Complaint Review: Wal-Mart Super Center - Rowlett Texas

Hello and sorry to hear what happend to you but can assure you that you are not the only one going through this type of abuse.

You may want to read my report on here "stop the abuse" I had paid for my items and to make a long story short was also accussed of assault however video evidence turned up that proved to a court of law that 6 witnesses had lied about the incident. Keep in mind that this video was viewed by the police and the crown denied its existance.

A quick summary of the video was me being assaulted by the very same greeter that accussed me of stealing, The manager of walmart claimed I assaulted him yet the video showed him not being touched by me at all when he said I assaulted him, as well 3 others that claimed I threw the manager into a truck denting it was viewed by a judge and you can see that the manager was never even against the truck. This is the same video that the police viewed and that the crown had viewed and yet they still put me through a 15 month trial.

The police and the crown seem to have an agenda other than justice...thank god the judge wasn't for sale or as the crown stated in court I would be incarcerated.

Now I am not saying the police or the crown were taking in bribes...cause that would be wrong...Right?

p.s. I have the video footage and the transcripts from the witnesses if anyone wants to challenge this in court...Any media interested in the story are welcome to investigate as well as I have tried to get answers from Walmart Canada and they have either ignored all my calls or of the times I was able to talk to someone they said they would get back to me and Lied.

So again I am sorry to hear of your situation but assure you there are others...

You need to sue that girl and walmart for damages and assault. Do not let walmart get away with this. Lots of attorneys will be happy to pick this up with no cost.

I am proud of you for hanging in there. Congratulations on your win. I know that you were probably having a party after this. You have alot to be thankful for and I would love to hear every last detail but I know you are ready to move on. So congratulations again and if you need anything in the future write. HA HA

Went to court. Saw tape hour before. The prosecutor,(stern young woman) tried to offer me a plea saying tape not all that visible. I said no more than once, and I said the tape shows what I need so I will pass on plea for 6 mos. deferred adjudication and fine of 150.00 (was 300.00 but dropped). We appeared before the judge 20 min. later. The plantiff had many supposed witnesses (ALL were no shows....) The store manager showed up just to say he cooperated by providing the tape, and had nothing to do eith plantiff. The plantiff almost tripped walking up to stand and was acting all quiet and innocent. She claimed the alledged assault occured after initial grab shown on tape when she tried to stop me. She then tried to state it happened as we went out the door. The prosecutor seemed like she didn't even believe it, but tried to pull reverse psychology on the judge to win her case. (Must be practicing) Whatever...Anyway, the judge made the right decesion and found me not guilty of assault. Prosecutor did not look happy. Thanks for all that helped me. More detailed info. on court if requested,but as you can tell from the late posting, I'm movin on.

