By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Walmart in Hays has charged customers the incorrect sales tax.
Walmart corporate on Tuesday confirmed the error but did not release a time frame for it.
“We deeply care about our customers, and we are working to reimburse impacted shoppers. We consistently seek to improve our processes to provide great customer service,” Walmart corporate said in an email statement on Tuesday.
The Walmart media spokesperson also did not address how customers could receive refunds.
Local store management referred media questions to Walmart corporate.
A customer who did not want her name used contacted Hays Post on Monday and said she allegedly found multiple sales tax errors on her receipts from the Hays Walmart between Aug. 13 and Saturday.
The customer told the Hays Post she bought $10 worth of items through a self-checkout kiosk at Walmart on Saturday. She noticed the kiosk had charged her too much sales tax.
She alerted a manager who suggested she seek help from customer service.
The customer service employee canceled the order and rang up the items again. This time the items rang up with the correct sales tax, the customer said.
“So then I got curious. I thought, man, if that's happened to me, how many other people has that happened to?” the customer said to the Hays Post.
She checked previous receipts. She had been charged the correct sales tax according to a receipt from Aug. 12, but a receipt from Aug. 13 allegedly had incorrect sales tax applied. She checked other receipts between Aug. 13 and Saturday.
She said one transaction was for $99, and the sales tax had allegedly been overcharged by $1.80.
She said the registers were allegedly charging her anything from 11 to 11.25% sales tax.
Sales tax in Hays is 9.25% on nonfood items and 2.75% on groceries, except in special sales tax zones. Walmart is not in one of those zones.
“This is just picking an arbitrary sales tax,” the customer said.
She said the food sales tax of 2.75% was allegedly not applied to any of her receipts.
The customer said she went back to the Hays Walmart on Sunday afternoon and told a manager about the issue.
A customer service employee allegedly told the customer the registers on the floor had been recently updated, but the customer service registers had not.
“I guess I thought people should know because that could have affected a lot of people. Yeah, and that could add up to a lot of money, even 1%,” the customer said.
The customer submitted the receipts to Hays Post for review. Several of these are attached to this story.
The Hays Post asked Walmart corporate how many people might have been affected by the error.
The Walmart spokesperson did not answer.
This is not the first time Walmart has overcharged customers sales tax. A similar incident happened in Kansas in January 2023 when the state lowered the sales tax on food. It also happened that same year in Alabama, when that state lowered its sales tax on food.
In both incidents, refunds were offered.