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Why Are My Walmart Orders Instantly Cancelled? Use Walmart’s Online Chat to Fix

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Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  A few weeks ago, American Express released an AMEX Offer for Walmart.com where you can receive a $10 statement credit after spending $50 or more.  Walmart.com sells several gift cards and egift cards, so I wanted to buy a $50 Uber egift card.  Shortly after placing my order, I received a confirmation email from Walmart.  All looked good until…

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…exactly 1 minute later, I received an email from Walmart that my order was canceled.  I didn’t even have time to put my American Express credit card back into my wallet before my order was instantly cancelled.  So frustrating!

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I decided to contact Walmart and see why my order was cancelled.  I went to Walmart’s Help Center and clicked the Walmart.com button at the bottom.

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I selected Orders, Shipping & Tracking from the first drop down menu and Assistance Placing an Order from the second drop down menu.  I then entered my contact information and started the online chat.

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Here is the cleaned up transcript from my online chat (I highlighted the important parts in red):

  • Gerson: Thanks for chatting with Walmart.com! I’m Gerson and I’ll be assisting you today.
  • Gerson: I am very sorry to know you orders have been cancelled! I am going to do all I can to find out why this happened, and I will take the steps to correct it.
  • Grant: Perfect, thank you for your help :)
  • Gerson: For security purposes, can you please provide your full billing address?
  • Grant: (billing address)
  • Gerson: Thanks for confirming your billing address! Grant, would you mind holding for a few moments while I am checking on this?
  • Gerson: Grant, I’m so sorry your orders were cancelled. All orders go through an online security check for your protection to prevent unauthorized use of your money. Your order may have been canceled by mistake.
  • Gerson: What I will do for you right away is sending an alert to the verification team, so they can check the error and make sure it won’t happen again.
  • Grant: Perfect, that would be really be appreciated.
  • Gerson: Grant the submission has been sent successfully. Once 30 minutes have passed, and once you’re ready to reorder, please use the same device/computer, same payment method, and the same Walmart.com account and email address.
  • Grant: Ok, thank you. it is 1:30pm PT, so I will try again after 2:00pm PT.
  • Gerson: Yes, please. This is what follows: the new order will be reviewed by our team, and the process could take up to 24 hours to be completed.
  • Gerson: Once you have reordered, one of three things will happen: the order may be released and go on to process normally, or the validation team may call you to verify your order. Rarely, the order may still cancel after review. If it does cancel again, please let us know and we’ll escalate this further.
  • Grant: Sounds good, thank you Gerson. Have a great day.
  • Gerson: I appreciate your understanding, Grant. I am confident your new order will be processed without issues soon.

I set an alarm for 30 minutes and then went back to Walmart.com and placed the same exact order.  Everything looked good until…

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… exactly 1 minute later, my order was cancelled again!  Are you kidding me, Walmart?!  Just take my money and send me my egift card!

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I went through the Walmart Help Center again and here is the cleaned up transcript from my second online chat (I highlighted the important parts in red):

  • Andrea: Hi Grant! I’ll be more than happy to help you with your order. Tell me how can I help you, please?
  • (insert full chat transaction from above)
  • Grant: Hi Andrea, I just pasted my last conversation with Gerson from Walmart’s CS team
  • Grant: My first order was cancelled, so I chatted with Gerson who said “Thank you for your patience. I am currently processing the escalation.”
  • Grant: My second order got cancelled too, so I need help to fix this issue.
  • Andrea: Your order was escalated by the previous agent?
  • Grant: Yes, but I guess it needs to be escalated even higher.
  • Grant: Please let me know if you need any other info from me to escalate the issue. Thank you.
  • Andrea: Allow me a moment, please. I’m still checking what happen with your orders and if your order was escalated.
  • Grant: Thank you Andrea.
  • Andrea: The previous agent did not escalate your orders but I will escalate now and you need wait the 30 minutes and try again place the order.
  • Grant: Ok, thank you Andrea. I can try to place the order again later today.
  • Andrea: Sure, please try in 30 minutes in the same computer or device with the same payment method.
  • Grant: Will do, its 2:52pm PT now, so I will try again around 3:30pm PT.
  • Andrea: Yes, at this time you can try again place your order.

I set an alarm for 30 minutes and then went back to Walmart.com and placed the same exact order.  I was cautiously optimistic that the third time was the charm…

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Thankfully, 5 minutes later, I received an email from Walmart with my $50 Uber egift card.  I loaded the egift card to my Uber account and all was good with the world.

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Perseverance and a few online chats were the secret to get the order to go through.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!


