Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2013 23:04:28 -0500
Reply-To: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Subject: Re: VLVC - Battery experience with Walmart
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Wow!!! And I thought they just screwed up & issued a full refund by mistake.
But I still can't get over the time they did not drain the oil in my
daughter in-law's car, did not change the filter and dumped 5 more quarts of
oil in on-top of the old oil 3 years ago. Then the service manager had the
gall to tell me over the phone that they did everything correct and "it's
normal for cars the age of hers to smoke a little!!!!!" Her 3 year old Mazda
had just under 60,000 miles on the clock.
I took the car to a Walmart closer to my house where the Service Manager
drained all 9+ quarts of oil from the crankcase, changed the filter & showed
me the stained gasket where it had been in the housing for a while, and put
in 5 quarts of the correct oil. Then he and his store Manager got on the
phone with the other Service Manager. Later that evening the other Service
Manager called & asked if the car was OK. He never did mention what he had
done or offer an apology!
Because of this & a few other stupid incidents over the past 10 or so years
I refuse to donate any of my dollars to their Auto Service Department.
Thanks, Tom Hargrave
www.kegkits.com
www.stir-plate.com
www.towercooler.com
www.grow-sun.com
www.raspberryproject.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of
Dennis Haynes
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2013 10:51 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: VLVC - Battery experience with WalMart
Wal-mart tracks the battery serial numbers at the point of sale. They know
when it was bought. Great deal for the "house" battery. If you do kill it in
less than 2 years you get a full refund and the warranty period starts again
with the replacement battery.
Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Tom Hargrave
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2013 11:44 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: VLVC - Battery experience with WalMart
Most likely the clerk "screwed up".
Thanks, Tom Hargrave
www.kegkits.com
www.stir-plate.com
www.towercooler.com
www.grow-sun.com
www.raspberryproject.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of
John Graham
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2013 10:40 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: VLVC - Battery experience with WalMart
My main vehicle is an '88 Vanagon Camper, but I am also the main motor
consultant on my wife's Toyota Sienna. So my tale is about the battery on
the Sienna.
Yesterday it failed to start the beast; charging it didn't help. My verdict
was the battery needed to be replaced. It had come from WalMart and it was
close by so off I went. I found the needed new battery on the rack,
purchased it (for $99) and loaded in my trusty Vanagon.
Now here's the interesting/happy part. I took the old battery back to the
customer service counter expecting to only get my $9 core charge back. The
service person waved her little price gun at my receipt and then my old
battery's bar code sticker and then played with her register keyboard for
what I thought was longer than needed for a $9 core charge.
She proceeded to hand me a $60 refund (I guess there was some warrantee left
on my old battery that I hadn't calculated). I guess you can tell that I'm
not that attentive to all those details, but I'm sure the battery was over
2+ years old.
So I guess my takeaway from this is that if your dead battery came from
Walmart, you may get a refund when you purchase your next one if there is
some warrantee left. Who knows - maybe I just got lucky with the right
service person, but next time, if they don't scan the old battery, I'll ask.
I hope your next dead battery experience is as good as mine was.
John Graham
'88 Vanagon Westy - Charlotte, NC
--
<http://johntakesgreatpictures.com>
