Exemplary Customer Service to the Rescue

In a typical "Case of the Mondays" I found myself in a bit of a surprise predicament this morning. Like many people, I don't function very well first thing Monday morning, and I operate on what I call "robotic mode" where my body just does what my brain is trained to do out of habit:

1. alarm goes off
2. smack snooze button
3. roll out of bed a while later
4. look at clock
5. shout out an "oh, expletive!" because I over slept
6. toss each kid an Eggo or something portable to eat
7. shove kids in car
8. drive off to take them to school

After dropping 1 kid off, I noticed that I have a flat tire. Again, I uttered an "oh, expletive!" Ugh, now wtf am I going to do? I still have 1 more kid to drop off at another school a few miles away and even the nearest tire shop is a few miles away. Mind you, my tire pressure light had been on since yesterday but we mostly ignored it because it's sensitive. It'll turn on at the slightest temperature drop and it could often times mean it's not an emergency. We figured that it's just a temperature change and we'll fill it up the next time we get gas (since most gas stations will give free air to paying customers, might as well kill 2 birds with one stone, and save a few coins, right?) I remember a nearby gas station having a mechanic's station so I head off there. I pulled up to one of their repair bays and waited for a few seconds. No one's around. I get out of the car to look at the tire again and I notice a big huge screw stuck in the tire. Well hell. There seems to still have enough air in the tire for me to drive the 1.5 miles to the nearest tire shop (I wasn't terribly comfortable working with that gas station since it looked a bit sketchy, not to mention no one ever game out to greet me or show any sign that there was a mechanic on staff even though the garage doors were open.) So I hopped back in the car and headed to the nearest tire shop which was Big O Tires.

I pull up to Big O Tires, grabbed my kiddo and headed inside. An employee greeted me and asked me what he could do for me.

"I have a flat on my rear driver's side tire," I said quite frantically because I'd been pretty freaked out about driving on a flat that'd been there since yesterday. Not only was I worried about damaging my rims, but I was worried about losing control of the vehicle having to drive so long and far on it, with my kids in the car.

"Ok, we can get you taken care of," the employee calmly said, "It'll take about 45 minutes."

"45 minutes?" I said more shockingly than I should as panic and my hectic Monday morning schedule raced through my head. My kid was already 15 minutes late to school by the time I pulled up to Big O Tires. I was going to run back to Kid #1's school to photograph an event going on, and dash off to a dr's appointment that took me well over a month and a lot of hassle to get.  "Um, ok, I have to get my kid to school," I uttered.

"There are a few other cars ahead of you but we'll get you taken care of as fast as possible," the employee said.

I didn't really have a choice. "Ok, thank you," I said, and had my kid follow me to the waiting area.  A few minutes later, a light bulb went off in my head and I pulled out my phone to make a call to one of my kid's classmate's mom. I begged her to meet me at Big O Tires and take my kid to school. Thankfully, she was happy to help.  As I was walking out of the door to meet with her, I asked the employee if I could have my car keys back for a moment to get my kid's stuff out of the car.

"We're going to go ahead and get you in right now," he said. "We'll go ahead and have you jump ahead of another car and get you taken care of."

To my shock, I nearly fell to my knees to thank him for his awesome customer service.  He took mercy on my frantic state and saw that I needed to get out of there in a hurry, pulled some strings and got things done for me.  My kid's classmate's mom whisked him off to school for me (since she'd already arrived to meet me) and I am forever thankful.  Within 10 minutes, the employee came back out with my keys and said, "you're all taken care of and there's no charge.  You're parked right out front."

WHAT? No charge? Are you sure? I mean, dude you just came through for me by having me jump ahead of someone else since I was in a rush, now you fixed my flat for...FREE?

"Really? Are you sure?" I asked him.

"Yup, just come back and see us again," he said.

"Oh I definitely will!  THANK YOU!"  I said with a huge sigh of relief.

