Early Toys R Us shoppers get worm: 2 charges for purchases
Filed under: Banks, Shopping, Black Friday, Credit Cards
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I swiped my debit card to get on the light rail and was billed for a bus ticket the machine wouldn't give me. I had to pay $1.50 again to get my oldest son onto our next connection. I know! Frustrating. As someone who's always living on the very edge of black in her checking account, I know too well the dangers of unexpected transactions, and for me they come in $29 overdraft increments. Customers at Toys R Us this weekend, shopping before regular store opening hours during Black Friday, experienced a similar and far more account-balance-deadly problem: double billing.
Keith Bossey, a marketing and strategy consultant in New York City, may not be at the edge of his bank account, but he just found out today he was double-billed for his purchase.
"Wife says cashiers were frazzled," his Tweet says; but according to the Consumerist, this probably wasn't due to the cashiers' early morning agitation, but of an entirely systems-related fray.
Way upstate in Albany, N.Y., Kathleen Cary told local NEWS10 that her $127.59 purchase was subtracted from her account twice, causing $50 in overdraft fees. Why buy toys when you barely have enough left in your account? As my 7-year-old would say, derrr.
Watch more AOL Personal Finance videos on AOL Video
Cary told NEW10, "I knew I was on a tight budget. That's why I got up in the middle of the night and went shopping; with the economy you've got to try and save a penny."Kathleen Waugh of Toys R Us told us on the phone that it had "all been resolved" and sent a statement, "A systems issue occurred in some of our stores early on Black Friday. This resulted in some customers incurring double charges on their credit cards... We worked quickly to identify the customers affected and any double charges on credit cards have since been reversed."
But even a few minutes after I talked to Kathleen, a Twitter user named Teresa was complaining that she'd been charged $217.97 twice when she shopped at the very beginning of Black Friday, at midnight in Virginia.
Several states away, in Indiana, Jeannine had the same complaint. Further north, in Detroit, more customers complained. The toy retailer told ClickOnDetroit that the error occurred because stores opened earlier than usual. A glitch meant that some transactions were repeated 48 hours later.
While this widespread systems glitch is frustrating for consumers, it also exposes some of the unexpected dangers of shopping in the heady hours between midnight Thanksgiving and the normal, ordinary shopping hours typically kept by consuming human beings.
In the wee hours, employees are exhausted and stressed and discomfited; shoppers are strung out on bargains and caffeine and good old fashioned acquisitory lust; systems unused to handling transactions 24 hours a day can fail. Mistakes are made, both of the human and inhuman sort. Bodies are jostled. Too much is spent.
When spending with a debit card, as so many of us are these days, the balance between positive and negative is too often upset, and the wages of this sin are punishing overdraft fees, embarrassment, brokeness.
It's a cautionary tale, and while I've never cared to shop 'round 1 a.m. on Black Friday, I've decided: from now on, I pay for Christmas purchases with cash.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
12-01-2009 @ 4:22PM
John said...
Charging for the orginal purchase is fine.
But charging the customer for the same purchase again at a later date is illegal.
Reply
12-01-2009 @ 4:48PM
Cat Jones said...
Did you read the article? It was a computer glitch. The cashiers didn't charge anyone again at a later date, it was the glitch in the system. Nothing illegal here, unless the programmers did it on purpose, which doesn't seem to be the case.
12-01-2009 @ 6:17PM
Digi said...
You tard its a MISTAKE, one they admited and attempting/have fixed. Illegal illegal friggin people like you these days make me sick yelling wolf at the sight of a shadow. Get over it you sue crazy pethetic degenerates. Maybe that will teach u to try to save a buck but still wasting money.
And btw its not 'illegal' as in to say fraud you tard. Its a mistake. Theres nothign illegal about it unless they tried denying it and refused to reimburse. You sir, are a joke.
12-01-2009 @ 9:41PM
jo said...
Thank you Capt. Obvious
12-01-2009 @ 10:15PM
cannotbelievethis said...
John, yes it's illegal, but probably unintentional as long as they admit it and fix it. When i was working in a factory that ran 24/7, we had a new payroll program installed. We worked the night shift. After our first paycheck, all of the guys were i my office yelling that they were all shorted 6 hours of pay (we worked 6p.m. to 6a.m.) or 42 hours for the week. We realized that the programmer had done a sloppy programming job by not allowing the timeclock to switch to the next day (12:01a.m. to 6:00a.m.) He didn't last long (the programmer), and the problem was fixed. Most Toys R Us aren't open at midnight, that's usually when the computers update.
