Walmart online oil order weirdness

[hank2]

I've been buying most of my motor oil online from Walmart for several years. With the free shipping for an order over $35., it saves me from a 26 mile round trip through crazed traffic. It had always been shipped Fed Ex Home delivery ( ground). Almost always packed in one carton, even with mixed brands, weights, sizes. I just got a shipping email for an oil order I placed two days ago. One 5 qt. jug of auto oil, an extra qt. of the same, and three qts. of motorcycle oil. All the same brand.

The tracking no.'s showed 5 different shipments, one for each individual bottle of oil. All UPS! All shipped from the same Tx. location. It's not world news, but I can't believe that it wasn't packed in one box that would hold a typical 3-5qt jug shipment. Also, UPS has to got to be pricier "free" shipping than Fed Ex ground. Especially on shipments travelling over 1500 miles. No skin off me, but I just found it to be very strange. Staff problems or no one in charge?

 

[ZeeOSix]

Walmart probably loosing money with inefficient shipping logistics like that.

 

[wdn]

Walmart are masters of logistics, so much so they are taught in business schools worldwide. What will probably happen is your shipment will show up in as few cartons as they can get it to fit, probably one carton. The only difference will be if one of the items comes from a different warehouse. Tracking numbers can be combined under one master tracking number or marked as duplicates.

 

[eljefino]

Sometimes amazon will put a small trinket in a huge box because that box serves as "padding" for the game of tetris that is packing the truck or container. WM could have the same logistic tricks. Of course you could be seeing WM selling at a loss b/c they are aggressively pursuing Amazon so WM doesn't wind up the next Sears.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by wdn
What will probably happen is your shipment will show up in as few cartons as they can get it to fit, probably one carton. The only difference will be if one of the items comes from a different warehouse.


If he rec'd (5) tracking numbers, there are (5) individual packages being delivered. The tracking info will have the details of the # of items, weight of each, etc. In this particular case, this is an extremely poor example of training or possibly just an employee being an a** ! I realize they might have a cardboard box that fits all of the items or if they did, it may be a lot larger than necessary. That's not ideal either because all of the small package carriers now use dimensional weight if it's greater than physical weight (that large, mostly empty box takes up more and valuable space so they effectively penalize shippers for doing that).

 

[Onetor]

Doesn't surprise me! WallyWorld. I wish they would treat their employees better. *Not pertaining to this post.

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted by Onetor
Doesn't surprise me! WallyWorld. I wish they would treat their employees better. *Not pertaining to this post.

But you still just had to slip that in, right?

 

[SZR48207]

Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by wdn
What will probably happen is your shipment will show up in as few cartons as they can get it to fit, probably one carton. The only difference will be if one of the items comes from a different warehouse.


If he rec'd (5) tracking numbers, there are (5) individual packages being delivered. The tracking info will have the details of the # of items, weight of each, etc. In this particular case, this is an extremely poor example of training or possibly just an employee being an a** ! I realize they might have a cardboard box that fits all of the items or if they did, it may be a lot larger than necessary. That's not ideal either because all of the small package carriers now use dimensional weight if it's greater than physical weight (that large, mostly empty box takes up more and valuable space so they effectively penalize shippers for doing that).


Not necessarily. They may have a system that automatically generates a tracking number for every item ordered, but the warehouse clerk will pull the order and put them all into one box.

For big businesses, the tracking numbers only cost money once an actual delivery has occurred on one. They go through them by the thousands each month so its easier to bill that way versus individually.

I ordered 3 cans of spray wax via Pep Boys and it came this exact way. I got 3 tracking numbers but they all arrived in 1 box. The other 2 tracking numbers are still active, but after a month or so they'll drop off the system.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Guess the OP will have to update us with how the order actually showed up at his house.

 

[hank2]

Originally Posted by Reddy45
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by wdn
What will probably happen is your shipment will show up in as few cartons as they can get it to fit, probably one carton. The only difference will be if one of the items comes from a different warehouse.


If he rec'd (5) tracking numbers, there are (5) individual packages being delivered. The tracking info will have the details of the # of items, weight of each, etc. In this particular case, this is an extremely poor example of training or possibly just an employee being an a** ! I realize they might have a cardboard box that fits all of the items or if they did, it may be a lot larger than necessary. That's not ideal either because all of the small package carriers now use dimensional weight if it's greater than physical weight (that large, mostly empty box takes up more and valuable space so they effectively penalize shippers for doing that).


Not necessarily. They may have a system that automatically generates a tracking number for every item ordered, but the warehouse clerk will pull the order and put them all into one box.

For big businesses, the tracking numbers only cost money once an actual delivery has occurred on one. They go through them by the thousands each month so its easier to bill that way versus individually.

I ordered 3 cans of spray wax via Pep Boys and it came this exact way. I got 3 tracking numbers but they all arrived in 1 box. The other 2 tracking numbers are still active, but after a month or so they'll drop off the system.


Possibly, all 5 tracking numbers will arrive in one carton. Each individual tracking number shows as a separate weight though. It may or may not be related to Walmart using UPS as a carrier, which personally, I don't think I've ever seen before. I have had Amazon, Walmart and many others ship under separate numbers, but that was when items were shipped from different locales. This order was shipped from a single location. I'm so glad that both Amazon and Walmart abandoned their old Fed Ex Smartpost method for the free shipping. Fed Ex ground has done very well for me for the past 5 years. With the exception of a driver refusing to pick up a scheduled return for weeks ( he drove past my house twice a day) I've never had a problem with UPS in decades. USPS always works great as well.

 

[hank2]

Originally Posted by ZeeOSix
Guess the OP will have to update us with how the order actually showed up at his house.


I'll be sure to do so!

 

[hank2]

I have a "sort of" update to my original post regarding my Walmart oil order. I received delivery today, via UPS, of 3 separately boxed and shipped quarts of oil. The other 2 ordered items, an additional quart and also a 5 quart jug, did not make it. I was eventually able to find the legitimate tracking numbers and discovered that they were returned due to damage by UPS. Walmart's email incorrectly told me that 4 of the 5 packages were delivered. I communicated with a Walmart customer service person on their chat line. I convinced them I didn't get 2 of the packages, so they reordered those 2 items for me. I don't need any of the oil immediately, so hopefully all is well there.

So, yes they really shipped 5 containers of motor oil ( 4 of them quarts) in separate small cartons with separate tracking numbers.

All items were shipped from the same location.

As is usually the case, the tracking numbers provided in the "it's shipped" email were all bad. Usually they are missing one to three digits. The correct numbers can usually be found by logging on to your account and digging around a bit.

I would guess that it's a case of a new and unsupervised employee that was "fed to the wolves" with little or no training.