My Recent Heartbreak, How I Chose to Heal

This is Diana

There is nothing worse than an unexpected loss of a loved one, or beloved animal companion especially in the holidays. If you know me, you know I love my animal companions. They are my constant reminder of living, breathing love. So when I lost both my boys within 7 months, (the second very recently) my heart took another hit! This was right before the holidays.  The pain is enormous but I am fortunate to have incredible support. Ironically, this past summer I helped get a beautiful cat off the street. Someone had abandoned her in my neighborhood. She was not doing well. But fortunately a wonderful animal rescue organization Little Wanderers, NYC did what no other big animal foundation does, they actually took her! She was in foster for several months but I couldn't take her because I had my boy Lucky Charlie Spencer. Then literally out of nowhere he got extremely sick and showed a pet parent's worse nightmare. He was dying and at any moment. I don't know how he could go from healthy and running around to being filled with cancer, heart failure and diabetic crisis. But I had to make the painful decision right there and then to end his pain via euthanasia. Fortunately I was with loved ones and we all said goodbye by kissing him and singing to him as he crossed over. Now I had a another hole in my heart. As a show of support, the rescue fund foster parent, sent me a picture of the cat we rescued and said she was healthy (we thought she had special health needs). But it was so soon after losing Lucky I didn't know what to do. It took me about 10 minutes to decide to take her. Now we have a light shining again in the household, helping us deal with the loss of our two beautiful boys in cat-heaven... How we deal with grief and loss is very personal. There is no ONE way. And it does take time, years or decades for some. Unfortunately, I know from both personal experience and my extensive research on the topic. That led to me to write my second book Heal Heartbreak: Know Why and Heal I had to follow my own advice and find ways to alleviate the pain in a healthy way. I am by no means done yet.  I took this opportunity to convert my book into a paperback for those who prefer a physical book. Part of the funds go to places like Little Wanderers, NYCor to help others because the help I received is absolutely priceless how can I not continue to pay it forward....? I hope that this email finds you in a place of peace, joy, abundance and hope. Life is most certainly painful at times. But there are people and animals willing and able to give love and healing. Trust your process and leave a little room in your heart for love. .~Diana Navarro, M.S. For Coaching Services with me check here To get your copy of my books please check here

My Big Problems With Walmart, Is there Consumer Fraud?

What do you do when you try to contact a company like Walmart to resolve issues and they refuse to address it? I choose to blog and post on social media in hopes someone can check on some possible consumer fraud.

The Problem and Why I've Used Walmart.com

I have been buying from Walmart.com for the past 4 years. Why?

• Because I want to, 
• It's more affordable on some items, 
• I can't lift heavy grocery items and 
• I don't drive.

Big Problem, Purchase Cancelled over and Over again. Could it be  attempted Fraud?

My big problem has to do with my billing information. I used either my bank debit/credit card or their Walmart credit card to make purchases. Then recently I got a notification from my bank, Bank of America, that a strange purchase was being attempted. I checked immediately and sure enough someone was "testing" my card trying to make a small purchase to see if the can steal my information. This unfortunately has happened to me before in another situation. So I contacted Walmart.com and they couldn't identify who or even that the mysterious purchase was. Please  see original alert from Bank of America

Hi, DIANA, your debit card was used online, by phone or by mail Account: Debit card ending in xxxx Amount: $ 4.28 1 Made at: WALMART.COM -800-966-6546 ,AR On: September 13, 2016

I immediately removed my card and got a new bank card. I decided to use my Walmart credit card for future purposes and this is when the real strange issue began. I would make a purchase with my card in excellent standing according to the Walmart credit card controlled by Synchrony Bank and the order once placed would me immediately cancelled by "Walmart".

