Did I just get a free laptop?
I ordered this laptop on June 25th with an expected delivery date of June 29th. I paid a couple hundred dollars more to buy this particular model through Walmart (sold by Newegg) instead of Amazon because I wanted it before a computer-administered exam. I had to register my laptop for the exam by July 1st, and Amazon’s estimated delivery was June 30th. My current laptop is about five years old, and I was worried it might die halfway through the test.
The day after I ordered it, the Walmart app updated the estimated delivery to July 2nd. I called customer service to see if I could cancel the order. I felt a little unreasonable doing that since I had just spent time with Walmart and my bank getting the purchase approved in the first place, so I explained the situation with my July 1st deadline.
The representative put me on hold while he contacted the seller. When he came back, he told me the order had already entered the shipping process and couldn’t be canceled, but that I could simply return it after it arrived if I decided to buy elsewhere. I considered ordering the Amazon one too, but I wasn’t comfortable floating nearly $5,000 while waiting for one refund. It was slightly annoying, but I knew the original June 29th date had only been an estimate and I was the one who ordered it 5 days before my registration deadline.
Fast forward to July 1st. I called customer service again—not expecting much—to ask whether Walmart might be willing to offer $100 or $200 in store credit as a courtesy since I’d paid extra specifically for faster delivery and ended up missing the deadline anyway.
The representative said he’d have to check with Newegg. After about a minute on hold, he came back sounding excited and said, “Good news! You’re getting a refund.”
I immediately clarified that I didn’t want to return the laptop. He told me it was my decision whether to return it or not, and that the refund had already been initiated. I was flabbergasted. I thanked him several times, fully expecting the shipment to be intercepted or something, but the laptop showed up the next day anyway with the full refund posted in my bank account.
Walmart app says the refund has been issued, that there’s no need to return the item. The refund has already been posted into my bank account.
I feel like there has to be a catch.
- How often does this kind of thing actually happen for orders this expensive? And why?
- Is it possible the seller or Walmart will reverse this later?
- Does this just encourage people to complain until they get lucky?
- Could the customer service representative or the 3rd party seller employee get in trouble for handling it this way?
- Am I kind of a Karen? 😂 I was hoping for maybe like $100 store credit and did not know this was possible. Now I’m thinking I should’ve called for any minor retail inconvenience I’ve ever had.