It was no doubt a crazy morning for me, but it's nice to know and experience some amazing humanity and great customer service.  I never even got the employee's name. In hindsight, I wish I did.  Regardless, he was awesome and I am very grateful for his compassion and service.  Much like my friend who came to take my kid to school, the Big O Tires employee was a hero to me today.  Both people came to my rescue. I'll be happy to give Big O Tires my business in the future.

A Comedy of Rite Aid

I went over to Rite Aid tonight to score some deals (which I'll mention later) when the funniest thing happened to me.

After I got what I needed, I headed over to the cashier to pay for my stuff. The cashier asked me for my Wellness + card and I handed it to her. She scanned it and handed it back to me then proceeded to scan my purchases. I made sure she scanned my coupons, and silly me, I neglected to do the math in my head beforehand. I had too much on my mind. Nonetheless, all of my coupons rang up and the total looked about right so I didn't think anything of it. I paid for my stuff and waited for my receipt. One of the items I bought should've gotten me a $3 UP reward but it wasn't on my receipt so I asked the cashier...who even asked me to make sure. When she realized that the coupon didn't print, she immediately paged the manager on duty. The manager arrived quickly along with another, younger employee. My cashier explained the situation to him, we all studied the item I bought along with the ad to make sure all was right. This is where the humor kicks in:

The employee that arrived with the manager promptly started giving me a spiel the moment he 'overheard' my cashier mention the UP coupon didn't print.

"There's actually nothing we can do about it, you'll need to call 1-800..." he said.

I looked at his name tag and his title said Associate. Uh, ooook...but your Manager is standing right in front of me, studying my purchase and receipt to actually try to figure out what the problem was. He's providing, oh, you know, customer service? Not customer dismissal. Who the heck are you to disprove him?

I said nothing. I ignored him right after 800 because like I'm going to commit a phone number to my memory while someone rattles it off.

It turns out my Wellness + card didn't scan. My cashier clarified that she did indeed scan the card, and I backed her on it. But wait! There's more! Associate boy wasn't done. "Well sometimes when you press the discount button, it..."

"I didn't press the discount button," my cashier said.

If I wasn't so frazzled, I would've high fived my cashier.

The manager asked for my patience and explained he'd have to refund my entire order, and ring it up again properly. It was a huge pain in the ass and I really felt for the manager and cashier. The whole ordeal was a pain but they got me taken care of and for that, I'm happy. In the end, I saved 33% off my order, and provided me some humor. Ah, to be young, cocky, and to know it all...I'm starting to sound old.

Anyway here are the deals I nabbed:

Kraft Mac n Cheese BOGO
Trident Gum = $.17/ea ($3/3 then used $1 off/3 coupon from this Sunday's coupons, plus $.50 coupon from Rite Aid Video Values and got $1 UP Reward.)
Children's Mucinex $8.99 - $1.50 Rite Aid Video Values coupon, $3 UP Rewards

Walmart Customer Service

Time and time again I read about Walmart's poor customer service, and really, considering how HUGE Walmart is, it's really not surprising if their customer service is lacking. Truth be told, when I had troubles placing a photo order through their site last night, I expected crappy, "big company" customer service.

I normally don't go through Walmart for my photo finishing needs. Reviews from some trusted pro photographer sources (who do recommend commercial retail finishers) say Walmart photo finishing doesn't yield very good results. I went with Walmart because after much research, they were the only ones that had what I need at a convenient and reasonable price. I needed to turn one of my kids' photos into a baseball card. I could've designed them in Photoshop myself like I usually do with most cards and it's not exactly hard to do, but Walmart had them readily available for a great price of just $0.09 per sheet of 2 cards, with free shipping (promo is good through July 31, 2010.) I had everything designed and in my cart when it wouldn't let me complete the order. For several hours, it stuck me in a perpetual loop telling me that things in my cart had changed since I entered the ordering process. Needless to say, I was beyond frustrated so I went to bed and vowed to try again in the morning during normal business hours...but not before I fired off an email to their photo customer service to not only notify them of the issue, but in hopes of getting some kind of advice on how I can get my order to go through. They were to get back to me within 24 hours, which while not ideal, it was fine since I still had plenty of time to take advantage of the free shipping promo.

