UNDATED (WKRC) - Walmart reportedly charged customers the wrong price for certain merchandise for days due to an internal system failure.
According to Bloomberg, on March 19, Walmart received an internal warning about a problem occurring at hundreds of its stores across the nation. Per the outlet, when scanning certain items at self-checkout kiosks, customers saw the wrong prices, with some being higher than listed and others being lower.
Bloomberg News, citing documents obtained by the outlet, reported that an internal system failure prevented price data from reaching self-checkout kiosks. According to the outlet, it resulted in widespread mispricing at 1,600 stores, which the company did not report.
Bloomberg reported that Walmart's IT staff were still trying to remedy the problem two days after the system failure. The company did, however, acknowledge that customers were overcharged due to the breakdown, according to the outlet, which reported that the company declined to provide key details such as the following:
- How many customers overpaid or underpaid for goods
- How many shoppers in total were overcharged
- Which items were affected
- How long the problem persisted for
Walmart spokesperson Mischa Dunton issued a statement to Bloomberg, writing that the issue was eventually resolved and over 80% of overcharged customers received reimbursement. Dunton described the system failure as an anomaly, telling Bloomberg that it is "impossible for any company to innovate and introduce new technologies into their system without assuming some level of risk of potential disruption."
Dunton confirmed to Bloomberg that the issue was caused by certain product information failing to update in the company's system, which powers self-checkout kiosks in "select stores across the country," but declined to provide any details on the root cause of the problem.
Continuing, Dunton confirmed that only self-checkouts were affected by the system failure. Tradition checkouts and the company's online store were not impacted, Dunton told the outlet.
Speaking on the average amount that customers overpaid, Dunton told Bloomberg that, on average, the "potential overcharge" was 1.88% of the "total basket size of the customers who used self-checkout in an affected store."
Dunton did not explain how Walmart calculated that percentage point, per the outlet.
Per Bloomberg, legal experts speaking to the outlet said that despite Walmart's efforts to remedy the pricing issue for affected customers, there could still be legal ramifications on the state and federal level due to consumer protection laws.
Former attorney with the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Christopher Peterson told Bloomberg News that the overcharges if verified, would be "clearly illegal under the consumer protection laws of just about every state and the federal government."
"Because Walmart is such a large retailer, even a small mistake like this can cause millions and millions of dollars of illegal overcharges," Peterson told Bloomberg.
"Our business is strong, our infrastructure is industry-leading, and we work hard to maintain the trust of the millions of people around the world who rely on us every day," Dunton told Bloomberg.
Dunton told the outlet that the company took no action on any undercharges.
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