RubySoho
Winston
Wal-Mart: Always Low Ethics. Always.
April 2nd 2008 20:05
Imagine for a moment that you are a peasant. While out tilling your meager soil, you have a terrible peasant accident. Maybe you bought a faulty hoe from Ye Locale Hoe Shoppe and it snaps and goes through your ribcage, who knows. At any rate, you have been paying X number of sacks of potatoes to the King, in exchange for some security in case you are ever sick or injured. The King gives you some minor assistance, enough to get you through while you heal, but you'll never till the fields again due to your injury. Your family presses the issue with the Hoe Shoppe, until they finally agree to pay a lump sum of potatoes to offset your inability to work. And then the King promptly takes all of it, and then some, to recoup all the assistance he provided you, leaving you with nothing. What would you call such a king? A callous despot? An unjust tyrant? If so, I would agree. Fast forward to modern times, and we call that king 'Wal-Mart'.
The real story involves a woman named Debbie Shank. Debbie, a Wal-Mart employee, was struck by a tractor trailer while driving her minivan. The accident left her with severe memory loss, brain damage, and confined her to a wheel chair. She had previously signed up for Wal-Mart's insurance plan, which provided assistance with the medical bills following the accident. However, we all know that medical insurance leaves a whole lot of expenses unaccounted for, and she was never going to work again. So, her family sued for damages against the transport company that struck her. They eventually won a settlement of $1 million, but that was whittled down to $417,000 after legal expenses, etc. A nice sum of money, but not a fortune by any means. Still, it would be enough to provide care for Debbie, right? Well, yes, if not for the fact that Wal-Mart sued to recover $470,000 in medical expenses. Yes, that's right. Wal-Mart, a multi-billion dollar corporation, sued a brain-damaged, wheelchair-bound former employee to recover the medical expenses that she had paid for in the first place through her insurance plan. You can't buy that sort of positive PR. Especially positive for business is stuff like this (taken from cnn.com):
Wal-Mart sued the Shanks to recoup $470,000 it paid for her medical care. However, a court ruled that the company could only recoup about $275,000 -- the amount that was left in a trust fund for her care.
That's good, at least. They can only take the money that was specifically set aside for her care. Hooray!
Now, thanks to some public outrage (who could have predicted that?), petitions, etc., Wal-Mart is backing off:
On Tuesday, Wal-Mart said in a letter to Jim Shank (Debbie's husband) that it is modifying its health care plan to allow "more discretion" in individual cases.-
"We wanted you to know that Wal-Mart will not seek any reimbursement for the money already spent on Ms. Shank's care, and we will work with you to ensure the remaining amounts in the trust can be used for her ongoing care," Curran said.
"We are sorry for any additional stress this uncertainty has placed on you and your family."
Awwwwww. It's amazing what the threat of economic sanction can accomplish to melt someone's heart, isn't it?
Truthfully, Wal-Mart, there is no way for you to win this now. Your initial actions were heinous and your reversal is woefully transparent. It won't hurt you too much in the long run, but I dare say you have lost some business over this. From a business perspective, this was a blunder from front to back . Had you left well enough alone you'd be OK. Hell, if you'd tossed a little more money at them, or started a charity in her name, or something like that (pocketchange for you at best), you'd reap tons of positive publicity on the cheap. Nope, you opted to make the most ill-informed choice imaginable.
Listen, I realize it's a business and there are certain protocols to follow. However, when you're a giant corporation that is already regarded rather warily by a large chunk of the population, it's fairly critical to consider your actions carefully. Taking everything from a crippled former employee might sound like a great idea on paper, but it doesn't play too well in reality. Try a little perspective next time. You might be amazed at how things look in someone else's much more affordable shoes. Which they probably bought at Wal-Mart.
