Saturday, September 26, 2009

Walmart's False Advertising

Today was the start of Walmart's Part 2 15th Anniversary sale. In their flyers, the Universe Voyagers and Animated Voyagers were advertised for $10, regular price being $30. I was really excited for this sale because I wanted to get a bunch of TFA voyagers since it is afterall, my favourite series at the moment. I have gotten most of the Deluxe class I wanted in this series, still have to hunt down a few more. Leader class, I still need Ultra Magnus. But voyagers-wise, I have none of them. I was hoping to get in on an Optimus Prime, Blitzstorm, Lugnut, and Starscream on this sale.

Being so excited for this sale, I decided to drop by Walmart before going to school since my classes starts at 10am today. Upon arriving, I found Optimus Prime, Blitzstorm, and Lugnut on the shelf. So I grabbed them and scanned them on the price checker, it scanned at the regular price at $30.

I had a chat with one of the employees there and she gave me the most ridiculous replies in trying to convince me that what I am holding are in fact, not "Animated Voyagers". It was an interesting conversation because the advertisement consisted of a page dedicated to the toys on sale, with exactly 10 toys surrounding a label "10 great toys for $10". I showed her the flyer and read out the label for her. She proceeded to count the toys surrounding the label,

Walmart employee (WM): "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...and these don't count."

I paused for a moment because I was surprised at her response. Then I pointed to the "Save $19.92, Reg. Price $29.92" print under the toy description. Then she told me,

WM: "Yes, regular price is $30."
Me: "But it says save $19.92, so that makes it $10"
WM: "No, it's because the regular price is $50."
Me: "But I thought you just said the regular price is $30, and it's clearly printed that the regular price is $30 on the flyer."
WM: "No, this just means the price right now is $30, and the regular price is $50."
Me: "..."
WM: "Okay, let me input the SKU in to show you."
*Data pops up on scanner*
WM: "Oh! It is $10! What did I do wrong?!"
Me: "...so it is $10?"
WM: "No, these are different size, these are not Animated Voyagers. These are $30."
Me: "But it says here on the box..."
WM: "No, it's not the same, this one is bigger."
Me: "...Alright, thanks anyways."


I couldn't waste anymore time trying to argue with her because I had to catch the train to school. But I just find it amazing that Walmart would not honor their own advertised price. Maybe it's just that one store, since I've always had problems with that store because the employees there are generally quite rude (not really referring to this case).

Anyways, I ended up grabbing 2 more TFU Infernos(1 for a friend) and 1 more Vector Prime so I could have one NIB and one to open. These were scanning at $10, but these were scanning at $10 last week even though the sale should officially start today.

Also got 2 Star Wars figures last week at Toys R' Us since they had a 2 for $10 sale (Reg. price $10 each). I wanted to get a regular clone trooper, but couldn't find any of them. I've wanted a Magnaguard before, but they were always nowhere to be seen because they sold out very quick. The Shock Trooper looks awesome as well. I was wondering why the Shock Trooper helmet looked different from the Clone Trooper Officer I got from jacobot in a previous post. Did a quick google search and found out that the CTO was a phase 1 armor clone, while the Shock Trooper was the phase 2 armor. I like the phase 2 armor more because it looks similar to the Storm Troopers.

5 comments:

  1. Did you get the name of the employee who serve you? If you do, write an email to walmart. I know I would.

    I hope the TFU Infernos you say you are grabbing for a friend is me. :D LOL

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  2. i can relate to your post JCEE, because at many times in most collector's lives, we'd be facing such piss poor service staff who constantly need to be reminded to take pride in their line of work.

    had this experience once before whilst i was in anaheim, though it was from target, whereby the tv advert specifically stated a release of star wars figures on that day AT that time, but when i reached there most of the stuff were still unpacked and in their cardboard boxes next to the display shelves, and most the sales staff were pretty bummed and reluctant to even listen. Persuasion came in the form of speaking to their manager.

    though i do hope you won't get this kinda service again. sure as hell is a bad day to kickstart your day.

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  3. @Leon: No I did not get her name. I think she wasn't trying to be rude because I've heard many stories from Walmart employees that they are suppose to make the situation a hassle for the customer so they do not price-match a competitor's price. But in this case, it was their own price, which is just ridiculous LOL

    You know what? If it is actually cheaper to get one here and ship to you guys, I wouldn't mind helping out. It would probably be cheaper if there were more than one person interested though. You still have my email right? Email me if you want to arrange anything. Although I can't guarantee to get them because these are HOT here and disappear real quick.

    @Joshua: Ya I was pretty bummed out that I didn't get my "intended" haul. But surprisingly, the morning fresh air woke me up and I manage to stay awake through my continuous 10am-5pm schedule yesterday, which doesn't happen often since I don't even have a break for lunch lol. Gotta do this (wake up early and go outside) more often.

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  4. That is really bull crap. I feel for you bro! Nevermind you still got a really nice haul!

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  5. It is true...I tried to price match and they had to call three different managers, wasted two hours of my time, then told me that they wouldn't price match because they called the competitor and asked why it was so cheap and the competitor said it was because it was on sale. Apparently they do not match items that are on sale.

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