Complaint Review: WALMART AUTOMOTIVE STORE #0449

Hello & greetings from Texas!

I thought I should share my personal experience with Walmart Service Center with other consumers. I wished I had known about Walmarts Automotive screw ups before I brought my car there. Justa fewweeks ago (jan. 2011), I had to have my car jump started. I immediately brought my car to walmart because the battery in my car was less than a year old, and It should still be under warranty. Walmart was only about 15 min. from my home.Once I arrived at walmart around5:30 pm the mechanic tested my battery with the diagnostic box, and stated that my battery was fine except that it needed to be charged for a bout 45 min. So I decided I would just go inside the store to shop a little while waiting. About 20 minutes after leaving the automotive department, the mechanic found me in the store and told me all of a sudden that my battery now needed to be replaced, even though he had just told me 20 min earlier that my battery was fine. So I told him my current battery should still be under warranty. I waited patiently in the automotive department waiting area figuring it wouldnt take long at all for them to install the new battery. When I arrived, there was only 1 car the other mechanics were working on an oil change. So I thought it would go by quickly, considering there were No other customers that night. The automotive dept. closes at 7 PM, and they started turning the lights down in that area. Mind you, I was still sitting in the waiting area. The cashier in the service dept. was going off duty, and the two mechanics were still working on my car. There were no other cars in the bay. The mechanic came and talked to me about an hour later, andtold me that my car now didnt start with the new battery, he said he might have to pop the clutch and/or push start it.He then preceeded to tell me heneeded to think about what he should do toget it to start. He also mentioned that the service department closed at 7 pm and that he was suppose to get off then. By then, It was about 8 pm. He said he should have already been off the clock. I said Im sorry that he was having problems with my car. Well close to 9 pm he finally came back in, I was still sitting in the waiting area, and said He finally got it started, and I was good to go once I paid the pro-rated amount on the new battery. But, as I mentioned before, the cashier got off at 7pm, so the mechanic had to find someone to ring me up. They pulled someone out of sporting goods to ring me up. However, She didnt know what she was doing and didnt know how to pro-rate the batteryprice, so she had to call a manager, which that took an additonal 30 minutes. By this time I had been at Walmart for almost 4 hours all for a simple battery change. When I finally got to leave it was a sigh of relief. When I left the automotive dept. I exited the service garage, but they had already turned down the lights and it wasalready dark outside. They had also already closed all the doors to each bay. The mechanichad parked my car right outsidein front of the closed bay door.My car is standard transmission, and I had to back up a little, and then go forward, but as I tried to put my car in reverse, the stick shift felt weird, just dangling there. I was able to roll back just a little enough to beable to go forward, once I put my car in first gear, the stick felt weird & loose. Ididnt know what was the problem with the gear shift. I hit the top of the stick ball with the palm of my hand and felt it stick a little in some gear, but not sure what gear. As I was leaving the parking lot (with cars behind me) I couldn't get my car in any kind of gear, so I immediately put on the emergency brake. The people behind me were honking. I sat there for about 20 minutes with my flashers onnot knowing what to do. The auto dept. was already closed by that time, and I was way far from the front doors. It was cold that night, and dark outside, and I wasnt about to walk the long distance from where I was to the front door. I hit the top of the stick shift again, and it stuck there long enough for me to go forward. I beleive the gear it was in was first. I drove all the way home 5 miles per hour, in what seemed to be first gear. If I hadgot it over about 5 miles rpm it would make this loud screeching sound. Luckily I only lived about 15 minutes away, but it took me over 30 minutes to get home at that speed. I had to pull over several times because cars were honking because I was going so slow. When I finally got home, I immediately asked my family to witness that my stick shift was broken. It wasnt attached to anything. It was moving left to right with ease, by then it wouldnt go into any gear. The whole stick shift was not connected to anything, it was just hanging there. When I drove to walmart I had no problems with my stick shift. I have never ever had any issues with my stick shift. It was not loose or broken when I got to the service dept. If it had been broken prior to bringing it in(which it wasn't), how would the mechanic have been able to get it in and out of the garage? How would I have even drove it to the Walmart Service dept. in the first place.I could not believe it, how can someone break a stick shift off. I called the store onceI got home to speak tothe manager on duty. Of course I was told to call the next day. No one from walmart called me back. I have been calling everyday since the incidenttrying to get answers. Everyone seems to want to pass the buck. It seems weird to me when you need to file a negligent report through Walmarts insurance co., they have a specific option that says "if you are a consumer, and had damage done to your vehicle while it was being serviced press 2). To me that says there must be tons of complaints against walmart for auto damages. They must have so many claims such as thesethat it has to haveits own sub catagory when filing a claim. After reading online other peoples claims, I realized this is not a isolated incident, but instead its an everyday occurrance. People, please think twice before bringing your car into Walmartfor any type of service.Its been almost two weeks, and Walmart has not been much help at all. Im praying that they will pay for the damages. I still have no transportation. I hope this message will deter anyone from taking your car to walmart for service.

Thanks for reading my message. Fran, (In Texas)