A Quick Note From Idaho (And Why I Hate Wal-Mart)

Hey everyone, been on the road for two days now and I'm about to pull out of Idaho Falls, ID and head north and then east into Montana.

The drive has been beautiful so far.  Eastern Oregon is incredible.  I had driven through there in the past, but it was night time and I didn't know what I was missing, but wow, one of the most colorful places I've ever been.

My travel was delayed a bit, however, when I stopped to get my oil changed, and I thought the story was worth passing along.

Now, I ordinarily avoid Wal-Mart like the plague, but I needed a change and I was about to hit a piece of road with no services for over 100 miles, so I figured I better get it done while I had the chance. 

Sadly, the ONLY place in town to change my oil was at the local Wal-Mart.  So as sick as it made my stomach, I pulled up and did it.

The girl (yes, not a woman) who took my information seemed friendly at first.  She politely inquired about the full car load of stuff and said "you must be going somewhere cool." 

"Chicago" I said with a smile.

I handed her the keys to the car and stepped out.  She told me it would be a 20-minute wait, so I grabbed the iPod and the paper I had and went into the waiting room. 

By the way, the one thing I was happy about was that at least this oil change was going to be cheap.  Under $25.

About 25 minutes later the girl came into the waiting room and told me the car was ready.  I paid, took back my keys and jumped in, ready to hit the open road again. 

But when I turned on my car the oil monitoring system said I was still at 10% of my oil's life. 

That was weird.

I got out of the car and asked the girl if she was sure that the oil change had in fact been done.  She said "Yep, I know it was, cause I did it myself."

"Can you explain why my car is telling me it hasn't been?"

"Well we don't reset the meter in any of those Japanese cars" was her response.

I thought maybe she was right.  In all honesty, I wasn't sure if this was something that had to be reset myself or if the car automatically did it upon an oil change.

The only way to find out was to check for myself.  So I headed back to the car, popped the hood, and stuck in the dipstick.

Sure enough, it was almost empty.

Unreal.  They had just charged me $24 and told me they had changed the oil, but it was never done!  They knew they were the only place for miles and miles, this could cause serious problems for people without the monitoring system to alert them it wasn't done.

If it wasn't for that I never would have thought to double check.  In the future I will.

Anyhow, at this point I wasn't Wal-mart's happiest customer ever.  So I went back in and told the girl what I found. 

She called in the mechanic and IN FRONT OF ME said to him "why didn't you change the oil?"  Clearly she either forgot, or just didn't care that she had already told me that SHE had done it.

His response was "You told me to just pull it into the lot, you didn't say anything about an oil change."

I was on the mechanic's side for a minute until he looked at me and said "When we get these foreign cars in here, sometimes it gets confusing." 

Now I was just livid.

First of all, my car being foreign was 100%, fully and completely irrelevant to the fact that they had just charged me $24 to allow my car to sit in their garage for 24 minutes before pulling it into their parking lot.  A dollar a minute.  Wow.

On top of that, the disdain for my foreign car was becoming very apparent now.  Which was also irritating.  My bet is that neither of these people knew that while their own American cars were built by foreign workers for next-to-nothing wages, all of my Honda Civic (with the exception of the engine) was assembled in Ohio by well paid, and highly skilled Americans.

The parts were also produced in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, once again, by American workers.

Long story short, I thought about getting a manager and demanding my money back.  And in retrospect, I should have.  But I wanted to get back to the road and try to keep my blood pressure low.  So I waited a few more minutes while the mechanic replaced the oil in my ever-so-complex Civic and instead of getting my money back I'll just blog about what a rotten, evil and horrible place Wal-Mart is.

I hate Wal-Mart.

Ok, so now it's time for me to hit the road, so much for this being a quick note.

Comments

[Derek]

Toyota is a foreign car? Foreign name, maybe. They're all assembled in the US, which is more than you can say about most GM or Ford vehicles. If you're going to claim the parts are all foreigh -- they are. And so are all the parts in any other 'American' vehicle.

[JustAThought]

Just an observation... if they had done *nothing* to your car and you showed low oil, there is something wrong with your car.

A car does not burn 90% of it's oil in a regular oil change cycle, in fact it burns very little of the oil in the 3000 miles or so you should be changing your oil in. If the car is burning more than 25% of the oil in 3000 miles you have a bigger problem than needing an oil change.

