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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Walmart 'Services' Another Customer |
Current rating: 0 |
by Matt Gergeni
(No verified email address) |
27 Mar 2002
Modified: 28 Mar 2002 |
GENESEO, IL -- How much is freedom worth?
According to a 73-year-old Geneseo woman, employees at the Geneseo Wal-Mart store apparently felt that 50 cents was too high a price to pay after she became stuck in a Dispatch/Argus vending machine Wednesday evening in front of their store. |
GENESEO, IL -- How much is freedom worth?
According to a 73-year-old Geneseo woman, employees at the Geneseo Wal-Mart store apparently felt that 50 cents was too high a price to pay after she became stuck in a Dispatch/Argus vending machine Wednesday evening in front of their store.
However, officials at Wal-Mart's corporate office in Bentonville, Ark., say store employees were merely following company policy by not tampering with the machine.
The woman, who has asked that her name not be used, said she stopped at the local store around 5:30 Wednesday evening to pick up some prescriptions from the store pharmacy.
While on her way into the store, a headline on the paper in the vending machine caught her attention, serving as bait for the trap that lay ahead.
As she reached into the vending machine to grab her paper, the spring-loaded door slipped from under her elbow, which she was using to hold it open, and slammed shut, trapping the strings from the hood of her jacket in the now locked machine.
She was unable to remove her coat to free herself because of a past surgery on her shoulder.
``It was kind of scary at first,'' she said. ``I tried to pull them (the strings) out of the machine but the little metal balls on the ends just wouldn't come out.''
Much to her dismay, the normally busy entrance of the store was deserted at that moment in time.
``I was stuck there for a while until some little gal came by and asked if everything was all right,'' she said.
Like a Girl Scout out to do a good deed, the young woman went to the store's service desk expecting to find someone that could help. Instead she was informed that store has a strict policy against tampering with the machines.
``When she came back she said that the woman there said that there wasn't anything that she could do since the machine wasn't theirs,'' the woman said.
An assistant manager at the Geneseo store declined to comment on the matter Thursday, saying she had not been notified of the incident. A spokesperson from the company's corporate headquarters later called the incident an unfortunate accident.
Having been trapped, hunched over the paper machine for more than five minutes at this point, the woman said that she was beginning to become angry.
``The store woman poked her head out the door and said that she was calling someone from The Dispatch to come and let me out,'' she said. ``I told her I just wanted someone to come and put some quarters in the thing and that's when she told me that they weren't responsible for making refunds for the machine.''
Since the newspaper she had purchased before becoming trapped in the machine was still in her hands, the elderly woman said she tried to explain that a refund was the farthest thing from her mind.
Becoming angrier as each minute slipped by, the woman said she finally decided enough was enough.
``When the woman from the store came back out to tell me that she hadn't been able to get anyone from The Dispatch on the phone yet, I told her that if she would just put some money in the machine I would pay her back as soon as I could get some change,'' the woman said.
After nearly 20 minutes of being trapped by the machine, the woman said she was relieved when the employee finally agreed to place two quarters in the machine freeing her hood strings from the door.
``I was beginning to wonder if anyone was ever going to get me out of the thing,'' the she said.
The woman's daughter later returned to the scene of her mother's predicament giving the store's rule minded employee a five-dollar bill in order that the next ten people who get more than just their attention caught by the newspaper headlines could be released in a more timely manner.
Sharon Weber, a public relations officer from Wal-Marts corporate office said that it was all a very unfortunate incident.
``This is not how we do business,'' Mrs. Weber said. ``The store manager will be getting in touch with the woman to offer an apology for how the matter was handled and will do anything that he can to make it up to her.''
Copyright 2002, Moline Dispatch Publishing Co.
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See also:
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well duh |
by anyman
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
28 Mar 2002
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That's when you slip out of your jacket and go into the store.
Still, it would be much more fun if she and her daughter had put the machine in her car and driven it to the cop shop. =) |
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Just to note... |
by Michael Feltes
mfeltes (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
28 Mar 2002
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"She was unable to remove her coat to free herself because of a past surgery on her shoulder."
According to Bill Cook, the same sort of thing happened to him when he was arrested at the Assembly Hall and they tried to pull his arms behind his back. His arm just didn't bend that way; they called it resisting arrest. |
