A Redditor, presumably driven up the wall with the isolation during the pandemic, ordered a few hundred fidget spinners off Walmart’s clearance stock. When his purchase turned up at his door, he decided to flip them and send them back to Walmart. So, does he have any chance with Walmart Return Policy Covid?
Let’s ignore the ethics of the situation here. The question on the minds of the Redditor and others with buyers’ regret is this: is Walmart accepting returns in the wake of the Covid calamity?
Is the Walmart Return Policy Covid Still Around?
Walmart had returns restrictions across states since April 2020. Nearly eight months later, the good news is, Walmart has now gone back to its Standard Return Policy for all states since November 9, 2020. All your new purchases are free of any Covid restrictions that were there a few months ago.
But if you’re in New Jersey, you will still be bound by some restrictions due to local ordinances, says Walmart. This means if you’re in New Jersey, you may not be able to send back items like home cleaning supplies, paper goods, health and beauty products, clothing, pharmacy items, laundry soap and most importantly, food.
There was a window of returns for New Jersey that ended on September 15, 2020. Keep an eye on your local Walmart for changes and updates to local return policies.
New Jersey’s Division of Consumer Affairs says there is no law that prevents you from sending items back. But retailers are required to disclose their refund policies for any items that are non-food/non-perishable. It’s entirely up to Walmart to decide whether or not to allow returns.
The retailer states that the pauses on returns allowed them to adapt their operations to be able to accept returns in a safer way, for both customers and staff. There were some local and state capacity restrictions and social distancing, that would also have limited the retailer’s ability to work at full capacity handling returns.
The pauses have been lifting in phases. There are a few states where you can now return the items that were restricted since April 20, 2020.
Walmart Covid Return Policy
In the following states, until September 15, 2020, Walmart allowed returns of restricted items bought between April 20, 2020 and June 15, 2020.
- Alabama, Alaska, Arizona
- Colorado
- Delaware
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Kansas, Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana
- Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota
- Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- South Dakota
- Tennessee, Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin
In the following states, September 29, 2020 ended the return window for restricted items bought between April 20 and June 29 of this year.
- Connecticut, District of Columbia
- Georgia
- Idaho, Indiana
- Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts
- New York
- Rhode Island
- Virginia
- Wyoming
If you’re in Arkansas or South Carolina, you can return these restricted items until November 15, as long as they were bought between April 20 and August 17.
What About California?
Back in September, in the wake of the Walmart return policy Covid, California residents were not allowed to return things like ill-fitting clothing, unsuitable food, and even laundry soap. It irritated a number of regular shoppers who wanted returns worth anything from $20 to $300 and weren’t allowed it.
Those restrictions have been lifted, thankfully. If you’re in California, you no longer have to be stuck with the wrong kind of laundry soap or ill-fitting underwear. It wasn’t clear why California was one of the states that had such rules in the first place. Sometimes Walmart will stop returns to stores that usually see a high volume of returns. The retailer has been known to close stores that had too many customers sending products back and thus couldn’t make sales numbers.
Walmart Return Policy Covid Illinois
Since California and Illinois were two of the last few states to have the restrictions lifted, there is some confusion about Walmart Covid return policy in these states. So, is walmart accepting returns in Illinois? The short answer, yes. Folks in Illinois will be happy to know that if they bought restricted items between April 20 and November 9, they have until Februrary 4th, 2021 to return them.