I tried my order again in the morning to no avail so left, vowed to just design them myself, and pay the little extra to have it done at Costco Photo like I often do. I came back in the early afternoon to try one more time before I quit for good and behold, the problem was fixed. Soon after I'd placed my order, Walmart photo's customer service emailed me back and much to my surprise, it was not only a nice email, but what surprised me the most was the fact that they admitted to having problems...something most companies will not address or willingly admit to the customer. Here's the response I got:

Thank you for contacting Walmart.com regarding the photo order error.

We are very sorry for this issue, it is a known issue and we are told that at this time it has been fixed. We see that you did place a successful photo order today and want to follow up to ensure you received a final resolution to your concern. If no further action is needed and you feel your issue has been resolved then no response is necessary.

Why yes, thank you! Thank you for getting back to me even though I'd successfully placed my order and clearly the problem I'd been having had been resolved. Importantly, thank you for acknowledging your errors and admitting to it. We all err. We all screw up. But few admit to it. So yeah, cool and thanks for admitting things didn't go right and not pinning the error on the customer, making them feel like an idiot for something that was not their fault. Thumbs up, Walmart.

Customer Service: getting it right the 1st time

One of my gigs when I was in college was customer service, usually in a call center. While the pay sucked, it was also an eye opener for me, and helped me understand what it's like to be a consumer, and someone helping the consumer. One of the things I had pounded into my head was the mantra of "get it right the first time." Basically, if you serve a customer right and satisfactorily in the first place, you earn their respect, trust, and repeat business. Along those lines, I've come to expect the same mantra from those who serve me. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, right? I feel that if I'm paying for a service, I expect good service, otherwise I'd just do it myself or go elsewhere. Unfortunately, it's all too often that bad service is the norm. It's a mixture of a number of reasons from lack of communication, lack of training, not enough pay for the employees, the list goes on. My one biggest pet peeve in customer service is outsourcing. It's not that I don't want people in other countries who make pennies to our dollar to be employed. I do, but what bothers me the absolute most is the language barrier and lack of communication. The fact is, communication is integral in customer service. If you hire employees who cannot understand or communicate with your customer base, then you're going to run into problems, and lose business. I think hands down my absolute WORST experience with outsourcing was the time I lost my credit card and had to call Citibank to cancel it. At the time I had two credit card accounts with Citibank and the customer service rep with a thick Indian accent who couldn't properly understand the reason for my inquiry canceled the wrong account. This poses to be a HUGE problem especially since you are dealing with people's sensitive information such as credit, social security number, and ultimately identity. Needless to say, I was absolutely LIVID when I found out they canceled the wrong account. It created a heap of headaches for me as account cancellations affect credit, and I had to essentially reapply to have my account reopened. I demanded the CSR to transfer me to an American CSR who could understand me. That was years ago and to this day, I still feel bad about the incident because I felt like I insulted that CSR for not speaking English well. Unfortunately, it had to be done. I needed to be able to properly and clearly communicate with the person helping me with a sensitive situation and problem. The fiasco could've been avoided had Citibank not outsourced, and kept their customer service local to the market they intend to serve. But I digress...

No wait...there was the time my HP laptop died during a warranty period. I sent it back for repairs per their CSR's instructions. They did not fix it and sent it back to me. I sent it back to them and they sent it back with my hard drive completely wiped clean and with screws loose rattling inside the laptop.  When I called to complain, they told me I should've backed up my hard drive before sending it in for service.  Right, because I could've done that with a dead laptop that wouldn't even boot up. Uh huh.  Yeah that was a nightmare I won't soon forget.  I'm not sure which was worse...having all my data wiped or the wrong credit card canceled.

