Sam's Club Finds New Way to Stick it to the Customer

[Wade Garrett]

At least in my area, when you do an online order from Sam's Club and want to pick it up from the local club store, unless you're a Plus Member, they tack on a $4.00 "Pickup Fee" that purports to be for Curbside Pickup. No option to just go into the store and pick it up.

I online-ordered a $150 item and when I went to the store later to pick it up, I saw the exact same one on the store shelf for the same price as online, less the pickup fee. I bought one, stopped by the pickup counter on the way out and cancelled the online order.

The guy asked me why I was cancelling and I told him that a no-option pickup fee was a ripoff, pissed me off and that I probably wouldn't be ordering much online until they got rid of the fee.

He confided that he heard that a dozen times a day from mad customers. His best guess was gone by Black Friday!

Hello Costco!

[Ed Pawlowski]

OK, let me understand. You want them to go around the store, gather all the items on your order, pack them, bring them to your car and do it for free. And charge you the lowest possible price.

I imagine they have volunteers rather than paid employees to do that extra work.

[danny burstein]

[snip of tale of their "pick up outside" fee]

Another annoyance:

I tried using one of Sam's gift/cash cards to purchase gasoline. It turns out that... you NEED to insert a membership card first.

(Which I didn't have with me).

So you can't simply give your bf or m-i-l a cash card to fill up the car.

[Expletive deleted garbage mode]

Costco does NOT mandate this nonsense.

[rbowman]

It might be a little different situation but the local Ace didn't have a deck box I wanted so I ordered it online. They emailed me when it arrived, I went over, and a guy brought me the box, no extra fees.

They do offer curbside as well as in-store since covid. Never used it so I don't know if there is a charge.

There isn't a local Sam's but they pissed me off years ago. I delivered a load of mattresses. I was going to take a bike ride while they unloaded but I noticed I had a flat. I asked if I could buy a tube but no dice if I wasn't a member. I walked across to another mini-mall, bought the tube, took my ride, and put Sam on my shit list. There is no expiration date for items on my shit list.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Buying one item may annoy me but the $4 charge applies to people that order 20 or 30 items as well. Takes a bit of time to gather up all of that. Perhaps he would feel different if he ordered lunch. Everyone knows "there is no free lunch"

[micky]

It did surprise me that Home Depot and the supermarkets would pick for free, but this was during the worst of Corona and they were desperate for customers. (Well, for purchasers. They may have been happy that customers didnt' come into the stores.)

I don't know if they ae still doing the shopping for free or not. I think HD is.

[trader_4]

I like that Sams makes you check out twice, once at the register, then again at the door where they look at you like you're a criminal. At least Costco only takes a quick look, check maybe one thing. Sams here goes over every damn thing again. I only have a membership there because it was free for a year.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I tried Wal-Mart's pickup service once. It went well, and I got an item I didn't order (a 5-pound bag of shredded cheese). I called the store and was told to keep it. Most of it went to a friend's dog.

As to corona, in 2020 a couple of larger stores around here did a few things to keep customers apart. They had reserved one door for entrance only and the other doors for exit only, and had some one-way aisles. These things didn't last long. I know Kroger still has the big pieces of plexiglass to keep people from sneezing on the checker.

I know of only 2 places in this town where masks are still required. The hospital and post office.

The number of people sick with CoViD is going down, but is still more than twice that in April 2020.

[zall]

Two of our supermarket majors do, and one of them even has an extra discount for click and collect every second week as well currently.

Presumably to get you to use their supermarket instead of the discount supermaket that doesn't do that like Aldi.

[Wade Garrett]

No, I want an option to pickup the order in the store and not get charged a junk fee. It the same crap banks and airlines pull-- they nickle and dime you to death.

The cost of getting my item to the pickup desk is part of their G&A (General and Administrative Expense) that every business has. Am I supposed to pay a junk fee for their janitor, parking lot cart collector, air conditioning maintenance guy, light bulb changer?

It's part of the cost of being in business!

[micky]

We should charge for those 4 things too. I think you got me a big raise.

Michael (Micky) Harrison III, Marketing VP, Sam's Club.

And I think my stock position in Sam's will increase too. Thank you.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Not doing it for free is part of being able to sell a low prices. How much was the item in other places? What about people that order 20 or

30 items? That takes time.

Discount seller don;t often offer the same services full price stores do. If you were a premium member, it would have been waived. That is a choice.

[Wade Garrett]

It's a disingenuous way of doing business-- chicken-sh## junk fees. The airlines these days are the most egregious. Have you bought a plane ticket lately?

The dangled fare is maybe like $200. Then come the add-ons for seat selection, exit window seat, printed boarding pass, advance boarding order, checked bags, carry-on bags, food, soft drinks, not sitting in steerage, airport landing fees etc., etc. By the time they get through, your Amex gets nicked for $375.

[Cindy Hamilton]

And that's still amazingly cheap.

[micky]

I didn't go to Europe until I was 42. They called it "the trip of a lifetime" so I figured you could only go once.

The last trip the RT fare was 800 but if you wanted to check a second suitcase, that was 100 extra each way. If I didn't have to change planes, I would have dragged it with me but I paid the 100. On the way back, they didn't charge me.

I wanted to delay my return by 2 weeks but to change the reservation was going to cost $1000 to 1200, just for the return. (No fee to change; that was the difference in fare.) That was in June. Everyone who coudln't travfel for 2 years wanted to travel then, is my theory. Now the price is down to 800 RT again, well from NYC, somewhat more from Baltimore. Even with the high price of fuel.

[Wade Garrett]

Such a marvelous gift- being able to totally miss the key point. I'm guessing you must be a blonde...

[micky]

I'm not objecting to the blonde joke. Cindy can take care of herself.

But I thought a third opinion would be helpful. She did respond to your main point. She's saying it doesn't matter because airfares are so much cheaper than they used to be. If they want to bill that way, they're entitled to. And this way I only pay for the options I want. If I want to save money, I let them seat me anywhere they want.

Also I think airport landing fees have to be itemized by law, or they want to itemize them so you'll know that much of the fare is not their fault. Unlike your other items, they're not optional, unless you want to ride on a plane that doesn't land. (You can find them on the dark web.)

[hah]

On 10/5/22 23:11, micky wrote: [snip]

Or use a trebuchet