Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

[Luca9]

I brought in some discs (with my pre-printed list) to the Union Avenue Branch in Tacoma Washington ... not only do the employees refuse to convert them, they refuse to even try.

The employee at the photo station refused my request. When asked for an explanation, he simply stated "we don't do that here, try another store". I called later, asked for a manager and a "shift manager" (female) gave me the same answer - she refused to give her name. Have made several calls since, nobody will provide a real answer for this.

Came in a second time on another day, same response, same refusal. This branch, it's employees and it's management are not representing Walmart and not representing Vudu, forget trying to convert your discs here, and don't bother trying to find relief by going up the chain of command.

[morfiend]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

in a similar situation to you, i live in rather large city, all the walmarts within 20 miles of me have been useless when it comes to d2d. its my understanding there is one on the opposite side of the beltway (about 25 miles from me) that will still do D2D for my area.

vudu doesn't really have a contingency plan for local walmarts that are going out of their way to not support d2d. about the only workable solution i've found is trying the alternative programs from cinemanow and flixster. and the flixster support situation on d2d is beyond bad.

as i watch fewer new titles coming out with UV support, older titles with UV not being reissued, and walmart support for vudu being lukewarm to hostile in store - i wonder how long this digital system is going to last. i really do love it uv and vudu, but the infrastructure seems to be falling in some critical spots more and more often. on the current path 2017? 2018?

[E55KEV]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

Call 1-800-Walmart and complain. Often you get a free gift card. Of course amounts may vary.

[Popcorn]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

as i watch fewer new titles coming out with UV support, older titles with UV not being reissued, and walmart support for vudu being lukewarm to hostile in store - i wonder how long this digital system is going to last. i really do love it uv and vudu, but the infrastructure seems to be falling in some critical spots more and more often. on the current path 2017? 2018?

Boo hiss boo!!! Just joking, but I just hoped on board in the last two months in converting movies and already have dropped a good chunk of change (strike that and make it several dollars actually).

[sirmikael]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

Call 1-800-Walmart and complain. Often you get a free gift card. Of course amounts may vary.

This is the best answer you'll find. I'm sure Walmart corporate wants to know when one of their stores isn't following protocol. You'll be surprised at what a phone call can do.

[MattO]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

as i watch fewer new titles coming out with UV support, older titles with UV not being reissued, and walmart support for vudu being lukewarm to hostile in store - i wonder how long this digital system is going to last. i really do love it uv and vudu, but the infrastructure seems to be falling in some critical spots more and more often. on the current path 2017? 2018?

I have serious doubts about those first two claims, but the D2D problems are undeniable. Don't take that as a measure of UV's health, though. You can have a perfectly fine digital ecosystem without it - just look at iTunes. It's floundering because it barely got used, even in its heyday.

But yeah, I'd rat that store out to corporate. That's crazy.

[Gnatevil]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

Call while at the store. Have the manager present so you can make sure they know what is about to happen to their little world. Corporate doesn't like it when they can't take someones money and they really hate it when their own stores makes it hard to take peoples money.

[olarmy96]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

I faced a similar situation recently at a Super Wal-mart in Austin. After months of no fixes in the at-home D2D, I finally decided to take in all the movies that wouldn't convert for my first in-store experience.

Things started off poorly. First, I was told that don't do it at that store because their system is down. The clerk explained that she had tried to help someone else, and they never got their movies.

I had 25+ in my box, so I suggested that we try a couple as a test run. She reluctantly agreed, but warned me that's she'd have to stamp/deface my discs. I figured that I needed to at least test this out, so I agreed and picked two movies for her to try. The process worked, and I was charged. However, she didn't want to do the rest until I made sure that they had gone through.

By the time I walked back out to my truck, I was able to see the 2 new movies in my account via the Vudu app on my phone. So, I marched back in to do the rest. She didn't seem happy to see me. However, another younger, gentleman stepped-in this time and seemed familiar with the process. He completed the rest no problem, as all were already in the D2D list that I created. They couldn't find the stamp, so my discs were not defaced either.

In the end I was happy, once I was working with an employee familiar with the system who seemed to care about customer service. The moral of the story: YMMV when it comes to the employees themselves - keep trying.

[sirmikael]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

^ Correct! Just keep calm, don't be a dick, but let them know it can be done, and you'll wait for them to find someone, or you can call Vudu to help them.

Persistence is key.

[Luca9]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

in a similar situation to you, i live in rather large city, all the walmarts within 20 miles of me have been useless when it comes to d2d. its my understanding there is one on the opposite side of the beltway (about 25 miles from me) that will still do D2D for my area.

vudu doesn't really have a contingency plan for local walmarts that are going out of their way to not support d2d. about the only workable solution i've found is trying the alternative programs from cinemanow and flixster. and the flixster support situation on d2d is beyond bad.

as i watch fewer new titles coming out with UV support, older titles with UV not being reissued, and walmart support for vudu being lukewarm to hostile in store - i wonder how long this digital system is going to last. i really do love it uv and vudu, but the infrastructure seems to be falling in some critical spots more and more often. on the current path 2017? 2018?

You're right, there are some stores (and managers) who are hostile toward Disc-to-Digital ... and some just stupid or lazy. It's a shame, because when it works it is fantastic!

[Luca9]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

Call 1-800-Walmart and complain. Often you get a free gift card. Of course amounts may vary.

I called Walmart a few days later, and gave them a calm & detailed report, they said they'd call back with a resolution and information.

[Luca9]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

This is the best answer you'll find. I'm sure Walmart corporate wants to know when one of their stores isn't following protocol. You'll be surprised at what a phone call can do.

I believe the company itself is earnest, and does want / need to know what's going on, on the "front lines". I did call a few days after my latest attempt, they took all the information I had, still waiting to hear back.

[Wulf0123]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

Honestly I'd rather people at Walmart just say they don't do it. On three separate occasions at three separate Walmarts I've tried to the do d2d at a Walmart and it's just absolutely terrible. In fact at one they completely screwed up my e-mail so I had to e-mail support to even get my movies.
On all occasions no employee really had a clue on what they were doing. It was like a 30 minute process, which should only take 5 seconds. But I'd rather the employees to have just said, sorry we can't do that here. Than oh let me try to do something that nobody knows anything about and nobody has been trained for.

[rdodolak]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

It appears Luca9 has since been banned from this forum. I'm not sure of the reason for this but hopefully it's not for asking a question regarding a problem they had at WM.

[MaxH]

Re: Walmart Store in Tacoma WA Refuses to Convert Disc To Digital

It appears Luca9 has since been banned from this forum. I'm not sure of the reason for this but hopefully it's not for asking a question regarding a problem they had at WM.

No, they used some really NC-17 language about another user in another thread. That post has been deleted, so I'm guessing that that post was the reason. Plenty of other people have discussed issues with D2D at their local Walmart stores on these forums and are still here, so I'm not sure why that would even occur to you.