This is NOT an April Fool's Joke–
WalMart Dissolves Relationship With USM in at Least 14 States
Fax sent to WalMart stores references cessation of service in:
CO, IL, IN, OH, IA, MA, ME, MI, MN, NE, NM, NY, VT & WI
by Ranger Kidwell-Ross
Bentonville, AK – April 1, 2011
The WorldSweeper.com office has uncovered several independent contractor confirmations that USM, also known as
US Maintenance, a Transfield Services Group company, has been terminated as the parking lot sweeping, landscaping and power washing service provider for Walmart. This confirmation includes the internal Walmart fax a sweeping contractor provided us, which is linked further down in this bulletin.
One contractor I spoke with has six WalMart stores as customers. He said he met with one of his WalMart managers today, and that the manager confirmed that the ending of the relationship with USM had been referenced in an email he had received.
The manager reportedly went on to say that, in the over a decade of annual meetings he had attended, never had there been so much uproar among store managers as with the switch to USM. WalMart, he said, had a policy of working with local vendors so it was surprising to many managers that a national vendor for these services was chosen in the first place.
We have independent confirmation of this situation from three other sources, and will have more information on this as it surfaces. To be clear, the fax we have linked only confirms that the relationship between USM and WalMart is being discontinued in the states referenced above. We have contacted both USM and WalMart media relations, but as yet have no callbacks or emails from either organization.
Here is
the link to an internal WalMart memo that appears, and was reported as having been, sent by WalMart Corporate to a WalMart store manager.
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Reports called in or sent to us via email after initial article posted:
You are also encouraged to check out the comments on the WorldSweeper.com Facebook page, located at www.facebook.com/WorldSweeper.
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Indiana Contractor – 4.1.11 – 11:53am, Pacific: By phone and then email: "Like I had mentioned on the phone everyone in our area refused to do them as far as we know. And we have contacted all of our stores we had before USM took them and we received every single one of them back this morning, so I would think everybody else should be able to do the same."
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Carolinas Contractor – 4.1.11 – 2:35pm, Pacific: By email: "I have it on good authority, though I cannot totally confirm, that USM expects this to be the entire national contract with Walmart. A regional manager for USM in Virginia told sources close to me this about three hours ago. Stores in our area are not aware of this yet, though 3 stores have "gone rogue" and hired contractors direct in the past 45 days.
"I also have some more supporting background information to lead me to believe this and these are all multi sourced bits of info and all point to a disaster that has been brewing for some time. This is amazing, considering the grass is not even growing in places and most figured it would take the landscape season to tip this thing over the edge. I had predicted dissolution by Memorial Day, but not April Fools Day."
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Indiana Contractor – 4.1.11 – 3:18pm, Pacific: By email: "We can confirm that managers at the Wabash, IN, Marion, IN and several northern Indiana stores received the same notice. Absolutely made our day as we had refused to work for USM given their ridiculous pricing expectations and their horrendous contractor service agreement."
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Colorado Contractor – 4.1.11 – 3:48pm, Pacific: By email: "We have confirmation from several Walmarts that we were supposed to take over Monday that the contacts with USM are cancelled. FYI no one from USM called or notified us of the cancellation.
"Thank you for sending this out. You saved me a ton of grief and money. We would have sent out several landscape crews on Monday plus several sweepers that evening. In the end we would have been kicked off the property or just not paid for the services."
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Carolinas Contractor – 4.1.11 – 4:18pm, Pacific: By email: "On USM -- the snow plow fiasco was the beginning of it and the disastrous sweeping implementation pushed it over the edge from what I can tell.
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New York Contractor – 4.1.11 – 4:30pm, Pacific: By telephone: "I spoke to a WalMart manager in my area who confirmed that USM had lost the WalMart account in ALL states."
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Arizona Contractor – 4.1.11 – 4:34pm, Pacific: "That's great news, hope one of the states is Arizona!"
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Ohio Contractor – 4.1.11 – 6:01pm, Pacific: We were scheduled to start a location last night, and additional locations next week. When our truck arrived last night there was another contractor on the lot. We checked with our USM contact today, and via email were told:
"As it stands USM has the contract with Walmart for Lot Sweeping."
And then later in the day:
"As for the comment about the USM agreement with Walmart, USM is still servicing the Walmarts."
Anyone working for USM should be cautious. The USM contract stipulates that if they don't get paid, the contractor doesn't get paid, and the contractor has no recourse. There is really no reason USM would tell a contractor to stop, since there is no requirement under contract for USM to pay the contractor when Walmart refuses to pay USM. Additionally, there have been no IVR (phone call in system) numbers supplied, so if you perform any work, you will not get paid anyway.
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Unknown Contractor – 4.1.11 – 7:39pm, Pacific: We do one Walmart in New England and I have e-mailed and talked with USM. I did not change my bid which was over double and a half which they were offering. Of course I never heard back from USM.
I got a call from the Mgr today and he told me to ignore the certified mail I got terminating our sweeping April 18 and to "Please" continue what you have been doing and stated he was very satisfied with our work. He said there were massive complaints from Mgrs around the country and they were terminating the plowing as well. How could anyone work for $31.00 per sweep !!!
Things are tough enough getting the money we get now with cost of tires, fuel etc. You all know the drill. I wish you luck and stay strong. Support our troops !!!!!
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Unknown Contractor – 4.1.11 – 7:39pm, Pacific: We do one Walmart in New England and I have e-mailed and talked with USM. I did not change my bid which was over double and a half which they were offering. Of course I never heard back from USM.
I got a call from the Mgr today and he told me to ignore the certified mail I got terminating our sweeping April 18 and to "Please" continue what you have been doing and stated he was very satisfied with our work. He said there were massive complaints from Mgrs around the country and they were terminating the plowing as well. How could anyone work for $31.00 per sweep !!!
Things are tough enough getting the money we get now with cost of tires, fuel etc. You all know the drill. I wish you luck and stay strong. Support our troops !!!!!
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New York Contractor – 4.2.11 – 7:29pm, Pacific: I can confirm this to be true. Our company services several of the Wal-Mart locations within our region and we too were forced to rebid Wal-Mart for the parking lot sweeping and landscaping.
While the suggested pricing USM included in their bid docket was far below industry pricing for our region, we elected to maintain our current pricing structure and relied upon relationships with the local store managers established throughout the years. We were delighted when we received calls to our office from those store managers informing us they have terminated the contract with USM and would like us to stay on and continue to service them.
While I can understand to some degree the flexibility and ease of using a national vendor, especially for an organization as large as Wal-Mart, it does pose a hardship on small businesses. Ratios and profit margins aside, we strive to provide the best service possible, often times going above and beyond a clients expectations. I would like to think Wal-Mart; at least at our level and the stores we service recognize the attention to quality we provide to them and their customers.