What I tried to do to resolve it

I contacted their help page and was directed to either a phone number or chat. I chose the chat and got a scripted response saying they couldn't help me but to try again in 30 minutes. I tried to email but could not find the email and asked this during the chat, he said it's "help@walmart.com of course". Really? Because I would somehow know this psychically would know this and it isn't listed on their help page? I then emailed them at the email and as in the chat a scripted response saying the banking institution is the one responsible and I am not passing some kind of security check, e.g. expiration date, billing address, other? There is NO expiration date on a Walmart credit card, and all other data is up to date. I tell them this and they said they "escalate" this and to try again, you got it, in 30 minutes.

Sample response on cancelling issue:

Hello Diana,

Thanks for your recent order. We're really sorry, but we've canceled the items shown below because we couldn't verify some or all of your payment information. Please sign in to your account and be sure your billing address, phone number and credit card information is correct and current.

I tried to up to 5 times and every time the same thing occurred. I called, emailed over and over and they just apologized again, with a scripted response and asked me to contact my banking institution. I explained for the 30th time that (it was a
Walmart credit card) they are the banking institution and how the bank card customer service insisted everything was great on their side and didn't know why Walmart.com cancelled. Walmart.com said it was the credit card department that cancelled. See why I'm dizzy? They wouldn't speak to each other and kept me going back and forth.

Image of the Walmart credit card written answer also being told verbally:

Suspicious Request by Customer Service

After contacting them multiple times because I wanted my darn groceries they, as I said earlier gave the same scripted response.

1. They are very sorry for my difficulties
2. They are escalating, please try again in 30 minutes or later in 24 hrs. By the way, when a purchase is cancelled, you have to place the order from scratch. No easy re-order. This is clearly quite time-consuming, but convinced it was a glitch I did it up to five times.
3. THE MOST CONCERNING RESPONSE: Please use another credit card to make your purchases. What?? Wait, I already tried that and someone tried to steal my information. Why would you deny your own credit card service (can't rip yourself off)? I don't want to use another card again due to my suspicion of some internal fraud.

The mysterious internal security check

When I spoke verbally to the Walmart.com customer service regarding this problem, I asked for more details on this mysterious security check that I somehow wasn't passing. They said they didn't know. Yes! They said they did NOT know. So who knows? It's not the credit card department because I'm clear there. What is happening here? 

Another Issue, Not such a big deal but still an issue

All seemed ordinary the first couple years. My only issue at first was the shipping. They would send items and it would take up to two weeks for simple items if you used their "value" shipping or free shipping with a purchase of $50 or more unless you use their standard shipping.

In addition, they would send items separately which wouldn't be an issue if it were one or two shipments but up to five or more? That is ridiculous. It wastes time, resources and energy especially if you can't be home all the time to receive them. Not everyone has a doorman. I dealt with it until I tried to use their Shipping Pass, explained below, and that didn't go very well.

Shipping Pass is No Amazon Prime

Now for the final main issue I had. I used the Shipping Pass Walmart.com offers to save on shipping. It's $49 for the year and is suppose work like Amazon Prime-which incidentally I use and works perfectly. I used it twice and it worked OK except it was more than two days. I tried to use it again and at check out (before I had the Walmart.com cancelling my purchase) there was a shipping fee! Again, I  was confused. I contacted Walmart.com and of course they are "very sorry" but this Shipping Pass doesn't include every item. I know that which is why I ordered items with the Shipping Pass logo next it. They asked me to send them the link or screenshots (yes more work for me) and I did. They said sorry this does not qualify for Shipping Pass, though I assured them it did in the past and the logo was there

Images showing how the Shipping Pass was going through just fine, once you at check out $7.95 mysteriously appeared.

Just one of example of he lovely "scripted" response

Is it me or is there a Shipping Pass logo under the price of this item?

What I want from Walmart or a consumer agency

I want answers. So I would love for someone to help me since Walmart.com did not after contacting them so many times. This post will be re-posted until it is resolved to my satisfaction.

Also, if you've gone through anything like this, let's do something about it.

Oh and once more question, why are some single items (again, not bulk) listed with prices like this the they were $2.09 the day before?