Well, thanks for the help, all who posted... Let me clarify a few things for those who posted but did not seem to understand the situation. Wal-mart is not involved with the assault charges, just their over-zealous employee. When I called the store manager shortly after the visit from the RPD detective, the store manager said he wasn't even aware of it, and would have to find out what I was talking about. When I followed up with him, he made me aware that he could not do anything about her "private" decision to press assault charges on me. Thanks to the person who suggested I supoena my own tape. However, it has not been easy. I requested the supoena a day or two after reading the post, and that would have been around the 14th of July 2004. My handwritten request asked for the surveilance tape that was recorded on July 5th,2004 at the location/s by the front doors near the ice box. I estimated the times to be between 9:30 p.m. and 10:15. Wal-Mart had until the 31st of August to comply. The tape came in on or just before the 31st and I was told to bring a blank vhs tape and bring it to the courts for copying. I brought them a brand new blank tape on that Friday and was told it would be a 3-4 days to have it copied. The next week I called to inquire about the tape and was told by the same court clerk I had been working with, that they did not have the proper eqipment to copy tape for me. She said that I could however, view the tape with the prosecutor an hour before I appear before the judge. She said maybe I could meet a day or two before with the prosecutor and watch it with her. (I believe the proseccutor being the one for the plantiff.) Okay, that doesn't seem fair. Not much time to review the tape. I called back a day or two later and told a different court clerk that this was not enough time to review, and that I wanted to come in and watch it when it was available. I also inquired if all of this was normal procedure, and would it be the same for a professional lawyer. Just because I'm having to do this on my own blindly, and are unsure about certain court procedures. The lady I had been working with was not available. When I did speak with her again she this last Wed. she told me that I could now pick up my tape and it was ready. I didn't have transportation at the time and told her I would pick it up on Friday. She said she would not be working but I could just go in and ask for it with identification. (She has been the only one to really seem like she is trying to help me) I did so this past Friday. I pick up my wife ,we get home and sit down to look at the tape. I start playing it as it is fully rewound and ........nothing. My wife slow fast forwarded the tape and still nothing. At the beginning of the tape, it has a continous line going up the screen with static. I put one of my children's tapes in and it played fine. I immediately call Rowlett's court office and tell the girl who answered that the tape was not diplaying anything. She said she had passed by while the prosecutor was watching it and told me the screen was a little jerky but she could still see it ok. I told her I had tried another tape and it was fine. She said something about vhs tapes being bad quality and I agreed. At this point I'm feeling very frustrated as I have very little time to watch it before I have to defend myself. (I feel if I was an attorney this would not be happening) I explained the whole process was frustrating to me. I also mentioned something about them not having the right equipment for copying surveilance tapes? The girl then shocks me by telling me they had to go to ..............get this........WAL-MART to copy the tape of the security tape that was supoenaed!!! She also tells me I cannot reset the court date when I tell her I wanted to wait until I have a fair chance to review my tape before appearing in court. Why? The judge has to order it now because it was less than three business days before my court date her supervisor told her. She said I would have to wait till my court date because the judge would be out of town until then. Now, it's Monday the 20th, a day before my court and I feel like because I look young maybe or seem inexperienced in court matters that I'm not getting a fair shake. Sometimes I feel like I'm making a big deal of this, but really, would anybody reading this feel the same way? I'm just tired of wasting time messing with all of this, and do not want an assault charge on my record for freakin jerking away from her. She did not have any rights to touch me as a Wal-Mart employee or not. If they would have just looked at the tape to begin with, they would have not filed her charges against me. The detective as far as I know, never even looked at the tape.( they don't have near enough time to deal with these small cases I guess )Still,, all of this could have been avoided. I will let all know what happens after tommorow...Thanks for the help.

Andrew Bud you have to play this little game they want to play and keep your cool. If you lash out in any other way or loose your temper while you are in that store you will loose your case. Stop going into the store until you are vindicated. Take you a small TV and a VCR go to the court house and offer your assistance. It is easy to hook up your tv and vcr. There VCR cable goes to the IN on your TV, this is so you can view while your are recording. Then your cable goes in the Out from the tv to the in on your vcr. Make sure these are coax cables. Now for the reason you want to do this is one reason only. One hour prior to your hearing is not enough time to prepare you a fair defense. Since the prosecuter and Walmart have had several days and weeks to prepare. If the clerk is not willing to assist you with this, then play the waiting game, until you get to the judge (which will be the day you go to court)You can even go in now and ask to view the tape. This may not be a bad idea so that you can see before hand what is on it. I know that you have said that you have not done anything to insight this situation however if you see something on the tape that changes your mind then you know what course of action to further take. You have to understand that the leagal system is not for the defendent in this case, They feel that a reputabal company is seeking damages agaist you and this company is a giant, not many people choose to stand up against this giant so therefore the giant must be right. Take a chill pill buddy! Quit going into that store, there must be other stores that you can spend your money in. Keep in mind if you go into that store and do something in an area that you dont think there are cameras guess again. The only place in a walmart store there is no camera is the bathroom. And dont loose your cool with the clerk of courts either, you want those people on your side and you dont want them to see any part of your anger, you can explain to them that your are frustrated but dont show it. I know this is not easy, it took me 2 years to get satisfaction and when it was over they paid for it now me. If you will leave a number where I can reach you I will be happy to call you and try to help you walk through some other items you may run up against.

I got a call from Rowlett court clerk last week informing me the tape had been received from Wal Mart. I was told to get a blank tape and bring it up to the courts to have a copy made. I brought the tape and was told it would take 3-5 days to get my copy. Now, what's crazy is, I get a call Monday the 30th from a Rowlett court clerk (same one that has been working with me) saying that I couldn't have a copy because they did not have equipment to record it anymore....uh...(Rowlett is large enough to have 2 VCRS for recording right?) Well, I was told however that I could come in a hour early to view with the prosectutor before my trial. Anyone know what I should do? Why are they now telling me this, after telling me to bring in a tape? Anyone know more in this field that can help. I hate all of this! It has caused me nothing but trouble. By the way, the same girl was working the self checkout aisle the other day and didn't even recognize me and asked if my wife and I needed help with scanning my items. I was upset just standing there knowing all this trouble she is causing me. I'll keep updating as it comes...

