Need to Return Something? Major Retailers Are Considering Letting You Just Keep Your Items
Some of your favorite stores are considering a “Keep It” return policy.
Some major retailers are changing their return policy to allow you to keep your returns.
Recently, stores like Walmart and Target have reported they have an excess of inventory and the surplus of items is costing these companies too much money. And your returns are only adding to the problem. 😳
Thanks to supply chain issues and skyrocketing fuel prices, major retailers are struggling to handle unwanted merchandise. It now costs much more to send unused inventory overseas or offload the items to a liquidator. As a result, companies are considering allowing you to just keep or donate your returns.
Are “returnless returns” too good to be true?
Companies like Amazon have allowed “returnless returns” in the past so it is not an unheard-of practice. However, when specifically asked about the situation, CNN Business reports that companies have remained silent on any changes to their return policy. This makes sense as broadcasting a “keep it” policy could result in businesses seeing an increase in fraud.
We do know that some companies are already discreetly putting this new return policy in place. Hip2Save’s Paige recently returned items to Walmart using the Walmart app. She was refunded her money and advised by the company that there was no need to return the merchandise.
Here’s what Hip Sidekicks, Paige and Stacy, had to say about their experience:
“The last two returns I made on the Walmart app – Pioneer Woman Glass Canisters (came without lids), and a Time & Tru Tank Top (wrong size) – they asked me to donate, rather than return to the store!”
“I recently bought a pair of shoes online for my teen daughter. They were on clearance when I bought them so we paid less than $5, but they were just too narrow so we had to return. I started the return process right in the app. The final screen just gave me a notice that no return was necessary, and they had already refunded my account!”
Will this returnless return policy be adopted by more stores? Time will tell if this practice becomes mainstream.
Have you recently experienced a “returnless return?” What do you think about major stores allowing a “keep it” policy? Let us know in the comments!
That just happened to me when returning a $15 dress I ordered from Walmart. I’m guessing it’s related to the price too.
Yes, that could be a factor too! Thanks for letting us know about your experience!
Be careful with Amazon though, Amazon is known to block accounts with many returns. What Amazon does is it terminates the account and blocks any orders to the same physical address, same name, ip address and credit card. If you sent a gift to someone using an Amazon account, that may be blocked and terminated, too. This happened to many people to the point there was several online groups created to help each other get their accounts reinstated, or for their prime membership to get refunded
I remember this. Amazon does not give you a reason why the account is terminated. They just block you and that’s it. If you’re lucky, you get the prime membership refunded.
This was done to me. Postal service lost a S&S order. Amazon cs marked each item returned and then reordered instead of just reshipping. Got an email for Amazon stating I was returning too many items and they closed my account. Still closed and I had an unused gift card on the account. They won’t even give me my gift card funds.
I’ve had this happen with target online orders on 3 separate occasions. All of them were items of their brand, which is why I thought it happened. 2 of my items were “defective” and one was a pair of shoes my daughter decided she didn’t like. I went through the whole process in app and then was told my money was being refunded and I could keep, donate, or recycle if the item was broken/unsafe.
Awesome! Good to know you could get a refund on each of them! Thanks for sharing. 🤗
I wonder if this only happens when you return via the app. I bought some boxers on line at Target and went into the store to return and they took the merchandise back.
Yes, if you walk into a target store, they will accept your return.
This has happened to me with Amazon thanks for the heads up about Walking Mart. I think this is a great idea I could donate the unwanted item to someone and save myself the hassle of mailing it back to Wal-Mart or wherever I bought it.
Target has been doing this for awhile now.
I think it mostly happens with items below a certain value. I cant imagine them doing this with a big ticket item. Quite a while back I had ordered a video camera on Amazon but one of the rechargeable batteries that was supposed to be included was missing. Amazon told me to keep the item or donate and they were sending another one. It wasn’t super expensive but was around $45. I remember Walmart sending me replacement items for some dented cans of tomatoes and told me to keep or donate the ones I had. I appreciate the convenience of this service.
This just happened to me on the Target App! I was trying to return sandals that gave me a blister the first time I wore them. They refunded me and said keep or donate! I’ll donate, obviously!!
The stores and sites do this because it is cost effective. Be aware that all of these stores track your returns. Even if they tell you to keep items, it effects the return to order ratio.
This is very true. I order groceries for pickup and many, many times the berries will be bad. I only report it about one out of three or four times because I figure that I’m able to use SOME of them so I should be paying for the ones I use and I don’t want to take advantage of the refund policy.
I’ve had this happen with Amazon twice.
I had this happen with a high end store, the item was defective, and they offered a refund or replacement without returning the product.
