I’ve had a Sam’s Club card since birth I think. Maybe not that long but for probably 20+ years. I’m not knocking Sam’s Club. I wish we had one here in our town. I’m just sharing a comical experience we’ve had with them, though it isn’t so comical if we ever want to shop at Sam’s again.
When I worked for an attorney in Lake Charles, he had a business account and the three of us who worked in his office all had Sam’s Club memberships. Even after I left there and moved to Kentucky, John continued to renew my card. Not long before we left Kentucky, a Sam’s Club opened up in our town and for Vince to get a card, we had to get our own membership. Chad was 15 at the time. That’s important to remember. Chad is almost 25 so I guess we’ve had that card for about 10 years.
We renew the card. We pay for the card. The cards say I’m the primary member . . it has my name and my picture. Big as Texas on the front, my card says “Primary Card Holder” or something like that. Vince has his own card with his name and picture. Chad does not have a Sam’s card. Remember that! He isn’t on our account and even though he works for Wal-Mart and could probably get a deal on a card, he just never has done it.
Since moving here, we’ve had to renew our card and we did that at the Abilene store. Recently we were going to order something online and tried to set up a username and password and we couldn’t do it. We called customer service (and I use that term very, very loosely!). They said “Well, you cannot set up an account because Chad is the primary card holder and he’s the only one who can do it.” Huh? Chad doesn’t have a card. Where did you get that? They don’t have a clue. But really, they can’t talk to me because I’m not the primary holder.
They wanted Chad to come in to the store . . the closest store to Chad is in Joplin, 50 miles away from his house. We finally talked to someone who would listen. They showed that when the business account was opened 10 years ago, it was opened by Chad . . who was 15 at the time and had no business and still doesn’t. They show my birthday. They said they had to talk to Chad. I had Chad call them. They wanted answers to all the secret questions but they were all my questions and Chad didn’t know the answer so they would no longer talk to Chad.
Now they tell me that neither Vince or Judy can shop at Sam’s and our cards are no longer valid, even though we paid for a membership which has not expired and only Chad, who doesn’t have a Sam’s card, can shop at Sam’s.
I think how this all started is that once probably 5 or 6 years ago, I ordered something from Sam’s while at the store in Joplin and had it sent to Chad. That’s the only thing I can think of because otherwise, how would they even know his name?
I find it so funny when you can’t talk to anyone who will listen to reason. It truly doesn’t matter to me because I don’t care if we ever shop at Sam’s again and we only had a few months left on our membership. But, I just can’t believe they have my birthday, my address . . I even asked the guy to ask me one of the secret questions, he did and I answered correctly but no . . I am not the primary card holder. We don’t have a Sam’s here and when we do go to Abilene, there are so many other places to go but if we do get to Sam’s, I guess we’ll just go in and start a whole new account if we want one.
Is that not the weirdest story?
Kay Sorensen says
Chances are the people who work there are the same people who work for DirecTV!
I get the same run around every time I call.
Jan says
Just a thought, but if you post this on Facebook, someone from Sam’s may see it and contact you to resolve the situation. Most large corporations have a higher level customer service team that trolls social media to find stories of poor customer service about their company. I got a similar type of crazy-ness resolved with Dish that way. You have to wonder how things can get that screwed up.
loralie says
It’s funny because it happened to you & not me….
And your title says it all: Sometimes there’s just no explanation.
Good luck in getting it all sorted out.
Toni in TN says
Our Sam’s story started back in the late 80’s when Sam’s offered a free lifetime membership to all military,active duty and retired. Well, we get transferred to Maine where there wasn’t one near us. Soon incoming neighbors tell us that Sam’s no longer honors those memberships. Total shock. Could not believe that. Sure ‘nuf it was true. I haven’t shopped at a Sam’s since ’92.
Bon says
Sounds reasonable to me. LOL Sometimes you just gotta scratch your head and wonder.
Marsha B says
How frustrating! We just changed insurance companies for one of your vehicles becasue of something like this. Last year when the renewal came, it was in my husbands name only. This year when it came, he paid the renewal, then was looking at it a few weeks later. It lists him and his ex-wife on the policy. They have been divorced for almost nine years. The vehicle was purchased two years ago under both of our names. Where they dug up their information on the policy, we don’t know. To top it off, when he called to have them correct their error and take her name off, they said they needed a notorized letter from her requesting to be removed and a copy of their divorce decree before they would remove it. Now, they made the error and listed her in the first place but we would have to jump through hoops to get it removed and correct their error! Well, a new insurance company was contacted and the vehicle is covered under them. Now, to cancel the policy, they demanded the notorized letter and the copy of divorce decree to cancel the policy, too. That was all sent in and we are now awaiting notification the old policy is cancelled and a refund of the premium we paid. It’s been three weeks so far! ! ! I am amazed at the companies who don’t want to provide good customer service. Like you said, there are lots of other places to shop!