My experience with HP was also my first experience with EECBs.  (If you are not familiar with EECBs otherwise known as Executive Email Carpet Bomb, then please, click on the link and read more. It's important and very useful to familiarize yourself with EECBs.)  I happened upon an EECB accidentally. I'd ranted about my experience on a message board I frequented back then when a member, who happened to be a HP employee read my rant.  She sent me a private message asking me for permission to forward my complaint to Executive Case Management (which I had no idea what the heck it was at the time, but it sure does sound fancy, doesn't it?) who would take care of me.  I figured there was nothing to lose, so I went ahead with it.  Within a couple of days I got a call back from an executive CSR who had more power than the ones lower on the totem pole, listened to me, fought with me on the phone for over an hour, making me late to a dinner party, then offered me an extended warranty worth $230 for free.  It didn't bring my lost data back, but it was better than nothing should the laptop croak again....which it didn't.  It just nearly got recalled for an exploding battery...

Anyway...

The reason why I'm reflecting upon customer service again is because I had a customer service experience tonight that made me wonder, are companies and businesses really able to provide "good customer service on the first try?" Do they really care to, or does it just sound good to people?

A few weeks ago, I used my Swag Bucks Amazon gift cards to treat myself to a cake decorating set. I was so excited about it and planned on using it to decorate the cupcakes I had planned for my kids' birthdays coming up. When I finally got it, I played with it and noticed one of the metal pieces had paint sloughing off. That is not normal or safe for a product that's meant to be used with food. I contemplated keeping it because Amazon's return policy is kind of annoying in that they make you pay for the return shipping, but I knew I wouldn't use something with peeling paint with my food, so I called Amazon's customer service to see what I could do. I basically wanted them to spring for all the costs of shipping because they'd sold me a product that's just not safe to use. The CSR I spoke with was really nice, understanding, and assured me that I would not have to pay for any shipping charges involved. She helpfully emailed me a return label and instructed me to just drop it off at any UPS Store. Easy enough. I was thankful and did as instructed. I got an email earlier today letting me know that Amazon had received my return and they'd start processing it soon. Tonight I get an email from Amazon informing me that they've processed my return and have credited my account. I looked at the amount credited and they'd charged me a return shipping fee! Needless to say, I was miffed and annoyed. I called customer service to see what can be done about the discrepancy, and thankfully, the CSR who helped me was kind enough to make it a nice and smooth process for me. He requested a credit back onto my account. Now I just have to wait 3 days for the credit to show up. Yes, it's a bummer because I was hoping to get all the credit I was promised back so that I could use it to make another purchase I'd been eying. Oh well, c'est la vie. At least I'm getting the credit back eventually.

So the whole thing just lead me to wonder: do companies and businesses really care to make sure customers are served right the first time? Perhaps my incident with Amazon could've been avoided if there was better communication.

Edit: I got an email notifying me that the shipping refund has posted to my Amazon account. It was called "Goodwill Refund."  That made me chuckle.  Whatever, as long as I got my refund back.  Hopefully the "Goodwill" status doesn't affect any future returns/refunds I may request.

So uh, popchips?

Remember this?

This is what I got in the mail yesterday:



Not only did they get my name right, but popchips sent me coupons for two free bags AND a hand written note. I can't recall the last time any company's CSRs took the time to hand write a note to me. It's rare that people even have semi-decent penmanship these days. I am in shock, I am amazed, and I am impressed.

popchips gets 2 thumbs and 2 big toes up from me. Their awesome customer service has left me speechless.

And that's a near impossible feat. WTG, popchips!

The tale of two snack companies - Pt. 2 - The case of New Friends

In continuation of this post, I emailed the company who makes popchips for the same exact reason. In fact, I was totally lame-spice about it and reused the same email I used to write Pirate Booty with minor, appropriate editing:

From: [redacted]
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 10:04 PM
To: snackers
Subject: PopChips in bulk

Dear Sir/Madam,

I'd like to say that my family and I absolutely love PopChips. We love it so much that we can easily go through a Costco bulk pack in just a couple of days. To that end, is there any consideration for distributing bulk packs of PopChips to Costco again? I haven't seen any in the Denver, Colorado area Costcos in about a year now, and we're deeply saddened by this. When I asked a manager at Costco, he was unable to offer me any info. Please consider distributing PopChips to Costco again. It's really difficult and non economical to buy smaller packages at retail prices for my family. Thank you.

