Finances & Money

Walmart Replaced My Forgotten Groceries

I didn’t have high hopes as I drove to Walmart. My wife called and explained our situation. She was told to come in with the receipt and they might be able to give me the forgotten groceries I left at the checkout counter a few days earlier.

Forgotten Groceries

My wife and I wanted sloppy joes for dinner.  Unfortunately, I was unable to find the can of mix I was sure I purchased grocery shopping. Looking closer, the sloppy joe mix wasn’t the only thing missing. I found my receipt and discovered a total of six items missing.

I assumed I left a bag of items at the self checkout counter, and was ready to count the items as lost. My wife had other ideas. She gave Walmart a call, and was told if I brought the receipt they would give me the items I had forgotten.

After describing the situation again to the agent at the customer service desk, she pulled out a log book that listed products left at checkout counters, and the date they were found. Although my items were not listed in the log book, she told me to get the missing items.

Once I had retrieved the items, she checked them off on my receipt. After putting them in a bag she nodded and told me to have a nice day.

Why I was Successful

I was successful in replacing the items left at the checkout counter even though I had absolutely no proof of what had happened. For all they know, I could have been making up the whole story. My success can be attributed to the following:

• Wife’s Demeanor: She was extremely pleasant to who she talked to, and started the conversation by stating she would understand if there was nothing they could do.
• My Demeanor: I was also extremely pleasant to the customer service person. People are much more likely to want to help you if you’re nice.
• Mentioned Prior Conversation: Since another employee had already told me they would give the items, the customer service representative may have felt obligated to go along with that decision. To give a different answer to a customer would likely have resulted in a scene involving a manager.
• Common Sense: The total of my missing groceries was about $8. One might come to the conclusion a customer wouldn’t go through such lengths to get such a small amount of groceries for free.

It wouldn’t have been the end of the world had I not gotten my items. But, when things like this happen in life it’s always worth the effort to try.

How about you, Clever Friends, have you ever forgotten groceries? What did you do? Do you have an interesting customer service experience to share?

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