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65 thoughts on “Why Are My Walmart Orders Instantly Cancelled? Use Walmart’s Online Chat to Fix

  1. Go

    Same thing happened to me last night but I didn’t contact them. Are you a little worried about Amex offer not processing correctly? I got the “you just used your Amex offer” email after the first cancelled order.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      It will be fine. After any Walmart.com order goes through and the purchase posts to your AMEX account, you will get the statement credit.

      Reply
  2. vinh

    Hello,

    I placed order then I cancel & order other items. Walmart cancel my order due to limit of quantity.
    But now I check my GC It show that “not in my system”

    This you have experience about this

    Thanks

    Reply
  3. Carl

    Grant, just wanted to thank you for this post. I bought WMT GC’s last month during the Chase Pay promo with the intention of using them to buy Uber GCs when they went on sale again, which finally happened this week (I’d been checking daily!). Only problem is, Walmart.com is now auto cancelling GC orders paid for entirely with a GC. Ugh. But at least the email makes that reason clear. However, it’s still possible to use a GC as partial payment. Unfortunately, my account obviously got flagged after I did this the first time, so I was getting the messages shown here. I finally did chat with a rep who told me to try back in 30 mins. I did, and I was initially excited that there wasn’t a cancellation email within the first few mins. I went to bed and woke up to a completed order this morning. Woohoo! GC balance finally depleted and Uber account fully stocked. Thanks so much!

    Reply
  4. Joy

    A similar situation happened to me while trying to order a TracFone card using a credit card. I chatted with an agent and she checked the order and said nothing was wrong with the account or card. After the second cancellation, I gave up and drove to Family Dollar and bought a card. It was not worth the hassle when a store selling the cards was less than 5 minutes away.

    Reply
  5. Grace Thomas

    This has happened two me twice in the space of two weeks. The same that that you described, with the exception that I’ve had to wait 5 business days each time to get the funds back into my account after Walmart assuring me (via phone AND chat) that the funds weren’t removed. According to my online banking account, the funds WERE removed, held, or whatever they choose to call it. I won’t be ordering online through Walmart again. Amazon is much easier to deal with.

    Reply
  6. Barbara

    I tried to order an ecard for my niece for school supplies. She’s a teacher. Last night on my AMEX and today on my VISA – both orders cancelled. Spoke to someone who followed the same script you listed, word for word. So a year later, Walmart is having the same issues ordering online. What could possibly be the problem? Very disappointing.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Who knows. I think Walmart is trying to prevent fraud so they don’t let any orders from new customers go through. So strange.

      Reply
  7. Jingjing

    I ordered a laptop, but it keep cancelling because the information is not right! I called my bank and they say card is fine. So, what should I do? Keep questioning my phone number or my OWN home address and E-mail address?

    Reply
  8. H munster

    Walmart is awful. They will go the way of k mart, sears and a dozen other brick and mortar stores.
    Walmarts demise is destined by their own poor management and terrible employees.

    Reply
  9. Mike

    This has happened to me now December 2019 with two different orders in the space of ten days. First order an agent successfully placed it with a different credit card. Second order, four different credit cards and three hours of phone chat later, six orders for the same item were placed and immediately cancelled. I never was able to get the item. This is going on for two years and no one has fixed it???

    Reply
  10. Glen

    Me too, most of my Walmart orders are approved then cancelled, multiple times mostly egift cards for my employees once it was an Apple watch. Place the order, my credit card removes the money from my account, get a confirmation from Walmart online and via email, then they later cancel the order. Today, I spent 1.5 hours on the phone from Customer Service to Customer Resolution to “Management Something..forgot the specific title. Anyway, the absolute saddest CS complete nonsensical answers the whole way, so I had to keep proving to them what was accurate or giving logical scenarios in other purchasing experiences to help them see the light. Ex: “egift cards are limited to to $200” — well, no the order you have been approving and cancelling is for $450 and on the website it says for $5-$500. or another example : “Have you tried sending the ecard to yourself and then forwarding it on to the recipient?” well, on your site it asks for my info and the recipients email address and in purchase on any site you send it to the person you want to give it to. On and on, some of it hilarious, crazy stuff – perhaps only because I have experience? The final resolution ens up being : for egift cards set up a corporate account and wait 2 days. I told her I was pretty sure that is not going to solve the issue corporate account since I had the same issue with an Apple Watch purchase in July. I did set up the account but I am not holding my breath. The 3rd level manager then suggested I go to the store to buy what I need. wow, the store did not have the Apple Watch so I ordered online, to send an egift card, purchase online is part of the deal :) crazy stuff….oh well, nice to know it is not just me. At the end, I asked so this is it, final answer, the best customer resolution is wait for 2 days and try again? “yes” she said. I gave a nice long pause, hoping there was more but crickets. So, I replied, Well, thank you for spending the last 1.5 with me, She said, “you’re welcome” Makes me so proud of my Customer Service Team…