N. L.


This morning, I got a prompt response from popchips:

On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 8:37 AM,
snackers@popchips.com wrote:

hi there n.

we're definitely working with costco to get them back in. so thanks for asking for them - they really do listen to their members. we'll keep you posted. in the meantime, we'll send a couple coupons your way so you can enjoy a few bags . . .on us.

thanks for being a fan, and happy snacking!

your (new) friends at popchips

p.s. you might also check-out our online store. you can buy popchips by the case at a really good price :)


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That's me being shocked silent. Yeah, it doesn't happen often, but the superior service from popchips managed to do that to me. I'd read the email response from Pirate Booty first, so when I read popchip's response, I felt like a celebrity knew my name! I wanted to run in the streets shouting, "THEY KNOW MY NAME! THEY KNOW MY NAME!" Really, I was just happy they got my name right, which meant they actually read my email and paid attention to details, but to offer me coupons? That's superior service and has locked me in as a fan and friend! Not to mention they've earned my loyalty for just taking some time to care. Bravo, popchips! I'm not even gonna wait for the coupons to come, I'm sending my husband to the store to get some now, "single serving size bags" (that's what we call the normal retail bags) be damned. BBQ popchips, momma's comin' for ya! (Oh, and yes, I know how to use the store locator. :D popchips, I know where you are. *devilish grin*)

The tale of two snack companies - Pt. 1 - The case of the...who am I talking to?

We love Pirate's Booty around our house. We used to buy them in a pack of 2 massive sized bags from Costco until it disappeared from the warehouse about a year ago. I'd asked the manager at Costco about it and he did acknowledge that it's something they normally carry so he went to check his computer for more info. He informed me that there are none at all in my area, nor are there any shipping to our area any time soon. Needless to say, it was a sad day in our house. After my experience with Orajel, I decided to write to Pirate's Booty about how much we love their product and hope that they'll carry it in Costco again. (Because I don't write just to bitch and complain. ;) ) Here's my email to them:

From: Web Mail Robot
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 12:59 AM
To: Pirate Info
Subject: N. L. has a sent a request.

I'd like to say that my family and I absolutely love Pirate Booty. We love it so much that we can easily go through a Costco bulk pack in just a couple of days. To that end, is there any consideration for distributing bulk packs of Pirate Booty to Costco again? I haven't seen any in the [redacted] area Costcos in about a year now, and we're deeply saddened by this. When I asked a manager at Costco, he was unable to offer me any info. Please consider distributing Pirate Booty to Costco again. It's really difficult and non economical to buy smaller packages at retail prices for my family. Thank you.

I was happy when I got a prompt response about 12 hours later until I read the first 2 words of the email:

From: Pirate Info info@piratebrands.com
Date: Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 9:45 AM
Subject: RE: N. L. has a sent a request.
To: "N. L."

Dear Campbell –

Thank you for contacting Pirate Brands regarding your search for the 10oz bags of Aged White Cheddar. At this time, these particular bags are only sold at Costco and a select number of Whole Foods Markets. We are currently working on becoming a permanent product at all Costcos, but if you’d like to request Pirate’s Booty as a permanent product at Costco, we would certainly appreciate your support by contacting your local Costco manager.

If you are interested in purchasing Pirate’s Booty in our other bag sizes, please refer to our website (www.piratebrands.com) where you can find our store locator, which allows you to find local Pirate’s Booty vendors just by typing in your zip code. You can also purchase our products by the case directly from our web-site.

In general, we can be found in the all-natural/organic section of the following supermarkets:
Acme
Albertson’s
Chubb
Fred Meyer’s
Fry’s
Gelson’s
Giant
Giant Eagle
Harris Teeter
HEB
Hy-Vee
Jewel
Jubilee
Kroger’s
Larsen’s
Mejer’s
Publix
Safeway
Raley’s
Ralph’s
Randalls
Ray’s
Stop and Shop
Super A
Tom Thumb
Vons
Wegmans
Whole Foods

Pirate Brands is committed to providing the highest quality snacks available and consider our customers as part of our family. Please don’t hesitate to contact us should you need additional information.

