The story of Joe Cantrell getting banned from Walmart has officially gone viral. I can’t even tell you how many people have emailed or messaged me with concerns that I may get banned from Walmart forever. I can assure you that is not happening any time soon, when I decide I want this all to come to end I may go out in a blaze of glory and get myself banned, but it will be way better than price matching.
I could tell right off the bat after reading the story for the first time a few days that something wasn’t right. You don’t get banned from a store for following a policy or being to good at it, this isn’t a Vegas black jack table. Walmart is an easy target and someone wrote a story for the sake of a story and was simply trying to make headlines, CONGRATS! They succeeded. They would have been better off including a few facts and a lot less fiction, but that is the state of journalism today. The media hates Walmart and this story fits at hitting the big target. “Poor price matching, neck beard Joe gets banned for no reason.” Really people, c’mon man! First of all the cashier called the police and neck beard’s quote is ” Aw shucks, sure I was angry but I didn’t say a word to him, honest I didn’t. Golly gee shucks, I can’t figure out why he called these nice officers”. I smell excrement.
Exerpt from the MSN story:
“When I left, he turned around and called the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and said he felt intimidated and threatened,” Cantrell told WXYZ. “I was upset, but never once did I say anything to the gentleman.”
The former wrestler says he was “handcuffed, humiliated and embarrassed in front of everybody at Wal-Mart,” but the deputies quickly released him.
The customer was released by the cops, who realized Cantrell was not a threat. Nevertheless, he says he’s facing charges of threatening, intimidation and disorderly conduct.
UPDATE: Walmart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan told Gawker the company banned Cantrell for life after he allegedly “threatened the associate’s life” and wrote a Facebook post indicating he would “kick the associate’s butt.”
Here’s what I think I know, but I know I know. He was trying to abuse the Walmart Price Match policy. From his own account he has does it all the time and this time someone told him no and he freaked out. He tried to intimidate them into getting what he wants and he got his sorry ass thrown out of Walmart. I mean seriously, have you been to a Walmart? What kind of a moron do you have to be to get banned from all Walmart stores? I have seen some pretty crazy confrontations, but never anyone banned.
As for the Schlep who wrote this piece of garbage article, “The police let him go when they realized he wasn’t a threat” what a bunch of crap. He was let go because Walmart told the police to let him go once there was an officer present. That is why the ex wrestler with the neck beard was no longer a threat. His article title should have been a lot closer to mine.
I have spoken with officials at Walmart who can’t go on the record. I can assure you that my account is way closer than the reporters. Here is the official Walmart statement if you are interested:
“We make every effort to make sure our customers have a good experience in our stores. As in previous situations, we attempted to work with this customer. However, in this situation, the associate felt unsafe and so we contacted local law enforcement. We are continuing to cooperate with law enforcement on their investigation.”
What do you think?
Note: I do not work for or get compensated by Walmart for anything I say, all opinions are my own.
I guess I’m still left with questions after reading your article. It doesn’t tell me what the man did (same with MSNBC’s article). How was a he a jerk? How do you know he tried this before? How do you know they turned him down because he was not properly ad matching?
I guess if you can’t share the facts, you’re just as bad as the journalist who wrote the article on MSNBC.
The facts are that man is being charged with threatening, intimidation and disorderly conduct. you don’t get those charges by “not saying a word to him”.
Walmart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan told Gawker the company banned Cantrell for life after he allegedly “threatened the associate’s life” and wrote a Facebook post indicating he would “kick the associate’s butt.”
I see both sides of this, mainly because i have had a bad experience attempting to price match a couple of items and the cashier went crazy about being tired of this price match stuff and so on. So a piece of me gets rubbed the wrong way on Walmarts part because of that, but I have to say ultimately he was caught/stopped because of on his own accord hes there 2 times or more a day. When I price match or when I shop at Walmart entirely, i do my best to plan no more then 2 stops to get everything. Generally stop 2 is only because they didnt have something first time around so I go back and see if its stocked yet. Ive found items we could price match just from Walmart to Walmart so prices are going very, its the name of the game. Also, when was the last time we saw the media not amp something up for show….. 🙂 This is an article that makes you go hmmm, and then laugh till your on the floor because the media is up to no good again…. I think they get paid extra for mentioning names like Walmart, P&G and so on, you know names we all know and trust. Just a theroy.
I price match at the walmart in Spring and was told that I couldn’t use my coupons. Because I had a ad and it was a better deal than the store price. I do not shop at Walmart much anymore, because they are so up in the air about there coupon policy.