    Reply
  11. Justin Manire

    Hello, I’ve been trying to purchase a $20 psn digital card, it processes, then cancels and refunds my gift card, and no idea why

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      I’m not sure why that is happening, but the best thing you can do is contact Walmart customer service via live chat and they should be able to help you.

      Reply
  12. Marian Hamel

    Same thing happened to me yesterday and the problem has still not been resolved. I called, I chatted and I email. Walmart needs to improve on their customer service!

    Reply
  13. MoiraPrime

    I just dealt with them myself. Purchase item, it gets canceled, 2 day hold on my bank account… so I can’t “reorder” when they tell me to the first time, so when it goes away, I contact support. They “look into it” and tell me to try again, same thing, new 2 day hold on my account. I don’t just have infinite available balance lying around to reorder the damn thing. The support rep tells me it says my billing info doesn’t match the card, but it’s literally giving me a bank notification that it’s approved AND putting a hold on my account…. and this same payment info + billing info works on other retailers like amazon. They want me to “call their billing department” NO Screw this. I’m done.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi MP, I’m sorry about that. Walmart’s system and customer support reps are not very useful / helpful. If possible, try to go into Walmart to order the items. Otherwise, stick to using Amazon for the items you need.

      Reply
  14. Net

    Placed an order with Walmart.com on Friday, received the confirmation email moments later. However on Saturday, I received a voicemail from a rep asking me to email them back a verification number that was left on my voicemail, or else my order will be canceled. Needless to say, I’m very leery about doing so. Has anyone else encountered this?

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hmm, that sounds suspicious. Try calling Walmart customer service directly and see if there is an issue with your recent order. Let me know what happens. Good luck.

      Reply
  15. jim

    i orded a fan in july that was the last time i have been let to order any thing from walmart.com they have stopped all of my orders after this i order for my church and my church famly but now from july the 4 i have not neen able to order not one thing from walmart.com they say on the phone they don’t know why it is happning and they try or say they try to find out what is going on but not one time has any one called my and yes i have been nice so if this keeps up i think i will be calling the law in to this mess

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Jim, I’m sorry that you are having trouble buying online from Walmart. If there is a Walmart store near you, I guess you will have to shop in store.

      Reply
  16. Vivian Bowles

    Yesterday I placed an order to obtain an egift card for $100. everything showed it was accepted and all was good. This morning, Walmart sent me an email showing my order was cancelled, I called my bank and they said it appeared Walmart entered the transaction and immediately reversed it … what is that about, should I not try to do business with Walmart when ordering egift cards, is it a challenge to send to another state, I don’t understand? It appears the customer is on their own … Walmart doesn’t appear to be helpful, I guess I’m out of luck; I will share this information with the person to whom the gift was going. I know this gets me nothing, just wanted to share.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Vivian, I feel your frustration. My only suggest is to use the online chat with Walmart and see if they can help. Hopefully your second order goes through fine.

      Reply
  17. kris

    This has been hapening to me for the past two year …lol… i guess walmart has crappy fraud detection system which is never fixed. i guess users will multiple emails, phone numbers used are flagged for some reason. I guess all the reps repeat the same response ..not a word different… No wonder walmart is using next level Artificial intelligence in preventing fraud.. Hail walmart .. i have spent tons of hrs with reps no resolution.. i would be really happy if walmart says that we dont need your business on face .. happy to walk away from using walmart .. bann it for life ..

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Kris, I am sorry Walmart has been cancelling and blocking your purchases for the last 2 years. I wish they would fix their system.

      Reply
  18. Rocky

    It happened to me many times, and I did contact the customer services, but it’s no use. I think Walmart ban you if you ever had returned any items to them. I just give up, and shopping somewhere else.