Meanwhile, happy snacking!

Emily A., MS, RD
Consumer Relations Associate

Pirate Brands
100 Roslyn Avenue
Sea Cliff, NY 11579
t 516.656-4545 x [redacted]
t 800.626.7557
f 516.759.2713
www.piratebrands.com


I couldn't help but chuckle a little when I read the salutation of the email. Dear Campbell? Who is Campbell?!?!?!? I redacted the info for this post, but my name...at least my first name, was fully included in the subject of the email that was forwarded from the web form I used to send the inquiry AND it was in the subject of the response email. My initials does not in any way shape or form elude to the name Campbell. Where the heck did the CSR pull THAT from? Clearly the response was a canned note that she was supposed to edit, but perhaps she forgot about the salutation of the email?

Second, I don't feel that she really addressed my inquiry, do you? I informed her that I cannot find any Pirate Booty in Costcos in my area, and that I hope her company will do so again soon. She tells me the size I'm looking for is only sold at Costco. Furthermore, she told me to talk to my Costco's manager...which I've already done. Thanks for the lengthy list of other stores where I may find them, but if you read my email, I noted that it is not economical to purchase them in other stores considering the amount we consume. Also, thanks for pointing me to the website where I can find a store locator because it's not like I used your website to contact you or anything, as indicated by the email notes that says "Web Mail Robot."

Third, wait a second...why is this an issue? The email wasn't even addressed to me! It's addressed to Campbell. I'm not Campbell.

Review & Writing to Companies: Orajel

About a month ago, at the advice of our dentist, I bought some training toothpaste for my toddler, who doesn't quite get spitting out toothpaste. The Orajel Toddler Training Toothpaste was all I could think of to buy because it was the only brand of training toothpaste that I'd seen before so that's what I got at the store.  When I came home and opened it up, it instantly oozed out at me into a big huge, sticky mess.  Even my husband complained about how messy it was when he used it on the kiddo.  Every time I took the cap off, more of it oozed out into a puddle of mess than I would put on the toothbrush.  It was utterly wasteful. It was just a huge mess all over the place...on the cap, our counters, our hands, it was every where. It was a runny mess.  Needless to say, I was frustrated.  The product itself was fine, my kid loved it, but it was just such a pain to use that I wrote an email to Orajel complaining about the issue. In the email I explained how messy it was in a calm and kind fashion and asked that they please consider either reformulating the product or redesigning the tube so that it's not so messy to dispense.  Really, that was what I wanted and hoped for because the product itself was fine, just the dispensing method was awful.

To my surprise, I got a response the very next day from a Customer Relations Specialist.

Dear Mrs. ...:

Thank you for visiting our web site recently and taking the time to contact us regarding Orajel® Toddler Training Toothpaste. We are sorry to learn of your dissatisfaction with the product.

We appreciate your bringing this matter to our attention and are concerned that our product did not meet the usual standard of quality you have come to expect from us.  Your comments are important to us and provide valuable information that helps us maintain the high level of quality associated with our products.

As we guarantee your satisfaction with our products, we would like to send you a refund for your purchase.  Please respond using the link below to provide your full name and mailing address at your earliest convenience.

Again, thank you for taking the time and having the interest to contact us.  We value your patronage and trust you will continue to purchase Church & Dwight Co., Inc. products with confidence.  If you have any questions or concerns in the future, please call us at 1-800-952-5080.

While I know the email seems pretty canned, the message made me happy.  They offered me a full refund of the product, which is very nice.  I replied to the message accordingly as instructed.  Three business days later, I got another response from the same Customer Relations Specialist:

Dear Mrs. ...:

Thank you for visiting our web site recently and taking the time to contact us regarding Orajel® Toddler Training Toothpaste. We are sorry to learn of your dissatisfaction with the product.