At this point it is not the bags of Ice and receipt that he is upset about, it is the fact they have questiones his integerity. If you watch your TV and see all the Walmart commercials they protrait themselves has having so much of it, however when it comes right down to it they have none. In Texas as well as many other states, employers have the right to go to the court house and request a backround check on prespective employees. If this happens to this gentlemen and an employer sees that he has been charged with stealing this would in many cases keep him from getting a job. The court computers dont say he was stoped for taking 2 bags of ice with a torn receipt it just states that he was stoped for stealing. As a prospective employer would you hire this person? Keep in mind that usually they know all of this before they call you in for an interview. So in this case it is very important that he clears his name and sends another message to Walmart that they can not do this. This is just one of the many interity issues that Walmart has, however they choose to ignore it and will not do anything to correct it. They are under the opinion that for the millions of dollars that people spend in there stores each year they can afford this. They belive that all because they loose one cutomer there are 2 standing waiting to get in. In fairness to Walmart, I do not belive that when Sam Walton started these stores this was his intent, it has only been since the folks that are in power have taken over that walmart has become like this. There is only one word for this and this is one of the seven deadly sins, Greed. Walmart will get theres if people will come back to the basic roots that we were taught as we were growing up, and that is do on to others as we would want them to do on to us. Is this what you want for yourself? If it is not do not expect that it is ok to have it done to someone else.

Let me get this straight. You bought 2 bags of ice, but the machine ripped your receipt. No problem there happens all the time. The whole assault thing though. Thats stepping over the line and shows that we as amaericans hav ebecome sue happy. Perhaps you were just angry at being served papers.. i woudl be also. But, suing over almost getting hit by shopping carts and a woman grabbing your arm. Seems slightly shady.

My guess is if you have not already received this tape or a copy of it you may not get it. This is good because now the court will know there is the evidence and walmart is refusing to coperate with you. I have one question on the supoeona did you request that it be given to you or presented to the court. Now once you have gotten thourgh the criminal part if this situation that is when you need to find an attorney to prusue the civil part with is sueing the pants off of them. Keep in mind you must name both the defendent and the store, the defendent being the store employee who pushed you. I would personlly put eveyones name on the thing from the president down. They want chain of command and open door policy lets give it to them. I am not sure how long it has been since you served them with the supoena, but I would not call them anymore, I would however go to the clerk of courts or magistrates office where ever you got the supeona and let them know that you are not getting the information as requested, the court will then take it upon themselves to request the information. If you talk to walmart anyone there, make sure you have a tape recording of ever conversation. Your texas law states that as long as one person knows they are being taped which is you that you have the right to tape. Just to cover your butt though make sure you state to them at the time of the initial contact that for future review perpose this call may be monitored, you are not exatly telling them you are taping but they should know. Now you want to make sure you tell them as soon as the first person answered the phone, it is up to them to let each other know not you. Lets use there policies agaist them. Sorry to say that the last person who emailed this information who seemed to be very nice and was going to talk to the higher ups at an upcomming meeting, thanks but no thanks. These people already know, how could they not know what is going on in there stores, they are the policy makers, and if they are not they are still responsible on the policies that are set, every thing must go through them, I know the law suit I had went to them because the brother of the CEO was my regional loss prevention supervisor, so he knows, dont waste your breath. Money now talks. Let me know how things are going, Again glad I could be of some help

Andrew, I was not shocked to see your story..sorry about your layoff, my family and I have gone through two in the last three years. I have made my living selling consumer goods to mass merchandisers for the last ten years and I go to Bentonville twice a month to call on the buyers of my lines. As a member of this industry I have some knowledge of the chains and what their poicies are. The greeters have a duty to tag merchandise going into the store, but only visual checks on the way out. If you are running out of the store with an entire rack of clothing, a greeter should not lay a hand on you as they are not properly trained to do so. Employee turn over is over 50% at Wal-Mart in an economy hurting for jobs so many employees are new. It sounds as if this greeter was taking their own power trip and I hope you win one for all of us whom have been treated like a common theif trying to spend our hard earned coin in a large chain. I will be going to an industry event with some upper level VP's of Wal-Mart in September and I will make it a point to bring this up to them..I know they will tow the company line, but mabey they will take a look at Miss A's managers and trainers. God Bless,

Last week I called store manager Scott E. and asked if he saw the tape yet. He said that he had, and could not discuss it any longer due to the poss. legal issue involved. He is the same store manager that wasn't even aware that it occured, or that his employee filed against me. I am considering using my right to file charges against Wal-Mart and the assualt I received by their over zealous employee. I went to local court to request a supoena as a previous rebuttal suggested. Thanks, by the way... The supoena was served, but I have not heard whether or not the tape has been secured. I have to file my defense plea this week and will set it for trial. I will update all as soon as we proceed further. If anyone knows a good lawyer who has taken on these kinds of cases and was successful, please leave a rebuttal.

