Walmart — Local services in Meridian Charter Township

Hi, I moved to the Haslett area in August of 2023 for grad school. This Walmart was the first store I went to and was excited because I never lived close to such a huge store before. In my first visit, I decided to buy ~$1000 worth of supplies with my hard earned money. And when I went to the cash register, the cashier inquired why I was buying so many supplies. That was weird question because I'm buying them with money I obtained legally so no one needs to know, but I acquiesce due to my kindness and told them that I just moved here for grad school. When they mentioned what I will be studying, I told them that I will be working with plants and would be doing "alot of crazy things" with them for my degree. I was born with a speech impediment that never recovered, and I never been someone who was able to articulate their thoughts well, so it wasn't a surprise that my response to their question was child-like at best. However, no retail employee until now had the gall to be disrespectful in my face about the way that I speak. I say this because the cashier then sarcastically said " well you seem very smart". I was shocked at first, to the point that I was standing there for a few seconds while the cashier packed my items.When I came home, i become extremely angry because I realized I don't deserve to be disrespected when I spent so much of my money on a store that I didn't need to go to( I could have went to Target), and I have been respectful, even after that cashier's disrespectful comment. And to be frank, despite the digs at my speech and intelligence over the years, I never had to work in retail to keep afloat; I always worked in academia despite the speech impediment, for the past 7 years; so if my speech makes me appear dim-witted, then retail workers like that cashier need to step their game up to get the job that they really want, because no one wakes up and say " i want to work in retail as a cashier as a career!"

But of course, i went back because i assumed she was the only person who was..... unfortunately .nope, many of the cashiers and front store workers are like this, especially the ones at the self checkout. Many of them have this inexplicable nasty energy, and when I do self checkout, there is occasionally( which is far too often) one person hovering over me, asking aggressive questions or comments about what I'm buying and doing. I remember one time one of the items created a beep sound, and some retail worker had the audacity to come and say something about the "security system beeping off", which is idiotic because Walmart, at least to my knowledge, don't have a security scanner when you are checking out items; they have it in front of the store with the "boogeyman" in front watching you. After that incident,which happened around Jan 2024, I stopped going because I found another nearby store--Meijer's, that has exponentially better customer service despite serving a greater population of middle to working class people that frequent the store. And trust me, the patrons there are more ..for lack of a better word.... "lively", and yet the customer workers are still benign.

And I didn't want to make it a race thing, but if you look at one other review for this Walmart, this nasty behavior is geared towards people of color. And it's sad because most of the perpetrators of the nasty behavior are people of color! It must be a very nasty work environment to have all these retail workers with nasty behaviors. Do better Walmart( but of course you wont because y'all are an entitled, ingrate capitalist that feed on exploiting workers and providing mediocre service...

UPDATE: 02/15/22. I had to return some items and felt anxious. But I chose to go at 7pm to return and it is a whole different ballgame. The person working there, Katrina, knew her stuff. She was friendly and quick to do my refund. Staff were talkative and nice. A guy shopping asked us if we wanted his cart rather than go outside in the cold. Another employee asked if we needed help and were finding what we needed. Is the late shift just nicer or did they turn their store around? I was very happy. I just thought I would bump this to four stars because it was so much better than the last time. After 7pm Is where it is at, though their customer service booth stops at 8pm, FYI. I thought it might at 10pm and I was wrong. I think I will keep the review below so people can read the difference here. I may go back there to shop! Seriously!

Old review October 2021. Customer service there is a joke. Return lines are long and slow. They have one person doing everything and then they have to scramble to find one other person who knows how to work the help desk, while literally four employees are standing by the door. I get the one person who is cleaning carts, but do you need two greeters and a third that seems to stand there with a radio, doing nothing? After a long wait, I only was able to return half my order, even though I had current receipts. The clerk scanned my clothing items wrong, threw one of my items into the back before it was returned and then stuffed the rest in a small bag saying I would have to come back tomorrow since their computers were suddenly down. When I asked if they could manually type the order in, she basically pushed the bag at me to get out of line. I had to ask them for my non-returned item back. My partner wanted something in electronics after and I asked nicely if that clerk could try returning the rest of the items there but he said he could not because they were not electronics. As I finished up my statement, he just stopped talking to me. I noticed that employees here tend to stop talking to you if you have a problem until you go away. It made me feel really bad. I spent a half hour in line for a simple return and never got it. How are you supposed to get clothes there if the fitting rooms are closed but you cannot return something that did not fit you tried on at home? Plus, the clerk I saw was rude to a person on the phone that called during my return and also, acting like they could not understand a person in front of me because he was from Africa and needed to mail something. I normally do not complain much, but none of the employees seemed to care when I said I probably would not shop there anymore. I filed a complaint that was also overlooked but the corporation eventually refunded me online. I honestly do think their main problem is too much staff at the door and no one trained enough to do simple returns and help desk stuff when a line forms, while being rude to customers if they are stressed by too much work. I find good deals online but they are not good deals if I feel stressed out going to the store, knowing how they are. I felt that when I needed to return something the time before this, but at least they returned my items ok enough after a long wait. I would try another local Walmart but hear worse things about Delta and Eastwood. The Okemos Target and Kohl’s have good service...why...

Most awful experience today. I placed and order online, got my confirmation in 30min. recieved a text my order was ready for pick up. I called the service desk to find out what steps to take to pick up my order. Here is where the drama began.

I called spoke with a customer care person, transferred me to pick up who didn't answer the phone for minutes.

Hubg up, called back to previous rep. They were also trying to get them to pick up. After being put back on hold, she came back on in 7 minutes to connect me.

Here is where things went south, fast! I asked the procedure, they indicate you have to come in. Oops! I'm disabled other business' come to the customer but I get not every business is like that.

However, I'm disabled can there be an exception? All I have to do is give you the order # and show ID. This person is speaking to the manager who can give me an answer. I hear them leave out everything I told them while they spoke to the manager. They tell me the manager will be right out.

The manager comes and stops in front of the car and stares. I have my ID thinking he was confused? They rudely say: "why can't you come in to get it?" I said Disabilities. They come over and says they needed my ID, I gave it.

10-15 min later I call the pick up desk again and asked what's happening. I was told that the manager had to put my order together. (Crickets). Why doesn't WM have a customer order READY for pick up PRIOR to customers getting there expecting WM associates to just check the order #, show ID, done?! That's what their website says?? Earlier when the rep asked me what did I buy? I said a lot...I offered to provide them with an ORDER#, I was vehemently denied professionalism. I was encouraged to just tick off items (crickets).

20 min later MANAGER comes out with 2 small bags and a small boxed item. Stands by the door....(crickets)...I had to ask the manager what's next? I had to ask them that for them to say open the door?! What?!

I was going to blast this so called, rude, lack of training, no compassion,lack of courtesy, angry, I don't get how they made MANAGER,you know those people that supervise other reps, and who works with customers kind of manager? But I'll give you clue, name starts with an S. BEWARE

Horrible service, horrible experience, no professionalism, no courtesy, no communication skills, no smile, no introduction...who hired this person???

Unacceptable. WM certainly lives up to its negative and hilarious GIF/MEME reputation. I will never purchase anything from them ever again. I did this time because my regular go to stores didn't have what I needed.Next...