But I’m not a fool. I know when a brand or a company doesn’t give a damn about its customers. And – after my brief experience in Walmart today – I know what many of my friends and I have thought about the Neptune Walmart for some time – this store does not give a damn about its customers.

The Walmart in Neptune Township, New Jersey does not care about its customers

I’m not going to go off on a rant because I don’t have the time or the inclination right now, but let me rundown the brief series of events that I just encountered. First, my intention in going to the Neptune Walmart was to get two money orders. That’s it – I didn’t need or want anything else.

When I walked in the front door, I noticed there were about ten people in the customer service line (typical at the Neptune Walmart – where they never have enough people working on the front end). Instead of waiting in that line, I figured why not go and buy some stuff that maybe I don’t need, but that I have to get at some point anyway. With that thought in mind, I make my way to the back of the store to the automotive section and after spending about ten minutes browsing around, I picked out two Rain-X windshield wipers (the ones that are $18 a piece – I was feeling good) and some Rain-X bug remover wiper fluid (I like Rain-X). All together I had about a $40 purchase in my hands.

Then I walked up to the front of the store and literally did a double take at the cashier lines. When I tell you that each line was 6 or 7 customers deep, that’s not an exaggeration. In fact, it’s probably an understatement because most of the lines were backed up into the clothing areas.

Some of you might ask, “What could make the lines so long on a Wednesday early evening?” And you’d be asking the right question – partly. One of the major disappointments about the Neptune Walmart is that they have around 25+ cash registers, but typically only have 7 or 8 open for business. They clearly need to have more cashiers operating at all times, so why aren’t they putting more people out there? Do they think that the few bucks they save in personnel costs is worth the aggravation of their customers? Talk about being shortsighted!

After realizing that I wasn’t getting back to the customer service counter without waiting 15 to 20 minutes in line to buy the Rain-X stuff (yes, when you shop at the Neptune Walmart, you typically spend more time in line than actually shopping), I decided to leave the stuff up at the front of the store and leave. As I was walking out the door, though, I noticed that the customer service area had no customers in it, so I redirected myself to get my money orders.

And when I asked the woman behind the counter for two money orders she very politely told me that the money order machines are down and they don’t know when they’d be back up. I looked at her for half a second, smiled, and thanked her as I walked out the door.

As if that wasn’t a big enough, epic failure of a trip to the miserable Neptune Walmart, don’t forget that it was raining today. And when it rains in New Jersey, no one remembers how to drive. Apparently, my neighbors in Tinton Falls and Neptune Township really forget how to drive when it rains because those folks couldn’t figure out how to get out of the parking lot without stopping short left and right, forgetting to use their blinkers, cutting people off, etc. It was misery.

But, believe it or not I’m not that mad at the whole experience because this was indicative of a typical trip to the Neptune Walmart. They just don’t give a damn about their customers. And you know what? That’s okay. That’s their prerogative. Just like it’s my prerogative to not shop there for the next month. That’s right, folks. After today’s abysmal experience at the Neptune Walmart, I’m not going back there for a month. I spend a lot of money at the Neptune Walmart each month and I hope that the good folks at the Ocean Wegmans and Neptune ShopRite enjoy my money because after today’s experience, the Neptune Walmart is on probation.

Unacceptable, Neptune Walmart. Unacceptable.

And I’ve never had a problem with them, until this past weekend…here’s the story.

As a subscriber, I’m on their e-mail list – which I like because it lets me know what’s going on in the company (I also like this from a shareholder’s point of view, as I own a few thousand shares of Sirius XM). Generally, I get these e-mails and delete them after giving them a brief scan. However, over the past weekend an e-mail came in that had the following image in it:

I took a look at this image and thought to myself, “I have a few bucks laying around, why not get a newer version of the Sportster?” My current model is the Sportster Replay, which is so old that it is no longer in production. Plus, the Replay wasn’t made with the new “universal docking” ability so I can’t buy an at-home radio or at-home kit to play my radio in the house (which is unnecessary anyway, since I have Sirius XM internet radio).

Anyway, I click on the link and go through the process of ordering on Sirius XM‘s website. It was actually an easy process…until I wound up at the payment information. Now, before I go into this part of the process, let’s remember that even though I’m a huge cheerleader for Sirius XM, I’m aware of the fact that they have a problem with revenue and that they need to raise money anyway possible (which is likely why this e-mail was sent in the first place).

I entered my credit card information on the website and I received an error message. The internet said that something was wrong with the information that I entered, so I looked over my credit card information and it was perfect. Hmmm… Time to get on the phone.

There was a surprisingly short wait time before I spoke with a gentleman whose accent made his “assistance” almost useless. However, to his great credit (and to my great desire to buy an upgraded radio), he and I worked with each other somewhat well. I told him my problem…and he immediately went to the script. I could write an entire “Unnecessary Complications” entry (or a series of entries) about how I HATE when the telephone service representatives jump right to the script, but I digress.

The gentleman took my credit card information from me over the phone and tried to process the purchase – he received the same error message. At this point, he said it would be best to try all over again and delete the two previous attempts at purchasing the radio. I agreed – seems logical, right? As the guy is going through the steps of ordering the radio he keeps saying, “Yeah!” and “Okay!” and each time he says this I say, “Okay, did the purchase go through?” And he kept saying, “No.” Seemed a little weird to me that he would be so damn happy on the phone with his exclamations when a frustrated customer is on the line…

We get to the point where I have to give him my credit card information again, which I did. He gets the same error message and says, “Well, I don’t know what the problem is, sir.” At this point I felt like saying to him, “You don’t know what the problem is?! It’s your job to know what the problem is! And if it’s not your job then it’s the job of your superior so put his ass on the phone, damn it!” However, I understand that he’s just a worker bee and that he shouldn’t be verbally destroyed for the sins of his organization. I ask what I should do and he says that I should try the request again tomorrow and maybe use a different card. Fine – it’s an annoying way to end my call, but whatever. Before I hang up, the guy tells me that he’s deleting all of the purchase requests, which I appreciated.

The next morning I wake up and I go through the process of trying to order again. The internet asks me for my credit card information so I try to use a different one. The same error message comes up. I look at my phone and I hear a voice in my head say, “No, damn it!” Instead of making the phone call, I clicked around my online account and found out that while the gentleman on the phone suggested that he deleted my previous attempts at purchasing this radio, all of the purchase attempts were still listed on my account.

At that point, defeated by an inept customer relations department at Sirius XM, I gave up my attempt to buy a new radio. Hey, Sirius XM, listen up! A long-time customer who is currently on a long-time subscription and who is also a shareholder just tried to give you money for a new radio! And your inept website and unhelpful customer relations department failed! I tried to give you money – you NEED money – and you failed!

It’s a good thing that I love the content that Sirius XM provides or I’d cancel in a heartbeat. However, other than the obvious links on this blog, I may not be heralding how great of a radio service this to people that I talk to in my daily life any more. It’s a shame, but I believe that inept service providers have to pay some type of price and Sirius XM is losing my word of mouth advertising from this mess. Way to go.