Why Is Walmart‘s Receipt Lookup Not Working in 2023?
If you‘ve tried to look up a Walmart receipt in 2023 only to find the feature isn‘t working, you‘re not alone. The most common reason you‘re experiencing issues is that heavy customer traffic is overloading Walmart‘s website and crashing servers. During peak shopping periods, millions of customers flood Walmart‘s online platforms, causing temporary outages that take down various tools, like receipt lookup.
As an experienced ecommerce seller, I understand how frustrating outages can be, whether you‘re trying to serve your own customers or utilize Walmart‘s tech as a shopper. Here’s a deeper look into the receipt lookup tool, why it fails, and some expert tips to get it working again.
How Walmart‘s Receipt Lookup Works
Let’s start with a quick primer on how Walmart’s receipt lookup tool is intended to work. As a convenience feature, it allows customers to easily access purchase history details including:
- Date/time of transaction
- Items purchased
- Prices paid
- Discounts/savings
- Taxes
- Total amount
To use it, you simply have to go to Walmart’s website or mobile app and enter a few key details about your purchase like location, date, and payment method.
The tool cross-references your inputs against Walmart’s massive transaction databases. For it to work, you must have paid with a credit card, debit card, gift card, or other digital payment method. Purchases made with cash can’t be looked up for obvious reasons.
You don’t need a Walmart account for it to work. But having an account connected to the card you paid with makes lookup fast and seamless.
Why Walmart‘s Site Crushes The Tool
In 2022 alone, Walmart served over 230 million customers per week and processed around 10 billion transactions. With this kind of insane volume, it’s no wonder Walmart’s systems buckle under the pressure at times.
During major shopping holidays, the Walmart website sees up to hundreds of millions of daily page views. Their servers simply can’t keep up, causing temporary outages that take tools like receipt lookup offline.
Peak Traffic Times Crashing Walmart‘s Systems
- Black Friday/Cyber Monday
- Back-to-School Shopping
- Holiday Shopping in November/December
- Pandemic Lockdowns
To visualize the spike in traffic, check out the huge jump in visitors to Walmart’s website around last year’s Cyber Monday:
| Date | Walmart.com Visits |
|---|---|
| November 28, 2022 | 17.6 million visits |
| November 29, 2022 (Cyber Monday) | 210.2 million visits |
With over 1,100% more traffic flooding Walmart’s website on Cyber Monday compared to the day before, you can imagine the strain on their systems!
Why You Might Be Locked Out of Receipt Lookup
Given Walmart’s volume, there are a few peak traffic times throughout the year where you’re most likely to find the receipt lookup tool inactive:
Black Friday/Cyber Monday – The busiest annual shopping weekend sends shopping traffic soaring. Trying to use receipt lookup on Cyber Monday itself is especially futile.
Back-to-School – Heavy volume of families shopping for school supplies in August/September can bog systems down.
Holiday Season – Traffic spikes both on major days like Black Friday and throughout November/December.
Pandemic Lockdowns – With people stuck at home, Walmart has seen unprecedented online surges, crashing their sites.
But traffic isn’t the only culprit for a broken receipt tool…
Incorrect Info – Be sure all your purchase details like date, store location, total, and card number are entered correctly.
No Walmart Account – Creating an account associated with your payment method makes lookup seamless. Without one, small errors can block access.
Privacy Settings – Check your Walmart account settings to ensure receipt tracking isn’t disabled under Communications & Privacy.
Quick Fixes to Try
If you encounter issues looking up a Walmart receipt, here are a few tricks that often get things working again:
Reinstall the App – Deleting and reinstalling Walmart’s mobile app can clear up minor glitches.
Restart Your Device – Simply restarting your phone or tablet refreshes the operating system.
Call Customer Service – Walmart’s help line at 1-800-925-6278 may be able to troubleshoot further. Expect long wait times.
Review Bank Statements – As a last resort, check your bank or credit card statements for Walmart transaction details.
Here’s a summary of the best troubleshooting tips:
| Issue | Fix |
|---|---|
| Website down | Try again later during less busy times |
| App not working | Delete and reinstall the app |
| Errors or glitches | Restart your device |
| Need more help | Call Walmart customer service |
| Can‘t find receipt | Review bank/card statements |
Why Walmart Offers Receipt Lookup
As a frequent Walmart shopper myself, I definitely appreciate them offering the receipt lookup feature. Here are some of the key benefits for customers:
Budgeting – Having purchase records makes it easy to track where your money is going and stick to financial plans.
Returns – Quick access to receipts helps make returns and exchanges faster and hassle-free.
Organization – Digital copies mean you don’t have to worry about losing or filing paper receipts.
Fraud Monitoring – Reviewing your Walmart transactions helps spot any unauthorized charges.
Settling Disputes – Receipts provide proof needed to settle any purchase-related issues.
Convenience – Being able to pull up past receipts anytime, anywhere adds convenience in managing your shopping.
Final Tips for Handling Walmart Outages
I know first-hand how frustrating website and app outages can be. As an ecommerce seller, just one hour of downtime could mean losing thousands in sales.
When issues arise with Walmart‘s tools, please remember:
Problems are usually temporary – take a deep breath!
Peak traffic times predictably cause crashes
Limit lookup attempts during high volume days
Reaching customer service may take patience
Small workarounds often resolve glitches
With billions in sales and millions of daily customers, Walmart has built an incredible shopping empire. But with such scale comes growing pains when trying to deliver reliable tech. While lookup outages can be annoying in the moment, I hope this breakdown gives some insight into why they happen and how to handle them.
