Substitute

I was looking for twelve inch Halo guys to use for my red, white, and blue display for the upcoming Fourth of July season. I found this crazy deal on Google. Walmart was advertising this 4-pack of guys for $10.83.

Holy crap, I thought. I could get a red guy and a white guy in that 4-pack, plus a couple of extras. Each figure was only going to cost about $2.50. I jumped on the chance.

It wouldn't let me order it to be shipped to my house, however. I had to do in-store pickup. That was fine with me. I chose the Walmart nearest me that claimed to have the toys available, and paid my $10.

The next day, I got an email saying that some of the items in my order had to be substituted (wording which made me laugh, because, of course, there was only one item in the whole order). I was kind of bummed, but they substituted it with something that was relatively valuable, so I couldn't complain. They gave me this Warthog vehicle with a four inch Master Chief figure that they are selling for almost $30.

I don't know what I'll do with it. Likely I'll just sell it on eBay, but I may find some way to work it into some display or other. I don't know.

Even though they replaced my order here, the Walmart deal was still up online, so I tried again, ordering it from a different Walmart in my vicinity.

The next day, I got another email saying that an item had been substituted...only this time, when I got to the store, they came out the door with a single twelve inch figure for me. I looked at that, and said, no thanks. First of all, it was just another one of the blue guys that I already got two of from Five Below.

But on top of that, how could they look at an order for a 4-pack of figures and say, hmm, yeah this 1-pack should be an even swap. One is just as good as four, right? I wouldn't have minded getting another Warthog, but they didn't go there, so I just had them refund the money, and went my way with my one big vehicle and nothing that I actually wanted.

That was two weeks ago now, but I just noticed the other day that the deal was still showing up on Google if you searched Halo 12 inch guys. Let me check again...ah, looks like they've finally pulled that down. Now nobody else will have their time wasted in a wild goose chase for substitutes.