This has been happening to me with Walmart for the past 3 years, with clothes I’ve bought on clearance and then returned. I guess if it’s an item they won’t end up selling, they probably don’t see the point in paying to ship it back to them.
I’ve had this happen for me with Walmart too! Thank for commenting!
One of the worst stores for returns is Talbots. I ordered it thru the mail. They only do a 60 day return and they start counting the 60 days from the day of order not the day that it is received by the customer.
This has happened to me with both Walmart and Amazon several times over the past few years for items ranging from food to clothing to kayak racks. I don’t mind as it saves me time, but I wonder if it will eventually lead to higher prices.
I ordered 2 cases of red Bull from Amazon earlier in the month when it was on sale. One package had wet bottom so a can or many cans had a leak. Amazon was informed and they gave me credit for the entire case! Obviously they did not want the leaked case back. Went through each can of the 24 can case to find just one can that had the leak! Thanks Amazon.
This happened to me on ThredUp. I purchased skirts that were not as described on the site. They fully refunded me and said keep or donate the skirts.
I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer … but I feel like this has the opportunity to be abused if it’s advertised. Which will only lead to higher costs of items (ahem, jusy like shoplifting) … and everything is expensive enough already. Hopefully people will not attempt to take advantage. I know I sound like a second grade teacher … but, honesty is the best policy!
You’d think so but it cannot be easily abused. They’re not allowing you to keep all returns. Only those that would cost them money. They don’t care whether you’re lying or not to gain a free product. It costs them nothing to write it off as a lost. Plus, they track your return history. They have enough information on both your purchases and returns to know who are the bad actors here. Also, since customers won’t know in advance when a retailer will waive the return they’re taking a huge gamble buying a product with the intent to simply return it.
^^*THIS!!
Ashley….I would agree with you completely!! Eventually there will be those people who figure out some way to abuse this convenience. After working for Nordstrom for years, sadly there were many who abused their lax return policy. Nordstrom was the first retail company to ALWAYS put CUSTOMER SERVICE #1. No matter what the circumstances were we took back EVERYTHING!!
As the years went by and their return policy began to attract dishonest folks it was necessary to make changes. It definitely effects the cost of merchandise! Unfortunately, it will eventually cost companies and their loyal honest customers. I’m with you, I don’t see this policy lasting very long. You can tell that all the Hip2Save posts regarding this matter are good honest people who were surprised when it happened to them. This could be a WIN-WIN situation for everyone involved especially when merchandise is donated to those in need.🙏🏻😊😇
Amazon has been doing this for YEARS. When I first experienced it I felt like I’d won the lottery but eventually you start to realize it’s not a win. After your refund, you’re often stuck with a product you don’t want or don’t need, which was why you were trying to return it in the first place. I have so many free products that now clutter my house and I wind up having to donate or throw out. It’s just a headache. I can understand why retailers are doing it but it’s rare these days that I am happy that I got to keep the product.
It sucks as someone that sells on Amazon. Customers seem to always have “issues” but really they just want to keep the inventory or sometimes get a “free replacement”.
It’s odd how they choose what to return. Walmart grocery delivery gave me the wrong product or rotten/ moldy produce before and they actually said I would have to go in and return it. It defeated having them delivered and paying a nice tip so I ended up eating the cost myself.
Contact chat instead of using the app for a return and they will usually do it for you and not make you bring bad food back to the store.
I actually called customer service and they were not super nice about it. I just stopped paying for Walmart plus after that.
I’d be careful with this. I had this happen a few times last year where I was told to keep the items but then they cancelled my account. It was not even that many returns.
This is what I’m afraid of – I get groceries delivered weekly, and it is actually rare that the order is correct. I live on the 10th floor of a senior building. Yesterday, my order was left OUTSIDE OF THE BUILDING. I’ve received other peoples’ orders( might have been fun, if I liked ANYTHING in her order!) I ALWAYS use the chat bot to inform/complain. Be nice to those folks – they have refunded to me EVERYTIME (so far). I am concerned that even though I’m not responsible for any of these ‘screwups’, they may feel that I complain too much. ( Having to ‘eat’ a 45$ order may bother them?!😬)
Yeah customer service is great and they refund everytime. I even asked them each time if I would get in any trouble for this and they assured me I would not. But it wasn’t them who canceled it but it could trigger a red flag on your account and get canceled by the system itself. I had to create a new account ans start over. I still have a lot of missing items in my grocery orders and I now pick my battles. If it’s a missing onion I won’t say anything, but if it’s a missing steak or something I definitely do.
Walmart.com kept sending wrong product x5, they told me to keep the items and said everything was fine, now they keep charging me for the product “that I never returned aster telling me to keep product”, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing, too many chiefs, not enough Indians.
