A Commenter Saved Us $54.84!

After I posted March’s Income and Expense Report I received the following comment from Cheryl in regards to the office chair we bought for my husband that broke:

“Hello – Long time reader, first time commenter! Just curious, have you tried returning to Wal Mart their crappy chairs that do not seem to withstand a person actually sitting on them? Canâ€™t hurt to try, you may get your $$ back. You wonâ€™t get what you donâ€™t ask for.”

I replied with the following:

“Cheryl – you know, I didnâ€™t even think of returning the chair. I threw away the box shortly after we got it. Maybe Iâ€™ll give them a call because I still have the receipt. Thanks for the idea!”

It turns out that we did have a box! Both my husband and I had the same chair, purchased at different times and the box my chair came in was still intact. My husband took apart as much of the chair as he could. The bottom part wouldn’t come apart, though, but that was okay. We were going to wheel it into Walmart and see if we could get a replacement.

It felt odd walking into Walmart with a partially assembled chair and it felt weird asking if we could get a replacement. On the receipt, it clearly showed we had the chair for over a month. While the customer service representative was less than thrilled by my question by the look on her face, she told us to go see if they had the same one in stock. Success!!

Coming home, I couldn’t quit asking my husband if he was excited to have a new chair. Every time, he said, “Yes.” I was completely giddy because we had saved $54.84.

Thank you Cheryl for the suggestion and helping us save some money!

Posted by Tricia on May 5, 2007 at 12:47 PM in Saving Money | 10 Comments »
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Jim responded:
Posted: May 5th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Personally I have a problem with the quality of some of the products at Walmart. I think Walmart is a great store though in regards to saving money. There’s rules though and you get what you pay for, and sadly Walmart sells some cheap products that don’t last long. Works for college though when you may not expect to keep something very long term, but there can still be problems.

My wife and I back in college in our first apartment together needed furniture for our living room. We got a futon at Walmart for about $150 and it was easy to assemble and worked well for us. Few months later, springs were coming up out of it, it started to bend or stress in the middle from us always sitting in one spot, and the like. I thought it would be crazy to try to return it after a few months of having it, but they let us. I ended up spending $250 on a much better one, only $100 more to the money back, and I still have it to this day.

The lesson learned was don’t sacrifice quality just because it’s cheaper. Hopefully the chair is working out though.
danielle responded:
Posted: May 5th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
I love Walmart. We have one with a grocery store on the other side, and with groceries, I save about a dollar an item on average. Food is food.
As far as items, you are better off going to a thrift store or garage sale. You save even more, and the items are at least quality enough to have lasted more than one owner.
philskaren responded:
Posted: May 5th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Walmart will take anything back! Congrats on the savings- it’s nice to see someone who deserves it make out in the end. I will preview one of my future blogs in saying, beware of Target’s return policy, they are getting quite stingy.
shawna responded:
Posted: May 5th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Yes, I agree with being careful with Target. They are so strict now. But Wal-Mart still seems to take back just about anything.
jeanjeanie responded:
Posted: May 7th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Wal-Mart has gotten stricter about requiring receipts for cash refunds since I worked there way back in my college days, but they’ll still do even exchanges on just about anything. And if they don’t have what you wanted to exchange your item for, or if you just want to return it but don’t have a receipt, they can usually be coaxed into giving you a gift card for the amount, which can always be used for gas and groceries. Back when I worked the customer service desk, there were many, many times when I refused a refund based on the rules only to have the customer ask for a manager who then turned around and gave them the refund just to avoid a scene and keep the line moving.
Seraph responded:
Posted: May 8th, 2007 at 7:28 am
Another warning on Target and getting money back: watch out for double charges. Even my 10-year-old knows to check our receipt before we even get close to the door because half of the time there will be a double charge on it, and if you don’t catch it BEFORE you walk out the door, customer service will NOT refund it. The last quarter of the calendar year is especially bad, the “half the time” jumps to nearly 100% of the time.

And I’m convinced that WalMart cashiers just make up prices sometimes! LOL Keying in random override prices is far easier, I suppose, than sending someone to check on the price, or, you know, LOOKING for the tag.

I’m starting to avoid both stores as much as possible these days.
zen responded:
Posted: May 8th, 2007 at 11:04 am
I once bought a bookshelf from wal*mart – after I assembled it I could see it had *NO* stability at all – even with the “secure” mounting to the wall, it had to side-to-side stability.

I took it apart as much as I could, returned it for a full refund! It never hurts to try, and a lot of times once you are at the store with a boxed up, half-assembled item with a complaint (AND receipt) they’ll usually take it back (Meijer, WalMart, Target…everywhere I’ve ever had a problem)
Cheryl responded:
Posted: May 8th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
You are most welcome! Glad you were able to get your money back!!
Colleen responded:
Posted: May 9th, 2007 at 12:46 am
Cheryl rocks
wheel chair repair responded:
Posted: November 20th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
wheel chair repair…

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