I agree that there is some serious issues with how you were treated and the lies you were told, but it is not likely that a customer with a normaly functioning engine would have engine trouble due to this scenario you have described. Worst case, they run on dirty oil for an extra oil change cycle. If they are, in fact, out of oil, all cars built since at least the 60's have had an oil pressure sensor that will alert you to low oil. This is not a new invention.

[Not a mechanic]

Wait a minute.. You know how incompetent walmart is and you still trusted them to do it? You're asking for it.

Why didn't you do the oil change yourself before you left for your trip?

Whenever I go anywhere that has to have work done by a mechanic I watch them. I make sure they see me watch them work on my car. When they're done, I go kick stuff, pop open the hood, check the oil, make sure the filter is new, make sure the bolt in the oil pan isn't 1/2 way out, etc to make sure that everything's in order when I drive off.

[M G]

Wal-Mart is the last place to go to get anything done that is car-related. I remember the last time I went there to get my oil changed and tires rotated, I marked them beforehand so I would know if they had rotated them, and sure enough they didn't but tried charging me for it anyway. I got it all for free b/c of their dishonesty.

[joseph]

wow, found this blog on digg. you know, there are communities in this country that are just blatantly racist. Had the car been a bmw or a german vehicle, would it have mattered? probably not. In summary- low iq, inbred hicks. nothing new there. Next time avoid them like the plague and take your business elsewhere...

[Kelly]

I have known people like this. Obviously its a case of the "domestic car religion." They probably thought working on a foreign car was disgusting and loathed you for buying one. They pulled the car in for a while and returned it sans oil change to teach you a lesson (or something like that) but didn't realize you had an oil level indicator. These are bad people, but those are not the views of Walmart. All this says about Walmart is that they should put more effort into hiring good mechanics.

[Joh thomas]

I hate WalMart. the other day one of their door personnel tried to stop me and search my bag. I told him to stick it and went right on out the door. Jerks.

JT
www.Ultimate-Anonymtiy.com

[BS Detector]

I call BS on the whole story! Who drives cross country without getting this type of maintence done beforehand (especially when it's close to being needed).

Just another 'If I say I hate Wal Mart, people will think I'm cool'

[Flip]

fuck walmart
i steal from them whenever possible

[Who Cares]

Somehow I don't think the disdain of foreign cars is a Wal-Mart quality you're describing here... I believe that's a conservative good-ol' american farmboy quality... just a thought. And maybe, just maybe, the "girl" was so young and naive and thought, "hey I need an extra 24 bucks, let me just not put the order through and see what happens." That could plausibly be the case if you were paying cash.

[Bobby]

Wow. You, sir, will one day win an award. Perhaps the Darwin?
That "meter" of yours is a routine your car's computer runs that calculates how many miles and how much time has passed since the last time it was reset.
I'm guessing you also don't have the slightest idea what you're doing when you check the oil.
I'm also sure you were enough of a jerk that they would change it again (especially after slipping up and have the "girl" say what she did.
Although this could have been a larger problem if they really didn't change the oil - if the oil was as low as you seem to think, you had already done the damage. Regular maintenance includes checking your oil at every fill up.
Meanwhile, no matter what you may think about Walmart, those two employees were just people. I'm sure you think they are evil redneck hicks with an IQ of 30 that don't deserve to lick your boots. I prefer to think of them as people. Less fortunate, maybe, but not automatically beneath me... or you for that matter.

[BS Detector]

To: Joh thomas

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Oh, yeah... They forgot to put in, nobody can search my bag man!!!! I got rights!

what a db!

[Jeff]

This is what happens when you hire people for minimum wage.
And you do know that the 10% your car was showing does not reflect the amount of oil you have left, right? The fact that is was almost empty when you checked it is your fault. How do you drive a car on a trip with almost no oil? Even if the gauge reads 10%, the oil level should be almost full. This is like the blind leading the blind.

[JustAThought]

@Bobby

Amen!

It is nice to see a level headed response.

[WM employee]

I've worked at good ol' wal-mart for almost 2 years now. Our store has a tire+lube as well. In OUR store, I know we have good, smart mechanics, so i don't think it would happen here... although i can say it doesn't surprise me one bit that they did that to you. I've seen worse in other areas of our store to be honest.

[christopher hampton's evil twin]

I am christopher hampton's evil twin. How dare you gang up on me! Learn to change your own damn oil. Wal mart did nothing wrong. They are as American as illegal wiretapping and silenced science.

[duh]

The oil life % has nothing to do with the level of oil showing via the dipstick.

