Complaint Review: Walmart Photo Center -

Myself and a group of people were planning a large party where we had to get gifts for multiple people, however it was a situation where we were getting several larger items for certain people and then we wanted to have smaller items for a not-insignificant number of people.  

Further details of the event are irrelevant, but so that you can envision the scenario it was to be one of those situations where people would be presented with their gifts, and then for all the rest of the people we would give them a smaller gift, and the plan was that all of those smaller gifts would be the same.  We decided on a custom printed coffee mug with a meaningful photo on it along with a coffee shop gift card.

Admittedly we were coming down to the wire with getting these items and the party was to be a week and one day from the day that we had to place this order.  For this reason, many of the custom item companies (you know, where you send them a photo and they print it on anything- a coffee mug in this case) were unable to fulfill the order in the 7 days that we needed it.  The one company that said that they could get it done was the Walmart online photo center as long as we paid for expedited shipping which we were happy to do.  

Based solely on their promise that they could get us these custom printed mugs in seven days, we proceeded to order from Walmart.  It was a Monday that the order was placed and delivery was promised by the following Monday.  

Beginning on Tuesday, I would go online to check the status of the order so that I could track it when it shipped, as we were all under a lot of pressure with this event coming up.  Tuesday and Wednesday, the order status on the website said "processing."  Thursday, when it still said "processing," I called customer service for more information and was told some variation of "everything's fine, just keep waiting."  

When it still said "processing" on Friday, I called again and got some version of the same thing from a different customer service agent.  Against my better judgement, I let it go another day.  Saturday, when it still said "processing," I again contacted customer service, this time determined that I was going to get some answers.  Remember, at this point the order is due to be delivered in about 48 hours.  That's the day everything fell apart.

After getting the runaround, it finally comes out that the order was never transmitted to the order processing entity due to a technical glitch on their end.  Of course, every agent apologizes but none of them actually help me.  At this point, I'm almost frantic.  

The party is in 3 days, we've hung our hats on these being the gifts for many people, and now I'm being told that there's no way they can get the order to me as promised on Monday.  They proceed to try to blame Fuji, saying that that is who runs their photo lab and that any delivery estimate was provided by them.

I explain to them, politely but tersely, that I am not in business with Fuji and that my order was placed on photos.walmart.com and the top of the webpage says Walmart Photo.  If they subcontract their photo orders to Fuji that's fine, but Fuji is their subcontractor, I am in a contractual arrangement with them, and so the burden is on them to make this situation right.  The legality of the situation is lost on the customer service agent and customer service manager.  

They cancel the order and try to offer me a $25 gift card as if that will make up for what I'm going through.  When I tell them that that's not even close, they say that there's nothing else they can do and proceed to end our conversation.  I then have to spend my entire weekend running around trying to find alternate gifts for all these people, which is time that I do not have.  

When I try to talk to some people at Walmart corporate about the situation the following week, they again apologize but say that there's nothing else that they can do for me.  As far as I'm concerned they take no responsibility for the fact that I have to use time I don't have looking for other gifts, gas in my car, and other such expenses all because they cannot deliver an item as promised.  

I believe I deserve compensation far beyond a $25 gift card, and if they feel that the ultimate screw-up was with their subcontractor, then they are free to take that issue up with Fuji, but again I was in an agreement with Walmart and the delivery date was provided on their website.  

Out of principle I have not used the $25 gift card, mainly because I feel that on some level using it would be akin to accepting it as a settlement, and while I know that I will never be made whole by Walmart for their gargantuan blunder, I still maintain that Walmart owes me a good measure of recompense that I have not received.  

When ordering from Walmart, beware.  As far as I am concerned, you cannot trust anything they say, they will not stand behind promises made, and they do not care how much going back on their obligations hurts customers.