Who Can Figure This One Out?

Last year, around this time of year, i started to receive FedEx packages delivered to my home. They were from various folks from around the country addressed to an Asian Company (at least 26 letters in the name). First it started with 1, then 2, then 3 and so on. Reading the packages it became immediately apparent that they were Returns to a Walmart Re-Seller. We opened the first packages , seeing that it was pretty much petty "junk". Costume Jewelry, cheap clothing, etc. After receiving the first few, I attempted with earnest to reach someone at Wlamarts (That's a Project onto itself - only a 1 800 number on the packages), each package had a RMA number on them. After 3 calls to Walmart talking to Customer Service agents, most had No Clue what was going on or what to do. I tried to insist on talking to a manager / Supervisor - no Luck at least not Initially. My wife was driving me crazy about this. The FEDEX people, would just throw the packages on my front stoop, the Ring Camera wasn't fast enough to be able to grab them. Then we took the 8 initial packages to our Local Police Dept. The Cops said right off the Bat......This is a Fraud happening!!. Then off to our local major FEDEX Office. Explained everything. They took the packages but who knows where they went. The packages kept coming, almost daily. Then I FINALLY got through to a CS agent that was able to get me to a Security officer. He understood. He admitted it was somewhat common and probably some sort of Fraud but didn't espouse on it. He took my information (I was a Walmart Customer and was in their Database !!). I asked what should I do with this Stuff? Keep it, Donate it, Throw it out was the response. It seems that the folks that were sending this crap back to the Asian Company would get Pre-Printed FEDEX lables with MY HOME ADDRESS, a RMA number, and have FEDEX shipping - thinking that they fulfilled the returns. Who Knows if they ever got credited on their accounts! In fact, I recall trying to call the first few - they had their phone numbers on the labels. Never got a response which prompted our further actions. about 2 weeks after that call to the Security officer, the packages Finally Stopped.

Now, in May 2025, I ordered a piece of exercise equipment from Walmart, received it circa May 22, 2025. Although I can't swear that we started to receive these Mystery Packages again generated from that order (it was Chinese Company called PooBoo via Walmart, we started to receive at Home address with a 26 or 27 alphabet Chinese name BUT to My Home Address!! Now I go through the same process and the CS agent said this would be sent Up The Line to the people - No Help. No Names were revealed. I go on Line at Linked - In searching for key executives to contact. That did work for me regarding a different product issue (Rheem Hot Water Tank) Found a few, posted something on Linked-In - no answers. I sent a Letter to the Main Office in CA as requested by a CS agent a 2 weeks ago. No responses or call from Walmart , Packages keep coming. It is incredible... Nobody Cares or is offering to get to the bottom if it. My wife marks the packages with NOT THIS ADDRESS and drops them off to the FEDEX Box locally. When I called a week ago or so, the agent I spoke with understood to a point. I had her REMOVE MY ACCOUNT form Walmart. DELETE IT!

Anybody have a clue? I can't figure out how this Chinese company is benefitting from telling customers to send back their Stuff to My Home address.

This has been going on for years now. Online sellers that have a shop in a big site like Amazon or who supply a site like Wal-Mart live and die by customer satisfaction but have to balance that with the cost of storing their physical goods inside the bigger company's warehouses. Old stock that's taking up space in a warehouse costs the seller money, but selling poorly reviewed goods loses them the ability to continue working with the larger company. One way around getting a bad reputation with online buyers is to regularly change the name of the company to lose old bad reviews. Another way is to sell a good product at a fair price, rack up good reviews, and then switch the product to the old, poorly selling one while keeping the good reviews. In the end, though, once the distributing company has a large stock of items that are not selling for whatever reason, the seller has to either lose credit with the warehouse owner or get creative. That's where this "scam" comes into play.

What the seller does is put a "sale" on the books to a known entity, either a past customer of their own or of the warehouse owner. They send the "transaction" information to the warehouse, who boxes the item, slaps on the delivery information, and drops it at your door. The "sale" goes through, the warehouse frees up space without dinging the seller, and the "customer" (you) end up with a product that they didn't pay for and don't need but also without the ability to instigate the return process or to even give a bad review. It's actually cheaper in the long run for the seller to lose old stock than to lose the ability to sell through the larger company or to accumulate bad reviews.

In the United States, federal law says that the recipient of unsolicited goods is under no obligation to either return or pay for the items (and I assume this only occurs in countries with similar laws). The seller knows this. They don't care. You are acting as a cheap garbage dump for them. Keep it, toss it, donate it, sell it, or put it under someone's Christmas tree.