Select Walmart Stores: Google Wired Nest Protect (2nd Generation, White) Expired

One more data point if it helps. I think the 3 I ordered were all shipped from walmart.com (and not individual stores). So far, 2 out of the 3 were manufactured this year. So online stock is likely newer than the ones in store.

I'd keep anything 2020 or newer personally.

My summary of 3 different stores;

qty 3 - order cancelled
qty 3 - all manufactured 2018
qty 1 - manufactured 2017

Still haven't tried repurchase, return strategy yet.

Also check manufacture date on the box before you open these. They all have 10 year max lives and will automatically deactivate at year ten (by law)

I got 6 in total from this deal:

• 3 (old packaging) x 2016
• 1 (old packaging) x 2017
• 2 (new packaging) x 2022

You can check the serial number, char 9 and 10 are the manufactured year. I've confirmed this on all 4 old packaging units and thats the way to tell.
As far as the new packaging units go, looks like that is NOT the case. Perhaps its Char 11 and 12, but both my new packaging units have 222000 in the middle, so hard to tell if the 11th and 12th are actually the year or not.

I totally agree with this one. The hack to this, is a little bit of a hassle, get it but open a claim with google Right away and you can say right away to google , I just bought this, and I noticed it expire on xxxx and I'm losing 7 years of live.

I personally did this with the one from the target deal back in 2019. I got the last two on shelves and google replace it after troubleshooting it.

keep us updated if you try the return strategy

Well I finally got around to trying the new purchase / return old unit with new receipt strategy. Nearest Walmart is 30 minutes away so it just hasn't been convenient.

The TLDR version is, it worked for me for 1 unit.

Looking at the app while I was in store, it showed no availability at that particular location. I asked a clerk, and he found 2 Protects in the newer box. The serial numbers indicated they were exactly 1 year old.

Since my prior purchases were for a quantity of 1 and a quantity of 3, I figured I needed to purchase those same quantities, so I only bought 1 of the 2. As I walked out the store, the doorman marked my receipt.

I went to my car, grabbed the old single unit I had previously purchased, and walked back in. The doorman stopped me, and I stated that it wasn't the one I wanted and I needed to return it. He put a sticker on the item and directed me to customer service.

The gal scanned my receipt and both the UPC and serial number. There was a couple minutes of silence, and I suspect she was struggling with the serial number mismatch, but she never mentioned it to me. She accepted the old unit and gave a full refund of the $119 purchase price.

I tend to think it's a crapshoot if someone can return an old unit that doesn't match the receipt. Maybe a 50/50 chance. I dress nicer, so probably have better odds than someone that looks like a tweaker.

Haven't decided if I'm driving 40 minutes to another store to try my luck on the remaining 3 units. We've already gone way past the time wasting vs cost saving threshold to solid Sunk Cost Fallacy territory. It's also entertaining to me to some degree, so I justify the time waste by learning how to navigate the Walmart system.