New scam on Walmart.com (refunds, credit card, price, stores)
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I’m a customer of the online stores for both Amazon and Walmart. Both have their place and most of the time both provide decent service. But a recent experience with an order from Walmart has changed by opinion of their web store and I may never buy from them again.
The scam involved a 3rd party seller that listed an item for $10.99. It was in my cart along with other products and the order total qualified for free shipping. When I completed the checkout the total looked wrong and there it was — the 3rd party seller had added a $40 “delivery” charge to the price of their $11 item! I immediately called WM customer service to cancel this item, but the rep said they could do nothing because it was already “in fulfillment” (on a Sunday morning). Unlike Amazon with their A-Z guarantee, Walmart offers no help for online customers, even when dealing with what looks to be an outright scam of fraudulent pricing.
I’m a customer of the online stores for both Amazon and Walmart. Both have their place and most of the time both provide decent service. But a recent experience with an order from Walmart has changed by opinion of their web store and I may never buy from them again.
The scam involved a 3rd party seller that listed an item for $10.99. It was in my cart along with other products and the order total qualified for free shipping. When I completed the checkout the total looked wrong and there it was — the 3rd party seller had added a $40 “delivery” charge to the price of their $11 item! I immediately called WM customer service to cancel this item, but the rep said they could do nothing because it was already “in fulfillment” (on a Sunday morning). Unlike Amazon with their A-Z guarantee, Walmart offers no help for online customers, even when dealing with what looks to be an outright scam of fraudulent pricing.
I wouldn't buy anything online from Walmart. If I find something online that I want to buy from Walmart, I just go into the store and buy it. For third party sellers consider shopping Amazon and eBay, instead of Amazon and Walmart. eBay often has the lowest prices, and it's easy to get refunds. Also even on Amazon and eBay, always check your total carefully, before you click: Confirm and Pay. Especially the shipping charges. There are often shipping options like Free 7 day shipping, $2.00 5 day shipping, $10.00 3 day shipping, $40 2 day shipping. Sometimes it will automatically try to put you down for something other then the free shipping, and you have to change it to get the free shipping. If you find too many high shipping scams, you can always click the search option for Free Shipping Only. Though that could backfire on you and you might miss the lowest price.
If the product listing didn't specify the shipping charge, I'd definitely call it a scam.
I use walmart.com for exactly one item that's impossible to find my area, even in Walmart and Walmart Grocery. I order for pick up from a nearby WMG.
Otherwise I agree. A list of very little that isn't available by walking into a store, and don't have a very good online system.
What really irked me was the fact that the WM customer service rep admitted the $40 delivery add-on was ridiculous, but they wouldn’t/couldn’t do a damn thing about it (but she did wish me a blessed day). If it was a problem on Amazon, my money would have been refunded immediately, no questions asked.
IMHO, Walmart.com still has a long way to go before they can rival Amazon. However, Amazon is not without its own faults.
An item that I ordered from a third-party vendor--through Walmart.com--was extremely (almost 60 days) delayed. At first, the Walmart.com website was... sort of... informative regarding an updated delivery date, but eventually it got to the point where the page for that information would "flash" for ~2 seconds, and then disappear before I could see what it said. That happened repeatedly for ~1 week, but then my shipment finally arrived.
Problem solved?
Nope!
It proved to be defective, and my repeated emails to the third party vendor went unanswered.
So, then I phoned Walmart customer service, and I was on hold for 46 minutes. The woman to whom I spoke was very nice, she agreed to expedite my complaint with the vendor, and told me to phone back if I didn't hear from the vendor w/in 24 hours. Two days later, with no response from the vendor, I phoned Walmart again, and this time I was only on hold for a few minutes.
The bottom line is that I did get my refund, but I really had to work for it.
By contrast, most issues with Amazon can be rapidly resolved via email. However, in one case with Amazon, I was told that--for some reason--the A-Z guarantee didn't apply with this particular third-party vendor, and as a result I could not cancel an order that was delayed for over 60 days. Luckily, in every other situation involving Amazon and their third-party vendors, I have been successful in having Amazon resolve the problem.
Last edited by Retriever; 06-06-2020 at 06:13 AM..
Walmart.com does not have the distribution channels that Amazon has with the dedicated warehouses and vans. Amazon can get an item delivered in a day with free delivery whereas Walmart has to utilize USPS or Fedex and overnight fees are very expensive.
It seems to me you clicked on the delivery option that is $40. I don't think the seller "added" it. 3rd party sellers do not have access to adding fees onto your purchase or access to your credit card info. If there is no way to contact the seller directly just dispute the credit card charge. If they item shows up, send it back. You might get banned from Walmart.com but it sounds like you don't plan on using them again anyways. And no, it was not a scam. No one would get away with inflating shipping fees like that. People watch their spending online. I sell online and I remember when sales tax became mandatory across state lines. I would get angry messages that I added sales tax to their purchase. Its automatic with Amazon I have no control over the shopping cart functions. I am not aware the person is buying the item until they have paid for it.
Solution: In RETAILER checkbox on left side of walmart.com, choose "walmart.com". This avoids all 3rd party retailers and you only see items sold directly by walmart. The negative is that you must re-select this checkbox EACH time you search for an item.
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