We appreciate your bringing this matter to our attention and are concerned that our product did not meet the usual standard of quality you have come to expect from us.  Your comments are important to us and provide valuable information that helps us maintain the high level of quality associated with our products.

At Church & Dwight Co., Inc. we guarantee your satisfaction and under separate cover, via the United States Postal Service, have sent a refund check for the product you purchased.

Again, thank you for taking the time and having the interest to contact us.  We value your patronage and trust you will continue to purchase Church & Dwight Co., Inc. products with confidence.  If you have any questions or concerns in the future, please call us at 1-800-952-5080.


I am pleased.  Very pleased.  I'm quite happy with their response to my issue and offering me a full refund.  I do like Orajel's products and I sincerely hope that they will consider reformulating their product or redesigning their dispensers.  The lesson learned here is, don't be afraid to contact companies about their products. The worst that will happen is you get a canned response or no response at all.  (Or a potentially alarming response may change the way you feel about the company, but it really is better to know than not know.)  It never hurts to try and no matter how angry you may be at them, it never hurts to try to calm down, write a draft of your email first, read it, before sending it.  It's not the customer service rep's fault, and a little kindness just may sway them to go above and beyond to help you.

Walmart's customer service

I know it's rarely cool to admit that one likes Walmart, but I'm going to do it anyway: I like Walmart.  I'm fortunate that the Walmarts by me are fairly new or newly remodeled, so they're clean, well managed, and organized.  They're also in a good area so the people who work and shop there aren't what you'd typically see on People of Walmart. It's actually a nice and pleasant place to shop.

About 2 weeks ago, I had to replace my laptop's cooling pad after my husband ninja kicked it in his sleep and broke the leg stand off.  I can't say I've had a tremendous amount of luck with that particular cooling pad, but it's the best deal for the buck so I keep resorting to it. I've had maybe 5 of them in the past 2-3 years.  I think most of them died due to dog hair. One died because something (read: hair tie I think) slipped into the fan and burned it out.  I ordered a new one off of Walmart.com.  I've been using it for about weeks and this morning, when I went to fire up my laptop, the cooling pad sounded like something was caught in it, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I sprayed it clean with canned air. I shook it to see if there was any rattling. Nada.  I plugged it back in, and putter, putter, putter, poof, dead.  My laptop runs hot...like Arizona desert hot, so I desperately need a cooling pad for it.  I looked up my order online and realized that it's only 2 weeks old, so I could pretty much definitely take it back to Walmart.  I had 2 options:

I could buy a new one in the store (they cost about $10 more in store) and swap it out with the broken one then return it.

Or I could not mess with karma, be honest, and see what they could do for me.

I opted to not mess with karma and called my local Walmart and briefly explained my situation involving an online order. I was promptly forwarded to an Assistant Manager named Kirk.  I explained my situation to him in detail, and he did explain that an exchange between online purchases for an in store item is typically not done because of inventory, price, overhead, and just the fact that most stores don't really treat their online presence the same as their in store presence.  In fact, some store's online presence is managed and operated independently or outsourced so it's treated completely separate from their brick and mortar stores.   Because online stores lack the overhead that brick and mortar stores do, their prices are cheaper and physical stores do not honor online prices for this reason. (Target does the same thing.)  Kirk put me on hold to do some research on my matter and to see what he could do for me.  After a bit of a wait, he came back on the phone to inform me that he'll make an exception to the rule and get me taken care of. He said to go ahead and bring the broken cooling pad in and as long as they have the identical thing in stock, he'll take care of me and get it exchanged. He explained that normally, they'd send it back to Walmart.com and issue a refund so that I can purchase another one...which normally would've been fine but I needed a cooling pad now because my laptop runs soooo hot.

I half expected the exchange to be a huge hassle but true to word, Kirk the Assistant Manager took care of me and my dilemma.  For that I am truly happy and felt I got great customer service.  That makes me want to continue to shop with Walmart and don't mind admitting that I like them.