As a former employee of the Wal-Mart company (worked at Sam's Club). I will be the first in line to speak the truth on just how poor Wal-Mart treats their employees and those that shop in their stores. Isn't the best way to communicate your disgust, by taking your business and money else where. Wal-Mart only cares about money and could care less about their employees or the communities in which their boxes are located. There are plenty of other places that you could shop that offer the same prices Wal-Mart does. I would encourage you to file suit against the individual, who is obviously lashing out at you for not accepting her as an authority figure. I would also file suit against Wal-Mart as that seems to be the only communication they understand, also make note of the large team of lawyers that Wal-Mart has on staff to fight all of there lawsuits. I would not be surprised if you attempt to get a copy of that tape and find it was not operating correctly or has been magically erased. Good luck in your fight against Wal-Mart.

Go to the Magistrates office and request a supenoa or to the clerk of courts office. You need to hurry though because those tapes are reused every 30 days. Once you have the tape, you can prove your case and file a case against the person that did this to you. You can file the assault. They can not keep evidence from you. I know I was a loss prevention employee at one time.

Thanks for the first rebuttal Reid. It was so on the money about the 2.00 ice vs. the Playstation systems, audio, dvd, and pc games that probabally leave Wal-Mart all day long right past there noses. In fact, I have several friends that have worked at this location for sometime and heard that less than 3 weeks ago 2 go-carts were stolen from the very front of the store! I verified this when speaking to the store manager yesterday when comparing my ice to the fact that they lost 2 costly go-carts.(Some kids probabally drove off with them to the neighborhood near parking lot.) Well, I still shop there for groceries because I have two kids and they are less expensive. I have bought all my kids Christmas presents there and other various personal items like fishing poles and pc games over the years. I guess that is why I am so upset over all of this. That "Greeter", rather "self proclaimed Wally World Guard" Miss A., did not treat me as a customer, or act like she represented Wal-Mart after she saw the receipt was ripped and started accusing me rather than verifying the facts. She is currently filing assault charges on me for jerking my arm/body away from her when she grabbed hold of me. I inquired about the video and asked if I could see this, when I spoke to store manager, but he said not without a subpoena. He hadn't even bothered to check video after all this suposed research. I told him he ought to have a good look at it himself. I will update more in the future.

Hey Andrew, I hope that this rebuttal finds you in good spirit and health. I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience. This is very common occurance nowadays in larger retail settings, where the employees are poorly trained, inattentive, or not to bright. I recently had to post several rebuttals regarding the same topic on another retail giant "Target", for it seems not only do they blatantly accuse their loyal paying customers of attempting to rip them off, they actually return merchandise that had clearly been paid for back on their shelves. Many believe that retail giants have a quota that their rent-a-cops must meet, in order to make up for all the compnany's lost, due to their rent-a- cops lack of ability to catch and apprehend any real criminals. Like I said, I'm really sorry you had such a hard time getting ice, which cost a whole friggin $2.00, but the company obviously has to make up for all the televisions, playstations, cameras, etc, etc, that walked out their doors, due to their wanna be cop rejects lack of ability to catch any real criminals. Andrew, don't be surprised if and when the shills start coming foward to post ridiculous counters in their defense. As I mentioned earlier, many employees of today's retail giants are underpaid, unhappy, poorly trained, not the sharpest tools in the shed and well, you no the rest. Also, don't be surprised if you never get an apology for this incident. The managers are probably not even going to take it upon themselves to apologize. In their eyes, it's the customers fault for leaving merchandise behind. Sad and unprofessional but very true. The many unacknowledged and unresolved reports, that all share the same scenario, proves this statement true. The only way for businesses to prove this statement to the contrary is for them to start being comfortable resolving any and all of their wrongdoings in the public eye. Until next time, take care Andrew and every one else, Aloha from Hawaii and God Bless.