I’ve had this happen several times with Target, Walmart, and Amazon. If I can’t use or somehow repurpose the product that I’m trying to return, I either donate or gift it via my local Buy Nothing group on Facebook. On the other side of this is the incredibly stupid returns – I received a pack of broken light bulbs costing about $7, and Walmart made me return them at THEIR COST before they would issue a refund. I can just imagine the look on the face of the person who processed that return lol.
Meanwhile…. The app won’t allow me to start a return on items. On June 1, in store, I bought some things that didn’t fit. All of the items on that receipt are listed as “not eligible for return”.
And… I just received some leggings that were too big. When I click on “start a return”, select the item, the dialog box asks for the reason for the return and nothing appears for me to click.
Very frustrating! I’m sure it’s going to be fun returning these items in person.
It is nice that they do this. I have had it happen to me on Amazon, target and Walmart on occasion. But I don’t understand why you would want to advertise this, especially if companies are trying not to publicly advertise it. People take advantage of these kinds of policies and aren’t always honest. Then the company ends it for everyone…
I’ve had this happen a few times with Walmart, but it is completely random and unpredictable. I once returned several items, and they wanted back a $3 tank top but told me to keep a $10 dress, so you can’t even really assume based on price. I buy a lot to donate and usually look for items on clearance, which is probably more likely for them to not want back, but who knows what the algorithm is looking for. You never know until the return is fully complete whether they want the item back or not, so you can’t really game the system anyway.
You are all correct about the abuse. LL Bean used to have lifetime guarantees on many products. People would buy things in thrift stores or garage sales and try and turn them in for new products. They tightened up what they take back or replace. Ruined it for anyone who had a legitimate problem with an item.
acgold, I was thinking about this!! You’re right–they used to have a fantastic guarantee and I always felt good about buying their products because of it. Sure, they cost more, but they would LAST! I’ve found that since they stopped with the lifetime guarantee, the quality there has also declined. It’s too bad.
I’ve had almost opposite issue with Best Buy. Returned a defective device via UPS. almost 2 weeks later still waiting for my money?!? Contacted them last week, said it’s an automated process, they claimed they couldn’t do anything… just wait. Asked for a new gift card and cancel the old one LOL – yea, that doesn’t work. At this point I believe I’m SOL as there’s little recourse, unless something gives eventually.
djk……By any chance did you return an Insignia Air Fryer that was on recall?? We returned ours with their pre paid box/label about 3 weeks ago. We never had a chance to even use it. It was unopened. We still haven’t received our refund either. I imagine there must be a lot of them to process? I’ll just wait and see…..Good Luck to you!
No, yea, the recall can overload an already understaffed system. No an Lenvo “Alexa” clock. Used “chat” and said it was automated… wait you’ll get refund within 15 days.
Called Customer Service after 15 days – “it’s 15 business days”. I refuted an automated system doesn’t care about the days. Then they suggested my bank delay. Pointed out I was waiting for my BB gift card refund. Concluded with “I’ll elevate your refund, you should have it in 48hrs.
Three days later I call again – went through all the excuses “yes I see …. this and that”. Bunch of keys tapping, my refund is being processed and I will get a confirmation tomorrow.
I want a new gift card now — I’ve heard that before. Of course she claims she can’t… well here it is tomorrow and I’m still out $50.
Just recently I received a large $4 equate antacid with a busted lid and I had to go through the frustration of shipping it back. Yes, they paid the shipping to return but why not just give me a refund?
A few years ago, I ordered a 9×12 area rug from Wayfair. They sent an 8×10, instead. They told me to KEEP the 8×10, and they also sent the 9×12. The 8×10 was a $300 rug, LOL My living room and family room were very coordinated!
I cancelled an Amazon order 3 weeks ago and it was delivered last night. I complained and they refunded my money and said not to send the item back. Then they also sent me cat food that was supposed to go to Indiana and I live in Arkansas. Billing address was mine and shipping address was hers so not sure why they did it. They refunded my money and told me to reorder another brand of cat food cause they were out of this brand. Told to keep it too. the only two times I have had a problem with Amazon so hope nothing happens to my account.
It apparently has a cost threshold. I’ve had items in the $20 range refunded. I just returned a printer cartridge that was $45 and was given the option of returning it to a store or via UPS.
Very helpful to know. Thanks, Rosa P!
I have had this happen with Target, Amazon, and Walmart the last few years. At the same time, Walgreens made me return three big and mostly empty bottles of laundry detergent that got damaged in transit – I couldn’t give my UPS guy a box dripping with laundry detergent so I took it back to the store. I felt bad for the staff who received it but that was the only way to get my money back 🤷🏻♀️
Oh yikes. That does not sound like a fun experience for anyone involved, PaoPao.