Residents report erroneous billing at Walmart

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This article was published 06/12/2024 (329 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some Brandonites have reported being charged twice for the same transactions at the local Walmart.

Customers, such as Kaley Planidin, narrated a frustrating grocery trip she made to the store last month. After her debit card was initially declined, Planidin tried to make the payment a second time, which was approved. However, upon checking her bank account later, she discovered two separate charges totalling over $500 on her bank statement.

“Thinking it was a mistake, we went back to Walmart to resolve the issue and to our disbelief, they refused to refund us, stating it was an issue with our bank,” she told the Sun.

“The situation was even worse (than we realized) when we saw a line of other frustrated customers experiencing the same problem — some of whom couldn’t afford the second charge and had to leave their groceries behind with no resolution. Paying for groceries once is hard enough in today’s economy. Being double-charged with no immediate solution feels like theft.”

Her bank, also confirmed that the extra amount charged had already been transferred to Walmart and could only be retrieved if the store refunded the same.

Planidin went back to Walmart, only to be told again that “there’s nothing they can do” and that she might see the money back within 48 hours — if it was indeed an error on their part. “If we did not (want to wait), they would offer us a $100 gift card.”

It took “three hours of back-and-forth” before the issue was resolved, leaving Planidin feeling “mentally drained.”

Walmart corporate affairs senior manager Stephanie Fusco did not directly respond to the Sun’s emails regarding these incidents, but said, “I am actively looking into this inquiry so I can give you a response,” after four days.

Duplicate charges often arise due to errors made by payment processors, Oeloff DeMeyer, a technology expert at Technology Solve, said.

“With debit cards, the money moves instantly from one institution to another,” he said. “The retailer’s system might be taking the payment twice — once for the failed transaction and again for the successful one.”

According to him, the retailer is “ultimately responsible” for resolving such disputes.

“Legally, the retailer must credit back the missing amount when provided with evidence of duplicate transactions,” he said, noting that customers should supply receipts and bank statements to expedite refunds.

Other Walmart customers have reported similar issues.

Candice Dawn shared on social media that she had faced this problem twice at Walmart in Brandon and never received her money back.

“They kept saying I needed to contact my bank, which was bull,” she stated.

Rachel Brass also recounted a similar experience, only to be told again by the store that it was not their issue but her bank’s fault.

“But RBC confirmed that the transactions had been successfully processed to the store’s account,” Brass said.

Britt Dee experienced a similar problem while ordering groceries online.

Walmart, she said, charged her but failed to deliver the order, forcing her to wait for a refund.

“Lucky, I don’t have kids,” Dee said. “How would I feed them while waiting for my money back?”

Cybersecurity expert and Brandon University professor Gautam Srivastava explained that double charges often stem from the retailer (Walmart) confirming transactions twice. He advised customers to alert their banks to duplicate debits and request an investigation.

“Banks can rectify the problem by identifying the transaction ID and ensuring only one charge remains,” Srivastava said.

If retailers are uncooperative, Srivastava advised customers to notify the bank’s customer service.

“The customer should alert the bank about the identical transactions debited from their account,” he said. “Every transaction has a unique ID, which banks can use to resolve such issues by crediting one of the duplicate charges back to the account.”

Shoppers should opt for cash transactions to avoid a re-occurrence, as they are often safer.

“We still see cybersecurity scams like point-of-sale skimming,” he noted. “Skimmers—devices that either replace or cover real debit machines—can collect card information, allowing criminals to create fake cards and make repeated fraudulent transactions. These scams still happen at places like gas stations and convenience stores.”

Srivastava added that financial institutions are working to address such challenges using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

“Banks are developing tools to recognize patterns in consumer behaviour. For example, if I regularly shop at specific places and suddenly a transaction appears in Toronto where I’ve never been, the system might flag it,” he explained. “However, these systems are not perfect, and fraudulent transactions still occur. Ultimately, it often falls to the financial institution to resolve these issues after the fact.”

De Meyer called for stricter oversight of large corporations.

“I think there needs to be more control over larger companies like Walmart because they’re so huge, they end up setting the rules for everyone else when it comes to transactions,” he explained.

He added that payment processing at large companies is likely handled internally rather than outsourced to third-party processors, “If a transaction is successful and the money has been taken, the system should not be able to claim that the transaction failed. There are needs for reliability—it’s either true or it’s not true.”

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