One More Reason I Hate Wal-Mart

Those who know me probably hear me rail about Wal-Mart from time to time. I avoid it whenever possible. Sometimes it is not possible and I go. Well, I made a mistake the other day and actually CHOSE to go to there. I needed to get the oil changed in my truck. So I pass up two oil change places in my quest to save a few bucks. I pull into the lane at Wal-Mart and there is only one vehicle in front of me. There are however two vehicles getting tires, so that's three vehicles total. There are at least six employees working. A young man comes out and I give him all the requisite information. I ask how long it will take and he is very non-commital. He gives me a slip of paper with a bar code on it and tells me I can check the status at any one of those "check price here" stations. So I take my slip and toddle inside. I mosey around for about 30 minutes, and then decide to locate a check price thing-a-ma-jig. I find one and of course, it can't (or won't) read my little slip of paper. So I go in search of another one. I find one fairly quickly and this one reads my paper. All it reports is "waiting". So I mosey around a little more and head back to the automotive department. I look out the window and see the car that was in front of me is still there. My truck is pulled in the bay with the hood up, but there is no one working on it. There is no one working on the car that is in front of my truck. So I sit down on one of the several benches they have for customers and proceed to play a game on my cell phone. After 15 minutes or so, I have another look-see. Hallelujah! there is someone working on my vehicle, it won't be long now. So I sit back down and do nothing. After another 15 minutes I look again. Sure enough, there is my truck with the hood up, and no one doing anything. Good Grief. By now it has been almost one hour since I put that little slip of paper in my pocket. I wait patiently. Finally an employee comes in carrying my keys and places them in a little plastic box. It's finished, it's been and hour and a half. So I pay my bill, having saved a scant five dollars, but wasted an hour for that five dollar savings. Wait.....it gets better. So I go out to my truck, and as I leave the Wal-Mart parking lot, I smell the distict aroma of oil burning. Then out of the corner of my eye, I see a wisp of smoke. I look again, and smoke is billowing from my engine compartment. What the heck? I get to a place where I can pull over. I open the hood of my truck to make sure they replaced the cap and I wasn't spewing engine oil all over. They had replaced the cap, but apparently spilled oil all over my engine during the oil change. I get back in the truck and endure the burning oil and billowing smoke until I get where I was going. So there's my Wal-Mart saga. I think next time I will pull into the Quick Lube and be done with it.