[Chris Franklin]

You had a bad experience with a Wal-Mart store. Similarly, I had a bad experience with a black mugger in North Philadelphia. Not all Wal-Mart stores are poorly run, and likewise, not all blacks are baboon-like muggers. It's understandable that you'd hate THAT particular Wal-Mart, and likewise, it's understandable that I'd hate the black mugger who took my wristwatch. But to say "I hate Wal-Mart" is akin to me saying "I hate blacks"... it's too much of a generalization. Still, yeah, that Wal-Mart really sucked.

[BJ]

I have had the exact same problem with walmart. But instead of being a Honda, I drive a toyota corolla. I actually had a very similar excuse as well.

I wouldnt be surprised if they were told to rip of every 1000 customers that walk in there.

[Heha]

If possible its best to learn to change your own oil, even if you have to take it to a oil change place while on a trip. At least you know what signs to look for to make sure your oil was changed. But changing your own oil gives you peice of mind. At least you know what filter and oil is being put into your car. The wal-mart places use bulk oil. Who knows what it is and what grade oil it is? Some new cars these days are using 5w-20. The bulk oil is likely 10w-30. Doesnt seem like much of a difference until you actually switch back to 5w-20 and notice the nice puffs of white smoke in the morning cause the valve seals clearance is now larger and the 5w-20 is seeping past it overnight. Newer Trucks like the Tundra have this issue.

[Kim]

I've had my oil changed at Wal*Mart numerous times, no issues. I also dragged my 1995 Ford Taurus there to have his poor dead battery removed and replaced. I brought it in and they were unbelievably busy and told me they didn't know if they'd be able to do it, but said they'd try to squeeze me in... about an hour later my car was ready. They apologized for the wait, but I got the best battery they had, free installation and a free replacement within 2 years if something should go wrong.

I wouldn't blame this on Wal*Mart but the location and the service people. Management, workers, and service all vary depending on where you're at... so seriously, don't give a bad rap to the Auto Department because of your one bad experience at one crappy location. It's not fair to all the other places who do a good job and bend over backwards to get a car in and out and serviced well.

[John]

Changing your own oil is a very good idea. It doesn't cost $20, it costs $15 or less. Go to AutoZone, every week they have an oil change special. You get 5 quarts of oil and 1 oil filter for $13-$16. So basically you are getting $10/hour. Furthermore, you don't need that many tools: a ratchet, a socket, a jack, some jack stands. Also, when YOU change your own oil YOU know that the job has been done and YOU know the job has been done right. I've been changing oil for myself and family members for the last 3 years and I will never pay someone to do it again. People at WalMart, JiffyLube, or any other quick lube are paid minimum wage and and don't really care if they do a good job or not.

[John S]

Hmm...
That's not typical of my experience. I have had Walmart change my oil numerous times, had three sets of tires on my vehicles changed and every time, the job was done right and charged correctly. They even clean off the blue stuff on the tire lettering.
All was done at much less cost than I could have done anywhere else.
It's true, I could change my own oil, and have, but I've never paid $10 for an oil filter! They usually run about $3. Cheaper if you buy on sale.

[GeologyJoe]

Change the oil again yourself. Wallyworld and all those quick lube places use low quality oil.

[Randolph Scott]

This almost makes me like Wal-Mart. 1. Go by miles driven, not by what some silly computer tells you (most which are reset are simply mileage based and count down from 3000, however you don't need to get it changed until 6000 or so). 2. You were in and out of the shop in an hour? Sounds pretty reasonable. 3. I'm sure the girl meant she was responsible for having it done. Were her hands greased up and was she filthy? 4. This isn't a disdain for foreign cars, it's that there are many more kinds of foreign cars, which means the mechanic may have not as much familiarity. 5. One thing I guarantee you, they could care less if they had your 24 dollars. Not only would they not steal it, they'd just as soon not have you come in and save themselves the work. 6. Auto shops are loud and there was almost certainly simply miscommunication. 6. Anytime, anyplace, you get an oil change that quickly and cheaply, check it yourself as mistakes are common. 7. Why do I care where your foreign care was made or assembled? It could be made in India from parts from Serbia...seems like you're sensitive to having paid a foreign company *why, I don't know. 8. You've never worked customer service in your life. I even wonder if you've worked retail someplace that wasn't selling fashion. You'd find it enlightening to see how many mistakes people make and just how unreasonable customers can be. 9. They made good. They gave you an oil change and got you on your way.