Marion Morgan says
You can only hope this stops with Sam’s Club and they don’t transfer information. I’ve seen that happen.
Margarita W says
I just have to say this
“And these people breed”
Linda (Petey) says
This thought makes me shudder!
Linda says
We had issues with Sam’s Club last winter getting our annual membership renewal. We were charged twice and could prove it, but they didn’t have anyone who could straighten it out. Unbelievable! What a hassle.
Lyn says
Maybe you should FAX them a copy of your Sam’s card, with your picture and name on the front. Then you can tell them to cancel your card and send you a check for the months left on your card!
Lyn
tammy says
sounds like sam’s club employees took the same training as best buy employees…
Denise Fischer says
The same thing happened to us with Costco! My daughter in a distant city became the primary member according to Costco, even though she has her own membership under her married name.
We got it fixed but it was difficult.
terri says
I wonder. . . Since this card is Chad’s, do you have his permission to talk about HIS card? Lol, makes me feel relieved that it happens to others and not just me. 🙂
FrancesB says
Get a Costco card instead –Costco is way better than Sam’s Club anyway. Crazy story.
Dawn says
unfortunately stories like this are becoming more and more common.we had an ATM issue where the machine gave us $25 EXTRA. we went into bank, said call this number. called let them know. they PUT $25 MORE in our account! called them back. oh, so sorry for the mess. we will fix. They PUT ANOTHER $25 in our account! that is now $75 that is NOT MINE! couldnt get it fixed so quit calling before they arrested me for stealing!
Michelle says
that’s ridiculous. Can you tell Chad the answers to your secret questions and get him to put stuff straight?
carolyn says
Crazy stuff! I ordered something on line and somehow the BILLING address was changed to where I wanted it shipped to!!!! and then they shipped it to me instead! Truely weird stuff. mostly a typsit error!
Debi McIntosh says
These sort of things drive me mad – my girlfriend (not a partner) at work does all the banking, bills and everything but when their mastercard was compromised they wouldn t talk to her – they needed to talk to her husband – who has never paid a bill or used an ATM i n his life!!! Beaurocrats!!
Mary in VA says
maybe you should sic the Dominiques on them! Good luck sorting this one out. I’ve been in a similiar situation and it is very frustrating when a company makes a change and doesn’t notify you. At least you have a sense of humor about it~!
Hilary McDaniel says
Our single mindedness waitstaff . I encounter this mentality all the time. Now, are all service jobs no education required? Geez, can’t they just use common sense? I don’t shop any of Sam Walton’s org. I despise how he changed the landscape of our small communities. There are very few Mom and Pop places left because of Walmart and the likes of those giants. I’ll pay more for American made and small company. I’m tired of Big Business. They treat us just like you got from SAMs. They act like its our “privilege ” to shop there. Are they serious?
Kris Jacobson says
Don’t you just love it! My husbands uncle passed away some months ago and my husband is the execetor of the will. We got a medicare bill that we had questions on. When my husband called they said they couldn’t talk to him, only to the patient. When they were informed that the patient had died and he was the executor my husband was informed that there records do no show that the patient passed away. So the bill was thrown in the garbage and we have not heard from them since!
Linda Steller says
OY!
Terri says
Sounds like Circuit City – they put themselves out of business with their “customer service” which isn’t. Same with Montgomery Wards – which we always called Monkey Wards.
I’m wondering if Chad ever got the item you had them ship to him? Someone in data entry didn’t fill in the correct computer field. This is how stuff gets messed up.
Sophie says
I have a similar catch-22 situation with Sam’s Club and cannot bu anything online. My online account is screwed up because when I lived in Dallas, I had a Sam’s Pharmacy account and even though I know from working with them in the past, WAL*MART and Sam’s Club are technology leaders and have really smart techies … they haven’t been able to solve this problem for me for more than a year. About a month ago, I talked to a customer service “manager” who promised it would be fixed in 24 hours. It wasn’t the first time I had been made this promise … and it wasn’t the first time that, instead of buying some big-ticket item from Samsclub.com, I ended up buying what I needed (or, wanted) from someone else because the problem was not resolved. Sam’s Club is the ONLY big box store in Santa Fe, but I’m not sure I’ll be renewing my membership.
Robin F. says
I hate Sams Club anyway but their customer service is really NOT! I had the same problem with T-mobile when my mom passed. We called to let them know that the account should be canceled. They said they would have to speak to “L”. We explained that they would need a psychic for that since she had died. They still wouldn’t cancel so we gave up and told them- no more money for you dummies!
Marcia says
We’ve run into difficulties with AT&T! We decided on U-Verse a few months ago, including cell phones for 4. They mixed everything up and now send bills to us for “Daisy” who lives in Alabama, as I understood from one of the many people I have talked with. The problem is still a problem after 3 1/2 months!