September 23, 2010
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News: Wal-Mart Registers Shut Down
Wal-Mart and Sam's Club debit and credit card customers were not happy on Thursday when they were told that the check out registers would only accept cash as a form of payment. The company's data system failed leaving both major retail chains in a pickle. Debit and credit card customers were not happy as some rushed to the nearest store to buy the products they immediately needed. A spokesperson for both Wal-Mart and Sam's Club said the outage which prevented debit and credit card transactions from being processed lasted nearly 90 minutes on Thursday mid-morning. The outage affected all Wal-Mart and Sam's Clubs nationwide and was due to the failure of a back-up breaker as the main system was undergoing required scheduled maintenance.
Dan Fogleman, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, apologized to customers for the inconvenience. The company discovered very quickly that there was a problem with the debit and credit card processing options and took immediate action. They realize the potential fall-out from the problem because a large portion of their customers pay by debit or credit card. One customer rushed out of the store frantically saying that she worked for a school and needed one item that they had run short on in order to finish preparing lunch for all of the elementary school students.
Across the county, Wal-Marts quickly turned their efforts from greeting customers to closing their doors and turning customers away. Employees were unable to explain to customers at that time and was only able to tell them to check the company's web site or call the corporate media line. While some stores shut their doors, others remained opened but told customers that the only form of payment would be check or cash because the debit and credit card readers were not functioning. At this time, the company does not know what the system failure cost or how many customers were affected by the problem.