    Reply
  19. Kunjan Vaghela

    Hey My name is Kunjan Vaghela and same thing with me and same answers from my ac too I tried my debit card too but same email after few days I tried and i got answers canceled reasons return violation but i never returning… now I don’t understand they stop online shoppings for me without any reason and there is no one have answers for me

    Reply
  20. raul leong

    WALMART+….Lately my walmart orders are being cancelled “Cancellation due to quantity limits” chatted with them and agent were unable to explain me exactly thE reason/policy (I was ordering 1 lotion, and the another order was for a 1 pack of 4 soups). My funds were on hold for 48 hours and then released. It doesnt worth the hassle, frustrating, why Walmart make ordering so complicated, never had a prob with Amazon

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Raul, I am sorry you had a bad experience with Walmart+. It doesn’t make sense that they cancelled your order for basic items. Stick with Walmart in-store or on Amazon.com.

      Reply
  21. mil rel!

    Used trial period of Walmart+ and everything looked good, no prob at all
    Decided to buy the membership and paid the annual fee, a month later received an email telling that my membership was cancelled due to violation of term of use (never got an exact reason) a no refund
    During the period made 2-3 claims because was delivered to different address by their drivers (pic provided by them proof it was not the address) or maybe placed too many orders

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Mil, I think Walmart thinks you are abusing the Walmart+ terms by claiming you never got the items (even though you never got the items). Doesn’t sound like Walmart+ is worth the hassle. If you can’t get a refund from Walmart, contact your credit card company and have them dispute the charge. You should be able to get a full refund back. Good luck!

      Reply
  22. Memre

    I’ve been having this issue since August. I have chatted, called corporate, and was supposed to receive two phone calls that I never received. The first time it happened, we decided it was my IP address, and when I started using my work VPN, it worked – for about a month – and now I’m getting cancelled orders constantly. Nothing has worked, and I’m about to call corporate yet again. I am also calling my local store to see what they can do from their end.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Dang, that sounds very frustrating. I’m not sure what your local store will be able to do but maybe they know a work around for the issue. Good luck on your future orders.

      Reply
  23. Steve

    Well, I’m having problems using my walmart giftcards online, any order is getting cancelled. Same problem, the “antifraud system” blahblah… ” please double-check with your financial institution that the billing address provided is what they have on file”… how in the world… I’m using your giftcards my “dear” walmart…

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Steve, that sounds really frustrating. Did you try calling or chatting with Walmart to see what the issue is? I hope Walmart is able to help you so that your order doesn’t get cancelled in the future.

      Reply
  24. JC

    Hello folks,

    I found this thread researching my repeat issue with the Walmart verification system automatically canceling my orders for the past several weeks.

    When I place an order I get the conf email/txt and seconds later I get the ‘canceled due to returns violations’ email/txt. I have to call or chat, asking for escalation to challenge the cancelation. Then wait 24 hours to try again. After 24 hours I re-place the order and it goes through fine. Then on my next order I have to go through the entire tedious process again. Soooo frustrating.

    I am told by reps and supervisors that I have done nothing wrong, no issue with returns, and that it’s a “glitch” in their verification system.

    Nothing has changed on my end. Delivery address, payment methods etc. are all the same as they’ve been for most of this year when I signed up for the Plus membership. Yet, now in November I’m plagued with this unresolvable issue on their end.

    I’m a disabled guy who can’t get to a store, online orders (WM+) are my lifeline. Amazon has great service but is limited in grocery selection and prices are much higher than Walmart. Not to mention that I’ve already paid for the anual WM+ membership.

    Having every other order canceled and having to wait 24 hours following cancelation before trying again is driving me mad.

    The poor reps are frustrated as well, because all they can do is escalate to Payments & Risk and wait for them to do their thing.

    At this point WM has issued me over $50 in various promo codes and still no permanent fix.

    This kind of stuff really makes me miss having a body that could carry me to a store.

    I will say, 90%+ of the reps & their supervisors I have chat with & spoken to have been surprisingly great. They seem to get it, but their hands are tied & they’re not allowed to transfer me to or give out contact info for the Payments & Risk department.

    It really shouldn’t be this difficult to give WM a big chunk of my very limited money every month.

    Does anyone know how to contact Walmart Payments & Risk directly?

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi JC, thank you for sharing your experience. I’m frustrated for you having to deal with Walmart customer service for every other order. Does Walmart have subscriptions where you can have the same items ordered every week or every month? Maybe this would avoid having to place orders every time.

      Reply
      1. JC

        Hello Grant,

        Thank you for responding.

        I am not aware of a WM subscription for frequently purchased items. Unfortunately, that would not have resolved my issue with their verification system. All unchallenged orders we’re being cancelled immediately. Even creating a new account would not resolve the issue as it was tied to my payment methods as well as email and home addresses.

