72 Days And Counting... (Venting)

72 days ago I placed an order with Walmart.com. Nothing big, just something for the Wii. The problem here in Misawa is while we do have an exchange (kind of like a mini department store) here, they don't carry large quantities of anything. They will get in about 15 of one item and that is it for the next 3 months at least. So when you have something popular like the Wii, well the Wii itself, the games and all the controllers seem to go kind of quick. Fine. They have this neat thing called the Internet. I can go with my little mouse and click on things I want to buy. 72 days ago I placed an order with Walmart for a game for my Wii. We have had a problem in the past with something from Walmart taking close to 3 months to get here so this time I paid EXTRA for priority shipping and made a note in the comments section that it had to be sent USPS Priority NOT FedEx Smart Post. Well, they sent it with FedEx. The problem with FedEx and UPS is that it is sent quick to California and then it sits there. All our mail goes first to San Francisco and then goes my Military transport to Japan. If it is USPS Priority it goes first on the mail plane (well, after the important military stuff). If it is standard USPS it goes next. Then there is MPS, or Military Postal Service. Overseas bases can mail to other overseas bases for free (Brandon mailed boxes to himself from Bahrain to Misawa). Everything else (UPS, FedEx, ect.) goes what we call Space "A", or space available LAST. That means it sits there until there is extra room on the plane. It could be 2 weeks, it could be 6 months. No one knows and there is no way to track it.
Walmart.com has the worst Customer Service there is. On their website they list no contact number. When I sent them an email they sent me back an automatic response that did not in any way answer my question or resolve my issue. So I send another email and then another. After about the 4th one I get an actual answer but the lady who responded seemed to be an idiot. She tried to tell me that my box was sent USPS Priority but when you click on the lovely tracking number she gives me...yup, FedEx Smart Post. After about a month of back and forth emails they give me a phone number to call! About time.
When I all the very nice customer service guy tells me there isn't much he can do other than refund my extra I paid for shipping. Walmart.com also requires a US number in their order form and we placed this order before we got Vonage....so we gave a number to one of our folks house back in the states (we have always done this as they NEVER need to call, at least not before). The man informed me that they called the number listed (even though in the notes section I clearly typed that the number listed was not a good contact number and as our only available number at that time was an international number they would need to contact us via email) with no response.
So....I'm still waiting. I can't even cancel my order at this point. I have to wait until it arrives. I think we are going to switch to Target.com or toysrus.com. Everyone else seems to get there stuff quick with them. Oh well.

Lesson Learned: Don't Use Walmart.com If You Want It Any Time Soon