Bad experience with Sam's Club!!

[RG]

I have been a Costco member for years but never had joined Sam's. A few months ago I signed up, they're a lot closer to me than Costco so I figured I'd try it. For the most part I would say I was happy with Sam's, not overly impressed with them mind you, but I liked it enough to return a few times since joining in April of this year. I do think that Costco is MUCH nicer but Sam's is a 15 minute drive and Costco more like 45 to an hour. I will be doing business ONLY with them going forward.

To save myself all of the typing, read my review here : Regular Guy's (Jason) Sam's Club Review

BTW, I am NOT one to typically leave reviews. You've either had to have REALLY pissed me off or REALLY impressed me, no in between. I don't take the time to comment on average service. If it's adequate, then I am fine. If you've exceeded my expectations then I want to share it, also if you've sucked donkey balls, I'm sharing that too! Sam's is the latter.

I can't speak for all Sam's club locations but since this one is what I have access to, I can certainly tell you that it reflects on the entire company as a whole. As a business owner, it boggles my mind that companies can be so short sighted and not appreciate the customer. Their loss, however small it may be.

 

[DivotMaker]

Wow!  Sounds like corporate has some house cleaning to do at that store!  I've shopped at my local Sam's forever (20+ years), and have never had a bad experience, product or customer-service wise!  Maybe the fact that my stores are in corporate's backyard (they're in Bentonville, AR) helps.  I don't know, but I'm sorry to hear about your experience!

 

[RG]

I am an easy guy to get along with, really

Brisket debates excluded that is, lol. We as consumers have grown accustomed to sub par service to the point that it's expected. Any store should allow you to return meat. I offered to bring it back, I froze it in vacuum bags once I split the package up. I was told that was not needed. If the policy was to simply exchange the meat then that's cool but THEY are the ones who said 200% guarantee, not I. I didn't invent it nor implement it. I do expect them to honor THEIR policy on it though. After all, not only was I out of a meal that was to be cooked, I had to take the time to go back to the store to get this handled and clearly it didn't happen. That's why I got corporate involved. That's not my style but today it was. I was on the phone an hour while this got handled. Donna, the lady assisting me was very kind and gracious. After she had gotten approval from her boss to refund my 200% plus the membership fee (cancelled at my request) I asked her if she would call the store with me on the line so as that I could MAKE SURE that this manager lady could hear from the horse's mouth what the policy is, that she IS supposed to know being a manager and all, lol.

As said in the review, we got a different manager on the phone and he never once apologized, he didn't care and it showed. What a shame. Donna was shocked that he didn't apologize, I hope she wrote all of this down in her report. They need better help, and that's putting it mildly. I guess they figured me for a sucker and didn't count on me taking it to this level but I am no one's door mat. If they had done the right thing, I would've been happy and been a customer still. It was very easily averted and I would have much preferred it to have gone as simply as it should've in the first place.

 

[DivotMaker]

Having had many friends who either have, or do, work at the WalMart/Sam's home office, I guarantee your call to Donna will get lots of attention.  One thing they don't tolerate is poor customer service.  I would almost bet $ that the manager Donna had on the phone is no longer a manager.  lol.  Especially when it's known that they lost a new member on their FIRST visit!  Hopefully, they'll get that store in order, and sounds like you may have been just the kick in the pants they needed!  Corporate can't fix a problem they don't see or know about, so hopefully you have done some good!

 

[RG]

It's not my intent to get anyone fired, I just don't want other patrons to go through what I went through. It was not my first visit, I've been a few times since joining in April. I have spent about $600 in 3 visits. Being as unbiased as I can at this point, I can assure you that Costco has far superior meats than Sam's. We noticed that the first time we cooked steaks bought from Sam's. It's not that it is bad, it's just not as good as Costco. I had always heard that Sam's had really good ribs, I guess I'll never know now. Kroger and Restaurant Depot ribs will remain in the rotation from here on out.

 

[DivotMaker]

Being as unbiased as I can at this point, I can assure you that Costco has far superior meats than Sam's.

As I don't have a Costco anywhere remotely close to me, I'll have to take your word for it.  Are they selling bone-in Boston butts yet, or still just boneless?

 

[Libohunden]

I usually get all my briskest at Costco... Better beef!  But get all my pork butts at SAMs... Better pork.  I like both for different reasons. Sorry to hear your SAMs store stinks!

 

[RG]

Being as unbiased as I can at this point, I can assure you that Costco has far superior meats than Sam's.

As I don't have a Costco anywhere remotely close to me, I'll have to take your word for it.  Are they selling bone-in Boston butts yet, or still just boneless?

Still boneless as far as I know. I've never bought them, they aren't the cheapest to be honest. Sam's does have better pricing on pork for sure.

I usually get all my briskest at Costco... Better beef!  But get all my pork butts at SAMs... Better pork.  I like both for different reasons. Sorry to hear your SAMs store stinks!

Yep, it surely does stink. They were soooo close too, that's what made me join to begin with. I guess it wasn't meant to be. I have choices and I choose Costco. I have a BJ's about 3 miles away and I don't even consider them at all. I had a free trial membership. SMALL club, not much selection and they are PROUD of their stuff! I see no benefit joining a club that will not save me but rather cost me more money than what I would normally pay. Seems counter intuitive, lol. I did get a really nice deal on tires from them during the trial membership but other than that, pfffftt. Not worth my time.

