Your argument fails in court right there doesn’t it Mr. Lawyer?
Next time ask for .357 MAG and you will get .357 MAG. Also, being the owner of a .357, you should have known that .357 SIG is out there and been READY to double-check!
January 17th, 2009 at 11:06 am
In what? Acting like a moron? I didn’t know they offered courses in that at that prized institution known to some as the Harvard of East Lansing. Here’s a clue: if you made it through college and the best you can do is a part-time job at Wal-Mart, then even under today’s abysmal economy, that’s not what’s known in most parts as “making it.” Sorry to burst any bubbles there.
Oh, I dunno, maybe the same kind of moron who expects the same level of customer service when purchasing firearms or ammunition as the rest of us take for granted when purchasing anything else? Or perhaps the kind of moron who expects anyone working in the firearms department – even at a store known for hiring retards like you – to know his ass from a hole in the ground. That you as an admitted Wal-Mart employee consider mistaking .357 SIG ammunition (which I did not request) for .357 Magnum (which I did) an acceptable error on the part of your co-worker, and consider ME a moron for shopping at your godawful store in the first place, just goes to show that if I was unfair to Wal-Mart, I was too generous.
Last and least, while other Wal-Mart critics call the store “Slavemart” and decry it for supposedly underpaying you retards, rest assured that on THAT issue I support your store 100%. Whatever chickenfeed they pay you idiots, they’re overpaying you.
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:13 am
Walmart should have just refunded your money and let you keep the SIG ammo.
I’ll bet you will check what you are buying in the future, right?
I learned as a teenager to take my old car part with me to the auto parts store when I bought a new part.
I lie them on the counter next to each other and compare them from all sides.
I think you are turning people off with your "litigious"
stance. Sure, the person making a small fraction of your income, working a crappy job at Walmart, should have been more careful but a small effort on your part could have eliminated all this consternation.
Plenty of people are buying ammo at Walmart. The gun stores are jacking up prices and every Walmart near me is virtually cleaned out.
Walmart as a corporation sucks in many ways and I believe that much of what employees do derives from the culture created by the higher ups. The same crappy customer service is true with Sam’s Club(Walmart owned). The management are a bunch of ‘tards in comparison to Costco.
January 26th, 2009 at 2:13 am
It is your own fault for not double-checking the box that the clerk gave you. Keep in mind that many of the retards working at Wal-fart don’t know a .22 l.r. from a 300 Win. Mag. Many of them don’t even know the barrel end of a gun from the butt end. Most of them don’t know Jack about guns in general.
January 28th, 2009 at 11:33 am
I buy ammo at Walmart because it’s cheap. I don’t expect them to be experts, so I try to make sure I’m getting what I intend to buy before I pay for it.
You’ve learned this lesson very cheaply. All you did was get one box of ammo that still has value if you want to trade it or sell it to someone else. This education could have cost you a lot more, so be grateful.
Also, I have come across people working at the Sporting Goods counter in Walmart who were quite knowledgeable and helpful. This is not the rule, but it does happen.
February 8th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I have been a Sporting Goods dept. manager at Walmart for over 10 years.I have learned calibers over the years and am very careful to make sure the customer gets the right ammo,including letting the customer inspect it.
The problem is sporting goods is unlike any other dept. in the store. It actually requires product knowledge to work there. Walmart doesn’t see it that way. Over the holidays I had 3 temporary workers in my dept. I try to teach them what i can but they are thrown in to the dept totally green and many have never shot a firearm. I can’t watch these employees 24 hrs. a day,so mistakes are bound to happen.All I can ask is,if any of you buy ammo from Walmart,don’t take anything for granted. Ask to see the ammo before paying for it.
As to ammo returns,there are no laws saying we can’t take it back,however it is Walmart’s policy not to allow returns or exchanges. There are exceptions. Last week I had an older gentleman ask me for .22 long ammunition. I asked if he wanted .22 long rifle or .22 longs,as there is a difference. He seemed insulted and rudely said he wanted .22 longs,so that’s what I sold him. Two hours later,he comes back to me, upset because they would not allow him to return the ammo he had bought. Insisting it was my fault,he pulls a bullet out of his pocket and says this is the ammo he needed. Turns out it was a .22 magnum cartridge. I politely explained to him it was not my mistake but his. I called a member of management,told him the situation and asked him to override a return,which he did.(Yes it can be overidden).The returned ammo has to be taken to our claims dept and given to local law enforcement. Some stores,however are more strict than others and absolutely will not take back ammo.
February 16th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
The reason for the policy has to do with safety. Ammo (and firearms) can be lethal if tampered with and returned to the store. You might be as honest as Abe Lincoln but how can they know you’re not some sicko who changed the powder etc. just to see on the news how some innocent got his face burned off by bad ammo. Remember Tylenol back in the 80’s?….sort of the same idea.
It’s for your/our safety. Next time, check what you’re getting before they ring it up! If you use guns, you obviously understand the concept of taking responsibility.
Peace out!
March 4th, 2009 at 8:07 am
[...] your shopping stop for bullets, has a problem with the people behind the counter and selling ammunition. Two more people have died because a worker didn’t follow the [...]
March 31st, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Someone as “learned” as a lawyer (hold on…can’t type well and laugh at the same time) should’ve been aware of the possibility that the kid (or sometimes old man/lady) working that dept. might not be as knowledgeable as a gunowner when it comes to the various types of bullets for guns. Assuming this, which you obviously are after your infantile tirade against their perceived ineptitude, one would, and should, confirm that they were indeed paying for the product they are trying to obtain. Then, no one has to read this nonsense about the evil Walmart empire and how they are such assholes for having policies. Furthermore, you’d have spared yourself months of sheer agony and bitching. All because you were too hasty to check what you were paying for.
