[Off-topic] cajunflavoredbob:
/Rant

I generally avoid Wal-Mart like The Plague. I know that I can always expect to see disgruntled employees who generally give two craps less about me than I do about them. I also know that I will find 50 registers and only 6 of them open at any given time. I also know that the other patrons of the store are going to be more embarrassing to me as a member of this species than to themselves.

Knowing all of this in advance, I decided that I could avoid the interactions and have a simple in-and-out experience by purchasing my item online and simply picking it up at the store. I made sure to purchase it at noon today so that when I finished working, I could just swing by, pick up my stuff and leave. Six hours is plenty of time to fill a single item order.

I received a confirmation e-mail saying my item was ready for pickup at four o'clock. I finished up work around five thirty and headed over there. I got to the store and went to customer service at about five forty-five. I stood in line waiting for someone, anyone, to show up to man the CS counter. After waiting for ten more minutes and having two other associates page for help, I began to think that this was not going to be the simple journey I had imagined.

A CS rep finally showed up and "helped" the two people in front of me. She then picked up the phone that had been ringing since before I was in the line and proceeded to have a long conversation with someone who didn't seem to want to make a trip to the store to process a refund. I imagine she wanted Wal-Mart to mail her the cash, but that's just me.

Finally she turned her attention my way and told me that I was in the wrong department. I had to go to the back of the store to pick up my order. Fine. Whatever. I just want my stuff, so I can leave.

I went all the way to the back of the store to the pick up counter, which, of course, was not manned. I wandered around and found someone who kindly paged someone to help me. I sat and waited for ten minutes before getting up and finding someone else. This happened twice more before a manager finally showed up and told me that the pick up counter was closed. I showed him my e-mail confirmation which expressly said I had until ten o'clock that evening to pick up my crap. I also informed him that I had already been waiting 45 minutes for someone to help me.

As it turns out, the girl who was supposed to be at the counter was simply on her break. She finally got around to helping me, and said that the order had not yet been picked. I asked her why they sent me an e-mail saying it was ready. She wasn't sure, but vowed to find out. I sighed at that and asked if I could just go grab it off of the shelf myself. Electronics was thirty feet from where I was standing. She said that if I pulled it off of the shelf myself, I would have to purchase it separately. What the F*** ever.

She consulted with some other girl who showed up to join the discussion. I paced to show my frustration. It was now approaching seven o'clock. They disappeared into the warehouse to find my item as though it were some magical artifact on some RPG quest.

At seven twenty-five in the evening - one hour and forty minutes after I showed up at the store - the girls reemerged and produced the item I ordered. I waited for them to finish logging it out of the system, grabbed it, and left without any further words to them.

Total time from parking to leaving - 1 hour, fifty minutes.

Abridged version​

I bought something on Walmart.com to pick up at the store. They sent me an e-mail saying it was ready. I went to pick it up, but it wasn't ready. I waited while several incompetent employees tried to sort out the mess. It took almost two hours to park, get my stuff, and leave.

Please share your thoughts.

For those unfamiliar:

Walmart is a national chain supermarket. They are famous for having everything you need from birth to death, but no employees competent enough to help you make a purchase.