[ComfortEagle]

This is going to be a long story but I wanted to put a warning out there to anyone who has bought a car battery from Wal-Mart and get some suggestions on what you all think I should do to proceed.

Here goes:

Tuesday morning I had a day off of work. It was about time for a hair cut, so I was going out during the day when I knew there wouldn't be much of a wait. I walked out to my car, put the key in and click-click-click-click. Car wouldn't turn over. My car was parked on a hill and I knew I was getting low on gas, but didn't think I was that low. Nevertheless, I went and got 2 gallons of gas, thinking I had just run out. Put that in the car and same thing happens. So I jumpstart the car and it works fine. I leave it running for about 30 minutes to charge the battery back up and decided before I went to get my hair cut I'd stop and fill the tank up with gas.

After filling up, I go to start my car and it's dead. Not even a click out of it. So now I'm stuck at the gas pump and no other cars around. I called over to work, who was just across the street and got someone to come over and give me a jump. Luckily, someone was free and they came over to jump it. Car starts up and then dies after about 5 minutes. So we jump again, car starts up and dies after approx. another 5 minutes. Since something was obviously wrong, I had to call a tow truck to come out and tow the car across the street to Goodyear. That was a $50 tow bill.

I know the guys at Goodyear, trust them, they've worked on my car before, and our business works with them daily, so I know this place does go work and they're legitimate. They told me they'd look at it and see what's going on and give me a call once they've figured something out. About 45 minutes later I get a call from Goodyear. They've determined that my car battery (which I had purchased from Wal-Mart a little less than a year ago) was defective and that in turn also caused my alternator to go bad. So now, I'm looking at a new battery and a new alternator.

I told them to go ahead with the alternator, but to let me take the battery back to Wal-Mart since it had a 3-year warranty on it and they should replace it. I also asked them if the defective battery is definitely what caused the alternator to go bad and they said they couldn't be 100% certain, but that it was the most likely cause.

So I get the old battery and head up to Wal-Mart. When I got there I asked for someone who could help me exchange the battery since it was defective. The guy at the desk said he would get a manager. I waited 20 minutes for a manager to show up because he was apparantly on his break. When he finally showed up, and this guy had a sparking personality...:eyeroll: he hooked up a voltmeter or something and tested the battery. He told me that the battery was testing good. I was a little shocked and told him that I had just come from Goodyear and they were saying it was defective. He said he couldn't do anything for me since it was testing good.

So I call Goodyear back and the guy who had been working on my car explained that the battery was indeed defective, that it may test good right now because it had been bumped around and shaken up, but if it sat for any extended period of time, it would test bad. So I went back in and explained this to the "manager" I had been speaking to before. It later turns out this guy was not a manager, even though he had said he was. This guy tells me that I don't know anything about batteries and that it's impossible for a battery to read good on a voltmeter and be defective. He said it will either read good or read bad and they weren't going to replace a perfectly good battery.

So I call Goodyear back and the service manager there says that Wal-Mart was being ridiculous and if they knew anything about batteries, they would know what was going on. So he offers to call Wal-Mart and speak with them. The guy at Goodyear spends 45 minutes on the phone with Wal-Mart, talking to 3 or 4 different people and explaining the situation. He told them that the battery was defective, explained how the plates inside were deteriorating and when the battery sat, the lead particles would settle to the bottom and that's what was causing the problem. He also told them, they believed this battery is what caused my alternator to go bad and they would not put the old battery back in my car because they knew it would eventually kill the new alternator.

At this point, the real manager comes to the desk. He doesn't say a word to me, instead he goes and gets a new battery and has the guy at the desk start the exchange process. The whole time, they're making smart--- comments about how they were replacing a perfectly good battery. After sitting there for over an hour, my temper was getting short so I interrupted and told the guy, "Look, if you want to write up and sign a paper saying this old battery won't cause my new alternator to blow, then by all means, do so and I'll have them put the old battery in and in 3 days when the new alternator goes, I'll be back here to get a new battery and payment for my new alternator."

The guy just looked at me and went ahead exchanging the battery. I was given a new battery and receipt and the manager started to walk off, then turned around and came back to me and asked what exactly had happened. I explained to him that I bought this battery less than a year ago, it was defective, I had to have my car towed to Goodyear, at which point they determined the battery was defective, it had ruined my alternator, and now I'm paying roughly $300 to get this fixed. The manager just looked at me, said "ok," turned his back to me and walked away.

This really pissed me off because the whole time they're acting like I'm some kind of idiot and then have no apologies for their product causing $300 worth of damage to my car.

I went back to Goodyear and they got everything installed and the car has been working perfectly ever since. I tried calling back in to Wal-Mart to speak with someone about the poor customer service I had received and specifically asked to speak with someone other than the manager I had dealt with before since he was rude. After holding for 5 minutes, who do they put on the line? The guy I had specifically asked not to speak with. I said I wasn't dealing with him anymore and here I am today wondering what to do, if anything.

Should I go after Wal-Mart for the damage to the alternator as well? At the very least I have contacted them via writing to explain the poor customer service that was received, but this is a bigger issue if Wal-Mart is selling products that are causing damage to people's vehicles.