August 13, 2010
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News: AAFES Shoppers Get Double Dipped
Army and Air Force personnel should check their credit card statements for possible excess charges. During the past week, Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) operations worldwide experienced processing errors that resulted in assessing debit and credit card payment transactions twice. AAFES' chief of staff, Col. Virgil Williams, said in a news release that Army and Air Force personnel and their families who shopped at any of the exchanges and used their debit or credit card for payment between August 7th and August 9th may have had their accounts debited twice. Therefore, all shoppers are advised to check their card statements for any duplicate charges or suspicious activity. Williams said that if "a customer finds a billing anomaly, no action will be required on their part as we're working to correct inaccuracies on their behalf."
The report indicated that the processing error that resulted in the duplicate debit and credit card charges affected AAFES locations worldwide, including main exchanges, gas stations, food courts and the online store. At this time, the amount of money affected or the total number of cardholders involved are not yet known. Furthermore, it is also known if the problem is limited to a particular group of debit and credit cards or if all cards are affected.
The AAFES believes that it will take weeks for any corrective action to show up on a customers' debit and credit card accounts and the AAFES asks that cardholders be patient while the dozens of AAFES employees at its Information Technology and Finance and Accounting Teams continue to work around the clock to fix the problem. At this time, no further action is required of the cardholders. Williams said they have dedicated a large amount of resources toward taking care of all affected cardholders. Williams added that their first priority is to correct the problem as soon as possible.