I am once again reminded of the shady business practices of the all-mighty establishment known as Wal-Mart. Besides putting state-side manufacturers out of business and maintaining horrible working conditions at factories overseas, Wal-Mart feels it necessary to try and suck every last penny out of its business model, all the way down to the customers. Today I tried to return a camera that I purchased less than a month previous from said mega-store, using a combination of gift cards and my bank debit card to make the transaction. When I tried to get a refund, the “associate” informed me that I could only receive store credit for the gift cards and have the remaining balance charged back to my card. My debit card is not working correctly as of late, and I did not want any store credit, so I requested cash. She informed me that Wal-Mart is incapable of such an action and that my only option was a store gift-card. Not did this statement insult my intelligence, but it was a bold-faced lie. To make a long story short, I had to go through another regular employee and two managers before a store manager was brought over, upon my insistence, to resolve the issue–and she initially told me that I could not get cash, but then suggested that we “try it, just in case” it worked.

Of course, Wal-Mart is fully capable of giving a cash refund for a product returned with it’s receipt, they just train their workers to mislead the customer in order to try and keep as much of their money within the grasp of Big Blue. Ridiculous.