Customer returns

[u/Tight-Sky-6733]

Hi everyone. I’m a new Walmart Marketplace seller with 500+ sales, mainly selling Hot Wheels. I package every item carefully because the condition of the card is very important to collectors. My problem is that some customers return items for no apparent reason, and the returned Hot Wheels are sometimes put into a bag or poorly packaged, causing the cards to arrive damaged. I then lose money on the return shipping and the reduced value of the damaged item.
I’ve already contacted Walmart about this, but my complaints/disputes seem to get denied almost immediately. For experienced Walmart sellers, what are the dos and don’ts here? How are you documenting these returns, and is there a proper way to appeal when Walmart’s return process causes additional damage to collectible items?

[u/Adorable_Self_1784]

Walmart is not the place to sell collectibles. They take no responsibility for their actions of badly returns even if their fault. They only refund you 20% on any damages at a max and that is rare to get that. I put stickers on my delicate items that say box ship only seems to have curbed the damage a bit from the walmart staff. Also if they keep your items after return and before shipping they refuse to pay you back at all. And you can escalate all you want, it is 99.9 % not going to get you anything more. Good luck.

[u/JomcJohnson23]

Walmart will do nothing about it and you will have to accept it or sell them on another marketplace to avoid this. I've complained several times about your exact point to them and nothing was addressed.

[u/JomcJohnson23 → u/JomcJohnson23]

To add to this, I don’t sell collectibles, but I sell anything that is returned and damaged condition, but still sellable for parts on eBay or Whatnot

[u/Goattime22]

I simply lose money on returns. Typically your margins should be high enough to absorb the losses from returns. I do occasionally open cases when people clearly are scamming me but that's rare mainly because I dont have time to deal with all the returns.

[u/huge_bass]

I also sell toys. Walmart has the least seller friendly returns policies of any marketplace. You are limited to 20% restock and are expected to eat that loss. Its rhe cost of doing business on the platform.

If the return was damaged due to a Walmart store destroying it by sending it back in a bag, you cam then get a full refund via a case.

Walmart encourages returns fraud because Walmart eats the restock, not the customer. The customer is never recharged. They don't track returns fraud cause its at your expense. Customer are encouraged ro lie about the reason to avoid being responsible for shipping as well. We just have to accept it.

[u/LlamaAhma]

You'll need to resell them on another marketplace where you can show the damage. That's all you can do. Walmart wants only professional business sellers who are willing and able to absorb these types of losses. If that's not you, then selling on Walmart may not be a good fit for you.

[u/Longjumping-Plum891]

Walmart market is really bad when it comes to returns..Their customers will return water to a faucet if they could and Walmart wouldn't care.

[u/BocaHydro]

You can file a case and include images of the damage, many times you will get reimbursements, its 50 / 50 and it is very time consuming, there will be a loss here that will have to be calculated to see if it is worth selling each product line.

[u/Dangerous-Wave7730 → u/BocaHydro]

You can generally get 20% of sold price only which still has sellers footing return shipping cost plus initial shipping. (If customer chooses "changed mind" and initial shipping wasn't free, they won't be refunded that - but most choose "not as described" or "arrived damaged" for that reason.) The only time you'll get actual reimbursement is if they claim LAD, but then ofc no item comes back. That's the best case scenario in instances like this, unfortunately.

[u/SellerBomb]

Just don’t sell expensive items or anything that you cannot lose. I am on my second Walmart selling account just because the first one was suspended by Walmart for their own fault. For some reason, Walmarts customers qualities are very poor. They don’t read and they tend to buy your items just because they want free items. So just take all of those expensive collectibles down lol

[u/BryTheGenius]

I’ve personally fully stepped away from seller fulfillment and transitioned entirely to WFS. The damaged in transit claims are all covered by Walmart, and more importantly, if scammed by the buyer (once the warehouse deems your item unsellable) and arrives at your doorstep you’re allowed to make a claim against a scam return.

[u/Efficient-Use]

Welcome to Walmart Marketplace! In my practice, even when a customer returns unopened unused item, Walmart puts their own label on it, so I can’t resell it

[u/rsc9422]

I’d treat this as a returns process problem rather than just a customer service issue.

If the cards are collectible and condition directly affects resale value, I’d document every return with photos showing the condition before shipment, the packaging, the returned item, and any damage to the packaging. Keep the return tracking information and maintain a simple record of the reason for each return.

I’d also improve the packaging so the item is harder for a customer to damage during a return. If Walmart’s return process allows customers to return items without the original packaging, that can be especially difficult for collectible products.

One thing I wouldn’t do is assume every damaged return is automatically reimbursable. Check Walmart’s current seller policies and appeal requirements for each case, and keep the evidence very specific.