Mel,
I was going to ask first if the batterys you were taking back were ok or not. I suspect that the warrenty period is pretty much set by the manufacturer (likely Exide) and Wallyville only administrates it. I was reacting to what I thought was being implied by the whole story including the guy burning up lawn mowers and laughing about getting a free one everytime. Since the life expectancy of deep cycle batteries has been well documented on this site -most everyone knows that if you discharge them below 80% of capacity the life expectancy goes down, and if discharged severely very many times they go to heck pretty fast. The story could have just as easily been about someone (not implying you) harshly using the batteries and getting free ones. Wallmart has no way of knowing what the batteries (especially deep discharge ones) have been subjected to. I think the manufacturer's and Walmart analize the pros and cons of getting business by offering a fairly liberal return policy (not necessarily talking only of batteries here) verses the number of times they have to deal with things like the lawnmower issue.
I do agree with you that the batteries' value should not have been less than they charge for a core charge. And your correct, if you know the battery is not good before the 1 yr free replacement is up then don't hesitate to get them in there and save yourself some money.
And in regard to any other comments about how bad Wallmart's (Exide) batteries may be, I suppose the logical conclusion is why keep buying them there then?
I personally know one of the assistant managers at the local wallyvile and she told me a story one time about how a guy bought a lawnmower (shipped with no oil in the engine as is typical of just about all places), the guy took it home, apparently didnt even look at the warning lables about adding oil, put gas in it an mowed his lawn until the engine siezed. He took it back and got it replaced (the clerk compounded the problem by not looking to see if there was oil in it), and took the second one home and did the same thing. When he took it back again (cursing wallyville in the store for their junky lawnmowers) somebody wised up, checked the oil and made him keep the second one. The bottom line is that liberal return policies are very nice for the person who gets a lemon now and then, any maybe even for the person who once in a great while screws something up and wants it replaced but if abused it only drives the prices up for everybody.
thanks for listening
Johnlm