12-01-2009 @ 4:24PM
jane said...
And ofcourse Toys R Us is not providing refunds of the overdraft fees to all these people and sending letters urging their banks not to keep this mess in the account history for future rate increases..... as your son would say .... derrrr right....
Reply
12-01-2009 @ 8:23PM
countesss1224 said...
all the customer has to do is call the bank. not only will they make sure the double charge is corrected, they will reverse ALL related overdraft fees, and reset the overdraft counter to make sure this is not reflected in the account history in the future. Its not that hard, and unless you call all pissed off and yelling, the customer service person will be real nice about it. Its not the end of the world. mistakes happen.
12-01-2009 @ 4:25PM
Molly6 said...
I WON'T SHOP TOYS R US!!! Hate it. In one door, out the other. I looked on Black Friday and the store had "road blocks" you had to go around and employees at areas preventing people from moving in other directions. There is absolutely nothing in that store that I can't find elsewhere and so I won't shop there. Its just too uncomfortable and such a hassle.
Reply
12-01-2009 @ 4:45PM
Cat Jones said...
What's wrong with employees directing traffic on Black Friday? Less 'traffic jams' and the odds of people getting hurt is lower. Sounded like a smart move to me.
12-01-2009 @ 6:20PM
Digi said...
Your a whiney obnoxious bi*ch. You need to get off your pedastool and realize if you dont like it, TOO F*CKING BAD, get over it, the world doesnt revolve around you and im sure toys r us will be fine without your constant complaining ASS soiling their stores anyways. You miss, are whats wrong with todays society. You think your special? Your nothing but a brat. Served
12-02-2009 @ 12:37AM
sandi said...
All stores were required by law to direct traffic this year and to have a plan in effect for items that they had only 10 or so of. The reason for this law was that rude shoppers last year killed a WalMart associate by stampeding him to death while trying to get in the store and get the thing they wanted. I went shopping this year at 4am for the first time, as I have worked the past 10 years on Black Friday. It was not really bad. Most people are nice and all of the employees at the stores I shopped were very helpful. It is not good to make generalized comments. The important thing to remember is that you should go shopping on this day in the hopes of getting a deal. If you absolutely need something you should not take a chance that you might get it in a one day sale. Happy Holidays all!!
12-01-2009 @ 4:34PM
karli said...
Did this just happen to people who shopped in the stores? I shopped Toy's R Us online for my father in law....do I need to have him check his credit card statement?
Reply
12-01-2009 @ 4:49PM
sarah gilbert said...
karli, according to what the Toys"R"Us spokeswoman said, this only occurred for customers who shopped in stores, and for those whose transactions went through in the hours before ordinary store hours the morning of Black Friday. your father-in-law should be fine (I hope!)
Reply
12-01-2009 @ 10:08PM
Sally G said...
Even if it didn't routinely happen on line, it couldn't hurt to check! Why run the risk of throwing money away?
12-01-2009 @ 5:00PM
Serena said...
Kathleen W from toys r us said all has been resolved? i was charged twice for a 200 dollar purchase and i still do not have the credit in my account for the mistaken one. luckily my bank said they would return any overdraft fees i may incur but what for those people who are on a tight budget? i understand a computer glitch but this happened friday morning and i still do not have my money back yet :/
Reply
12-01-2009 @ 5:33PM
Beth said...
I stopped shopping at Toys R Us a few years back when the commercial on TV asked, "What will YOUR kids think of you the day after Christmas?" With that kind of thinking, I don't need them.
Reply
12-01-2009 @ 5:36PM
teltech543 said...
Serves them all right. I hope when the SECOND GREAT DEPRESSION arrives next year and they have to pay these bills and their higher taxes and "fees" for federal, state and local governments the realize how idiotic they were to spend money in a failing economy. If you listen to government propaganda you deserve everything you get.
Reply
12-01-2009 @ 6:01PM
mdirtygirl2 said...
Anyone going shopping this Christmas are just supporting Wall Street greed, and China's economy that was built by former American company's. Be Patriotic, don't shop.
Reply
12-02-2009 @ 12:00AM
MIKE said...
Thats a great idea, don't shop for anything. Just stay home and die of starvation. You'll be a very rich corpse and Wall Street wil still be there.
12-01-2009 @ 6:17PM
starturtle71 said...
Ms. Gilbert should get out a map. Albany, NY is only about 3 hours from NYC. To refer to it as "way upstate" is a little ridiculous. It is pretty much the midpoint between NYC and Canada. Check your geography. Does she refer to Boston as the "Far East"?
Reply