This article references information as reported on cnn.com
The real story involves a woman named Debbie Shank. Debbie, a Wal-Mart employee, was struck by a tractor trailer while driving her minivan. The accident left her with severe memory loss, brain damage, and confined her to a wheel chair. She had previously signed up for Wal-Mart's insurance plan, which provided assistance with the medical bills following the accident. However, we all know that medical insurance leaves a whole lot of expenses unaccounted for, and she was never going to work again. So, her family sued for damages against the transport company that struck her. They eventually won a settlement of $1 million, but that was whittled down to $417,000 after legal expenses, etc. A nice sum of money, but not a fortune by any means. Still, it would be enough to provide care for Debbie, right? Well, yes, if not for the fact that Wal-Mart sued to recover $470,000 in medical expenses. Yes, that's right. Wal-Mart, a multi-billion dollar corporation, sued a brain-damaged, wheelchair-bound former employee to recover the medical expenses that she had paid for in the first place through her insurance plan. You can't buy that sort of positive PR. Especially positive for business is stuff like this (taken from cnn.com):
Wal-Mart sued the Shanks to recoup $470,000 it paid for her medical care. However, a court ruled that the company could only recoup about $275,000 -- the amount that was left in a trust fund for her care.
That's good, at least. They can only take the money that was specifically set aside for her care. Hooray!
Now, thanks to some public outrage (who could have predicted that?), petitions, etc., Wal-Mart is backing off:
On Tuesday, Wal-Mart said in a letter to Jim Shank (Debbie's husband) that it is modifying its health care plan to allow "more discretion" in individual cases.-
"We wanted you to know that Wal-Mart will not seek any reimbursement for the money already spent on Ms. Shank's care, and we will work with you to ensure the remaining amounts in the trust can be used for her ongoing care," Curran said.
"We are sorry for any additional stress this uncertainty has placed on you and your family."
Awwwwww. It's amazing what the threat of economic sanction can accomplish to melt someone's heart, isn't it?
Truthfully, Wal-Mart, there is no way for you to win this now. Your initial actions were heinous and your reversal is woefully transparent. It won't hurt you too much in the long run, but I dare say you have lost some business over this. From a business perspective, this was a blunder from front to back . Had you left well enough alone you'd be OK. Hell, if you'd tossed a little more money at them, or started a charity in her name, or something like that (pocketchange for you at best), you'd reap tons of positive publicity on the cheap. Nope, you opted to make the most ill-informed choice imaginable.
Listen, I realize it's a business and there are certain protocols to follow. However, when you're a giant corporation that is already regarded rather warily by a large chunk of the population, it's fairly critical to consider your actions carefully. Taking everything from a crippled former employee might sound like a great idea on paper, but it doesn't play too well in reality. Try a little perspective next time. You might be amazed at how things look in someone else's much more affordable shoes. Which they probably bought at Wal-Mart.
This article references information as reported on cnn.com
| 74 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
I'm currently writing an article on Fitna, that Dutch anti-Islam film, and just when I thought the world couldn't get any more depressing along comes Wal Mart to prove me wrong.
Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
the government welfare agency Centrelink is constantly hounding me for their piece of the pie if/when a settlement from Work Cover is agreed
Work Cover have a claim in for reimbursement if/when i get a settlement from the private insurance company
i always scoff when i see people on the news accused of faking injuries for compensation, the time and cost and stress and paperwork . . . noone in their right mind would subject themselves to it if they were fit to work
great analogy with the king and the potatoes!
Comment by Winston
Small Thoughts on Big Questions
Yeah, don't you love how magnanimous they are, deciding not to go through with the crappy thing they already started to do? What a bunch of saints.
Like I said, I understand it's a business, but c'mon. Seriously, when someone stood up in a meeting and said, "let's sue the brain-damaged cripple", NO ONE saw any potential business pitfalls? I can see Wal-Mart glossing over the ethical aspect of it, but I would have at least expected some more common sense from a PR standpoint. It baffles me, it really does.
It's a pretty depressing world from time to time, if you lose sight of the good stuff. Reading the news makes that pretty easy to do.
Comment by Winston
Small Thoughts on Big Questions
This is why I would not make a good businessman. I can't wrap my head around some of the nonsense. It's a strange world.
Comment by Onesnap
However, when I'm up in Maine I do go to a Walmart every now and again. In this particular town the employees are even lucky just to have a job. The workers in that particular Walmart are AMAZING. The store is spotless and the workers there have so much pride in their work. That type of Walmart is VERY rare.
I've had a lot of classes during my grad school studies that have discussed the evils of Walmart. There are so many things that go on within that company that is just so shady. The fact that when one opens in particular countries (is it China?) people line up for days with excitement boggles the mind.