PSA: Walmart battery core return if purchased online = goat rodeo

Bought a battery for our short bus from Walmart Monday for a variety of logistical reasons that aren't germane to this story other than I did an online order for pickup (so said pickup person wouldn't have to find, lift and tote battery from the back of the store). 

I went to take the core back yesterday for my $12 and the fun started. Customer Service in the store said do it online, online chat help setup a return for the whole battery and even after I protested, insisted that was correct, "go back to the store with this email". Went back today with that return email, to be told "no, go talk to online order people down there", who then told me they couldn't help, call support. 

I called support who said "I'll just refund $12". Get confirmation email of that, then I get a different email saying they're not able to process refund. I call again and they "adjust the price" by $12. 

We'll see if it sticks. Lesson learned, walk in (or in my case, listen to the amount of E36 M3 that comes with asking my wife to walk in) and buy the battery. 

Lesson I got from it was "Dont step foot in Wal Mart for any reason"

Easier said than done, but I'm never happy to go into that E36 M3 show of a store.

Make sure to tell the auto guy at Wally World that they don't need to charge you the core charge since you're going to toss the battery into an old creek in the woods by your house.  It excites them. 

Works with tires too. 

Datsun240ZGuy said:

Make sure to tell the auto guy at Wally World that they don't need to charge you the core charge since you're going to toss the battery into an old creek in the woods by your house.  It excites them. 

Works with tires too. 

But that really is what happens to my tires!

Is it just me but while I shop at the wall store I never purchase mission critical things from there. Don't know why. Just a me problem I guess. 

Datsun240ZGuy said:

Make sure to tell the auto guy at Wally World that they don't need to charge you the core charge since you're going to toss the battery into an old creek in the woods by your house.  It excites them. 

Works with tires too. 

It's a cheap and legal thrill that helps recharge the electric eels.

Walmart does have the cheapest 12v batteries around town , 

normally I just go in the entrance/ exit at the auto center and have my dead battery in a cart , 

But Thank You for telling us about the online problem, I will stay away from doing online.

Cheers

Bugs me to pay the tire disposal fee when I order tires on ebay.  Are you disposing of my old tires?  No, then I don't owe the fee.  

Depending on the battery size, you may get more by recycling at your local scrap yard.  

californiamilleghia said:

Walmart does have the cheapest 12v batteries around town 

Aint that the sad truth.  Realized recently that none of the FLAPS near me carry any battery with less than a 3 year warranty.

Like I want to put a 3 or 5 year warranty battery in a car that might not run reliably and regularly for 2.

In reply to californiamilleghia :

If you have a rural King, check with them. 

Half the price of FLAPS, cheaper than Walmart for the excursion battery I bought a couple months ago. Tractor battery I just got was only $40. 

Mr_Asa said:

californiamilleghia said:

Walmart does have the cheapest 12v batteries around town 

Aint that the sad truth.  Realized recently that none of the FLAPS near me carry any battery with less than a 3 year warranty.

Like I want to put a 3 or 5 year warranty battery in a car that might not run reliably and regularly for 2.

Hit the nail on the head with why we got a Walmart battery! It's a $750 short bus with broken AC; I'm not putting a $250 battery in it. 

The online order part was just a logistics thing to fit my weirdly complex daily life of juggling kids, work, and a wife...all with a 130mile round trip commute. 

RevRico said:

In reply to californiamilleghia :

If you have a rural King, check with them. 

Half the price of FLAPS, cheaper than Walmart for the excursion battery I bought a couple months ago. Tractor battery I just got was only $40. 

No Rural King around Los Angeles , a Tractor supply 40 miles away in a direction I never go , 

Walmart is 3 miles , Easy parking in the back where the Auto section is , also there is a cash register in the back so I do not need to walk thru the store and be "tempted"

jmabarone said:

Bugs me to pay the tire disposal fee when I order tires on ebay.  Are you disposing of my old tires?  No, then I don't owe the fee.  

You pay for the disposal of the tires you just bought, not the ones you take off.  Logical, if you don't want people retaining their old tires and throwing them in the creek to avoid the fee.