 

[RG]

Still stewing over this I went and looked at my bank records, Steph and I have spent a few dollars shy of $700.00 since April at Sam's. Like I said, that's not a lot comparatively speaking but it's enough for them to consider me a good customer.

 

[jcboxlot]

Read the review. I can hear the pain. 

Box stores have their good and bad.  Maybe its a bad manager at the meat dept?  But no excuse for bad treatment on store policy.

I personally try to keep things local.  Butchers and others.


Either one can burn you, but I like the family experience I get from the local meat (well who knows where they get it from too)


Just my opine. 

 

[Libohunden]

I saw several reviews complaining of horrible customer service.  You were definitely not alone. Maybe it's time for SAMs club to start sharpening their axe!

 

[mizzoufan]

Agreed.  I get pretty good service at the local Sam's club and will keep my membership.  Recently moved in with some friends who will switch to Costco when their membership is up soon (no use having 2 Sam's memberships) and I'm seriously considering joining KCBS to get Restaurant Depot access.

But, as I have seen at Walmart when I worked there, one manager can kill a store's reputation with substandard (or non-existant) training on the service part.  I don't blame you for being done with them as that is generally my approach as well.

 

[RG]

Agreed.  I get pretty good service at the local Sam's club and will keep my membership.  Recently moved in with some friends who will switch to Costco when their membership is up soon (no use having 2 Sam's memberships) and I'm seriously considering joining KCBS to get Restaurant Depot access.

But, as I have seen at Walmart when I worked there, one manager can kill a store's reputation with substandard (or non-existant) training on the service part.  I don't blame you for being done with them as that is generally my approach as well.

If you have an RD close to you, by all means do the KCBS thing and start shopping there. It's great to buy good quality meat and some kitchen supplies. I've been going there for years. I've bought butts, ribs, briskets, lamb and some lump crab and it's always good stuff. As far as briskets go, they're the best I've bought and eaten. I buy the Certified Angus Choice packers and it DOES make a difference over just your run of the mill Walmart "Select" grade and even non Angus Choice. The CAB is the way to go. Some locations even carry Prime. I wish mine did but I've never seen it at the 2 that I go to. Atlanta metro actually has 3 RDs now, I haven't been to the new one. Maybe a field trip is in order!

Back to the Sam's thing, I have no doubt that there are good locations, this one is not and it's the only viable one for me to use so it ran its course, it ended badly for me and because of that I'll not ever be a member or set foot in another one. In this day and age, we have options and I'll gladly ditch them and stick with Costco and RD, Sam's was just a convenience thing for me.

 

[mizzoufan]

bah, Hereford is better than Angus as proven by 12 straight years of steak taste tests (and I won't say how many years of personal Hereford experience LOL).  Angus, however, was smart enough to get that CAB program going first and it stuck. 

 

[RG]

You may be right, I don't know because I am telling you about my experience and unfortunately I have none with Hereford. I was just saying that Angus is better than just straight up beef. If money were no object I'd eat Wagyu/Kobe only

 

[SuperDave]

I guess customer service is a lot like car or home insurance, you pay a lot of money and don't know if it is good or bad until you need it.  I'm both a Costco and a Sam's member but have never had any issues with the product that required refunds.  I prefer Costco meat by a good margin.  However, Costco pisses me off on a regular basis by carrying something really good and discontinuing it for no apparent reason.  Next year, when we retire, I'm thinking that I should pick one.  Maybe the opposite of what my neighbor has and we can trade off for each other. 

 

[drains]

Sorry about your bad experience with SAMs club. I promise you that your review will cost them more than the refund you had coming for the bad pork. You did the right thing by holding thier feet to the fire and you are right in that we accept poor service as "normal" these days. There is a restaurant depot in Houston about 120 miles south of me and I think I'll join the bbq club and go see what they got.

 

[RG]

Sorry about your bad experience with SAMs club. I promise you that your review will cost them more than the refund you had coming for the bad pork. You did the right thing by holding thier feet to the fire and you are right in that we accept poor service as "normal" these days. There is a restaurant depot in Houston about 120 miles south of me and I think I'll join the bbq club and go see what they got.

Be prepared to cry for the amount of money you'll be spending on the first trip! As I said in Greg's post, it's like BBQ Disney world!

 

[drains]

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks

 

[mizzoufan]

You may be right, I don't know because I am telling you about my experience and unfortunately I have none with Hereford. I was just saying that Angus is better than just straight up beef. If money were no object I'd eat Wagyu/Kobe only

hey, that'd be living the dream.  I'm actually going to have to try Wagyu one of these days just so I can say I have.  But yeah, CAB is generally better than the non-certified stuff because you can't know what kind of animal it came from (in some instances, even dairy cows)...I'm just jealous because the Hereford association didn't think of it before the damned Angus people.   I might also be a weeeee bit biased having raised herefords growing up until I hit 25 or so and sold all of mine, but the family still raises them.