Incompetence with a side of racism and sexism.
It was my birthday, we were driving to St. Louis to celebrate, when we got a blowout on the freeway. We changed our flat on the side of the road and decided to stop at the O'Fallon Walmart to get a new tire.
Poor service/incompetence
When the man at the counter told us that it would be an hour wait. We told him which tire we wanted and let them know we were heading out to dinner, and that we would be back in an hour. When we returned from dinner at the Panda Express in the parking lot, they told us that we hadn't signed something so they couldn't start the repair. After waiting for another 20 minutes to get the mans attention again, we are passed off to another employee. While we were trying to sign the agreement, he told us that the tire we wanted was not available and we would have to pay for $25 more for another tire that was the only one that would fit our vehicle. Another hour later when we go up to the counter to ask what is going on they tell us that they ordered the wrong tire. We ask if we can just put the donut back on the tire and keep going on our trip to St. Louis because we will miss our plans, they say they already took the tire off the rim. We tell them again which tire we want and sign a new agreement. It takes another 30 minute for them to put on the tire.
Racism and sexism.
The second employee we are passed off to made several comments about the black man that had been helping us being incompetent even though he made mistakes too. He also asked us a battery of questions about where we were going, what we were doing, and asking several times whether or not we would be protesting while in the city of St. Louis. He proceeded to tell us that the reason we were having problems at this particular lube station was because one of the employees "lived in the ghetto and had his house shot up the night before "he followed this by asking us again if we were in the city to protest even though we had already told him that we were in town to celebrate my birthday. He asked us which hotel we were staying at. He told us that there was nothing good in St. Louis. He spoke to my partner disrespectfully. He act shocked when he asked what we do in southern Illinois and we responded that we are both graduate students and teachers at the University. The only time he was proactive about getting our car finished with when the manager was about to be hauled over. When we decided that we would take the second car and wait another 30 minutes he decided that the manager didn't need to be called even though we had asked for them to come.
If you are a straight white dude you might have an ok experience... but otherwise stay the hell away. read more