My wife somethings wants to go to WalMart. I like to count customer tattoos and the number of four-letter words that such people use. I was most impressed one day by a young father carrying his five-yr old child. He was looking at something on a shelf and shouts back over his shoulder to his wife, "What the f.u.c.k is this?!" Classy. With a parent like that, we may see the kid in the news someday. Sorry, I have nothing to add regarding WalMart batteries...

Mr_Asa said:

Lesson I got from it was "Dont step foot in Wal Mart for any reason"

Easier said than done, but I'm never happy to go into that E36 M3 show of a store.

Back in 2021 I made it until December before I was forced into a Walmart.  That was a good year. 

kb58 said:

My wife somethings wants to go to WalMart. I like to count customer tattoos and the number of four-letter words that such people use. I was most impressed one day by a young father carrying his five-yr old child. He was looking at something on a shelf and shouts back over his shoulder to his wife, "What the f.u.c.k is this?!" Classy. With a parent like that, we may see the kid in the news someday. Sorry, I have nothing to add regarding WalMart batteries...

Damn man, my wife has tattoos and cusses (not around kids) more than your average bear. I reckon we belong in Walmart!

Well if it makes you feel better, saying what I did implies that I think I'm better than "them", which doesn't make me look very good.

I used to be anti Walmart. Then I had a prescription that was $900/mo at CVS and $330/mo at Walmart. Got over that prejudice really quick. Now I just go wherever is convenient. All stores suck. 
 

Walmart also carries a ton of fishing stuff and that's super convenient. They're a good source for car batteries and oil too. 

kb58 said:

You deleted your reply, but fair enough. I wonder why others don't like to visit Walmart - I made the mistake of saying why. Guess I should have stuck to "because they make it hard to return batteries."

I didn't delete anything...and I'm not offended, but you might be painting with a broad brush.

Also, for the record, I don't like Walmart. I like their pricing and availability on car batteries, haha!

Plus, I think there might be a happy ending. $12.72 back on my card, and core still in bed of my truck. It's good for a $10 gift card at AutoZone or a few bucks at the scrapyard. 

Are there any other places that have cheap 12V batteries

Looked on Walmart website and they are now $69 , 

I heard once that Autozone etc will discount "Out of date" batteries up to 50% off ,  but I never figured out how that worked .

I hate dealing with Wal-Martians

The self-checkout assistant last week spent the whole time I was self-checkouting, hovering and watching what I was doing.

She gave me a stunned look when I said "You know, with all the time you've stood here, watching me. You could have just rung my items through yourself and at least made me a happy customer."

I also found the core refund has an expiration ... Bought a cheap battery there for the wife's short-term car and the old battery sat in my garage for a few months. Finally remembered on an errand trip and took it back to Wally World. They took the battery to recycle but I didn't read the receipt close enough that the $12 was only good for 60 days or something. Man, that was my lunch money on that trip! Bummer...

In reply to californiamilleghia :

Are there any Interstate Batteries store nearby? They sell "blemished" and returned batteries for cheap. Like $60 for a guaranteed 2 year batt. I have one in the FR-S, and one in Fester the F-150.

As is the same with many companies, walmart dot com is a completely different company than walmart stores.  HD, Kohls, and Lowes do the same thing.  When I worked at HD, there was absolutely nothing we could do about online stuff, other than put it in the storage locker until someone came for it.  If they had a problem with it, or there were parts missing, there was nothing we could do about it in the store.  Sometimes we would just go grab a bolt that would work off the shelf and give it to them for customer service reasons, but the two were completely separate companies.  We couldn't even do a return in-store because they had different SKUs and barcodes from the online version.

I remember getting  in "trouble" because we had a price match guarantee.  A customer wanted a Dewalt table saw matched to a cheaper price and I told him we could do that "no problem."  He went and ordered it online (which doesn't do price matching) and lost his s#!t in the store because "Curtis told me...."

I ended up having to open an old lumber order of his and refund the $20 difference just to get him to shut up, but I had zero authority over the online company.  If I called HD dot com from an HD store, they would treat me just like a random person calling.  To them, I was just a random customer.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

This is VERY useful information.