        Fortunately, shortly after posting here I hit the customer service rep lotto and got a man who understood my ongoing issue and worked diligently for over an hour to do everything possible to resolve it. This was the rep you want training other reps. Not only did he reach out to his supervisor, but also to Payments & Risk directly. Whatever he did, this time it’s seems to have stuck, finally. After nearly a dozen canceled orders over the past several weeks I finally have my account working again. He even called me back the next day to brief me on what steps he had taken, let me know he had direct contact with the team flagging orders and explained my personal situation to get a permanent resolution. Three cheers for this rep of the year!

        Hopefully others with similar issues will not have to wait as long as I did. Reading this post encouraged me to keep pushing rather than give up and settle for Amazon or worse.

        Much appreciated, Grant and folks in the comments section. Much appreciated

        Reply
        1. Grant Post author

          Hi JC, that is great news! I’m glad you found a great Walmart rep who knew exactly what to do to fix your account. Happy shopping and happy holidays :)

          Reply
  25. John

    Hello I’ve been trying to buy a Nintendo gift card for the past hour and it kept canceling my order due to location restrictions. How can I let my order go through

    Reply
  26. Tom

    Same. One order placed successfully.
    After that, Every Single Order (more than 10 attempts) was cancelled within minutes and the funds returned.
    Every cs agent, claimed to have fixed the issue, only to have it happen again. And again. And Again. Ad Infinitum.
    Like you ONE agent added the items to my cart, and when i went to finalize it, it processed like all the others, only to be canceled and refunded. Another agent emailed a ten dollar code for the hassle, but even when using that MY ORDER WAS CANCELED. Great “forgive our bs” gift, but using it requires BEING ABLE TO PLACE AN ORDER….
    When it was canceled even when using their apology “gift”, I’d had enough and canceled my walmart+.
    Never again.
    The only stuff that comes on time and isnt missing half the order is from the third party sellers anyway, and most of those same sellers also have shops on etsy, ebay, amazon (who i also will no longer use), and elsewhere.
    Good Riddance to a bad company. I suppose I should be thankful they helped me take the leap from their platform, as I’d been meaning to lay them to rest beside amazon for a while but… old habits and whatnot….
    Edit: the last agent I spoke with ALSO said THERE WAS NO NOTES OR RECORDS IN THEIR SYSTEM THAT I HAD EVER CALLED AND NO ESCALATION ON FILE. EVEN THOUGH THE OTHER AGENTS *CLAIMED* TO HAVE ESCALATED THE TICKET TO THE APPROPRIATE TEAM.
    Seems the trend with most cs centers is to just lie through their teeth about escalating to proper teams, when they’re actually not actually even doing Anything. At All. Not even the most basic, like logging the fact that you called with an issue. Must be nice having a job where you dont actually have to do anything or follow procedure….

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Tom, that sounds so frustrating, from top to bottom. I agree with what you said and think you should take your business elsewhere to a company that wants your business and won’t cancel your orders every time.

      Reply
  27. Mary White 419 984 8304

    I am just trying to return an Order that was cancelled. I was told to return it to Walmart. I have been to Walmart 3x and UPS 2x Neither will accept them Returned Item. How do I return this to the Seller. I was not charged but I want to get it back to the Seller. How do I Return A Walmart.com Item?

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Mary, have you contacted the seller on Walmart’s website? If the item is cheap enough, some seller’s don’t want to pay the return shipping and will tell you to keep the item.

      Reply
  28. Kathleen

    Hi, I have also been having a lot of trouble with ordering online with Walmart. I all started a couple of weeks ago when I changed my email address. After that, every time I tried placing an order it was cancelled due to “returns violations”. I’ve returned one blouse two months ago, unworn, and with the tags still attached. This isn’t the problem. I’ve sent Walmart several emails, spoken with several reps (one even told me I shouldn’t have had a “returns violation”), and I’ve been told by all of them that their research team will fix it. After 7 tries on Walmart’s part, and the problem still persists (every order is met with a “returns violations” text within a minute,I told them to close my account. I can order from Amazon most things, but I will miss grocery pickup.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Kathleen, that is very frustrating. I’m not sure how Walmart slide your account for returns abuse after just one return. It is their loss since they can’t fix their online ordering system.

      Reply
  29. Frank Dearing

    I go through this same thing every month but my wait time is 4-5 hours before I can order again. Total drag!

    Reply
  30. Jayesh

    My order is also getting cancelled 3 times, I’m trying to order apple watch 9 but they saying our system may cancelled the order but Still after 3 resolution I’m not able to order it, What can I do in this case?
    I also tried to order from my friend account but it’s not working too.

    Reply

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