Most areas of the United States have some
kind of law in place saying that if a company
advertises a price to you, they're obligated
to sell you whatever it is for the advertised
price.
But unfortunately, as is often the case, we
see companies advertising one price and then
selling to consumers at a higher price.
That allegedly is the case with the Walmart
app according to a new class action lawsuit,
and I have Scott Hardy from Top Class Actions
with me now to tell us what's happening and
Scott, this one hits a little close to home
because this is something I do as well.
We have a plaintiff here, she looked on her
app, saw the price of the things she wanted
and then just drove down to the store to buy
them, only to find out, wow, they're so much
more expensive in person.
Exactly, she got sucked in and you would think
that this is Walmart, you know, they've got
a good control over what they're listing online
and on their app and what they're actually
charging in the store.
It's, they're all connected, but lo and behold,
no, it's not.
In this case, claims she went in there, viewed
some Huggies wipes for $5.44 and Huggies pull-ups
for her kids $8.97 on the app.
However she went to purchase the items, she
paid $12.54 cents instead of $5.44 for the
wipes and $31.84 for the pull-ups instead
of $8.97.
You know, massive differences between what's
what's listed in the app and what's listed,
you know, what they're actually paying for
at the register.
And we're seeing a lot of reports, 225 plus
comments so far of people saying this exact
same thing happened to me.
I look it up in the app or even see the sticker
in the store and I go, great, good deal.
Walk up and nope, they get shut down.
So what's going to be interesting on this,
because as I mentioned there, there are, you
know, a lot of States or cities or whatever
it is, everybody has their own, but basically
you can't advertise one price and then sell
it at a higher price.
So what's going to come into play here a little
bit I think as this case proceeds, is these
were both being sold by Walmart.
Now, if Walmart is able to go into court and
try to say, no, no, no, no, no, no, listen,
these are actually two separate stores, right?
Walmart online or Walmart app is not Walmart
in person.
You know, that could be interesting to see
if the court buys into that.
But I guess at the same time, Walmart's app,
just like with Lowe's or Best Buy or wherever
it is, they'll actually tell you where in
the store you find that item, you know, aisle
this, bay blank, whatever it is.
They tell you exactly where.
So I'm not saying all, Walmart will try to
use that argument to get around this law.
I'm just saying if they do, it's not a very
good argument to begin with.
Right, and but the thing is, is we're seeing
this issue not just in the app.
I've got a couple of comments here we pulled
off of Top Class Actions where Sandy A said
on the app, they advertises a car seat for
$89.99 on rollback.
Went to purchase in store, the price on the
shelf was $89.99.
Took the car seat to the front, rang up $299.99
she talked to the sales representative, showed
who it was, walked them back to the same shelf,
managers on break.
Sorry, we can't help you.
Another example, went to Walmart purchased
a side table online showing $1,299 went to
the store to purchase it and it was $1,599.
Again, spoke to the cashier at the front end,
spoke to the front end manager.
They said, no, we're not going to honor it
according to, this is a quote from Mary, "Gave
me some crap that online's different from
real life."
So, you know, people are seeing this around
the country from Walmart and like you said,
that is an interesting option if, if Walmart
says no, walmart.com is a separate business
than our Walmart stores.
But, you know, these things are connected.
You can sit there and shop on walmart.com
and pick it up at, at your local Walmart store.
So they should be able to get these diff,
these price differences corrected.
So people aren't getting faked out by seeing
a great price online and going in and finding
out that's not the case.
You know, and it's really interesting too
because I, I don't know if they still have
this policy.
I believe that they do, but I know for the
longest time, for, for years and years and
years, Walmart would even accept competitor
coupons.
So if you went in there and you showed them
that, hey, you know, even on your phone like,
oh, Winn Dixie has this at a cheaper price,
they'd give you that cheaper price.
If you say Amazon has, has it at a cheaper
price, they would give you the Amazon price.
They accept all competitors' coupons and yet
they won't even honor the, the price that
they're offering online versus the price that
they're offering in the store.
This is just a very bizarre case and it really
is just Walmart luring people into the store
to see if they can just, you know, get them
to pay that extra bit of money after essentially
lying to them on the app.
Exactly.
They want to get you in that store because
they know Walmart, Costco, Target, any of
these places, you go in there for one item
and all of a sudden that pack of gum costs
you $100 because of everything else you bought.
Absolutely.
For more information about this issue, please
follow the link in the description of this
video.
Head on over to Top Class Actions and while
you're there, make sure you sign up for their
weekly newsletter.
Scott Hardy with Top Class Actions, thank
you very much for talking with us today.
You're welcome.
Thanks for your time, Farron.
