Legal Question in Business Law in California

I live in Los Angeles county and went to Walmart to have my tires rotated. I called the Walmart store to verify their business hours for their automotive department was told by the telephone operator that their hours were from 7am to 7pm on a Saturday. I checked online on their website and saw the same business hours posted as well, 7am-7pm.

I got there at 6:35 pm and was told by the manager that they couldn't work on my vehicle because they close for new customers at 6:30 pm and only work on vehicles that were there before 6:30pm. I told the manager that I was never informed about this time constraint nor is it listed on the Walmart website about needing to arrive 30 minutes early.

My question is if this is legal in the county of Los Angeles or not.

Is there a law that requires them to take customers up until the posted (written) time and even when their telephone operators are saying 7pm is the closing time as well?

I am trying to take this princible and place it on other types of business such as a banking institution. I think they could get sued, right?


Asked on 4/30/16, 7:45 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

The type of policy you describe is perfectly legal. I agree that the business should let people know about it ahead of time. But there is no law that says it has to. And it might have publicized the policy quite a bit even if some particular customers don't find out about it.

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Answered on 5/03/16, 8:57 pm


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