Walmart Customers Say a New Delivery Policy Is Leaving Them Fighting for Refunds When Groceries Go Missing
Why are Walmart customers having a harder time getting refunds when grocery deliveries go missing?
A Walmart customer says a grocery delivery that never reached his home turned into a days-long dispute over a refund. Brandon Grayson said the chain initially denied his refund after a delivery photo showed a house Walmart believed was his, though Grayson said the driver delivered the order to the wrong address.
Grayson shared his experience in a Facebook post on July 9, saying he spent three days going back and forth with customer service before the company escalated his case. He said customer service then told him the investigation could take up to 20 days, a timeframe that ultimately led him to cancel his Walmart+ membership after nearly five years with the service.
Grayson said customer service gave him the 20-day timeframe, but Walmart does not list it as a standard investigation period in its publicly available delivery guidance. Instead, they tell customers whose orders are marked delivered but cannot be found to check the delivery confirmation, verify their address, and contact customer service if the order remains missing.
A delivery photo became part of the refund dispute
According to Grayson, the problem began when his grocery order was delivered to the wrong address. He said Walmart initially denied his refund because the driver had uploaded a delivery photo that the company believed could have shown his home.
Grayson said he contacted customer service for three days before spending another hour on the phone and getting his case escalated. He said customer service then told him the investigation could take up to 20 days.
Walmart’s guidance distinguishes between different types of missing orders. Store deliveries, according to Walmart, tell customers to check their receipts for out-of-stock or substituted items and contact customer service if the entire order is missing. For shipping orders marked as delivered, they recommend checking the delivery location, asking household members and neighbors, verifying the saved address, and waiting two business days in case the carrier marked the package as delivered prematurely.
For delivery orders that are marked delivered but cannot be found, Walmart tells customers to check their receipts for out-of-stock or substituted items and contact customer service if the entire order remains missing. Customers can also request a refund through the company’s return process.
Other Walmart customers report both delays and quick refunds
Grayson’s post prompted other Walmart customers to describe their own experiences with missing or misdelivered orders. The commenters described different experiences, with some reporting lengthy refund disputes while others said Walmart resolved their problems quickly.
One commenter said a driver mixed up their order with another customer’s and that they waited 10 days for a refund. Another claimed they had three orders with missing items and did not receive refunds despite contacting Walmart multiple times.
A separate Reddit discussion featured another Walmart customer describing problems with missing items and refunds. The customer said they regularly rely on Walmart delivery and had noticed a particular store repeatedly delivering incomplete orders, but said recent attempts to resolve missing items had become more difficult.
After reporting missing items from one order, the customer said Walmart initially emailed to confirm a refund but later reversed course and told them to contact their bank instead. The customer said they subsequently canceled Walmart+ and InHome.
Other customers on Grayson’s Facebook post said delivery problems led them to cancel Walmart+ or stop using Walmart’s delivery service. Others described faster resolutions. One commenter said the chain immediately refunded their missing items, while another said the company refunded an entire order after delivering it to the wrong address.
The differing accounts suggest that customers may encounter different outcomes when reporting missing deliveries. Grayson’s reported 20-day investigation period reflects what Walmart customer service told him, not a companywide policy.
Walmart also recommends providing detailed delivery instructions before an order arrives. Customers can specify information such as their property type, gate or call box code, delivery notes, and preferred drop-off location.
The company specifically tells customers to check the delivery confirmation photo when they cannot find an order marked as delivered. If the photo shows an unfamiliar doorway, customers can verify the address saved to their account and check their location information through Google Maps.
For shipping orders, customers should wait two business days before contacting customer service because carriers can occasionally mark packages as delivered before they arrive. If customers still cannot locate their orders, Walmart asks them to contact customer service through its chat.
Grayson’s experience does not establish that Walmart introduced a new 20-day refund policy, but it shows how customers may face uncertainty when Walmart marks a grocery delivery as complete even though the order never reaches the intended address.
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