Am I saying that Walmart is innocent? Not at all. You’re both partially at fault. A [i]reasonable[/i] person would’ve simply took the extra 2 seconds to check the product.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:20 am
Which I’d have gladly done, had the flunkee at the counter given me a reasonable opportunity to do so, which he didn’t. Unlike most of the other Wal-Mart apologists in this thread, you almost got the point with your reference to shared fault. Did I have some fault in failing to notice an error I had nothing to do with causing? Sure, but only in the sense that the not at fault driver in most auto accidents really had some fault, in that more defensive driving on his part might have avoided the collision with the maniac who swerved into him. The real question is, who was more at fault, me for failing to correct an error committed entirely by Wal-Mart, or Wal-Mart for committing that error in the first place?
April 11th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
I just bought a box of Winchester 7mm and within 15 minutes of my purchase tried to return these because of the potential danger they present. Each of the shells rounds have not been correctly seated in the casing. I have purchased a lot of stuff from Walmart and they know me in the gun section but this doesn’t matter. They said tehy were under Federal Law not to accept ammo returns even if the ammo presents a danger to others. I almost threw the box at the asshole but thought why go to jail for $26 bucks. Should have gotten the 00 Buck for the shotgun instead. Assholese at Walmart making minimum wage really don’t give a hoot.
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:55 pm
you have to be specific when asking for items that have similar names. 357sig or 357mag, 38 special or 38 auto, 45 acp or 45 gap, if you dont specify and check they can give you whatever they want. cant blame just them.
April 24th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
OK, I was driving through New York state on a way to friends house to do some huntin’ fishin’ and schooting and stoped at Walmart to get some dog food, i noticed how they had very cheap 9mm ammunition, so knowing my buddy just bought a 9mm I figured it be nice to bring him few boxes especially with the shortage now days. I WAS ASKED TO SHOW MY NEW YORK PISTOL PERMIT, this is not a New York State Law, you can buy pistol ammo at other stores, but in Walmart its a policy, ITS A VIOLATION! I always disliked Walmart for killing of mom and pop stores, but shopped there out of necessity, no more!
April 25th, 2009 at 12:22 am
I bought a Emachine tower from WallyWorld 2 wks ago with Vista as the operating system What a piece of junk It took almost 5 mins to get online so I brought it back 3 days later minus the box it came in because it got tossed out and removed by the rubbish collecter. Well the dept manager called me stupid because I should have hung on to the box in casr the tower was bad and now it is going to cause him a problem! (too bad he has to get off his duff and do some work) I will never shop there again after being insulted by some $12. an hour idiot!!
May 1st, 2009 at 7:29 pm
You dont know what kind of ammo your own gun takes and your calling others incompetent. Hardest i laughed all day. There is federal legislation that prevents businesses from returning ammunition. You might want to learn the the basic information about your weapon before you consider shooting it. I hate Walmart but agree with the way they handled this situation.
May 1st, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Hey dumbass, just because you can’t read doesn’t mean others can’t. Of course I know what kind of ammo my gun takes. Which, in an eerie coincidence, is exactly the same friggin’ ammo I asked the dolt for, and also the same friggin’ ammo he told me he was giving me even though he wasn’t. As for the federal legislation that supposedly required Wal-Mart to act like assholes, kindly (1) cite the statute by chapter and verse or (2) admit you haven’t a clue WTF you are talking about.
May 4th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Wal Mart Sucks. They have ZERO customer service skills. It’s not like you were trying to screw them over. Any gun store would have said "sorry!" immediately and given you the correct box of ammo, (assuming they were not out.) I’m going to make sure that I *do not* buy anything from Wal Mart because of the crap they gave you. So there Wal-Mart, you just lost my money, as well as somebody else’s. Nice move.
BTW, is ammo the only thing you can buy in Wal Mart that’s not made in China? haha
May 5th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Yeah, it sucks that they wouldn’t return it. However, you are slightly at fault too. You should always make sure that the ammo you are buying is the type that you need. Firearms are fun and useful but they should still be respected for what they do.
May 10th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Not for nothing, if you assume a Wal-Mart clerk is underpaid, why not check the ammo he just handed you before opening your billfold. It would have been nice if they had taken back the ammo, but, it seems reasonable that they wouldn’t. I suggest you continue to shop at Wal-Mart , however, check out what it is you are buying if you don’t pick it out yourself. In fact, I would check anything from ANY store I didn’t select on my own.
May 17th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
My attorney would charge me enough money to buy a years worth of ammo for the amount of time you have spent on this thread flaming wally and anyone that buys your "I’m an attorney" bs. No attorney worth the first semester of law school would use his time like this.
May 25th, 2009 at 6:35 am
oh god, where could we go from here. Wal-mart has sold me sooooooo much bad ammo I couldn’t even fight off warriors that had invaded our large vast challenge of woods behing our house. Even if they carried .223 I couldn’t do it. I’d be stuck with non functional .22 hollowpoints that won’t fly straight for more than a hundred yards, (do you know how I know? I’ve painted them with aluminum and magnisium oxide as as tracer, with a trace of orange transoxide), and they STILL DON’T SHOOT STRAIGHT. Thx, walmart. You guys suck, and NO, I’m not an asian-american, I am white and was born in Oregon.
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:06 pm
If I were a Walmart manager I would simply issue you an in store credit for the amount of your purchase, apologize for the error, and let you keep the ammo. You would then be have nothing to complain about and Walmart would still have a customer. We all know that good acustomer is worth more than $23 anyday.
Having said that, I think Walmart is the worse company in this country in more ways than you can count. Stay out of there. Do business with good American companies.